S'More From the AP
Week Ending April 17, 2015
A Message From Kelly...
With that being said, I just want everyone to know that I GET IT! I have been in your shoes and I know the responsibility you feel for the success of each and every one of your students....and I also know the joy and sense of accomplishment (and relief!) you feel when those scores come back and your kids have exceeded your expectations. Especially those kiddos that you wondered about everyday since the first day they walked in your classroom. And I know you feel it just as deeply when your kids don't achieve what you expected.....and you continue to work just as hard or harder to get them to the next level.
Is the test important? Sure. Is it the most important thing at OSE? Absolutely not. One of my favorite quotes is by Diane Ravitch, an education historian and educational policy analyst (and Texan!). It states, "Some of the most brilliant and intelligent students do not shine in standardized tests because they do not have standardized minds." Nothing could be more true. As long as we continue to keep KIDS our primary focus, and not the test, we will be doing right by everything for which OSE stands.
In closing, I will leave you with an opinion column I wrote when I was a volunteer columnist for the Dallas Morning News several years ago. If I remember correctly, it was my first one and I was trying to come up with a topic. Writers are always told to draw from their experiences for inspiration sooooo......my first column was on nothing else but our wonderful state accountability system. :) I hope you take a minute to read it - and hopefully, going into the home stretch of this testing season, you get a little chuckle from it too!
Click Here to Read Mrs. Hayunga's 2006 Newspaper Column!