Good News!

I am very happy to inform all of you that I have received my students' Reading TAKS scores...annnnnd...(drum roll please) ALL of my students PASSED!!! Out of my 17 students, 9 received commended performance. Commended performance means that the students missed between 0-3 questions on the entire test.

The reading TAKS test is the biggest test for all third graders because they MUST pass it within three tries to move on to the 4th grade. A lot of things have changed in standardized testing since our TAAS days. When former president George W. Bush was governor of Texas, he passed the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) which states that any child who can not pass a particular section of the TAKS test for their grade level cannot be promoted to the next grade because their scores show that they are not ready, and that if they did move on to the next grade they would be academically behind.

Now, I'm not a big fan of the TAKS test. It's a whole lot of pressure on the students and the teacher, but I do agree with the idea of using a standardized test to determine a student's academic capacity. I don't however, think that standardized tests should be used to determine a child's academic abiltiy or level (some students have test anxiety).

There is a difference between capacity and academic ability. Capacity gives a broadened awareness of a child's skills whereas ability shows what the child can or cannot do (more black and white). I hope this makes sense because in my head it certainly does!

On another note, Kassie's wedding was very sweet and pretty. It was nice to get to rekindle with old friends and reminice on memories. It also made me miss college and Abilene (see previous blog).

I know I'm rambling, but has anyone seen the new previews for the movie 17 Again? If you haven't you need to YouTube it. I've marked it on my calendar to go see it. It's coming out on April 17. I also have a confession...Zac Efron is the lead actor in this movie, and I have a slight celeb crush on him because I think he looks very similar to my fiance, Bryan. **Please note: I started dating Bryan long before I even heard of Zac Efron.

Do you see the resemblance?