Doing Their Dirty Work

In 1991 after winning his third Teacher of the Year Award, John Taylor Gatto wrote a resignation letter which he submitted to the Wall Street Journal called, “I Quit, I Think” and left his job, stating that he was “no longer willing to hurt children.” More than two decades later and our teachers are still in a catch 22. They got into this field to help children but find themselves in a system that forces them to engage in practices that, like Gatto, they know are hurting children.  Below is a guest post from one such teacher who authors The Rural Teacher blog. 

Dirty Work by Steely Dan
Times are hard
You’re afraid to pay the fee
So you find yourself somebody
Who can do the job for free
When you need a bit of lovin’
Cause your man is out of town
That’s the time you get me runnin’
And you know I’ll be around

CHORUS:
I’m a fool to do your dirty work
Oh yeah
I don’t wanna do your dirty work
No more
I’m a fool to do your dirty work
Oh yeah


Light the candle
Put the lock upon the door
You have sent the maid home early
Like a thousand times before
Like the castle in its corner
In a medieval game
I foresee terrible trouble
And I stay here just the same


I will admit it – I am a FOOL.


I’m a fool because I keep doing “their” dirty work. I didn’t have a NY State Exam to give, but I really didn’t do much to stop it. Sure, I post and tweet and talk, but I haven’t quit teaching. I haven’t walked out. I didn’t stay home on May Day. I didn’t even convince one parent to ‘opt out’ their child. Just as Steely Dan says, “I foresee terrible trouble, and I stay here just the same.”


The current conditions for many public school teachers are depressing. There are the whispered conversations in darkened classrooms about the “tests”. There are the veteran teachers like me who worry about ‘making it’ to retirement without being found ‘ineffective’ and losing our jobs. There are the novice teachers who grew up being tested themselves and sort of ‘roll with it’. There are principals who are opposed to the testing personally but who feel obligated to ‘do their jobs’. We all just keep doing their dirty work.
This is not an indictment in which I’m going to say that we should all walk out and if we don’t we are complicit. 


Unless you are “on the ground,” I guess you really can’t understand the Catch 22 many of us feel that we live in. 

• We don’t WANT to do the “dirty work” of giving children flawed tests created by people who don’t know a thing about child development. 
• We don’t WANT to have our students reduced to numbers. 
• We WANT to TEACH!! 
• We WANT to have joyful classrooms where every child is valued as an individual and celebrated for their uniqueness.
• We WANT to be held accountable – in fact we are often are own worst critics – rethinking and rehashing lessons that weren’t all that great. We go home and our students come home with us in our heads. We think about them. We wonder what will happen to them when they leave us in June. We hope that they will be happy and successful.

Intertwined with all of what we want professionally is what we must do for our families. For many of us, there would be no health insurance for our own children if we walked away. We wouldn’t be able to keep roofs over their heads, food on their tables, or provide any support toward higher education or technical school or whatever they dream for themselves. So many of us cannot simply walk away – it would be financial suicide.


So, what are we to do? I don’t have the answers, that’s one thing I know for sure.

You have read this article boycott tests / standardized tests / testing with the title testing. You can bookmark this page URL http://benncam.blogspot.com/2012/05/doing-their-dirty-work.html. Thanks!

Parent opts child out of field test and opts into meaningful learning

Opt Out of Field Tests

Students across the nation have been unnecessarily subjected to the most expensive and least effective assessments possible over the past few months...standardized tests. While in all cases this resulted in stolen instructional time, in many cases it was even worse and also resulted in students forced to take tests against parental will even if it meant emotional and  physical distress to the child.  


In many states the system isn't done stealing instructional time. They are now going into a round of field testing where they use children as involuntary subjects on which to experiment.  Parents should know that they DO NOT have to do this. They can opt their child out as New York City parent and teacher Veronica Vega is doing.  Below is her opt out letter which can be used as a model for other parents who value student learning.  


