This week I’m trying something different. Please write about whatever’s on your mind in the Comments.
Stop Homework is the blog of Sara Bennett, co-author of The Case Against Homework: How Homework Is Hurting Our Children and What We Can Do About It. Stop Homework provides up-to-the-minute homework news, opinion articles, and guest editorials. If you need help advocating for change, need materials, or are looking for a guest speaker, email me.
This week I’m trying something different. Please write about whatever’s on your mind in the Comments.
I saw this post on Teachers Net:
You know that you have trained your class to ignore
distractions well when someone throws up DURING state
testing and no one even flinches and continues with their
testing!
No lie!
My classroom!
Today!
Luckily he missed the book by an inch and hit the trashcan
which I had shoved in front of his face when I saw him
starting to turn green!
Nurse is right across the hall, off he goes, trashcan and all!
First question the principal asks me at the break is… did
anything hit the test book? Evidently there is some major
procedure involving fort knox and some security company
trained by the cia and fbi that needs to be followed when
someone barfs on the book!
I recommend watching this video, where Yong Zhao, a Distinguished Professor of Education at Michigan State University, talks about how students need room to discover and learn, not subscribe to a set of rules and interests dictated to them from the outside.
About a month ago, I posted a piece by Fred Baumgarten, the father of two daughters in public school in Sharon, Connecticut, who had been talking to the other parents in his daughter’s fifth-grade class about homework. I recently checked to see what kind of progress he’s making.
He writes all about it on his blog, homework headaches.
Should Homework be Reduced – 13 support; 3 opposed; 1 undecided; 4 no response
by Fred Baumgarten
As of today, out of 21 fifth grade families in our school, 12 have indicated their support of my efforts to reduce and improve homework; 3 are opposed (2 of them strongly; one just responded to another recent e-mail thus: “We do not support your movement. I thought lack of our response would have given you some indication”); 1 is provisionally supportive but still researching it; and 5 have not responded to e-mails and phone messages.
In my latest e-mail I invited those parents who are supportive or who had not responded to join me at a meeting with the principal. None have responded positively to the invitation.
Nevertheless, I have gone ahead and scheduled a meeting with the principal. Given that more than half of the families are in support, and greater than 75% of those who responded are in support, I feel I have a pretty strong case for proceeding.
I came across this nicely written piece by a teenager in his local newspaper, The Estacada News.
Zzz…Teenagers need more sleep
School board should consider late start for high school, junior high students
BY RUSS CAREY
It is time for the Estacada School District to switch the school starting time of the high school and junior high schools with that of the grade schools. Today’s teens are sleep-deprived.
There are many studies that clearly show that teens need more sleep that they are getting. I believe that the junior high and high school classes should begin later in the morning to help solve this problem.
At present, classes for high school and junior high school students begin at 7:45 a.m., and grade school classes begin at 9:05 a.m. I would like to propose switching these two times. My reasons: Teenagers have more homework, more extra-curricular activities and require more sleep than younger children. This change would give the older students the extra time for the sleep they need to succeed.
Yesterday’s Mom on a Mission isn’t the only person to think that high-stakes testing isn’t beneficial. Former Assistant Secretary of Education Diane Ravitch, once a staunch supporter of No Child Left Behind, is now an outspoken critic with a new book, The Death and Life of the Great American School System. One of her biggest concerns is the way the law requires school districts to use standardized testing.
According to NPR, “The basic strategy is measuring and punishing,” Ravitch says of No Child Left Behind. “And it turns out as a result of putting so much emphasis on the test scores, there’s a lot of cheating going on, there’s a lot of gaming the system. Instead of raising standards it’s actually lowered standards because many states have ‘dumbed down’ their tests or changed the scoring of their tests to say that more kids are passing than actually are.”
I recently started a group on facebook (please join) where I heard from April Peacock, a mother of a third grader from Pennsylvania. She was looking for advice on how to respond to her son’s teacher, who had sent home a high stakes testing practice booklet, with instructions to the parents on how to review with their children.
High Stakes Testing Isn’t Beneficial
by April Peacock
Yesterday, I received a packet from my third grade son. The front letter says the following:
Dear Parent Helpers,
Attached is this week’s PSSA Practice Packet to review with your child. As always your help and assistance in your child’s education is so important. This is one way you can help show them what they are doing in school is important.Remember to review the packet with your child. Make sure they read the story and questions carefully before trying to figure out the answers. A little each night works well. The answer key is included for your reference. Research has shown (Ashbaugh, 2009) that when parents practice with their children in high stakes testing, students do much better.
Please fill out and return the paper below to your child’s teacher on 2/1. Do not return the packet.
Third Grade TeachersWeek # 1
Student’s Name
Time spent on this packet with student _______________ mins per day.
Were you able to finish the packet? Y N
Please list anything that your child did not understand, so that we can review it in the classroom.
Here is my dilemma: I’m glad that they make the material available to us, but I don’t feel that “high stakes testing” is beneficial and I resent that I am required to fill out a form stating exacting how long I practiced with my child. I dislike them telling me how to spend my time.
Does anyone have an good responses to this? I would like to send in a short letter with references, etc., but I don’t want to sound upset. Basically, I want my letter to be just as PC as theirs. My Case Against Homework book is packed away because we just moved.
The Eva Simmons Elementary School in North Las Vegas instituted a new policy in January, encouraging parents to make sure their children read every night and practice their math skills using a website resource. “One size fits all homework is just not a best practice for our students,” said the principal, in defending the decision to eliminate the traditional nightly homework assignments. Any homework that is sent home will be geared toward the individual child. Read more here.