Who is refusing Common Core tests for 3rd-8th graders?

[nugov2]

If they don't have enough talent to play D1, they should hang it up when they reach college age and form their own rec leagues or swim at the gym like other adults.

WOW! That's rude, why should they not be able to be part of a college team just b/c they aren't in the best division.

 

[nugov2]

No offence but where do you work that third graders are proficient at typing? Here they start "computer" class in kindergarten-first grade but typing is not even a class until fourth-fifth grade. That is pretty even across the board here where I live. (I have worked with seven local districts, a total of approximately thirty elementary schools)

The kids in our district start keyboarding in K also. In the school I taught in many years ago also began typing in K. It was a fun program/game that they played that also taught kids how to type. My 4th grader types almost as fast as I am. They liked it so much I actually bought it so they can play on it at home. My 2nd grader probably types at 30 WPM where my older one is 50 WPM.

So while it standard where you live the exact opposite is standard where I live.

 

[AnAmericanInDisney]

WOW! That's rude, why should they not be able to be part of a college team just b/c they aren't in the best division.

As long as they attend private school and not a state non-D1 school where the tax payers have to support their hobby, I couldn't care less if the school pays for them.

 

[AnAmericanInDisney]

See if you can get that passed. Let us know how it turns out.

It's comin. What happened to UAB's football team?

Here’s a statement directly from the University of Alabama at Birminghamrelating to the “discontinuation” of its football program.

The Athletic Department has unique challenges given soaring operating costs, the rapidly evolving NCAA landscape, and a growing divide between the “big schools” and “mid‐majors.” Costs are continuously spiraling upwards driven by cost‐of‐living payments to athletes, meals, equipment, facilities, coaches’ salaries, travel, and more.

These are challenging times in higher education. To invest an additional $50 million to keep football, on top of the $100 million UAB will already invest in Athletics over the next five years, we would have to redirect funds from areas like education, research, or student services. This was a critical decision for the long‐term financial health of the institution and of the Athletics Department.

 

[htmom]

In the k classroom I worked in last year eight out of twenty students had never seen a desktop computer...
Six of those children didn't know what a laptop was. They get to use the computer lab once every six days for twenty minutes. After they get in the lab, do a quick rule reminder, and get to their computers they have about ten to fifteen minutes to do a lesson.
Personally my kids (with the obvious exception of my toddler) both type very well. But as a parent I reinforce school at home. That doesn't mean all parents do though.
And that is why so much test prep has to happen in some of these schools. I absolutely hate the amount of prep it takes everyone in a school for these tests. From the secretaries on up in our schools, everyone's schedules are affected. And this means less time learning.

 

[sam_gordon]

The kids in our district start keyboarding in K also. In the school I taught in many years ago also began typing in K. It was a fun program/game that they played that also taught kids how to type. My 4th grader types almost as fast as I am. They liked it so much I actually bought it so they can play on it at home. My 2nd grader probably types at 30 WPM where my older one is 50 WPM.

So while it standard where you live the exact opposite is standard where I live.

What's the program? I'd like to get my 5th grader to learn how to type.

 

[undertheradar]

In the k classroom I worked in last year eight out of twenty students had never seen a desktop computer...
Six of those children didn't know what a laptop was. They get to use the computer lab once every six days for twenty minutes. After they get in the lab, do a quick rule reminder, and get to their computers they have about ten to fifteen minutes to do a lesson.
Personally my kids (with the obvious exception of my toddler) both type very well. But as a parent I reinforce school at home. That doesn't mean all parents do though.
And that is why so much test prep has to happen in some of these schools. I absolutely hate the amount of prep it takes everyone in a school for these tests. From the secretaries on up in our schools, everyone's schedules are affected. And this means less time learning.

Unless you view time learned to type efficiently as wasted time, they are learning better keyboard skills

 

[nugov2]

What's the program? I'd like to get my 5th grader to learn how to type.

