I Wouldn't Believe It If I Wasn't Experiencing It. Money-Making Bureaucracy at Its Best...Reminds Me of What K-12 Teaching Has Become (Teaching to the Test)

It came to NY, but they got rid of it. It came to NJ, but they got rid of it. It came to CT, they got rid of it, but didn't replace it, so still have to go forward with it. Pearson's taking over of teaching certification and making hard-working, exhausted, well-prepared pre-service teachers stop everything to meet the needs of a 'test' without the substance of mentoring the next generation of educators. 

Phew. More NCLB/Race to the Top gone amok.

Where do you make money in education? Testing and the companies who run the assessments. It's something. 

With all of that noted, props to my colleagues, Associate Dean Josh Elliot, and Special Education Director, Alyson Martin, who worked calmly to settle the nerves of 38 anxious pre-service teachers working through student teaching, meandering through new relations in a new school, balancing the need to stop everything to upload materials to a testing company that, although based on best practices, has taken the support away from K-12 schools and teacher education programs. 

As an English education student said, "They are trying to push us out of teaching before we actually get there." Yup. It's why other states simply pushed it out of the way.

But for now, we have to do it because we have no choice. My lord, it shouldn't be this taxing.