It’s Hammer Time, Mixed Messages, and Broadway Bound

Teacher Magazine ’s take on education news from around the Web, May 6-12.

Need to motivate your students to take standardized tests? Just whack a cinder block with a sledgehammer —that should do the trick. Next week, before administering Virginia’s Standards of Learning tests, teachers at Bel Air Elementary will symbolically “smash the SOLs” for their students outside the school. With each passing year, kids across the country face increasing pressure to pass state tests—so as to eventually graduate while keeping their schools NCLB-friendly. And in Virginia, test pep rallies, mascot-led chanting, and SOL “thinking caps” have become de rigeur in the days leading up to the big test. “It’s just to say, ‘Good luck’ and ‘We’re cheering for you,’” says Melinda Carper, principal of Rolling Ridge Elementary. At another school, one kindergarten aide has gone so far as to paint his hair gold and label himself...