Students at Indiana University’s education school will go on strike on April 11 and 12 to protest the excessive and toxic testing in K-12.
As they say in their statement, they are the children of No Child Left Behind.
Read the entirety of their statement.
Here is an excerpt:
“As striking students at Indiana University, we are struggling against the corporatization of our school, lack of diversity on campus, and ever-increasing tuition and fees which are fast making an education here inaccessible to all but the most privileged. As we begin these important conversations here at IU we also recognize their systemic nature. We stand in solidarity with others throughout the nation working to rescue education from those who seek to profit from it. We recognize the bravery and commitment of the teachers, students, and parents in places such as Garfield High School in Seattle and the Project Libertas in Indianapolis, who have taken stands against the absurdities inherent in standardized testing.”
Here is a commentary on the strike in The Nation.
And here is a petition to support the Indiana students.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Thank you Indiana University students.
I would also like reactions to the Education Week commentary by Michael J. Feur about his piece, It’s Not the Test That Made Them Cheat. Many years ago I read the book by Berliner from ASU about Campbell’s Law,etc. I certainly don’t condone cheating. However, I think it was pretty much inevitable with the environment most teachers, public schools, and districts are under with the current climate.
Everyone in every profession is expected to produce results: business, sales, sports, medicine, law, etc. In those professions, when cheaters are caught they are punished. It doesn’t mean everyone should just stop tracking results. Don’t blame the system, blame the cheaters. There are millions of people, teachers included, who can produce results without cheating. And those who can’t, regardless of the profession, are moved out. We are talking about children’s lives.
“Don’t blame the system, . . . ” Ha Ha! You must be a bankster, eh? Our financial system is corrupt, our political system is corrupt, many major corporations are corrupt and there is nothing we peons can do about that except to not participate as much as possible.
When the system (educational standards, standardized testing and even the “grading” of students) is corrupt itself then any results are invalid, unreliable and lead to conclusions that are “vain and illusory”. These systems of insanity need to be crushed. Teachers and administrators need to grow some cojones and quit playing these proven falsehoods of educational malpractice. I’m not holding my breath, for as all good Germans (oops sorry meant educators) know, it’s best to go along to get along allowing the “banality of evil” to continue unchecked.
Proud to say that I got a letter of reprimand Monday for challenging educational practices that are based on these insanities.
A post on its way about Feuer article
Hi Diane. Wanted you to know that we teachers in Upstate are trying our best to let our voices be heard as well. Tommy
http://www.timesunion.com/opinion/article/Testing-parents-resolve-4418624.php
My university (University of Chicago) wouldn’t have given a rat’s patoot if we went on strike. Once they had our tuition money, they couldn’t care less whether we actually attended classes or not.
Thank you students at Indiana University. You are the true leaders of the future in education.
When the youth in our nation notice the abusive and over-emphasis of testing, it is time for the nation to listen to them. When will Obama and Duncan stop ignoring the cries of the students, parents, and teachers where testing has become the priority and not the assessment tool that it was designed to be. Testing should not replace teaching. A moratorium on testing must be requested by all stakeholders. Strike now while the iron is HOT.
Kudos to those students for taking! The nation is proud of you.
“When will Obama and Duncan stop ignoring the cries of the students, parents, and teachers . . . ”
Never, as they are part and parcel of the problem (they’re good little Mandarins) and won’t ever come close to being part of the solution to the educational woes that to which the poorest student’s are subjected.
Testing provides valuable information to teachers, students, and schools. Testing gives teachers a better understanding of student learning, growth, and abilities. These students are not products of No Child Left Behind. These students were high achievers who got the grades and test scores to get into IU. The products of NCLB are the students with IEP’s, the ENL students, and the low performing students. I applaud these students for getting involved in education, but they should spend a few years in the classroom dealing with the realities of data and teaching before they start protesting something they have little experience with.
It is interesting that posters here use the term IEP to refer to students with learning disabilities. My state, along with some others, have IEPs for gifted and talented students. Differing state standards make understanding the numbers difficult.
That’s because gifted and talented is special education. People think of special ed as all remedial. Technically, the term refers to extremes at both ends.
It does not refer to the extremes in all states. There are many states where students with IEPs are unlikely to go to selective colleges and universities as poster Henry said. In my state,however, students with IEPs are the most likely to go to selective colleges and universities.
Do students with special needs oriented around remedial work not get IEPs in your state?
