Tag: MCAS

  • Summer hiatus is a challenge for me ; I am compulsively obsessed with education. However, this summer I have made an effort and, until today, have left my pile of things to consider in a far corner of our spare bedroom. This week, the Massachusetts Board of Elementary and Secondary Education approved implementation of the…

  • This week I was asked at a Team Meeting what I thought about particular student’s participation in MCAS (this student has serious health issues which limit school participation). Was there an alternate way to assess this student that would enable us to know what had been achieved? And that got me thinking about what I…

  • This week concluded our adventures into the world of the  Third Grade  MCAS Reading Test. And yes, our third graders took their last test on April Fools Day – better known as March 32 in Room 207. I’ve been administering these tests during each of the four years I’ve been teaching third grade. Before that,…

  • Does it seem odd to you that all year long, we tell our students to use the word wall or whatever else we have available for students to use in a classroom, but when it comes time to do standardized testing we effectively tell them “just kidding” ? Yesterday, I was giving my students a…

  • Yesterday, we reached the 100th day of school — triple digits.  From this point on the year will whiz by at the speed of light… 80 school days from now we will be all done. For kids, that seems like an eternity, but for me Day 100 is the point at which panic sets in.…