I think everyone who is in any way involved in the field of education in New York State will get the following picture:

Yeah… remember, pineapples don’t have sleeves.

Well, when it comes to the over-testing of our students with flawed assessments, Jeremy Dudley of Albany says it all:

“Stop this Madness!”

And that’s what thousands of teachers from across New York State shouted from the crowds: “Stop this Madness!”    Pre-assessment, Post-assessment, Final Assessment, SLOs, APPR, CCSS… testing, testing, testing, and cutting into our time to TEACH!

Here’s the REAL SLO!

Because it was forced on us and we had little time to digest and prepare before being held accountable for its content!  It was a Race to the Top… of our stress levels!

I sweated all last summer to change my lesson plans for every unit so that they aligned with the Common Core.  I lost a LOT of time for the pre-assessment (three days of classes to administer, and HOURS to “rate,” not “grade”… and then more time to individually upload each student’s scores that didn’t count for anything).

Stop this Madness!!

Since the English teachers in our district knew that our SLO and APPR scores were driven by persuasive writing, we were compelled to teach to the test or risk our APPR score and face the possibility of being put on a TIP (Teacher Improvement Plan).   And that’s not an idle threat…

Stop this Madness!!

I wish I’d seen this video about a week or so ago…I’d have posted it to get more folks to join in!

Here are some highlights courtesy of the NYSUT website (click on the pics for links):

John Nichols: “Every teacher is a hero…”

Teachers of the Year

Rich Ognibene taught my kids in Fairport!

Dick Iannuzzi got the crowd chanting, “Get it right!”

American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten was a real firecracker to listen to!!

And let’s not forget Evidence Binders!

Commissioner King, you may click on the picture to see MY Evidence Binder.  Let’s see yours!

Stop this Madness!!