Teacher Suspended for Refusing to Give State Test by The Associated Press

Yeah for Mr. Chew! He is very brave to refuse to administer the state testing of Washington when he saw the need to come up with better assessments. Many students are more knowledgably of their surroundings than the questions that the tests ask. People who “think” they know all about student funds of knowledge write assessments. Therefore the assessments students take are not part of their every day lives, and are something that they’ve only learned from school. Assessments need to be more meaningful to the students’ surroundings/ upbringing. It reminds me of when my students used to take the TERRA NOVA tests. These assessments were literally translated into Yugtun word per word, and it made the reading difficult for the students. As immersion students, and being first graders one of the tests reading assessments was equal to the 6th grade reading level. How could my students read proficiently and answer questions that are not up to their par? The result of tests in turn labels the students of being far below proficient.
I applaud Mr. Chew with his action. Students are tired of being assessed and being compared to other students nation wide. Something that teaching has become is to teach to the test, and I don’t like that.