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 testing scandal 
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Over the weekend I talked to one of my past teachers about teaching. He works in the middle school level as an art teacher. He was telling me that he was going to retire a year early because he could not take all the testing anymore. This shocked me but not as much as what he was going to tell me next. He went on to tell me about a recent event that happened at school dealing with the testing (EOG’s). All year long teachers worked hard in preparing students to meet a certain percentile in order to pass the EOG’s. Well the students took their test and before the school received the scores back they received a letter from our state superintendent telling them some things had changed. The number that students needed to meet in order to pass the test had been moved up. So instead of it being a number students could actually reach, they moved it to a number that may be impossible for students to ever meet. Now remember these students prepared all year long to meet a certain number, and now are finding out that what number they knew was passing has changed and now has been moved way up. The best I remember he said a lot of the students did not pass because of this event. This was not just in my hometown but also in all parts of North Carolina. So if you think you are ill now wait until you hear the rest. He continued on telling me that teachers receive bonuses if a huge percentage of students pass this test. Well…lets put it this way, considering a lot of students did not pass this test, North Carolina education system just became richer. It was almost like this was used to make sure they did not have to pay out all this money. So now our state education system has not only discouraged students in passing this test but have hurt teachers lives as well. All year long both teachers and students worked their butts off to make sure these test were passed, but basically it was a waste of time. So I just figured I would share this with you and see what your thoughts were about this situation.

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Christin Peterson


Mon Nov 06, 2006 11:36 pm
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Christin,

I'm glad you shared this. This is, indeed, exactly how the system works. It is also one of several reasons not to teach to the test! Perhaps this is something we need to talk about in class.

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Gayle Turner


Tue Nov 07, 2006 11:20 am
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I am not sure if this is the same county of not, my the teacher I am paired with out Mountain View mentioned to me the same thing. That no one is receiving their bonuses based on the change and she is unsure how it is going to effect the school becaause right now Mountain View had a 96% profieceny rating with no achievement gap which all the teachers took pride in.

The question that she raised to me and I think was a good point was that "the state was finding a way not to pass out that money (aka bonus check) which many teachers depend on"

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Ashley Lee Wise


Fri Nov 10, 2006 12:24 pm
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In response to Ashley’s post:

The teacher I was telling you about is from Yancey County. What he was telling me must be true considering there are other places saying the same thing. It would be interesting to see if any more schools from the Piedmont and Coastal area are having this same problem, or is it just in the mountain region. My formal teacher was saying the same thing about the state figuring out away to make sure they did not have to give out any bonuses. Like Ashley was saying, a lot of teachers depended on this bonus from year to year. Afterall, lets face it teachers really don’t make a lot of money, so it would be nice to get this extra money every year. I am sure a lot of teachers had plans with what they were going to do with the money, and now everything was shattered due to North Carolina Education System’s greed. Hearing something like this is enough to discourage someone from teaching.

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Christin Peterson


Tue Nov 14, 2006 8:50 am
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This story really ticks me off and all this new testing has been one factor in my decsision to pursue a career in high school guidance counseling. I had thoguht about teaching history for a few years before I got into counseling but after hearing stories like this it makes me want to go right into counseling. I just really dont want to be evaluated as a teacher on how my students perform on , in my opinion, some unreliable standardized test.

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Ryan Brown


Tue Nov 14, 2006 1:30 pm
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I know that test are needed in order to understand where students and teachers stand as far as performance goes. However, I just think too much emphasis is being put on the test and this is taking away from the experience of being able to learn. I think the test make the learning environment very rigid for students and teachers and this situation is something probably common, yet depressing to hear about.

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Stephanie Nichole Gardner


Wed Nov 15, 2006 2:19 pm
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