Caption 1		Welcome to the Solomon Schechter Day School of Palm Beach County, a Jewish Day School offering General and Judaic curriculum serving Palm Beach and Broward Counties, Florida. We are a Charter Affiliate of the Solomon Schechter Day School Association of the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism and a Grantee School of the Partnership for Excellence in Jewish Education.
		News & Events May 4, 2008 New photos are available. We have a new home at Temple Torah in Boynton Beach for the 2008-09 school year. Check it out in the Press Room.
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Dear Families:

I was walking out of my daughter’s nursery school yesterday and bumped into the mom of Ariella's classmate Sarah (not her real name). Now this may not seem like such a big deal, but I hardly ever see Sarah’s mom. Sarah is usually picked-up at least a couple of hours before Ariella, sometimes even earlier. I asked her if everything was all right. Her response? FCAT.

Immediately I understood the paleness of her face, the sunken in eyes, the look of despair. For eight years I had that look. For eight years I trained my students to take the FCAT because their educational fate and money for the school depended upon that test. For eight years I was held accountable for whatever happened on that test even though parents are the number one influencing factor in a child’s life. For eight years my heart would break when a student did not pass (and remember, I taught gifted students) and their schedule was changed to include remedial reading or math classes. For eight years I had to accept that the individual progress of each child did not matter; their fate was sealed on one day of testing.

Now, do not believe for one moment that I am against standardized testing. If used correctly, they provide invaluable information. However, I think a school benefits most from this information, not a child or family. Once scores are reported to a school, the administration is able to easily see which students are weak in which subjects and target it as an area for improvement. In no way, shape, or form should the information be used to describe a student or pigeonhole a child into a group because of a particular score.

In a month and a half or so I am going to ask you to come in so we can talk about standardized testing. We will not be using the Iowa SATs anymore; we will test using the ERBs (Educational Review Boards). The results of these tests will be based upon comparisons to students in other independent schools (the Iowas compare students from all types of schools, the majority being rural public schools). It is important that you know that we will not teach to this test and outside of teaching and or reviewing with the children how to take such a test, there will not be much preparation for it. The data that is collected from this test will be used to acknowledge our strengths and to make improvements in the curriculum.

I truly believe it is a gift we are giving the students of Solomon Schechter not to have to be subjected to the stress and constraints of the state tests. Teachers are able to cover a larger breadth of knowledge, and not just what is mandated by the state. Do you know that out of all the science I taught and wanted to teach each year, the only science my principal was concerned with were the twelve annually assessed benchmarks that were definitely going to appear on the FCAT? I could have gotten away with just teaching those 12 things, having my students succeed on FCAT, and I would have been considered a stellar teacher by the state and my principal; However, I would not have thought myself to be stellar and I would hope my students and their families would not either.

Standardized tests definitely have a place in education, but education should not be about the standardized test. This is what I believe.

Shabbat Shalom,