More than a Score proclaims 'Ice The ISAT' as test nears... 'Why are we disrupting two weeks of the school year for a test that serves no instructional or administrative purpose this year?'
As the panic grows inside the headquarters of the nation's third largest school system, more and more teachers and parents as basically saying "WTF?" Why should Chicago children spend weeks (this month, February 2014) in test prep instead of education so that they can spent two weeks next month (March 2014) on a test -- the ISAT -- that's phased out?
ICE the ISAT is the February 2014 program of Chicago's More Than A Score.And so, as weeks of real classroom instruction and learning are soaked up in traditional Chicago test prep (multiple choice homework and classroom assignments in the form of the ISAT tests), the Chicago Teachers Union and a growing number of parent and community groups are demanding simply that CPS announce -- now rather than later -- that the ISAT has been cancelled for all of the city's elementary schools.
Chicago's "More Than A Score" has opened a campaign called "Ice The ISAT":
"This is the last year that the ISAT will be administered," said a February 4 posting, "but the first year that it will not be a high-stakes test in CPS. The ISAT no longer counts for:
"school rating (level system),
"promotion policy,
"teacher or principal evaluation,
"selective enrollment admission.
"Why are we disrupting two weeks of the school year for a test that serves no instructional or administrative purpose this year? What can you do to take back this time?
By the first week of February 2014, despite the termination of the ISAT testing program, thousands of Chicago elementary school children were doing mindless ISAT test prep materials (all using the multiple-choice four-possible-answers format of the state test) in class and for homework. Because of the "standards and accountability" movement that began in Chicago when Gery Chico was the corrupt President of the Chicago Board of Education and which continues as Gery Chico is the corrupt President of the Illinois State Board of Education. "Opt out! Use this ISAT-specific letter or our universal opt-out letter to just say no. Barbara Byrd Bennett has said that parents and students have the right to refuse this test and that students will be able to do self-guided activities during the ISAT.
"Tell ISBE and CPS to cancel the ISAT this year. Sign our petition here, and share widely!
Share this information with others with our factsheet, �ISAT: What you need to know.�
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Comments:
By: Kelly Yelmene
Useless 2014 ISAT
Kindly free up our teachers and students to do something productive during these weeks.
By: Tommy Flamm
Why indeed?
It does seem pointless and with the way Chicago is run you have to think it's being done because someone in the big machine is getting money in their pockets!
By: John Kierig
Why?
Because someone is making $$$ off it.