Cripes, Tallahassee!

Today was the first day I attempted to foist the new state-mandated testing on my students, and let me just say that there are military terms that aren’t for mixed company that perfectly capture the essence of today’s fun. Terms beginning with the word “cluster” or expressed with the acronym FUBAR.

Needless to say, when the wizards in Tally tell the entire state to hold off on testing until later, then open the floodgates to a small window of completion, they’re asking for trouble. They’re asking for more trouble when they–knowing that the opening sequence will be accessed hundreds of thousands of times–advise the districts to purchase and maintain cache servers to make things run more smoothly. Um, clue. These are the same districts that have been laying people off right and left, but they have money to blow on purchasing, installing, and maintaining special servers just for your new brainstorm of a test?? Let the people say DUH.

I got my kids almost through second period, roughly 9 am, when things started to bog down (the Panhandle’s awake!). By third period, the entire network crashed and didn’t come back up until close to the end of the day. Brilliant planning, idjits.

So we’re not done, and now the teaching part is equally FUBAR. Testing is, yet again, holding learning hostage. Data-driven my…