Dear Principal,


Please do not allow my child Steven Herrera Jr. in 5th grade to sit for any New York state field test in any subject the week of June 4-8.


My child has been subjected to excessive amounts of state standardized state testing this school year.  The tests in April consumed six days of 90 minutes each, in addition to the huge amount of time devoted to preparing for those tests.  It is unacceptable that even more valuable classroom time be allocated to state testing.  Furthermore, I object to my child being used as a guinea pig for a second time by Pearson and the State Education Department, especially as field test questions were already embedded in the April state tests, making my child a research subject for a for-profit corporation without my consent or permission.


It is my understanding that there will be no negative consequences for the school if children do not take these field tests, and make-up exams will not be given.  Therefore, I do not give permission for my child to take the June field test.


I would respectfully request that the school not give the test at all, and that all students benefit from a day of instruction rather than waste yet another day on test-taking.  If, however, the school does give the tests, I expect it to offer an alternative instructional activity for my child.


Sincerely 


Veronica Vega-Herrera


You can join parents across the nation who are opting their children out of tests and related activities in your local opt out group.  Find your states opt out group in two ways:1) Type in the search: Opt out of State Standardized Tests - Your State i.e. Opt Out of State Standardized Tests - Ohio2) Go to the page url: https://www.facebook.com/groups/OptOutYourState i.e.https://www.facebook.com/groups/OptOutOhio

You have read this article boycott tests / standardized tests / testing with the title testing. You can bookmark this page URL http://benncam.blogspot.com/2012/05/parent-opts-child-out-of-field-test-and.html. Thanks!

Read this opt out of testing letter from parent - Get ready to be inspired!

Editor's note: This amazing opt out letter was shared in The Texas Opt Out of State Tests group (there's one for every state). I'm sharing it here because it so eloquently and passionately identifies so many of the ills of standardized testing from a parent who has her child's freedom to learn as her main priority. You can find more opt out letters at the opt out of state tests site here.

Names have been changed.

Dear (school principal),
This letter is to respectfully inform you of the decision my husband and I have made to opt our children out of the 3rd grade STAAR tests on Apr. 24 and 25 and the make-up tests on Apr. 26 and 27. We understand it is Austin ISD's position that "by law there is no opt out for students" and that even though the test will not count towards school ratings this year, our children's "unexcused" absences may negatively impact the school's Adequate Yearly Progress report. We have been active, involved members of the school community, and our family has always supported the school and its many wonderful teachers, but after long and careful thought about what is best for our children and a great deal of reading on the topic of high-stakes standardized testing, we feel we must act on our convictions and engage in civil disobedience rather than be coerced into participating in a testing system that is deeply flawed morally and pedagogically, the result of corporate greed and political agendas that do not serve our children or anyone else's.

The decision to engage in civil disobedience is not an easy one, and I would like to explain how we came to it. Our opt out story begins exactly two years ago when David, then a first-grader, came home from school and blurted out, "I hate the TAKS test!" At a loss to understand how he could be so upset about a test he didn't have to take, I started asking questions and was stunned to learn that his class had had a substitute most of TAKS week because his teacher was required to serve as a proctor for the test. The substitute, it seems, was little more than an unenthusiastic babysitter who sat at her desk and handed out worksheets day after day. As David understood it, she told the children they couldn't use the bathroom so much because the noise of the flushing toilet would disturb a child testing in the next room.

As the mother of first graders, the TAKS had barely been on my radar, but when I questioned David further, I was upset to have to learn from my seven-year-old what impact the TAKS was having on the entire school: all specials and recess had been cancelled not only for testing grades but for every grade.


