Comments on: Podcast: Qualitative Research with Dr. Greene

By: The Social Classroom with Guest Austin Young

The Social Classroom with Guest Austin Young — Tue, 24 Dec 2013 12:58:43 +0000

[…] you liked this you may also like our conversation with Dr. Greene on Qualitative Research and our blog The Key to Student Success is more […]

By: Kathleen Jasper

Kathleen Jasper — Wed, 04 Dec 2013 18:03:50 +0000

LOVE Glasser. Choice is essential. There are no more choices, even in terms of electives. If students fail the FCAT, their electives are replaced with intensive reading classes. If they fail the math EOC, their remaining electives are replaced by intensive math classes. So many students’ schedules have no creative classes in them at all. Is there any wonder why they hate school? Is there any wonder why they are unable to make their own choices when faced with real world applications? We are over assessing these students and for what? It means absolutely nothing once they reach high school. What does an FCAT score do for anyone or anything except for those making and profiting from the test?

By: Colin Kleinmann

Colin Kleinmann — Wed, 04 Dec 2013 17:14:02 +0000

I have to say as well, I grew up in Lee County and went to school here. I was exposed to the first blast of FCAT, which my classmates and myself saw as a direct attack on our actual education – a push to unbroaden our horizons and narrow our exploration of knowledge. Now, as a School Counselor and Testing Coordinator, matters are FAR worse and our students are bombarded with testing year-round. What’s worse is if they do not pass. They are harassed to pass their EOC every single season (Fall, Winter, Spring, Summer), forced to take it again, and it does not matter if they have not had the course in over a year. Although there is research that evinces student’s loss of interest in school due to testing, I see it every time testing rolls around. Perfectly good students are turned off of school because we are not making it fair. We are not putting an emphasis on making school part of a student’s ideal world (Quality World for those who are familiar with Dr. William Glasser’s Choice Theory). We definitely need to stand up for our future and redeem our schools. Kids are most certainly not numbers.

By: Kathleen Jasper

Kathleen Jasper — Wed, 04 Dec 2013 15:46:53 +0000

I was a wiggly kid too! What I had going for me was standardized testing was minimal back then and we were allowed to explore more than kids are able to today. My daughter is about to enter kindergarten and I am terrified. Not because she is unable to sit still or behave, but because her creativity and love of learning may be stunted before it is ever established. We have to start a revolution in education. We have to get the word out that our students couldn’t possibly fit into the narrow perimeters assigned by testing companies and mandated legislation. These are our children. If we don’t fight for them, who will?

By: Megan

Megan — Wed, 04 Dec 2013 15:40:30 +0000

Dr. Greene! You captured so much of my own feelings about contemporary schooling today. Two years ago, I was terrified to release my babes (now Frankie, girl, age 7 and Owen, age 5) into this school system. To ask them to go for 6 hours each day into a classroom where being wiggly (i.e., human) and being too “divergent” in their thinking was to ask them to stop being themselves. I am not advocating for Schools without Walls in public schooling, but it’s apparent to me that teachers today have been programmed to, as you say, see the kids as numbers – something ordinal and inhuman.