Readicide

"...the overemphasis on testing is playing a major part in killing off readers in America's classrooms."

The previous is an excerpt from Kelly Gallagher's book, Readicide, How Schools Are Killing Reading and What You Can Do About It

That excerpt rang so true today as I spent the morning in a fifth grade classroom proctoring our first day of STAR testing. I felt sadness, anger, outrage, and frustration as I watched almost all of the kids do their very best to carefully read the several passages and answer the 41 questions. They definitely were winners and not quitters. It just seemed like overkill to me. Why so many freaking passages? Wouldn't two or three passages and 25 questions suffice? Why are we doing this to our kids? Why are we sucking the joy of reading out of them? I'm so angry that this ONE assessment is what makes or breaks us. These 8 days of "testing" determine whether or not we are "distinguished" or whether or not we are in "program improvement." I guess no one cares about what happens during the other 172 days. Something must change or we will continue to turn kids off to reading and to learning.