In his email to school administrators explaining that "Parents may not opt out of testing of any kind," AISD General Counsel Mel Waxler encourages "parents who believe the standardized tests place undue pressure on their students . . . to meet with their child’s school counselor to develop solutions tailored to their child’s needs." But "undue pressure" is endemic in high-stakes testing! When schools are virtually hermetically sealed during testing weeks, when all visitors, mentors, and parents who just want to have lunch with their child in the cafeteria are virtually banned from the school, when everyone must tiptoe and whisper in the hallways, when adults responsible for children's well-being tell them they can't go to the bathroom because the toilet flushing makes too much noise, children absorb it all, and the damage is done. I vividly recall my own "culture shock" seeing the window in the door of the testing coordinator's office covered in black construction paper. No matter that I was an adult who didn't have to take the test, even I felt anxious.


It was after I posted a rant on the school listserv the following fall, hoping to start a discussion with the new school year, that I learned I needed to redirect my outrage. Without legislative change, the teachers and administrators, too, are under "undue pressure," trapped in an education system in which there is way too much emphasis placed on standardized test scores.

I learned from talking with you after your STAAR presentation on March 20 that what children endured with the TAKS was even worse than I had realized. I had had no idea that because the test had no time limit, some children were still testing at 5:30pm and later, laying their head down to nap when too tired to continue. Since the STAAR is timed, hopefully no child will be testing into the evening, but a four-hour exam for third graders is still far too long.


You explained to me that it's not really a four-hour test but a four-hour testing window, and you fully expected the third-graders to finish the test in 2 to 2 1/2 hours, after which they would return to their usual schedule.


I'm still concerned that most of testing week will be far from "learning as usual." First of all, Ms. A, the AISD administrator you referred me to, confirmed that the test will contain field test items and "the inclusion of field test items will make for a longer [than four-hour] exam." Almost certainly there will be at least a few children who use most or all of the time allowed, so for two days in a row many children may be forced to sit in their seats after finishing a long, stressful exam and read silently for over an hour while others struggle to finish the test. Also, unlike a normal day, not only are all specials cancelled but so, too, are afterschool classes, which I cannot understand the need for now that there is a time limit on the test and presumably no students will be testing anywhere in the school at that time. The sad irony is that it's the creativity class that's cancelled.


I'm even more concerned about the quality of the test. The dearth of information from TEA about how the STAAR was written and field-tested casts doubt on the validity of the test itself as an assessment tool. Are the test items fair and well written? Do they measure what they're intended to measure?
I emailed Ms. A with several questions about the STAAR. First, I asked if I might be able to see not only sample test questions but also the corresponding standards a sample question assesses to help clarify for me the difference between standards for the “current year’s grade,” vs. “readiness for the next grade” vs. “readiness for the year after that” (from your PowerPoint presentation). Without examples, this is obfuscating language. It seems to me that success at the current grade in itself should indicate readiness for what comes next. Ms. A took the time to send me what sample test items she could, and I sincerely appreciate the effort she put into her reply to my email, just as I do yours. Unfortunately, what I was looking for is not available.


The only information I could find pertaining to STAAR field-testing on the TEA website states, "field-test items will, for the most part, be imbedded in the actual test,” (as Ms. A confirmed) but nothing about how the test has been field-tested. After reading the Pearson test passage about a sleeveless pineapple that's been in the news and learning that same nonsensical passage with its ridiculous questions has been in several Pearson tests, I'm more skeptical than ever about the quality of test items on the STAAR, which is produced by Pearson.


Based on all I've read, even if I could confirm the test questions are valid and well written, I still could not agree with you that the STAAR is of value to parents because, as you say, it will "provide valuable information on [a] child's performance relative to others in the school, district, and state." Just as researchers have rejected TAKS test results as bad data, so, no doubt, will they dismiss the results of the STAAR, another criterion-based test with arbitrary passing scores, which won't even be decided for this year's test until fall!


How did we get here? The obsession with high-stakes testing, it seems, began with NCLB; Education Commissioner Robert Scott recently called the current system a "perversion" of what was originally intended. Even when research shows that standardized testing is a poor measure of both student learning and educator effectiveness, even when we know a test-driven curriculum does not "promote innovation, creativity, problem solving, collaboration, communication, and critical thinking" (National Resolution on High-Stakes Testing), our legislators pretend the emperor has clothes. Why?
Superintendent John Kuhn speaks truth to power when he says, "Follow the money and you will find where our education dollars go and who benefits the most from those dollars. You will not find teachers. You will not find students. You will not find parents. You will not find effective teaching and learning. You will find Pearson [with whom the state of Texas has a $500 million contract] and legislators," and "when it's about profit, it's not about kids."


