Testing, COVID-19, and the College Board w/Nate Bowling

Nate Bowling an AP social studies teacher and emigrant to the United Arab Emirates. In his teaching, writing, and advocacy, Nate challenges the politics and policies that impact his students, his classroom, and society at large.

I’m not anti-testing per se, I’m anti-testing that does not have meaning, and I’m also anti-consequences for testing where the person being tested…doesn’t have agency over the results.

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Topics include:

• What prompted Nate to leave Tacoma and take up teaching in the UAE

• Why the job of teaching and learning in a low-income schools in the United States as currently constructed is unsustainable

• Why the College Board’s plan to test during the COVID-19 crisis is inequitable and flawed

• Whether the College Board’s reductive focus effectively prevents teachers from being responsive in the way this political moment demands

• Why Nate is not entirely opposed to standardization and testing

• How Nate really feels about the Star Wars prequel and sequel trilogies

Resources:

• natebowling.com

• Teachers United

• Nate’s Twitter thread on 2016 Teachers of the Year Finalists

• Nate’s testimony to the Washington State Board of Education

• Nerd Farmer Podcast

• Open Letter to the College Board about Testing During COVID-19