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What is a parent to do?I am a Reading Recovery teacher that has chosen to stay home with my children for the past eight years. I recently moved into another district that continues to get rave reviews as the "best in the state". (We are talking about a 3% minority and 10% reduced lunch population) In all the districts I have been involved in, whether teaching or having children attend, this is by far the poorest in teaching practices. They are very driven to teaching to the test. I feel I have walked into a time warp and my kids are sitting and doing worksheets all day. I was flabbergasted to see what has happened to education. I was just shared their Dibel results. My older child's was above average but I questioned whether he/she comprehended the passage. "It is just a piece of the puzzle." they tell me. My younger child is “borderline at risk”. He/she is in kindergarten and was tested for FAST FLUENT letter recognition on day six. Isn't this developmentally inappropriate? As the teacher is explaining the importance of the Dibels, it was stressed that fluency is the key to great reading comprehension. Yeah, but what does calling off letter names as fast as you can have to do with reading fluency? Not to mention reading non-sense words? I am outraged that the district is now spending $4 a child for a computerized dibel testing program(AIMSweb). The results have told me nothing. I am parent with a background in education and am pissed off. My friends have never been exposed to what is better and think I am off my rocker. They are told all the time what a great district we are in, "look at our scores". What can I do to get parents to see the whole picture? If they knew, they would be outraged! What can I do to protect my child from that test? Can I say, I don't want he/she tested? Does he/she need to be protected; will taking Dibels hurt? I was planning on just ignoring the whole thing. |