'tis the season for my annual MSA rant (I promise that this is different from the MSA pep rally rant.)

unfortunately the rant is to long for me to type so i will let this website say it all (it will probably also say it better.) So I will instead just give a few quotes (okay, its more like a lot of quotes, but they're still good.)-

• "It looked like Trivial Pursuit to me." Tina Yalen, Virginia teacher after SOL exams
• "Believing we can improve schooling with more tests is like believing you can make yourself grow taller by measuring your height." Robert Schaeffer of FairTest
• "We could prohibit lunch, or take their shoes." Calvin Trillin, The Nation, on what to do to help kids score better
• "Standardized tests equal standardized students" Amanda Parsons, a sophomore from Boulder, CO wearing red arm bands and a student ID sticker number 142337 at a protest of nearly 200 students
• "If more testing were the answer to the problems in our schools, testing would have solved them a long time ago." Bill Goodling, chair of House Education Committee
• "Only on 'Who Wants to be a Millionaire?' can people rise to the top by rote memorization and answers to multiple-choice questions. The FINAL ANSWER to improving education is more than memorizing facts for a multiple-choice test. Children today need critical thinking skills, creativity, perseverance, and integrity - qualities not measure on a standardized test." Dr. Paul Houston
• "Standardized tests can't measure initiative, creativity, imagination, conceptual thinking, curiosity, effort, irony, judgment, commitment, nuance, good will, ethical reflection, or a host of other valuable dispositions and attributes. What they can measure and count are isolated skills, specific facts and function, the least interesting and least significant aspects of learning." Bill Ayers
• "You're a wonderful human being, but the tests don't show it." Educator Chuck Lavaroni to Gilbert Medeiros after telling him he shouldn't plan to go to college as a result of his test scores. Chuck later met Gilbert at a party in Marin County, only to hear that Gilbert got a law degree, worked as vice president for a large real estate firm, owned and ran 5 different companies

In closing, go to the website, read the material, print out some fliers, get involved.

C'EST MA VIE