# 4th Grader Suspended After Refusing to Answer Exam Question



## R y a n (Apr 4, 2005)

I simply can't believe how f#$%ed up the school system is out here...

I love the idea of a standardized test to force poor performing schools to stop rubber stamping kids thru the system, however the negative side effects are shown by this Principal's actions at saving her job and mis-treating a poor 4th grader...

:eyeroll:

----------------------------
Fourth Grader Suspended After Refusing to Answer Exam Question

By David Evans

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid= ... g&refer=us

Nov. 3

Aberdeen, WA -- Tyler Stoken was a well-behaved fourth grader who enjoyed school, earned A's and B's and performed well on standardized tests.

In May 2005, he'd completed five of the six days of the Washington State Assessment of Student Learning exam, called WASL, part of the state's No Child Left Behind test.

Then Tyler came upon this question: "While looking out the window one day at school, you notice the principal flying in the air. In several paragraphs, write a story telling what happens.''

The nine-year-old was afraid to answer the question about his principal, Olivia McCarthy. " I didn't want to make fun of her,'' he says, explaining he was taught to write the first thing that entered his mind on the state writing test.

In this case, Tyler's initial thoughts would have been embarrassing and mean. So even after repeated requests by school personnel, and ultimately the principal herself, Tyler left the answer space blank. "He didn't want them to know what he was thinking, that she was a witch on a broomstick,'' says Tyler's mother, Amanda Wolfe, sitting next to her son in the family's ranch home three blocks from Central Park Elementary School in Aberdeen, Washington.

Because Tyler didn't answer the question, McCarthy suspended him for five days. He recalls the principal reprimanding him by saying his test score could bring down the entire school's performance. "Good job, bud, you've ruined it for everyone in the school, the teachers and the school,'' Tyler says McCarthy told him.

Aberdeen School District Superintendent Martin Kay ordered an investigation. "My suspension was for refusal to comply with a reasonable request, and to teach Tyler that that could harm him in the future,'' McCarthy told an investigator. *"I never, for a second, questioned my actions.''*

Tyler, who's 4 feet (1.2 meters) tall and weighs 70 pounds (32 kilograms), hasn't been the same since, his mother says. "He liked the principal before this,'' she says. "He cried. He didn't understand why she'd done this to him.'' Now, Tyler blows up at the drop of a hat, his mother says. "They created a monster. He'll never take that test again, even if I have to take him to another state,'' she says. Tyler's attitude about school changed. He became shyer. He's afraid of all tests and doesn't do as well in classes anymore, his mother says.

McCarthy's May 6, 2005, letter to Tyler's mother detailed her son's suspension. *"The fact that Tyler chose to simply refuse to work on the WASL after many reasonable requests is none other than blatant defiance and insubordination,''* McCarthy wrote.

In the letter, she accused Tyler of bringing down the average score of the other 10 students in his class. "As we have worked so hard this year to improve our writing skills, this is a particularly egregious wound,'' McCarthy wrote.

Her accusation was wrong, state regulations show. There is no averaging of the writing scores. Each student either meets or fails the state standard.

Tita Mallory, director of curriculum and assessment for the Aberdeen School District, says school officials feel tremendous pressure because of the high-stakes tests. While there's no academic effect on elementary school children taking the exams, *there can be repercussions for school administrators.* When schools repeatedly fail to show adequate yearly progress, as defined by No Child, the principal can be fired. "In many ways, there's too much emphasis on the test,'' Mallory says. "I don't want that kind of pressure on our kids.''

*Out of 74,184 fourth graders taking the WASL test last year, 42.3 percent failed to meet the state standard for writing.*

Juanita Doyon, director of Mothers Against WASL and author of, "Not With Our Kids You Don't! Ten Strategies to Save Our Schools'', says Tyler's experience is representative of what's wrong with tests like the WASL. "They took a student who loved his school and crushed his spirit,'' Doyon, 46, says. "We've elevated test scores to be the most important part of school. The principal and teachers are so pressured by the test that they've lost good sense in dealing with children.''


----------



## Alaskan Brown Bear Killer (Feb 22, 2005)

> "We've elevated test scores to be the most important part of school. The principal and teachers are so pressured by the test that they've lost good sense in dealing with children.''


That's :bs: these kids can't even be touched by a teacher this started way before the no child left behind came out.
So if you don't want us to *MEASURE* the child's learning, next thing the liberal teacher's unions will want to do away with is report cards :eyeroll: 
No one wants to be *accountable* for their performance :eyeroll: what's up with that?


