Standardized tests killing our schools
Our 9-year-old grandson came in from school recently and shared his poor test scores in social studies with my wife, a retired, veteran educator with 37 years teaching experience and a master’s degree in early childhood education. She had taught his grade level, the fourth grade, for five years in the 1970s at what is now Heritage Elementary School.
His school does not use textbooks for social studies, just a study guide.
It didn’t take long for her to realize that the study guide was nothing more than an assortment of facts designed to prep students for the SOLs (Standards of Learning). Fourth graders in Virginia should be learning about our beloved commonwealth in their social studies classes using the five senses; instead, kids are just memorizing sterile facts.
A visit with the principal was sobering. As suspected, the culprit is standardized testing: the SOLs Although he would not come right out and say so, it is clear that the educators are not at fault.
The focus on standardized testing, which is mandated by state and federal laws, is destroying fourth-grade social studies, science and cursive writing. There is almost no science or handwriting being taught in the fourth grade at our grandson’s school — no time! Gotta prep for the SOLs.
Educators are caught in the middle. Failure to meet testing standards results in denial of much needed funds for the school systems making it impossible for them to resist or even protest.
Citizens of our great nation need to stop this insanity and take back the education of our children.
Quality education can only be successively accomplished at the local level by our local teachers and administrators, not by politicians in Washington, D.C., or Richmond.
JOHN M. ARRINGTON
Concord
Different agendas
Bill Blackwell’s Dec. 14 letter to the editor, “LU, leaders finally out themselves,” clearly demonstrated how concerned he is about Liberty University and the Liberty Counsel.
Believe it or not, Mr. Blackwell, many folks simply think differently than you and have every right that you do in pursuing a different agenda, even if it’s a conservative one.
I must have missed Mr. Blackwell’s piece expressing his outrage over President Barack Obama’s association with ACORN and the socialist labor union, SEIU.
Oh, yeah. He didn’t express any concern over that subject. He’s only mad about Jerry Falwell Jr. and the Liberty Counsel.
You voted for Obama, didn’t you sir?
How’s that change working out for you?
R. LES PUCKETT
Lynchburg
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