San Antonio ISD joins testing backlash

Wednesday, April 25, 2012

San Antonio ISD joins testing backlash

From My San Antonio - Click Here

By Maria Luisa Cesar

Updated 10:16 p.m., Saturday, April 14, 2012

The San Antonio Independent School District joined more than 280 districts across Texas in mounting a revolt against what they call an “over reliance” on high-stakes, standardized tests.

The school board adopted a resolution Monday calling on the Legislature to re-examine the state's accountability system. As of Friday afternoon, 282 school districts had passed the resolution, according to reports from the Texas Association of School Administrators.
The point is to grab lawmakers' attention and show them that school districts are united in their opposition, Sylvester Perez, SAISD's interim superintendent, said Friday

In San Antonio, nine school districts — including Northside and North East ISD — have adopted the resolution, which argues that using high-stakes, standardized tests as the only form of state and federal assessment is “strangling” public schools. East Central ISD trustees are set to discuss the resolution and could adopt it Thursday, according to the board's agenda.

A Teacher's Creed

"In the classroom on the first day of a new school year, I am eager to meet my students. I have rehearsed my greeting and first day’s remarks, but no matter how many years I’ve prepared for this procedure, it’s always new. My heart pumps a bit harder, faster; I feel adrenaline like an athlete, or like an actor, or maybe like a novice public speaker. It’s a marvelous feeling, this first day, because I know that something special is going to happen, and I know it because I’ve experienced it before and I know that I will experience it every time I meet a new class throughout my venerable career. And then they’re seated before me and I smile at this special feeling. This is an assembly of students, yes. But there’s so much more, because each of these young persons is more than just a student entrusted to me. Each of these students has a story to tell, a lifetime, however brief, of experiences, a history in volumes whose richness and depth I can barely begin to fathom. And so as I absorb the first glimpse of these young charges, I must appreciate the extent of my responsibility, of the privilege I’ve accepted in presenting these young souls my special knowledge. In offering them my talent and passion, I am adding an enormous array of new bright stars to the vast firmament of their minds, stars that will never have time to fade in their lifetimes. I will be part of their story. And I know that each of them will always be part of mine. And that’s a good feeling, a feeling that is perpetually renewed, revisited, and rewritten in A Teacher’s Creed."

Carla Ranger - Dallas ISD Education Blog

Wednesday, April 25, 2012

San Antonio ISD joins testing backlash

Updated 10:16 p.m., Saturday, April 14, 2012

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