Korte rant riles readers

School Board Vice-President Kathy Korte let fly May 2nd, in the Journal, a nearly 660 word rant in an effort to heap shame on;

"... adults (who want more testing and who) are (not) walking with high school students as they traverse this new road littered with tests and stress."

Does Kathy Korte really consider herself to be "among those who walk with high school students"?

Riled readers found themselves given nearly a half page in the Journal this morning, to vent their dissatisfaction with Korte's most recent oops-ed.

I've read and re-read the rant, and frankly, a real point escapes me.  At one point she seems to be arguing that a graduate of a chemistry class shouldn't have to prove s/he learned basic concepts.

Korte (pronounced "court", as in, being sued in federal "court") is additionally upset about exit exams being piled upon other exams, piled upon still other exams.

Testing is not a bad thing.  It becomes a bad thing when it is done badly.

Most of the reason testing is done so badly, is teachers have so little input into testing.

The reason that APS teachers, who have between them 100,000 years of teaching and testing experience, don't have a seat at the table is because of school board members like Korte, who despite her own lack of teaching experience, has so little respect for the opinions of those who do.

Korte danced around an interesting fact; a lot of people who passed (chemistry) tests in high school, likely would not pass the same test now, and certainly not with the same high score.  An obvious exception would be those who remain active in the discipline.  Chemists would perform better on their re-takes than those who drifted into other pursuits.

In general, all learning is transitory in the absence of reinforcement.  The transitory nature of learning is well known to educators.  It is the main reason 1st semester tests given before the winter holiday, and not after.

The fact that learning is transitory, flies in the face of arguments that all students need to be on the same page at the same time for twelve years.  It doesn't enter into curriculum and testing because teachers aren't part of the decision making process.

They don't have a seat at the table; because Korte knows best.
Or, at least, Korte believes she knows best.




photo Mark Bralley