Students generally don’t like tests. They can be tough especially if you don’t know the material. But tests are important they gauge how well the students are doing: if they know the material they are supposed to, and if the whole class fails it’s a reflection on the teacher’s ability to teach. So the Massachusetts Teacher’s Association is pushing to abolish standardized testing, they say the tests are racist… Sounds like they just don’t want to be called our for being bad teachers.
“A teachers union in Massachusetts claim the state’s standardized testing has “allowed white supremacy to flourish.”
“The implementation of the MCAS and other standardized tests has had the exact opposite effect of what was supposed to occur when the system was introduced more than 20 years ago,” said MTA President Merrie Najimy in a statement.
The union is backing a bill to give students “multiple pathways” to show their educational competency apart from the MCAS standardized testing.
“Public schools in predominantly Black and brown communities have been taken over by state bureaucrats who have been using standardized testing as a tool not to improve opportunities for students,” continued Najimy, “but instead as one to pry public education from the hands of the families and educators who know best what their students need.”
But not all teachers agree with this sentiment.
“It’s both preposterous and despicable that MTA would seek to wrap its anti-accountability campaign in the mantle of racial justice,” said Paul Reville, a professor at Harvard’s Graduate School of Education who served as secretary of education under Governor Deval Patrick and has been an instrumental figure in the state’s quarter-century education-improvement effort. “The primary purpose of education reform in Massachusetts was and is equity. MCAS shines a light on how much students are learning. It highlights those Black, brown, and other students who are being failed by our education system. It calls attention to their challenges and provides a rationale for giving teachers support they deserve to help their students meet high standards.”
It is foolishness to say that standardized testing is racist. It seems likely these teachers are just looking to protect their jobs. They are likely bad teachers if their students can’t pass the tests. They should be punished here for crying racism in this instant. It dilutes other actually calls of racism. I feel sorry for these students that are clearly not doing well if their teachers are trying to hide their knowledge of the material.
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