A system that fails to cultivate creativity and innovation will never prepare our children for the future. "The Creativity Crisis" describes Indiana University professor Jonathan Plucker's tour of China, where "there has been widespread education reform to extinguish the drill-and-kill teaching style. Instead, Chinese schools are also adopting a problem-based learning approach. Plucker recently toured a number of such schools in Shanghai and Beijing. He was amazed by a boy who, for a class science project, rigged a tracking device for his moped with parts from a cell phone. When faculty of a major Chinese university asked Plucker to identify trends in American education, he described our focus on standardized curriculum, rote memorization, and nationalized testing. 'After my answer was translated, they just started laughing out loud,' Plucker says. 'They said, "You're racing toward our old model. But we’re racing toward your model, as fast as we can."'"


As strongly as we feel against high-stakes testing, we would not be opting our children out without their full support. When it came time to ask both boys, "What would you say if I told you that you could choose whether to take the STAAR test or not?" David started cheering and hugged me and Paul grinned. I've explained to them the gist of what I've learned and assured them that we know and their teachers know they're fully capable of passing the test; opting out has nothing to do with concern they won't pass. They understand that they will miss out on a post-test celebration, and they're fine with it. "That's okay, Mom, I've missed other parties."


In fact, I briefly considered asking their teachers if they would allow them to do a research project as an alternative challenge to earn the right to attend the party, but when I started to tell David and Paul about my idea, I got no further than "research project." David, who this year grew from a fact sponge into a researcher, was literally bouncing up and down with excitement, "I LOVE research projects! I want to research more about deep ocean creatures and learn more about creatures I haven't studied yet! I want to make a poster, I love making posters!" Paul, who loves learning about the natural world just as much as his brother, was very excited, too. At that moment I realized they really just want to learn and have fun doing it, no reward necessary, and the knot in my stomach over the decision to opt out completely disappeared.


We are taking full advantage of opt out week and David and Paul will be night fishing in Port Aransas and visiting the Texas State Aquarium, where they will gather information for a poster display. On Thursday they will have a tour of Amy's Ice Cream, go to Amy's website for a reading scavenger hunt, and use the menu for math practice.


To conclude, our reasons for opting out of the STAAR are twofold: to do what we feel is best for our children and to protest against the high-stakes testing industry by choosing not to participate in it. Now that the school board has passed the resolution on high-stakes testing, my hope is that the momentum will build and the legislature will gather the political will to tackle real education reform. When you see David and Paul next week, you might ask them what they learned this week. If you do, you're likely to be buried under a happy avalanche of information about the ocean and ice cream.


Sincerely,


Texas Parent Against High-Stakes Testing

You have read this article boycott tests / standardized tests / testing with the title testing. You can bookmark this page URL http://benncam.blogspot.com/2012/05/read-this-opt-out-of-testing-letter.html. Thanks!

Newest Ed Reform Leader is a 12-Year-Old Opt Out Hero

“I am only one, but still I am one. I cannot do everything, but still I can do something; and because I cannot do everything, I will not refuse to do something that I can do.” Helen Keller

We’ve heard from a lot of heroes lately in the ed reform movement; from teachers and  parents like Chris Cerrone and Renny Fong who are stepping forward and sharing their struggles, to principals who are standing up and speaking out against the standardized testing debacle.



These are ed reform heroes. These are the people who will help empower our children with the freedom to learn; the ones who push for an education that is customized to the child rather than standardized to the system.



While these parents, teachers, and school leaders push for students’ rights to receive the education they deserve (rather than the ones politicians and corporations want), there is yet another important voice bubbling up.  