----------



## h2ofwlr (Feb 6, 2004)

But the schools are not glorified babysitters, and MANY parents use them for just that. Look at the parents, the buck stops with them, and many are AWOL parents. Either literally 1 is gone from a child's life, or they are working or other things, meaning they are not spending the time they need to properly raise a child. It is not the schools responsibilty to raise a child, it is the Parents..

As for this case, the principle should be fired for her actions, what an idiot. Who in their right mind would ever suspend a 10 YO for not answering a test question?


----------



## Remmi_&amp;_I (Dec 2, 2003)

The situation should have been handled differently. That principal shouldn't be a principal because she is obviously not good with communication.

But..... schools need accountability. Many schools now let students fail until they pass. Do any of you remember the Mastery Learning System that was put into schools for a while? It allowed students to slack off, take the test, fail, then pass the areas they failed. It allowed for the slowdown of learning.


----------



## Goosepride (Sep 29, 2003)

Remmi -

Have you ever heard of the No Child Left Behind Act...

"schools need accountability"....that's just crazy talk...

Parents and their kids need "accountability"....


----------



## Remmi_&amp;_I (Dec 2, 2003)

Goosepride said:


> Remmi -
> 
> Have you ever heard of the No Child Left Behind Act...
> 
> ...


Yes, I am more familiar with the NCLBA than 99% of people. My father is a principal, all of my family friends are teachers/principals.

You're 100% right that parents and kids need accountability, but the schools do as well. I know what a good teacher is and what a bad teacher is. There has to be some type of measuring stick in place and it seems that "testing" scores is the only way to measure results. I have had many types/levels of teachers and professors (through my MBA) and some of them ARE GLORIFIED BABYSITTERS. ~ They don't/can't teach or motivate.......which is needed in early education.

Now, I think that College and Grad School professors don't need to take an overly active interest unless the student puts forth the effort and cares enough about their education to ask for additional help. Just my opinion.


----------



## DeltaBoy (Mar 4, 2004)

This gets my blood pressure going...

1. NCLB is a plan that can work, but should only be in place for those students/teachers that can handle the "assessment" each and every day.
Note: NCLB is an assessment "tool" for the child - not a test!

2. I strongly appose children being assessed by NCLB standards in an early childhood classroom (Pre-birth - 3rd Grade).

IMO admin and teachers are setting "some" students up for failure with all the pressure&#8230; Take the time to think back to when you were in Kindergarten and had the chance to play with the paint, blocks, or other manipulative (equipment or centers). This is slowly changing with all the pressure to measure a students skills throughout a day.

If a teacher has 25-30 kids in a classroom and needs to provide an assessment on each student... I would really like to know how much time they take to teach. Many teachers will try and teach and assess through a lesson, but doesn't always happen.

You'll always remember how you're treated... Schools leave a major impression throughout a students life.


----------



## DJRooster (Nov 4, 2002)

Suspension?? I think they suspended the wrong person!!


----------



## omegax (Oct 25, 2006)

Goosepride said:


> Remmi -
> 
> Have you ever heard of the No Child Left Behind Act...
> 
> ...


Amen to that! :beer:

I'm married to a second grade teacher. When there's a problem with the kids, it more often than not it can be traced back to the parents. Discipline problems, not bringing back homework, not taking the extra time to help bring their kid up to par... parents need a swift kick sometimes. I always feel like the extra "accountability" is a slap in the face for my wife who works her tail off trying to find ways to help her students.

If you have an inner-city school that's "failing", I will bet you dollars to doughnuts that if you replaced the teachers with the best teachers in the world it wouldn't make a difference.

As for the story: The kid should not have been reprimanded for something that he was only part of. However, I don't agree with making the lives of teachers and administrators miserable for things that probably aren't their fault either.


----------



## Norm70 (Aug 26, 2005)

DeltaBoy I agree with most of what you are saying, but I repectfully disagree with who is making the students feel the pressure? Not the teachers and administation, we did not want these state assesment tests.

Who put the pressure on the students? Not school officials, it was our now former conservative congress.


----------



## Plainsman (Jul 30, 2003)

Just one point: Everyone is talking about who should be responsible. Shouldn't everyone be responsible? Why should anyone in this scenario not be responsible? The school should be responsible, the teacher should be responsible, the parent should be responsible, and last the student bears responsibility also. It looks like everyone is looking for who is responsible and it appears simple to me.

To clarify: I wasn't talking about the original scenario.


----------