Yes they do, but so do students with special needs that require accelerated, compacted, and advanced classes. If there are twenty students with IEPs in a school it may be that they all require remedial work, it may be they all require advanced work, it is most likely a mix of the two.
You’re talking about assessment, not testing. The basic basic problem with high-stakes tests is that the stakes do not allow them to perform most of the functions you describe.
All public school students since 2000 (right?) are products of NCLB.
Any student who was in public school from grades 3-8, beginning in 2003 is part of the NCLB generation.
“. . . before they start protesting something they have little experience with”. Well having much experience and research into educational standards, standardized testing and the “grading” of students I can assert to you with total confidence that your first sentence “Testing provides valuable information to teachers, students, and schools” is completely false. Standardized testing provides nothing of value as the whole process is rife with errors that render said process completely invalid. For the best take down of the process see Noel Wilson’s “Educational Standards and the Problem of Error” found at: http://epaa.asu.edu/ojs/article/view/577/700 .
Henry, learn a little today, open your mind that has been closed into believing that the current testing mania is something good and desirable. It’s not.
Duane, what does the data say about your students?
Henry…obviously you are not an educator! Come into any classroom for a two week period to understand what these bright students are talking about! Way to go IU Education!!!!
I am an educator. I believe the tests give teachers valuable information on student’s abilities. I also believe that the tests tell teachers whose students are performing and whose are not. Which is probably why so many teachers disagree with them.
Dear Ms. Ravitch, I wanted to join your organization but was not successful because of the distorted letters safety code. I am so grateful that your are fighting for the children.
As a retired teacher/school counselor, in SLPS for 38 years I saw what Roberty and others did to our system.
Red flags went up when in a workshop, I heard the students being referred to as “consumers.”I realized then, that the corporate model had come to education. Seven years after my retirement, I agonize over this unfortunate assault on teachers and education. I am saddened because my colleagues and I worked very hard to reach our needy students. Some of our students were battling to meet their needs and yet i had to push tests, ext. The constant inner conflict, and schizoid feelings wore me out physically and emotionally. That’s when I found the strength to go back to school and as a school counselor for ten years I was able to retire with dignity.
Thank you, Mary Vidakis P.S.I am waiting for your book. I read your last one. Jonathan Kozol had very nice comments to make about you, as he signed his book.
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It is clear eveyone commenting on here hates testing. So, how do we measure student growth? How do we measure teacher effectiveness? How are good teachers rewarded and bad teachers moved out? How do we determine if students are learning? Everyone bashes on testing, but please provide an alternative. The reality of education is a large percentage of the student population is being left behind. They are being promoted without having basic skills, and many teachers work in classrooms for decades that are ineffective. How can a parent look at schools and decide which ones are well run, and which are poorly run? The only answer anyone has come up with so far, is testing.
I am an educator and I think it is a good thing to be able to look at the testing indicators and see where my students are strong and where they are weak. It drives my instruction. I can clearly see where my students are struggling and that lets me know, what not to do, or what to continue to do. It is clearly shows which teachers can get their students to learn and which can not. Maybe that is what everyone is so afraid of.
As an elementary school teacher in a Title I school, I had students who hated all the testing and just bubbled. It didn’t matter how much encouragement or monitoring I did. I had ELD students who cried during the test. I had LD children, who should have been in LD classes but weren’t due to budget cuts, etc. and had to take the test without any accommodations. Can those tests be used accurately to judge them or to judge me? Other forms of evaluations could be portfolios, peer evaluation, etc. Until we give our low-income Title I schools more funding to help our struggling students, I do not see the testing as being fair to students or teachers.
Testing is not worth the paper and pencils used unless tests are designed and used for specific purposes. One of our biggest complaints is that tests must be aligned to what is taught, and must be analyzed based on its purpose, but test results are often perverted for invalid purposes. Achievement tests do not measure teacher ability or effectiveness, for example. Yes, we need assessments to determine student knowledge, abilities, and gaps, but there is a definite limit to their usefulness. Another complaint is the ever increasing time many schools demand for testing and test prep–to the point that it seriously reduces the time for actual instruction. Most of my real assessment occurs as I listen to student responses during class one grade assignments. Standardized testing does nothing to help me with my students. True assessment of teacher effectiveness must use multiple means of evaluation to be valid. This includes observations by administrators and peers (more than just once or twice a year) and should include discussions between teachers, department chairs or content leaders, and administrators. These meetings should include mutual analysis of data, and will vary to some degree based on grade levels and courses taught. They should also include individual professional development and outside of class responsibilities.