The newest heroes of the ed reform movement are the students who opt out and speak out. Their voices are both loud and proud. They are against tests that they know do not benefit them, and in many cases actually do them harm.



While there are adults who believe the education system pulls the wool over the eyes of children, many young people are also becoming wise to the standardized testing farce. Last year 5th grader Joel from Harlem wrote an essay exposing the truth about standardized testing  Then 12-year-old Anthony Hererra made a video and wrote an article explaining why he doesn’t want to take the test and thanking everyone for their support of his decision.  



Our latest hero is 12-year-old Joseph Dougherty who did his best to opt out of the standardized tests. He knows they are useless for children in general, but he has also discovered they are harmful to him in particular. They cause stress and anxiety, which leads to emotional and physical distress.  As a result Joseph’s mom informed his school principal that he would be opting out of the test and asked that he be provided with alternative activities during all the days of testing. Against the wishes of this young man and his mother, his principal, Thomas Capone, forced Joseph to take the test.

When Joseph explained he did not want to take the test, his teachers called him “a fresh little boy who needs to do what he is told.” He also knew his principal wrote an email to his mother explaining that if he didn't follow orders, he could be taken away from his mother because he'd call child protective services.

So, Joseph was coerced into doing something that he and his mother knew was wrong.

The principal and his staff will tell you that they’re “just doing their jobs.” They’ve washed their hands of any wrongdoing after forcing Joseph to comply to school orders. This despite the fact that even the enforcers, as professionals, should know these tests are wrong.



These teachers dutifully carry out their orders, even following the directions now included with the tests on how to handle their charges when they cry or are vomiting.  



Fortunately, Joseph knows that those who are trying to harm him are followers who are just enforcing somebody else's rules; rules driven by politicians without teaching credentials and corporate interests who stand to make billions off their data extraction work. (Yes, it is possible to be honest with children about the reality of the adult world. It won’t hurt them and it often helps!)

“How wonderful that no one need wait a single moment to improve the world.” Anne Frank

Joseph took the test. He followed orders. He had no choice. However, young Joseph could take some comfort as he sat in under fluorescent light in the testing room, doing what adults, who should know better, forced him to do.



Here’s why.

• He knows he is not fresh.
  He is a respectful young man.
• He knows he is not opting out of the test because he’s taking the easy way.
  He wants to learn, not memorize and regurgitate.
• He knows he is not a coward.
  He is a courageous young man that is not afraid to stand up and speak up about what he wants and what is right.

Most importantly, Joseph knows he is not a follower. He is a natural-born leader who already realizes that being a follower and blindly doing what you are told may make you a “success” in school, but it is not what makes for a success in life.



Joseph Dougherty wants to give the most important members of the opt out movement a voice and a face. He wants you to know his name because he knows he is a part of the movement to empower students with the freedom to learn what is meaningful. That indeed means moving ahead to a time where we don’t prepare compliant widgets to perform on the assembly line, but instead free-thinking individuals who reach for the limitless potential inside them. 

“We must become the change we want to see in the world.” Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi

You have read this article boycott tests / standardized tests / testing with the title testing. You can bookmark this page URL http://benncam.blogspot.com/2012/04/newest-ed-reform-leader-is-12-year-old.html. Thanks!

Is there such thing as a good test?

Editor’s Note: By now most people understand that standardized tests are not only harmful, but often they are also poorly constructed. But is there such thing as a good test? I was having a conversation with Cathy Earle about the subject and wondered if there is such thing as a good test. During that conversation she explained the reality is that in many cases the problem is how tests are used i.e. to assess students rather than help them learn. I asked her to say more and provide and example. Here it is and I have to admit...I rather like this kind of test.

Guest post by Cathy Earle

My daughter took a class at a local museum, the Youth Science Center. The class was a few hours each day for five days, and it was all about snakes.

The teacher introduced the first class with the words, “We're going to take a pre-test, to see how much you guys know about snakes already.” Then he passed out a multiple-choice test.

