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Home Front: Culture Wars
Chicago Teachers Union demands end of standardized testing
2013-02-19
[DAILYCALLER] The Chicago Teachers Union urged school administrators nationwide to discontinue the use of standardized tests, deriding them as corporate tools.
"Corporates are ucky, y'know."
Not to mention it was not long ago that the Freakonomics man demonstrated he could differentiate the test results of classes taught by good teachers from those who either fed their students the right answers or those who replaced wrong answers in Chicago city schools. If I recall correctly, some Chicago teachers lost jobs over it.
The CTU recently released a report arguing that standardized tests are a faulty measure of student achievement. They also advance a pro-corporate agenda, the report said.
"We wouldn't want our kiddies to grow up and work for soulless companies!"
"Corporate interests continue to push towards a test‐centered public education system that is clearly harmful to students," according to the report.
"Students never had to take tests in the past. Why should they now?"
The union's anti-testing push is part of a broader campaign by teachers unions nationwide. Teachers at one Seattle high school recently went on strike, refusing to administer a test that they feared would be used to hold them accountable.
"If youse guys don't pass the test, it'll look like we didn't teach you nothin'!"
"But Miz Bleps, you din't teach us nothin'!"
Anti-testing efforts have also appeared in Providence, Rhode Island, and Portland, Oregon.
So as you can see they've taken root even in highly conservative states...
With propositions to tie teacher pay to student achievement gaining popularity among education reformers, teachers unions have stepped up efforts to end standardized testing. Without tests, administrators will have no data upon which to base merit pay for teachers.
"But really, it's a matter of principle!"
Opposition to standardized tests put teachers unions at odds with reformers on the left. Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel lost a merit pay battle with the CTU in September. And President Obama has supported policies that reward states for evaluating teachers based on students' test scores.
"But that's, like, outcome-based education! It's corporate!"
But teachers unions have found a key ally in their push to abolish tests: the students themselves.
"No tests? Kewl!"
Posted by:Fred

#24  Fire 'em all and replace them with the first x number of names in the phone book.

Some teachers support these policies but make no mistake – many don’t. This about Unions NOT teachers.
Posted by: DepotGuy   2013-02-19 19:47  

#23  Shipman, the equivalent of getting between a camera and a politician?
Posted by: JohnQC   2013-02-19 17:02  

#22  LOL AP, never get in front of school teacher in a free buffet line. You may trust me completely in this matter.
Posted by: Shipman   2013-02-19 16:42  

#21   nero - talking about busting Fred's bandwidth - you shattered it!
Posted by: illeagle   2013-02-19 16:40  

#20  Nero---she has wintered well.....
Posted by: Alaska Paul   2013-02-19 16:27  

#19  Ching batto unt mighty pension.

Uh uh uh uh uhhh.
Posted by: swksvolFF   2013-02-19 16:14  

#18  Nero, ya wanna put a warning on that, NSFV (not safe for viewing)?
Posted by: Alanc   2013-02-19 15:20  

#17  
Posted by: Nero   2013-02-19 14:52  

#16  "But here we are at a time in the world, the information age, the age of technology, and yet 30% of people who enter high school in this country do not graduate. 44% of people who start a four-year college program do not finish it in four years. What is that about? Think back to a darker time in this our history. Two hundred years ago when slavery was going on it was illegal to educate a slave, particularly to teach them to read. Why do you think that was? Because when you educate a man, you liberate a man." World Renowned African America Neurosurgeon Ben Carson - National Prayer Breakfast

Hussein and his Marxist comrades intends to enslave the people of America. No better place to start than to replace knowledge with socialist dogma in the minds of our children.
Posted by: Dino Shomomp7692   2013-02-19 11:12  

#15  No need for testing. No need for teaching. No need for anyone to hire the output of today's Chicago public school system.

Somehow I think the taxpayers will end up being the employer of choice.
Posted by: lotp   2013-02-19 10:56  

#14  Hmmm, teachers going on strike?

Reminds me of the philosophers' strike in Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. The only difference is the philosophers were actually doing something.
Posted by: Bill Clinton   2013-02-19 10:40  

#13  Indoctrinating children with Marx just cannot be tested.

If only it were Marx.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru   2013-02-19 10:07  

#12  Indoctrinating children with Marx just cannot be tested.
Posted by: Bright Pebbles   2013-02-19 10:00  

#11  No tests? That's like having a football or basketball game without a score. Why bother? For unions, teachers and students, the work is much easier by not bothering with testing. However, when the student gets out, someone is going to have to evaluate their capabilities/performance somewhere down the line. Imagine a pilot, brain surgeon, ship's captain, welder, construction worker, engineer, soldier, teacher, etc. not having any checks along the way in his/her education; CHAOS.
Posted by: JohnQC   2013-02-19 09:20  

#10  Of course the military uses standardize tests in their school systems. They seem satisfied with the tool in accessing student progress. Of course, in their environment 'Go - No Go' training can have a terminal effect out in practice.
Posted by: Procopius2k   2013-02-19 09:01  

#9  Opposition to standardized tests put teachers unions at odds with reformers on the left. Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel lost a merit pay battle with the CTU in September.

Irony at its finest. No wonder the home schooling movement keeps growing. One can't trust public education.
Posted by: JohnQC   2013-02-19 08:37  

#8  The only testing that should be done is the testing of the marketplace when the kiddies leave school.

You got a good job that you wanted? You pass.
You can't get hired for anything more complicated than asking "want fries with that"? You failed.

Posted by: Alanc   2013-02-19 08:32  

#7  No need for testing. No need for teaching. No need for anyone to hire the output of today's Chicago public school system.
Posted by: Glenmore   2013-02-19 08:10  

#6  Fire 'em all and replace them with the first x number of names in the phone book. Couldn't be worse and would likely be better.
Posted by: Spot   2013-02-19 07:57  

#5  Please add government "means testing" to the prohibition. :-)
Posted by: Besoeker   2013-02-19 06:50  

#4  perhaps instead the students could be evaluated on the logic and spelling in their tweets and text messages
Posted by: lord garth   2013-02-19 05:49  

#3  The answer is to get the government out of teaching!

It's a total failure.
Posted by: Bright Pebbles   2013-02-19 05:48  

#2  Why am I not surprised?
Posted by: g(r)omgoru   2013-02-19 05:02  

#1  "Why should WE work for our pay?"
Posted by: Redneck Jim   2013-02-19 01:43  

00:00