A short post today, yet filled with symbolism.  Vittorio de Sica’s “Bicycle Thief(ves)” (1948) is both a classic of Post-War Realism and a darn good analogy to PARCC.  See, in this scene, our hero/protagonist, let’s call him “Teacher Guy,” is simply trying to do his goddamn job, when Pearson/PARCC comes by and steals his goddamn bicycle… Read More NMPSPE Film Festival, Day XLVI: PARCC Isn’t Above Stealing Your Bicycle

Today is Day Five of my six day highly concentrated PARCC “test administrator” gig, as my school gives our classroom teachers and opt-out kids the chance to just teach/attend class.  As noted by Andre Gregory in today’s Film Festival clip, it’s a bit like simultaneously being the guard and prisoner at a concentration camp. More on… Read More NMPSPE Film Festival, Day LXV: My Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner with PARCC

Your humble blogger gets back in the cramped carnival car swinging around the Standardized Testing axis this morning.  Which is an overly fancy way of saying I have another full day of administering PARCC to middle schoolers.  Whoo-pee. It makes for an inspiring and enthusiastic 5:15 a.m. wake-up this morning, I can tell you.  Inspiring,… Read More NMPSPE Film Festival, Day LXIV: Back on the PARCC Ferris Wheel

Our first repeat screening in the Film Festival because, well, we educators are definitely in some sort of “crazy house” here. The United States Department of Education has rejected Colorado’s request for waiver based on the State’s prescient idea that fewer than 95% of its kids/parents might want to take its stupid standardized test for 2015.… Read More NMPSPE Film Festival, Day LXIII: Living in the PARCC Crazy House, Over and Over and Over

The highlight of the testing week here in New Mexico has been the copying gunfight between the New Mexico Public Education Department and all Albuquerque Public Schools employees not named Brad Winter.  Unlike the Sergio Leone film, *Eli Wallach, so to speak, seems to have won the three-way fight (let’s have APS’ RoseAnn McKernan play… Read More NMPSPE Film Festival, Day XLII: The Good, The Bad and the PARCC/EOC

Yesterday, the Festival looked at how the film “Office Space” was like “real life” for APS employees.  Today, it’s even more like it, unsurprisingly.  In short, the End-of-Course exams we weren’t going to administer, due to the NM Public Education Department not getting them out on time, will now, also, be administered.  Thank God!  The Film… Read More NMPSPE(!) Film Festival, Day XLI: Reductio ad Testing Absurdum