The thing is, my child never took multiple-choice tests, except a few fun quizzes in magazines. She unschools, and we didn't do lessons and assignments and tests.

Still, she gamely filled out the test and did her best.

Her best turned out to be the worst in the class.

Well, that's how it seemed. The teacher had the kids correct their own pre-tests, and he went through each test item, explaining the correct answer and WHY that was the correct answer. In a way, with 30 questions on the test, he was giving 30 little mini-lessons on snakes.

After he completed the test review, the teacher asked the kids to raise their hands if they got every answer right, then 1 to 5 wrong, 6 to 10 wrong, and so on.

And, as I said, my kid was the one with her hand up at the end—she had the worst score in the class (or, perhaps, was the most honest one self-correcting and self-reporting!).

The teacher said to her, “You won the prize!” And he gave her the molted, empty, translucent skin of a snake—one whole, shimmering, flawless piece. Everyone else oohed and aahed in envy, and the teacher continued, “Because you will learn the most in this class.”

Then the teacher gave an assignment: he asked the students to give the test to a parent or older sibling or friend, and explain the answers to them as he just had.

(Note: Since this was a museum class, there was going to be no punishment if a child didn't do the assignment. The teacher didn't record the scores of the pre-test. There would be no grade on the children's permanent record. The class was designed for fun and learning.)

My child loved the idea of giving us the test. I took it as soon as she came home, and I found it pretty challenging. I knew more answers than my daughter had, but I have to admit, I thought I knew some things that I was just plain wrong about. I was amazed as my daughter reported all the correct answers and why those answers were correct: she went on and on, and she seemed to know SO MUCH about the topic already! I definitely learned some things that day, too.

My parents came over, and my daughter relished two more subjects for her test. After they took the test, she went through all of the explanations again. I took a few minutes to do some research in some books (this was pre-Google), and every fact I could check was correct.

My husband came home from work, where he teaches high school Biology. When my daughter proudly showed him her perfect snake skin, his eyes lit up. But when she told him how she won the prize, his face fell. He got very doubtful about what we were doing—unschooling was ruining our child's chances for success, he was sure, and the low score on this test confirmed it.

“No, it's a really hard test,” I told him.

“I want to give you the test,” my daughter said to him. “I already gave it to Mom and Papa and Grandma.”

“Well, I'm a Biology teacher,” my husband protested. “I'll know it all.”

“Oh, no, you won't,” I promised.

My husband took the test and scored about as low as my daughter, then listened in astonishment as she filled him in on all the correct answers and explanations. I think he was mostly amazed that she already knew so much about snakes and reptiles and cold-blooded organisms.

I admire this use of a paper-and-pencil test because it taught so much about the subject matter, but it also taught kids to self-correct and report honestly, it taught that there is no shame in not knowing something, and it taught kids that a great way to understand something well is to teach it.

---

Cathy Earle is an educator who has worked in public schools and a variety of private venues. She has been a curriculum lab director, a managing editor at an education publishing house, and a freelance education writer working for such clients as The Learning Company, Orange County Department of Education, and Disney Software. She homeschooled her own children from birth to college, using child-led and interest-based methods rather than formal academic teaching. Her daughters are now grown and successful.  Her blog for children, Every Day Is Special, can be found at http://every-day-is-special.blogspot.com/.

You have read this article boycott tests / standardized tests / testing with the title testing. You can bookmark this page URL http://benncam.blogspot.com/2012/04/is-there-such-thing-as-good-test.html. Thanks!

Suffering in Silence… Standardized testing from the view of an educator & parent

Guest post by Renny Fong (TimeOutDad)

As our children are undergoing the gruel of the high stakes standardized tests in New York, I can’t help but notice the silence.  So many voices silenced.  So many stories left unheard.  Will all the time, money, and effort that has been spent on making the tests, preparing for the tests, and grading the tests make our children any better off than before these tests?  

