Response to Nancy
Grasmick’s press release on “Alternative Assessments”:
To the Editor:
The State School Superintendent did just what we told you she
was going to do – find a way to create a new State High School
Diploma and keep her High School Assessments in the process.
Those students who cannot pass any of the High School
Assessments can come up with a project to prove that he or she
understands and has mastered the quadratic equation. However,
the student will not receive a State Diploma; he or she will
receive a Local High School Diploma because he or she would have
taken an Alternative High School Assessment. Oh, and one more
thing, the local school district will have to pay for these
ALTERNATIVE ASSESSMENTS and the LOCAL HIGH SCHOOL DIPLOMA. That
could mean that each school district could have different
alternative assessment criteria and different local diplomas.
Which diploma do you think will be accredited by the state,
recognized by Fortune 500 Corporations, Four Year Universities
and the military? That’s right, the State High School diploma
which can only be achieved by taking and passing the State High
School Assessments. Same sheep, different clothing!
Jerry Weast and his beloved Montgomery County Public Schools
minions are now shaking in their boots because their kids are
failing the tests that HE and GRASMICK construed. Wait a minute
wasn't it WEAST'S school system curricula that the stellar
"Voluntary" state curriculum was based upon? Yep, it sure is.
He pushed the High School Assessments by showing the state how
his school district was leading the state in high scores. Oh, he
bragged and took all the accolades from Nancy Grasmick; they
were real thick and all buddy-buddy. And now all of sudden he’s
crying foul? What a difference a couple of years makes! I guess
he didn’t see it coming; his students are failing this farce of
an assessment that he helped create! NOW he questions the
validity of these assessments and now he wants things to
change. What does he think that nobody out here would remember
HIS role in pushing the HSAs? You’ve got to be kidding.
How in the world is a child supposed to come up with a project
to prove he understands and has mastered the quadratic
equation? If he mastered it he could actually work and solve
the problems with pencil and paper! Duh! Better start saving
your shoe boxes and toilet paper rolls now for all the dioramas
to come. And, quadratic equations are only one small part of
algebra. How many dioramas does a kid need to do? One for each
concept? Does this sound like just another MSCRAP marshmallow
and toothpick task all over again to anyone else but me?
"She {Grasmick] said the county school systems would be
responsible for designing the projects."
Ain't that a cheap way out! She screws up the testing and
expects the locals to bail her sorry butt out! I don’t think
so, and NONE and I mean NONE of our county commissioners or
school board members had better support this! These
alternative assessments set the stage (again) for those
differentiated diplomas we fought so hard to kill just a couple
of years ago. The state superintendent created this mess and she
is the ONLY one responsible for fixing it. It is NOT the
responsibility of the local school system to foot the bill for
Grasmick’s failed assessment system. Not one single local penny
should be spent to “design” squat for the MSDE!!!!!! Let’s
finally see some kahunas out there, tell her to take a hike!
Send her back to the drawing board, this out is a bust!
HIGH SCHOOL ASSESSMENTS TIED TO DIPLOMAS ARE
NOT, NOT, NOT
MANDATED BY NCLB. Yes, NCLB requires standardized testing, but
NCLB says NOTHING about tying them to a diploma. Tying phantom
assessments to a diploma is ALL Grasmick’s idea. For the sake
of society and our kids, go back to the time where the kids
needed to pass certain classes in order to get a diploma. Just
use yearly valid and reliable standardized testing as a
snapshot. And, make sure your local counties have a challenging
and pertinent academic
curriculum. Give county exams that must be approved by the state
board - not the state superintendent. Make them count for a
percentage of the student’s final grade.
I just wish there were some way that Nancy Grasmick could
suffer the consequences of her actions while the kids, who had
nothing to do with her folly, were not injured. Perhaps we just
need to revoke her license instead of failing the kids. The
State Superintendent of Schools is the one who squatted on our
kids and relaxed her rectum. Let her eat her own you know
what. Of course, I will let her push 5% of it to the side which
she will be exempt from consuming. As for Weast he should be
right there by her side sharing his just rewards!
Patricia Brady Dennis
Chesapeake Beach, MD
