How you see things depends on where you sit.
My superintendent is retiring in two weeks. She has had the job for eight years. She has spent eighteen years in the district including as assistant superintendent for curriculum and as principal.
She sent out an e-note to the staff today saying nice things about her time as an administrator and telling what her personal and professional plans were.
But there was this:
I am particularly proud of the work we have done to keep our focus the “whole child”. At a time when many districts across the country were only concerned with standardized test scores, we took a bold step and said that test scores alone would not define who we were.
Apprently there are two different realities. From the point of view of the classroom, never has there been as much standardized assessments and testing. Weeks and weeks of it, some of it right up to until today, two weeks before the school year is over.
The irony is that at a retirement and recognition dinner I attended a week ago the superintendent even acknowledged that when she first came to the district there was no such things as ISATs, the statewide standardized assessment.
It has never been this bad. No district can escape from it. Even if some are in denial.