Did these tests ask our children how they’re doing, how they’re feeling, what they’re thinking, and what they care about?  Did these tests ask our children to innovate or create anything? Will these tests tell our children what their gifts and talents are?  Will these tests tell us what our children’s hopes and goals and dreams are or what their ideas are for a better today and tomorrow? Do these tests really care about our children at all?

Instead of asking questions and finding solutions to real problems, our children are asked to answer questions that have only one pre-determined (and sometimes, quite a debatable) answer.  Instead of sharing about their own lives and experiences, our children are asked to give examples and details from something they most likely have no real connection with.  Instead of developing their own voices, our children are being asked to give their audience (the “graders”) what they want to hear.  Instead of looking at what our children can do, they're punished for what they can’t do.   

When it’s all over, instead of getting feedback on how they did and how what they could have done better, they’ll be given a number that’s supposed to mean something...  everything.  That one number will label them as below grade level, on grade level, or above grade level.  That one number will determine whether they can read or write or think.   That one number will determine whether they’re “good enough” or “smart enough” to move up or move on.  There’s so much focus on this one piece of data that doesn’t even come close to giving us the story behind the mind of each and every child.  This is the reality that has been given to them.

Who are we listening to and whom are we learning from? 

Silence...

___________________________________ 

Renny Fong has been an educator for over 15 years, teaching pre-kindergarten through fifth grade; he currently teaches technology.  His wife and his five-year-old son are his biggest joy and inspiration.  He started his blog, TimeOutDad, in September 2009.  You can follow him on Twitter.

You have read this article boycott tests / standardized tests / testing with the title testing. You can bookmark this page URL http://benncam.blogspot.com/2012/04/suffering-in-silence-standardized.html. Thanks!

New York Principals are Speaking Out Against Standardized Tests

This week I'm proud to be a New York educator as I watch parents, teachers, and administrators stand up and speak out about the harms and horrors of standardized tests in the media as well as the active Opt Out of Standardized Tests - New York group.  Below is an open letter from New York principals who want their voices heard about the testing atrocities going on in our schools.  If you are in New York, show this letter to your principal and encourage her/him to advocate for children.

An Open Letter to the Board of Regents Regarding High-Stakes Testing and the School Reform Agenda of New York State

 

The past week has been a nightmare for New York students in Grades 3 through 8, their teachers and their principals. Not only were the New York State ELA exams too long and exhausting for young students, (three exams of 90 minutes each), they contained ambiguous questions that cannot be answered with assurance, problems with test booklet instructions, inadequate space for students to write essays, and reading comprehension passages that defy commonsense. In addition, the press reported a passage that relied on knowledge of sounds and music which hearing-impaired students could not answer and Newsday reported that students were mechanically ‘filling in bubbles’ due to exhaustion. Certainly the most egregious example of problems with the tests is the now infamous passage about the Hare and the Pineapple.

On Friday, Commissioner King offered no apologies in what appeared to be a hastily written press release regarding the Hare and the Pineapple passage. In that release, Commissioner King faults the media for not printing the complete passage (many did), and passes the buck by noting that a committee of teachers reviewed the passage. In short, he distances the State Education Department from its responsibility to get the tests right. Considering the rigor and length of the exams, as well as their use in the evaluation of educators and schools, one might have hoped that the State Education Department and Pearson would have reviewed the tests with more care.

For many of us, however, this is but the latest bungle in the so-called school reform movement in New York State. More than 1400 New York State principals have repeatedly begged the department to slow down, pilot thoughtful change and avoid using student test scores as high-stakes measures. The recent ELA test debacle was foreseeable to those of us who lead schools and know from experience that you cannot make so many drastic changes to curriculum, assessment and educator evaluation in a short period of time, especially without listening to those who lead schools.  The literature on leadership is clear. Effective leadership is about the development of followership. If truth be told, however, there are fewer and fewer followers of this State Education Department every day.  The Pineapple, like the ‘plane being built in the air’, is now a symbol of the careless implementation of a reform agenda that will cost billions of dollars, without yielding the promised school improvement.

