Saturday's Internet Edition, May 17, 2008.
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| Zollie Rogers says the emphasis on testing isn’t always healthy for young students. - Photo by Robin Snow |
Once in school, they were so nervous, they threw up. They cried. They filled Zollie Rogers’ ears with tales of woe.
For them, it will continue.
For Rogers, it was the last time he will have to deal with it.
End of grade testing. The bane of a school counselor’s existence.
Not only does Rogers not agree with the state mandated testing, he doesn’t even think the people who force the testing could do well.
“I guarantee no legislator could take this test and make a four. It cannot be taught, I’m convinced,” he said.
Rogers said when end of grade tests (EOGs) began, the program started to make school-to-school comparisons. It is now part of the federal No Child Left Behind program.
The major goal of the federal No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act of 2001 is for all public school children to perform at grade level in reading and mathematics by the end of the 2013-14 school year. NCLB’s accountability requirements, designed to tell whether schools, districts, and states are on track to meet that goal, have been incorporated into North Carolina’s accountability system, the ABCs of Public Education.
In elementary school, students in grades three through five take the EOGs, and grades three and five are considered gateway years, meaning if the child fails the initial and subsequent tests, they may be held back. For students in middle school, eighth grade is a gateway year, and students at the high school level take end of course (EOC) tests.
Opponents of the tests have argued that the curriculum revolves around the test. Rogers said in a roundabout way, that is correct.
“The official word is that the test is the curriculum in North Carolina, that if a teacher is teaching to the test, then they are teaching what they should be teaching. But math and reading are all that’s tested, and the curriculum is comprised of more than that. It’s physical education, it’s ... subscribe to the Davie County Enterprise Record, P.O. Box 99, Mocksville, N.C. 27028.