The specific typing program they use is Type to Learn, they also use a program that is called Pixie. All grades start with TTL and each grade has a different set of things they will learn in Pixie. K leans to type a word document as well as change font/size/color and add clip art to documents and the beginning of c/p. Each grade reinforces the concepts and by 3rd/4th grade the are formatting documents presenting Power Points. All kids in our district as part of their supply list need a flash drive for their work.

 

[DizBelle]

This is going to vary wildly. In CA, my son sold ads for the game program and banners surrounding the field. They went out in groups and sold discount cards. They worked Summer sports camp and youth football camp to help raise funds for the program. This was on top of passing league fees, conditioning fees, football locker rental , 2 game jerseys at $275 each, and on and on.

Here in the Midwest, my soccer playing daughter has a fee of $50, which is waived for those on free or reduced lunches.

Almost $300 for a football jersey?!?!? That sounds ridiculous to me.

 

[nugov2]

Unless you view time learned to type efficiently as wasted time, they are learning better keyboard skills

Exactly, if presented the right way it isn't wasting time to prepare for a test it teaching the students skills that apply to much more than a test, but can also be applied to taking the test successfully. My dd hasn't spent any time in the lab preparing for the test, just continuing to master her skills on a computer that will benefit her so much more than just on the PARCC.

 

[IndyRnRfan]

If they don't have enough talent to play D1, they should hang it up when they reach college age and form their own rec leagues or swim at the gym like other adults.

I'm not trying to sound rude but you obviously don't know anything about sports or very little from this post. You do realize many pro athletes didn't attend D1 schools? You should also realize there are many kids playing divisions other than D1 that are better than D1 players? And like I said earlier, thousands of kids wouldn't be able to attend college if they were not offered assistance to play at a smaller school. Plus, many athletes do better academically at a smaller school than they would at a bigger school. I don't see colleges giving out money to come play recreational basketball or baseball.

I am all for fitness and staying active post high school or college, but around the areas I have lived in for the past 20 years, rec leagues are for those who were weak athletically in high school and now can compete with the rest of the weak athletes as adults while getting actual playing time. I know this isn't always the case everywhere. Just what I have seen in multiple cities.

 

[undertheradar]

Almost $300 for a football jersey?!?!? That sounds ridiculous to me.

To you, ridiculous. To the players required to have them, standard equipment.

 

[nugov2]

To you, ridiculous. To the players required to have them, standard equipment.

My DD10 soccer uniform is $300 and that doesn't include her warm ups. Friends I know with girls on Cheer spend close to $300 on uniforms as well. It seems to be the going rate.

 

[shelly3girls]

At our local public schools (more than one district), there are not enough computers for all the kids. As a result the schools are pulling 1/3 of each class out of the room for testing. This way they can claim they do not have to cancel any classes for the testing. As a result classes will continue but with 1/3 of the class missing. This will happen for 3 weeks straight in March then again in May. Students are responsible for making up the missed lessons and tests. The teachers have no choice but to teach because they cannot afford to losing 6- 4 day weeks and they are not permitted to use class time to make up the missed work. I don't know how they expect any kid particularly honors and AP classes who go at a fast pace to not be affected by the testing. The test aside, the implementation is awful. Not every district has 1:1 computer ratios. Even our elementary grades are facing similar scheduling.

 

[bcbmommy]

To answer the original question, yes, I would opt out if my children were still attending public school. Public education was a miserable failure BEFORE Common Crap. Now, they've just added insult to injury. We pulled our kids out before I even knew about CCSS, and am so very thankful. One thing that used to drive me nuts was the weeks when they were having state testing, the schools would send home numerous notes telling parents to make sure kids get enough sleep, healthy food, etc. And testing weeks were the only weeks parents were allowed to send snacks (healthy) to school with kids. It certainly gives the impression that a normal school day isn't important enough to do all those things. Ugh. So glad to be out of the rat race!

