Tuesday, January 26, 2010

FCAT Is On My Last N E R V E!!

I have to apologize right off the bat if you are a teacher that is reading this post. I do not hold what I am about to say against you in any way.....but this FCAT has taken over my child's life. Everything she is being
taught has been geared toward this test.....if I wouldn't know better I would think that the teacher's are getting a bonus for their classroom's performance. You have to do this....you have to score that...you need to work on this.....you need to above the line in this....this is stinkin 4th grade....not Princeton. If this is what a blue ribbon school is all about.....I am appalled.

Just once...do I wish that I would get a positive kudos from my daughter's teacher. Instead....I'm getting negative comments and pompous attitude about whatever is going on. Who mandated this FCAT and why are they pushing these kids to do in my opinion 6th grade work in the 4th grade?

What am I ready to do you might ask? Go back to my daughter's former Christian school and climb in
my box and see her be happy again. She is so stressed out with all these test and unrealistic expectations it's changing her personality.

Does anyone else feel this way or I am just overeacting?

Debi

3 comments:

Jennifer Goodwin

Debi, I don't think that's normal. My kids have a big state~mandated test coming in April and yes while they need to do good {for their school's benefit}, it's never been to that extreme that you're talking about. Wow that was a run~on sentence.

And her teacher??? What the crap??? Any teacher worth her certification gives positive reinforcement. Please don't get me started on this kind of behavior. Seriously? Poor Lil Bon. Tell her I love her and I'm proud of ALL THAT SHE IS.

I love you~I tried calling you tonight, did Boo give you the msg.?

Jennifer Goodwin

OH, and get back in your box and let her be happy again. She's only young once. I don't blame you if you made the change next week. I know you won't do it that soon {???}, but if you did, I wouldn't blame you. K. I'm done.

Anonymous

FCAT needs to be Dumped! The schools are blatantly and intentionally violating the laws and school board policies just for the FCAT. They have implemented draconian punishment policies and grading policies unheard of for elementary students.

My child's elementary school is giving hours of homework each night in violation of Broward County School Boards Procedural Manual Homework Policy 6306 which indicates 10 minutes of homework each night per grade level. So a 5th grader should get about 50 minutes of homework. They continuously slam them with 2-4 hours of homework each night.

Also, they aren't giving them recess or exercise so that they can have more time in class to study for the FCAT. My child was getting 30-70 minutes a week which is against Florida state law FS 1003.455 which demands 150 minutes a week of exercise.

Then they give them slashes if their FCAT homework isn't done 100%. And for every slash the child gets they make them do a 5-10 minute forced walk around the playground in lieu of their recess when they do get it.

And then there’s the completely inappropriate, for 10 year olds, zero grading policy!

This is completely out of control. It makes my child hate school and is ruining our family life!