Gonna be a weird week. No Smiles. No Frowns. Desks in rows. Silence. I will frequently wonder if I am in the right room.

We start testing today. My sophomores will take the Smarter Balanced Assessment this week. In Washington, passing the SBA is a graduation requirement. Of course, this has been the reality for some time now: graduation has been tied to state testing for a number of years. And over those years, it has taken different forms with different names, as I indicated in last Friday’s post “Wearing Guilt” http://www.letschangeeducation.com/wearing-guilt-project-180-day-136/ .

This current form claims to be more valid, more reliable, “more smarter,” but so did each new iteration before it. In the end, it’s still just a standardized test, and it’s still a stranger come to claim domain over students’ learning, sorting kids into winners and losers. Here is a Twitter thread from this weekend, which shares my enduring concerns for this enduring reality, by any name.

But despite my resistance and revulsion to this stranger non grata, I will not let my negativity set the tone this week with my kiddos. I will encourage and assure, much as I did in my conversation with “J” on Friday.

And, that is just what we will do today as we find ourselves in a weird world: continue our journey. All we can do.

Happy Monday, all. Sorry for my tone of late. Hard time of year, but this too shall pass. Of course, I have been saying that for years.

Do. Reflect. Do Better.