Testing Outrage 2: Another NYC 1st Grade Teacher Chimes in on Assault on Learning Time

Wait, isn't "progressive" Carmen Farina the Chancellor instead of Joel Klein, Cathie Black or Dennis Walcott?

Norm, our first graders spent September, October, November testing, all for teacher MOSLs. We lost the opportunity to attend to the needs of our first graders at the very beginning of the school year when they need us most. Teachers were unable to delve into high interest units as we usually do, like Apples, Pumpkins, holidays, etc. It was such a waste of time & we were all so very upset at what we weren't able to teach during that time. The worst part about it is that parents were completely unaware that testing was going for all that time. Can you imagine putting out a school letter that says, "Dear Parents, We'd like to advise you that all first grade students will be tested for the first 3 months of the school year." Ha ha. We had about 5 different tests to administer, one with several components, and ALL were to be administered individually. Now you figure out how much learning when on during those months.

Then there is this from CapitalNY. It's like an internal tug of war where schools waste countless hours testing kids to death while people at the top are oblivious.

CITY WILL INVEST $5 M. IN LITERACY, LANGUAGE PROGRAMS—Capital’s Eliza Shapiro: “Bill de Blasio's preliminary budget will include more than $5 million for literacy intervention teams and access to language services for parents, according to the mayor's office. The Fiscal Year 2016 preliminary budget, scheduled for release today, includes $2.4 million to create a separate intervention team within the Department of Education's special education office to support literacy in students with dyslexia.
—The intervention would further Carmen Fariña's goal of getting every child in New York up to reading level by second grade, something de Blasio reiterated last month during his announcement to expand the Young Men's Initiative. The funding would also be used for staff training to create more expertise around dyslexia interventions and more literacy support across the general education population. In addition to her second grade reading goal, Fariña has said she wants to see the quality and quantity of writing vastly improved in all city schools over the next year.

Sure. Teachers have time for labor intensive dyslexia interventions when they are assaulted from every direction, including the massive paperwork.