I love irony.
Yesterday I posted a brief video of former Travis County DA Ronnie Earle commenting on high stakes testing in Texas’s education system.
According to Ronnie Earle, “we do too much testing and not enough teaching.”
Yes we do. But more than that it is just amazing what gets shoved aside when a TAKS test is administered in Texas.
Feature this. The Texas School Public Relations Association, an organization dedicated to “promoting public schools through effective communications” has announced that next week, March 1st through 5th is “Texas Public Schools Week.” And for $60 you can download a kit to help you celebrate Public Schools Week.
But then, if you go over to the local online newspaper Fort Bend Now, you see that Fort Bend ISD is actually postponing celebration of Texas Public Schools Week until the 2nd week in March.
Now I don’t know what is more ironical. That Fort Bend ISD is postponing a celebration of itself because it will be spending a day that week putting thousands of students through what will be a grueling all-day English Language Arts TAKS test, demonstrating one more time that TAKS testing is truly the primary concern of education administrators. Or that the state organization, whose prime concern is to promote education through effective communication was either unaware that March 3rd is a TAKS test day, or unaware of the importance that TAKS tests take in school districts, to the exclusion of everything else, including promoting themselves.
All I know is that in either case, the irony is exquisite.
Yesterday I posted a brief video of former Travis County DA Ronnie Earle commenting on high stakes testing in Texas’s education system.
According to Ronnie Earle, “we do too much testing and not enough teaching.”
Yes we do. But more than that it is just amazing what gets shoved aside when a TAKS test is administered in Texas.
Feature this. The Texas School Public Relations Association, an organization dedicated to “promoting public schools through effective communications” has announced that next week, March 1st through 5th is “Texas Public Schools Week.” And for $60 you can download a kit to help you celebrate Public Schools Week.
But then, if you go over to the local online newspaper Fort Bend Now, you see that Fort Bend ISD is actually postponing celebration of Texas Public Schools Week until the 2nd week in March.
Now I don’t know what is more ironical. That Fort Bend ISD is postponing a celebration of itself because it will be spending a day that week putting thousands of students through what will be a grueling all-day English Language Arts TAKS test, demonstrating one more time that TAKS testing is truly the primary concern of education administrators. Or that the state organization, whose prime concern is to promote education through effective communication was either unaware that March 3rd is a TAKS test day, or unaware of the importance that TAKS tests take in school districts, to the exclusion of everything else, including promoting themselves.
All I know is that in either case, the irony is exquisite.
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