The principals of New York State are amazing. When the State Education Department began creating its “educator evaluation system,” it called together the principals and showed them what it was up to. It showed them a video of guys building a plane while it was flying. This was called, in self-congratulatory parlance, “building a plane in mid-air.” A few principals noticed that the guys building the exterior of the plane were wearing parachutes, but the passengers didn’t have parachutes. The principals realized that they, their staff, and their students were the passengers. The ones with the parachutes were the overseers at the New York State Education Department. For them, it was a lark, but the evaluation system they created was do-or-die for the hapless passengers.
The principals rose up in revolt, led by Carol Burris and Sean Feeney. They wrote a petition and circulated it to other principals. In a matter of weeks, they had the signatures of more than a third of the principals in the state. All objected to the test-score based evaluation, all objected to being the state’s guinea pigs, and all insisted that the state should do some pilots before imposing its best guess on the principals, teachers, and students of New York.
It took tremendous courage for principals to sign the petition. Sadly, they didn’t even get the support of the teachers’ unions of New York State. Indeed, NYSUT told its members not to sign. I can’t explain why. It made no sense to me. Why would teachers want to be judged by the arbitrary rise or fall of test scores.
The principals created a website, newyorkprincipals.org. Lots of people have signed their petition. I hope more do.
One of the brave principals wrote a letter to Commissioner John King yesterday. It was reported in the New York Times blog, Schoolbook. (http://www.nytimes.com/schoolbook/2012/05/02/long-island-principal-decries-quality-of-state-exams/)
The principal, Sharon Fougner, said the following:
The tests contained:
Unfamiliar, untaught material
Deliberately misleading questions and answer choices
Ambiguous, poorly worded questions and answer choices
Inconsistent directions
Misplaced answer lines
Omitted directional cues
Multiple answers that could be correct
Inappropriately sized work spaces
Extended multiple steps (as many as 5 or 6) in single problems
Incomplete/missing information
Reading levels that are above grade
These errors by Pearson and the State Education Department have caused “confusion, anxiety, miscalculations, distraction, misuse of time, and fatigue.” The “inordinate length” of these exams, wrote the principal, is “beyond the stamina and attention span of eight to ten year olds.”
All of this together adds up to one single conclusion: The New York State Education Department is guilty of child abuse. Let me say it again, this time slowly: The New York State Education Department is guilty of child abuse. And incompetence.
Will anyone be accountable? Don’t hold your breath.
Diane
If anybody is curious, this was very probably the EDS “Airplane” video that they watched. Apologies if I get this wrong.
I have shown it to groups to illustrate the idea of how we can get the introduction of huge projects very wrong by forgetting about the customers. Only the builder have parachutes on. With enough spin, you can make anything fly. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L2zqTYgcpfg
E very day you are “spot on!” Thanks you for all you do.
Diane,
Here in Texas they are guilty of more child abuse! They give our kids candy and gum during these tests, and in extreme cases, juice has been spiked with caffeine-infused vitamin drinks. Please see my comment I posted a few days ago under your “Stalking the Vampire” article on your Facebook page.
I just have to ask, Diane, is this really you? At this point I’m afraid I’ll go a few pages deep into your blog and find “generously sponsored by the Gates Foundation” in fine print. Those are the words I’m finding everywhere now. As a recently resigned public high school teacher of 16 years, I’m finding myself a disoriented and baffled by the ‘reality’ that Gates is fabricating.
Yes, it is me.
I write every word in every article.
I write every tweet.
I write every blog.
I am not funded by any foundation or corporate sponsor.
I do not accept ads on my blog.
Diane
I must confess that I’m wondering whether teachers are doing enough to fight testing. There are excellent groups, like GEM and fair test that are very involved, and I can attest to the wonderful organizing that goes on there. But when our union won’t support these principals, what’s going on? This isn’t a condemnation, I’m just wondering.
Why aren’t we forging alliances with these principals?
Sharon Fougner is my mother. I grew up as a product of NYS public schools and have always felt that I had an education that was second to none– one that inspired curiosity and creativity and an urge to always keep learning. The few standardized tests we had were a whimsical novelty to my classmates: we’re going to do something different for a few days! Isn’t it fun to bubble in the answers?
I can’t tell you how much it saddens me to hear stories of kids putting their heads down on their desks because they are frustrated and upset by test-taking that asks too much– or the wrong things– of them. Kids who spend twenty minutes on a single question and end up in tears.
Children should never be afraid of anything that happens in the classroom. When a child frightens another child to the point where it affects learning, we call that bullying.
Thanks for your work, Diane.
Sharon Fougner is my mother. I grew up as a product of NYS public schools and have always felt that I had an education that was second to none– one that inspired curiosity and creativity. The few standardized tests we had were a whimsical novelty to my classmates: we’re going to do something different for a few days! Isn’t it fun to bubble in the answers?
I can’t tell you how much it saddens me to hear stories of kids putting their heads down on their desks because they are frustrated and upset by test-taking that asks too much– or the wrong things– of them. Kids who spend twenty minutes on a single question and end up in tears.
Children should never be afraid of anything that happens in the classroom. When a child frightens another child to the point where it affects learning, we call that bullying.
Thanks for your work, Diane.
Good question – why won’t our union support these principals? There are other organizations doing meaningful work. How do we make a real impact though? Here in NYC, students, teachers, schools and principals would be severely punished for boycotting these tests. Yet, it would seem the only way to make our voices heard.
http://parentsacrossamerica.org/
changethestakes.wordpress.com
http://timeoutfromtesting.org/
http://www.classsizematters.org/
Michelle, this is a good list. Leonie Haimson from Class Size Matters continues to do excellent work.
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