Reply #26: Do you think that Sidwell Friends administers the same tests that

[JDPriestly]

are administered in the L.A. Unified? Sidwell Friends says nothing about its test scores on its website. I doubt that they test the children with the same standardized tests that are being thrown at children in our public schools. And I doubt even more that they test he Sidwell Friends students with the same frequency as they are testing kids in schools in Los Angeles.

Here is a report on API scores in a school which is not in my neighborhood but is in Los Angeles.

http://api.cde.ca.gov/AcntRpt2010/2009BaseSch.aspx?allcds=19647336016687

Here is an explanation of California's API testing.

http://www.cde.ca.gov/ta/ac/ay/documents/overview10.pdf

This system is quite a distraction in the schools. It is oppressive for the teachers, students and parents alike. I seriously doubt that Sidwell Friends School has to publish its test scores as do the schools in L.A. The teachers at Sidwell Friends can encourage their students to become good human beings in an atmosphere that considers individual students and does not provide a one-size-fits-all education. If you don't pass the test, you are a failure is a horrible teaching philosophy. Each child is a worthy human being, and our schools need to teach that more than any other lesson.

Constant testing over-emphasizes the test-taking aspect of academic achievement, and I say that as a parent whose children had no problems taking tests. Children need to develop creativity as well as basic reading and math skills. At Sidwell Friends, that is the philosophy of education.

But in Obama's Department of Education, it's just about tests and not teaching the whole child. That is the point of this post.