There are many who disparage our public schools in New York State.  Although we acknowledge that improvements are needed, there is also much of which we are proud. We are proud of our tradition of New York State Regents examinations.  We are proud that New York State students are second in the nation in taking Advanced Placement exams. We are proud of our Intel winners and the number of New York high schools on national lists of excellence. We are proud that our schools are second in the nation according to a comprehensive analysis of policy and performance conducted by the research group, Quality Counts.

We also know that too many of our schools are racially and socio-economically isolated with overwhelming numbers of students who receive little opportunity and support in their communities as well as in their schools. We cannot ignore deep-seated social problems while blindly believing that new tests, data warehousing systems and unproven evaluation systems are the answer. That view, in our opinion, is irresponsible and unethical.

This ill-conceived Race to the Top, recently critiqued by the National School Boards Association, is no more sensible than the race of the Hare and the Pineapple.  Yet the New York State Education Department continues to enthusiastically push its agenda. Our schools are faced with contradictory and incomplete directives regarding high-stakes testing and evaluation, our teachers are humiliated by the thought of publicized evaluation numbers and our students are stressed by the unnecessary testing that has consumed precious learning time.

We understand that change is important for school revitalization. We have years of collective experience successfully leading educational improvement in our schools, often as partners with the State Education Department. Unfortunately, our voices have been ignored and marginalized during the past year. Nevertheless, we believe that we have an ethical obligation to speak out. It is often said about educational change that it is a pendulum that swings. We are now watching the pendulum of school reform swing dangerously, and we fear that this time it is a wrecking ball aimed at the public schools we so cherish.

The following principals respectfully submit this open letter to the New York State Board of Regents:

Anna Allanbrook, Brooklyn New School, New York City Public Schools

Carol Burris,South Side High School, Rockville Centre School District

Gail Casciano,Nassakeag Elementary School, Three Village Central School District

Carol Conklin-Spillane,Sleepy Hollow High School, Tarrytowns School District

Sean Feeney,The Wheatley School, East Williston School District

Sharon Fougner,Elizabeth Mellick Baker School, Great Neck School District

Andrew Greene,Candlewood Middle School, Half Hollow Hills Central School District

Bernard Kaplan,Great Neck North High School, Great Neck School District

Harry Leonardatos,Clarkstown High School, Clarkstown Central School District

Michael McDermott, Scarsdale Middle School, Scarsdale School District

Shelagh McGinn,South Side Middle School, Rockville Centre School District

Sandra Pensak, Hewlett Elementary School, Hewlett-Woodmere School District

Elizabeth Phillips,PS 321 William Penn, New York City Public Schools

Donald Sternberg, Wantagh Elementary School, Wantagh Public Schools

Katie Zahedi, Linden Avenue Middle School, Red Hook Central Schools

You have read this article boycott tests / standardized tests / testing with the title testing. You can bookmark this page URL http://benncam.blogspot.com/2012/04/new-york-principals-are-speaking-out.html. Thanks!

Inform Others of the Harm of Standardized Tests with This Flyer

We are finally reaching a time when parents are standing up for the rights of their children and opting out of tests. Social media has played a great role in this where parents are able to find others from their state who are doing the same thing they are and also discover and share information and resources at sites like the Opt Out of Standardized Tests wiki. They are uniting and getting smarter about their parental right to decide what is best for their children.

Many even are stepping up and spreading the word. To that end, I have created the following double-sided, informational flyer that can be customized and simply printed out from any printer.  Hand it out in front of your school. To your school's principal, teachers etc. Sadly, many teachers and administrators know what they are being forced to do is hurting children, but if they speak up they risk losing their jobs.  They need parents and community members to do this work!

You can see the flyer below and visit and download it here.

You have read this article boycott tests / standardized tests / testing with the title testing. You can bookmark this page URL http://benncam.blogspot.com/2012/04/inform-others-of-harm-of-standardized.html. Thanks!