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Letter to the editor of Voice magazine
Jul. 21st, 2010 11:00 amx-posted to ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
ontario_teacher
It is time for the teachers of Ontario to take a personal stand against the EQAO test by withdrawing their children from it.
My daughter is entering grade two in the fall. I have started to consider the possibility of withdrawing her from school the week of the EQAO testing in grade three. It's a difficult decision to make alone. On the one hand, my daughter doesn't need to do well on a standardized test to prove that she is working at grade level. I already know how advanced she is, and so does her school. She tends to get nervous before events she sees as tests, and I don't want her developing that nervousness at the tender age of eight. Furthermore, I know that as a French Immersion student, she's at a disadvantage: the inclusion of good spelling to get a level 4 is prejudicial to students who don't study English until that same year, though they catch up later. I'm not interested in putting that level of stress on her for no gain.
On the other hand, her teachers are my colleagues. If she doesn't write the test, she counts as a zero. Having taught in a turnaround school, I know what kind of pressure low scores put on a school, and I know that they'll be predicting a high score for my daughter. Withdrawing her from the testing hurts her school and potentially hurts my relationship with her teachers. I don't want to do that.
This decision should be supported by the union. The union has a role to play in asking teachers who are also parents to boycott the testing, not for their students, but for their children. At an individual level in our schools, we can't force this testing to stop; but collectively as a group of concerned parents, we can significantly impact its validity in a way that is completely legal and without repercussions for our jobs.
ontario_teacherIt is time for the teachers of Ontario to take a personal stand against the EQAO test by withdrawing their children from it.
My daughter is entering grade two in the fall. I have started to consider the possibility of withdrawing her from school the week of the EQAO testing in grade three. It's a difficult decision to make alone. On the one hand, my daughter doesn't need to do well on a standardized test to prove that she is working at grade level. I already know how advanced she is, and so does her school. She tends to get nervous before events she sees as tests, and I don't want her developing that nervousness at the tender age of eight. Furthermore, I know that as a French Immersion student, she's at a disadvantage: the inclusion of good spelling to get a level 4 is prejudicial to students who don't study English until that same year, though they catch up later. I'm not interested in putting that level of stress on her for no gain.
On the other hand, her teachers are my colleagues. If she doesn't write the test, she counts as a zero. Having taught in a turnaround school, I know what kind of pressure low scores put on a school, and I know that they'll be predicting a high score for my daughter. Withdrawing her from the testing hurts her school and potentially hurts my relationship with her teachers. I don't want to do that.
This decision should be supported by the union. The union has a role to play in asking teachers who are also parents to boycott the testing, not for their students, but for their children. At an individual level in our schools, we can't force this testing to stop; but collectively as a group of concerned parents, we can significantly impact its validity in a way that is completely legal and without repercussions for our jobs.