It's official. Pennsylvania System of School Assessment results have been released.
And despite what some community members would like you to believe, the only thing the results tell us is that too much money and time was spent on testing and preparing for tests.
Ever wonder what Pennsylvania spends on tests, test prep materials, and data management systems? Do a little research.
Even though you might hear that certain scores mean your school is doing something exceptional or that you're in trouble, PSSA scores have almost no relationship to any learning that might have occurred in our schools.
In fact, the more time and money spent preparing for PSSAs guarantees that our children were not provided a full curriculum and meaningful teaching and learning experiences.
Research conducted over the last 10 years confirms that our children have actually been taught less about the subjects that really matter. And this same research shows that after 10 years of PSSAs, our children are less prepared for college and/or a career.
Why our education leaders refuse to inform us of this fact still baffles me.
They know the truth and they know that spending time on politically (not educationally) motivated testing is time and money wasted. PSSA results have no relationship to actual learning, and any testing expert can predict our schools' scores.
Save your child's experience as a learner, save our schools from being further turned into test prep factories, and empower teachers to teach again-Opt out.
Timothy Slekar, Tyrone
