Thread by @karenvaites

“Will you help me put this on? It’s my lucky necklace.”

My 10YO (who never talks like this)… because it’s state testing day.

Y’all, she didn’t get this pressure from her mother.

You can want the data from standardized testing, because we need a window into school performance on key metrics like literacy (which is troubling nationally)…

And still have ambivalence about the unintended consequences of assessments (because of adult behaviors around them).

This year marked a first for me:

At the parent-teacher concerned, my daughter’s teacher announced, “Our next English Language Arts unit is the test prep unit.”

I almost fell out of my chair.

The Test Prep Unit is when schools pause good teaching (literature, rich learning) to drill test skills for 2-6 weeks. Which is a non-trivial part of the school year.

Of course I know it exists. Most schools do it.

But I have never heard it plainly named to parents before.

One of my favorite things about districts that use high-qualify curriculum: they tend to keep it lean on test prep units, out of recognition that there are better ways to fuel success with reading comprehension.

(Hint: teaching more background knowledge and vocabulary.)

https://twitter.com/karenvaites/status/1117414801666453504

And one of my favorite things about raising a 10YO is watching them fall in love with my old favorites.

Turns out a love of Snoopy, featured on the apparently-her-lucky necklace, can be inherited.