If you haven’t seen John Oliver’s video, celebrate the end of the school year by doing so. Get those endorphins flowing. Then read this post. The last paragraph is perfect!
As historian-teacher John Thompson explains, reform spokesmen were really outraged by John Oliver’s brilliant send-up and put down of our nation’s obsession with standardized testing and its primary beneficiary: Pearson.
Some used the typical manipulation of test data to claim big gains in 1999 allegedly caused by NCLB, signed into law in 2002.
Others must have been embarrassed by scenes of children chanting pro-testing propaganda, like happy robots.
The fear and trembling by reformers showed that Oliver hit exactly the right spots.
Thompson writes:
“Its hard to say which is more awful – the way that stressed out children vomit on their test booklets or schools trying to root inner-directedness out of children. On the other hand, even reformers should celebrate the way that students and families are fighting back, demanding schools that respect children as individuals. Even opponents of the Opt Out movement should respect the way it embodies…
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