The Maryland State Department of Education issued a document today advising parents in the state what they should know about testing in Maryland. This post is my personal, unsolicited, and non-endorsed response to the 10th “thing” parents should know: “If you have additional questions about testing, ask your child’s teacher or principal.”
I couldn’t agree more with this piece of advice from the state’s education leaders.
Look, I have several years of experience in the education field, a little as a teacher and mostly in the area of standardized testing. I know a little about this, but if you wrapped up all that I know about standardized tests this year in Maryland, it wouldn’t equal one-hundredth of what your kid’s teacher probably knows about it.
I do my best as a semi-independent reporter to get as accurate a picture as my words, graphics, and photos can paint about what’s happening with regard to our schools, especially our public schools in Maryland and Illinois. But every meeting I attend, I find out there’s a whole bunch of stuff I don’t know. Just as in sports, there are good people who play the game and other good people who write about them playing the game. When it comes to the schools, I’m the writer.
Ask your kid’s teacher if you have any questions. As much as I can try to help, as much as newspapers, bloggers, and even bloggers on newspaper sites, may try to help you understand, it doesn’t replace the direct, firsthand knowledge your kid’s teacher will have. And if he or she doesn’t know, ask the principal at your kid’s school.
As a last word on this official but casual-in-appearance document, it’s the best piece of advice on the whole thing.
