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A brave New York City principal has stood up against excessive testing. An article in the New York Times tells the story:
“Since 2000, Anna Allanbrook has been the principal of Public School 146 in the Carroll Gardens section of Brooklyn, one of the highest achieving elementary schools in the city. It is so popular that each year she holds an admissions lottery — last spring, 1,538 children applied for 175 slots…
“She also believes it is her job is to shield students, teachers and parents from the state’s ever-expanding standardized testing system and to question its reliability publicly. ‘At my age, I’ve seen so many education fads come and go,’ she says. ‘It gives me the confidence to trust what we’re doing here.’ “In a letter to parents in April she criticized the newly developed tests as too hard, too confusing and too long. She predicted scores would plummet, which, as city and state officials announced last week, is what happened…” |