 

[htmom]

Unless you view time learned to type efficiently as wasted time, they are learning better keyboard skills

My post wasn't clear I apologize, I want the kids to learn to type, but another poster said how kids by third grade are fairly proficient at typing. I was explaining that not all schools start typing practice at the same time.
For prep:
I am saying the amount of prep in general. Planning meetings, redoing lesson plans, time spent on testing and breaks etc. Reconfiguring schedules, preparing classrooms or computer labs, making sure everyone is clear on the general test rules. Plus the instruction time for the kiddos!

 

[nugov2]

At our local public schools (more than one district), there are not enough computers for all the kids. As a result the schools are pulling 1/3 of each class out of the room for testing. This way they can claim they do not have to cancel any classes for the testing. As a result classes will continue but with 1/3 of the class missing. This will happen for 3 weeks straight in March then again in May. Students are responsible for making up the missed lessons and tests. The teachers have no choice but to teach because they cannot afford to losing 6- 4 day weeks and they are not permitted to use class time to make up the missed work. I don't know how they expect any kid particularly honors and AP classes who go at a fast pace to not be affected by the testing. The test aside, the implementation is awful. Not every district has 1:1 computer ratios. Even our elementary grades are facing similar scheduling.

Why aren't they doing the paper version of the test? You are right not every district does have 1:1, but you only need if for certain grades so I'd say a few mobile labs at a school would be sufficient. Districts have known since 2010/2011 that this test was coming. If they defer the computer portion they could have had 5 years to prepare before the computer version would be needed. Our district foundation right away when this information was given that this was most likely going to happen we got to work with our district. We raised funds to finish district upgrades so all schools were wireless and we began funding mobile labs for our schools. In the 3 years I was on the exec board we raised enough money to do all of this outside of district funding through grant writing and other fundraising events. The mobile labs with 30 surface tablets and cart were around $10,000 because we were getting a bulk rate. It cost us $50,000 to finish the wireless upgrade. On average we fund $55,000 to teachers for their own grants and devote the rest of the money we raise to technology. Our schools always had regular labs, but the mobile labs are key to alleviating back ups. With one $50,000 grant(which we were able to get them and we are not even a at risk school) could potentially upgrade 2 schools that are not wireless or fund 5 mobile labs or add 150 computers to a district. Having a successful school district cannot fall on the backs of teacher and administrators alone. It takes a community sometimes working together to make sure all students have the tools necessary to achieve. If I were you I would see what you can do. Even the busiest parent can stuff envelopes with grant applications.

 

[IndyRnRfan]

Almost $300 for a football jersey?!?!? That sounds ridiculous to me.

You would crap your pants if you knew what people pay to play AAU basketball, travel baseball, attend camps, etc...

I live in the midwest where things are a little more modest when it comes to pricing. There is a travel baseball team in my area that charges $2000 to play baseball for 9 weeks. Roughly 50 games and this is for, 12 year olds. This is per summer and one of our friends has done this for the last 4 years. $8,000 in 4 summers for baseball, it is worth it to them and that doesn't include hotel, gas, or food. They figured last summer they spent close to $4,000 on travel baseball from May-July.

 

[nugov2]

You would crap your pants if you knew what people pay to play AAU basketball, travel baseball, attend camps, etc...

I live in the midwest where things are a little more modest when it comes to pricing. There is a travel baseball team in my area that charges $2000 to play baseball for 9 weeks. Roughly 50 games and this is for, 12 year olds. This is per summer and one of our friends has done this for the last 4 years. $8,000 in 4 summers for baseball, it is worth it to them and that doesn't include hotel, gas, or food. They figured last summer they spent close to $4,000 on travel baseball from May-July.

I believe it. The soccer camps my dd does in the summer a very pricey, but it isn't just sports. The gifted program is $1400 for 2 weeks and that is for commuters. Overnight is even more.

 

[soccerdad72]

My DD10 soccer uniform is $300 and that doesn't include her warm ups. Friends I know with girls on Cheer spend close to $300 on uniforms as well. It seems to be the going rate.

$300?? What a rip off. My 10 year old's complete uniform package for his club right around $100 (2 uniforms, a practice jersey, 1 pair of shorts and 2 pairs of socks).