Listen to teacher on tests

The beginning of a new school year is a good time to consider the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) funded by a $200 million grant from Bill and Melinda Gates. (The Gates have also spent millions promoting charter schools.)

Low scores in these rigorous tests have tended to undermine confidence in our public schools, ignoring the fact that test results generally reflect the socioeconomic stratification in the district.

In the preface to “More Than A Score: The New Uprising Against High-Stakes Testing,” Seattle High School teacher Jesse Hagopian, a leader in the Garfield High School successful boycott of high stakes testing, asserts: “Our nation has spent millions of dollars organizing education around the idea that the highest form of knowledge is the ability to eliminate wrong answer choices. Yet the major societal problems we face require reorganizing education so that, above all else, it encourages problem solving, critical thinking, collaboration, leadership, imagination and civic courage.”

School boards and administrators should listen to teachers like Hagopian and give them the freedom in the classroom to meet the real life needs of students and the larger society.

Buell Hollister

Spokane