Montana school funding

[Cat Grad]

gtapp: Amen. Montana will not raise teacher salaries until the unions are long gone and we have an effective method now in place nationwide to evaluate adequate yearly performance--has to do with the kid's test scores...psst...don't let the unions reps know this

[Bleedinbluengold]

I've debated some teacher-friends on that issue, in fact. When they're done soapboxing, and telling me how the "testing" system doesn't work, I ask, "OK, how would you make it better?" [cue the crickets here]


PS - on a side note, apparently, if a kid does really well on the test, they get to take another test, and so on and so forth, to see where they actually grade out in terms of profficiency...guess what? the kids know this, and they purposely miss questions in order to not have to, "take the test again." [that is a quote].

[Cat Grad]

This is only Montana's second year using a Criterion Referenced Test for Adequate Yearly Progress to evaluate individual schools and systems. The response to any and all teachers when they whine about the kids bubbling in answer sheets on the test to measure how well they've mastered the National Standards and Benchmarks should be pretty obvious; they're not promoted until they can demonstrate proficiency on the test. Somewhat like receiving their drivers license I'm amazed all the states around Montana don't appear to have such resistance to change in a process designed to simplify the teachers job

[Cat Grad]

Montana should be just like every other state in the country; a group normed test, a criterion referenced test and a writing test. It's a crock to listen to teachers cry and whine about "confidentiality" when it comes time for reporting out here! The Criterion Referenced Test serves as both a pre and post test for placement in classes over the summer. Wait, I'm sorry We have all these Podunk schools and nobody wants bad news about their kids made public.