Work hard- try your best

What happened to the notion of “working hard and trying your best?” While I understand the uproar over the new State exams I don’t understand the “opt out” movement. For the last two years I have been very vocal about the problems with changing the curriculum and assessments at the same time. Add the fact that these exams are being used to evaluate teachers and it is a recipe for disaster. The State acknowledges this by already telling us to expect a 30% drop in scores. The entire situation is untenable, but that isn’t a reason not to take the exam. What are we teaching our kids? If we don’t like something we should walk away from it? Are we to believe that if enough students do not take the exam that they will go away? The opposite will happen. If the district doesn’t meet a 95% participation rate we run the risk of becoming a FOCUS District. This designation is the new term for not meeting NCLB standards. As a FOCUS district we will have MORE restrictions placed upon us by the Federal and State governments- both with strings attached to monetary aide. Opting out (which is not permissible) is not the answer. The unintended consequences of these actions could be detrimental to the district over the next 3-5 years. In addition without a State score children that would have received mandated AIS services would not qualify. The outrage should be directed at the State Regents and the Commissioner of Education. Only they have the ability to slow things down and ease into some of these changes. By my estimation it will be at least three years before we will have a solid understanding of what the exams are and how to best prepare our children for them. Mineola has had the foresight to anticipate the problems with the State exams; that is why we administer the NWEA’s. This assessment, while not perfect, provides better information about the growth of individual students. No single moment in a child’s education experience can define them. One exam cannot define them. An educational experience is all of the wonderful experiences our kids have every day. The more stress we place on them about exams the worse the situation. This year in particular we are all in the same boat. Let’s remind our kids to work hard and try their best, everything else will take care of itself.