All across the country, school districts are feeling the very real pain associated with the ever-changing world of high-stakes testing. In a recent article for U.S. News and World Report, writer Lauren Camera takes a comprehensive look at the Kingsport, Tennessee school system’s mighty efforts to rise to the challenge of staying ahead of changes in standards, testing and federal education laws. Camera seems hopeful that the passage of the Every Child Succeeds Act signals a shift back to focusing on the whole child.
“It was just after 9 a.m. on Monday, Feb. 8, when Lori Smith, the associate principal at John F. Kennedy Elementary School in Kingsport, received a text from her sister, the instructional technology coordinator for Monroe County Schools.”
"Schools in Monroe, along with several other districts across Tennessee, had begun administering the first round of the state's new tests, which students were taking on computers."
"She messaged me and asked how things were going," Smith recalled. "I told her we had done a test on our technology and things were going well. Apparently, they weren't going well for her."
"What neither of them knew at the time was that all across the Volunteer State the testing technology was breaking down." Article continued…
Join the discussion by leaving your comments below.[:es]It was just after 9 a.m. on Monday, Feb. 8, when Lori Smith, the associate principal at John F. Kennedy Elementary School in Kingsport, received a text from her sister, the instructional technology coordinator for Monroe County Schools.
Schools in Monroe, along with several other districts across Tennessee, had begun administering the first round of the state's new tests, which students were taking on computers.
"She messaged me and asked how things were going," Smith recalled. "I told her we had done a test on our technology and things were going well. Apparently, they weren't going well for her."
What neither of them knew at the time was that all across the Volunteer State the testing technology was breaking down.[:]
