Standardized Testing

As North Carolina chooses more and more standardized testing as the way to measure student growth, a few subjects are getting lost along the way. A friend of mine who teaches at an elementary school was reprimanded recently for teaching science and social studies because those subjects are not on the End-of-Grade test. Unfortunately, spelling and grammar are getting lost along the way as well. After all, if we tell a child how to use correct grammar, we are damaging self esteem or being unsympathetic to cultural language development. What matters is the ability to clearly communicate so that people do not judge you based on language. It's sad to think that a brilliant mind is hiding behind language that is being hindered by a number two pencil.