- Not much to talk about today, but at least the clip we have features my colleague Aaron Churchill talking about a topic near and dear to all of our hearts: the importance of state testing, the windows for which are now open here in Ohio. Aaron’s interest in the vital data that testing will reveal has remained the same over the years, and he does not mention the pandemic at all in his quote. It’s not necessary because the data are the data. Compare that to OEA president Scott DiMauro’s quote, which starts with the same canard as in every other year (“Teachers are understandably frustrated with instructional time lost to state tests…”) but adds the inevitable Covid pity party (“….especially given how hard they are working to address the needs of students whose learning has been disrupted through the last two years of the pandemic.”). All this despite the fact that state testing data from last year is credited with allowing educators to “discover” the Covid achievement slide in the first place. Which, you will recall, was denied entirely at first and then rebranded to “unfinished learning” before finally being acknowledged by literally everyone. (Dayton Daily News, 3/21/22)
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