From a reader:
The media reported 31% of students passing, but seemed to miss the story. The story is not the result, but what happened along the way.
Students became ill during tests and pushed themselves to the point of vomiting. They broke down and cried. They sought refuge in bathrooms. They went through countless pencils as they erased answers and any trace of self -esteem. They lost sleep and gave themselves nightmares. Their education was sacrificed for test prep. Several raced to the top, but few made it.
Parents spent countless hours at the dinner tables going over homework to the point of frustration. They had legendary battles with their children only to learn you can’t turn a 5th grader into an 8th grader. Ultimately, they were told their efforts were not good enough.
Teachers never stopped trying to craft that perfect lesson. They came in early and stayed late. They collaborated and often cried with their colleagues. Teachers gave it their all, but in the end it simply was not enough.
Students, parents and teachers are entering this year bruised and battered. First day jitters has quickly become testing paranoia.
The mission of Lace to the Top is to tie together those pieces. We will not let test scores define us as students, teachers or parents. We will empower and support each other. Rather than destroying education to obtain an increase in scores that is already predetermined, let’s focus on all that quality education should be!
Lace to the Top
https://www.facebook.com/groups/362783697181185/
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Destructive intent, with the goal of being the “see, we told you this had to be done” common core clean up crew. Fewer pukers next round will be “growth” -showing that reform is working.
Finally, stories about real children and the damage being done to their bodies (minds&spirits) by this madness. We’ve all seen it and now need to report out.
Corporal Punishment – “of or having to do with the body”.
We haven’t progressed if spanking is outlawed but this test score torture is legalized.
I totally agree with you, Kathy Irwin.
If never fails to amaze me that ideology trumps the facts. For an interesting read, try “The Republican Brain” by Chris Mooney.
I did a quick Lexile test on the Texas 8th grade social studies exit exam (TAKS) two years ago. Numerous vocabulary at senior (high school) and college level. This is insane!
“They had legendary battles with their children only to learn you can’t turn a 5th grader into an 8th grader” says it all. I see the anguish, fear, and the shame some children experience taking assessments and I have to wonder how in heaven’s name we are doing this “for the children.”
And why we will never be permitted to see those tests? I always tell my students and even my own child, “go over the question – look at what you got wrong and try to understand why you got it wrong.” And when my own students do poorly on a test I created, I take a closer look at the test items and try to understand why they got the questions wrong – perhaps I made a bogus test – it’s happened to every educator out there. We won’t be able to do that here. Could it be that these kids didn’t really get all that much wrong? Or is it that the construction of the test items were so riddled with ambiguity and multiple correct responses that they don’t want us to see what a poorly crafted instrument it was? Or, perhaps it is because they tested 4th graders with 7th grade materials? Or that the Commissioner of Education in the state of New York doesn’t have any experience teaching (I’m not sure many of us in the trenches would consider 3 years in a private charter school without open-enrollment “teaching experience”) OR at all as an administrator. Or…or…or… #Want2CtheTEST
I have wondered if the tests correlated to the curriculum handed down. Too much secrecy and protection around the test makes me think the test itself was different from what they gave the teachers to follow.
Lisa – I feel your frustration, and as most of us who were involved with our state testing in the “old days” would tell you, my guess is that these new tests have not gone through the same processes.
Most states had state department of education representatives working with regular classroom teachers in the development of the test questions and answer keys.
Once the state reps were satisfied that the question bank was meeting the grade level standards, the exam questions and keys went through a separate committee to be evaluated again for being appropriate at grade level and for bias. Bias is a very tricky metric killer and can cause the same question to be answered differently depending upon in which district, state, or even school classroom, the question is asked.
Examination booklets are electronically scanned into a data base in preparation for scoring.
Then the tests are scored. The multiple choice items are usually scored while being scanned in during the initial process, which is easy enough, provided the student correctly marked their responses only once, and/or thoroughly erased responses that were not to be scored.
The constructive responses on the open ended math, reading, science and language art essay questions are human scored. Pearson used a cadre of test scorers that included non-education folks, most of whom had a four year degree at least. These scorers went through a week or more of training and were tested on scoring similar exams which were evaluated for scoring accuracy against the scoring guide.
For instance, here in AZ at least, I know teachers, restaurant workers, retail clerks and interior designers that work part-time as needed for Pearson.
Those scorers that qualified then were turned loose on the actual state’s exams, usually using a computer and display that had the key on one side and the exam on the other. The scorer would enter their scores, which were then checked and rechecked by Pearson supervisors. If the scorer did not maintain a satisfactory level of accuracy they were retrained, reassigned to another project, to be retrained, or they were let go.
I personally scored exams in the summer for Pearson for several years in the early 2000’s, and my son, a secondary science teacher here in Arizona has worked for Pearson off and on for the last five years. He has commented that it is getting increasing more difficult to qualify as a test scorer and he sees his cohort dwindle to the point that the qualified scorers often work overtime and on weekends to meet the project contract.
However, having not been personally involved in development of any of the the CC tests I can only postulate concerning the actual process. It would be interesting to hear from someone involved in the CC testing at the development level (anonymously of course) as to just how the tests were developed and scored.
To all teachers everywhere, I applaud you for fighting for your kids and standing in the gap.
Regards
Jim
91 & counting! Please share with parents interested in saving our kids from this asinine practice. They will hold back a straight A student if their parent makes the choice not to participate in 4th & 8th grade. Enough is enough!
http://www.change.org/petitions/louisiana-board-of-education-john-white-end-the-nonsense-practice-of-high-stakes-testing
This part GOT TO ME:How horrid. Do the DEFORMERS care? NOPE. Their kids go to private hoity toity schools and they have ALL the benefits. “Students became ill during tests and pushed themselves to the point of vomiting. They broke down and cried. They sought refuge in bathrooms. They went through countless pencils as they erased answers and any trace of self -esteem. They lost sleep and gave themselves nightmares. Their education was sacrificed for test prep. Several raced to the top, but few made it.”
That was fun. New Balance makes a lot of choices in bright green, right here in the USA.
I might do something fancier for my ID lanyard.
Loving the lanyard idea ! Lace on.
Let’s all send neon green shoelaces to the students and teachers in New York!
The writer mentions that the test will not define us. Illinois wanted Race to the Top $$ so local school districts were asked to make changes in exchange for possible money (which Il did not get) but many districts agreed to let 30% of test scores determine a teacher’s fate, his or her evaluation, whether or not he or she was fired at any stage of their career, tenured or not. If we did not agree to this we had no possible way of getting Race to the Top money.
I think of it as the Olympics. Do we want to give out prizes ($) to schools for being the very best; or do we give what is needed so they can be their best at their own talent? We don’t ask Olympic divers to improve at shot put or karate or softball. But we ask school children to improve at all subjects at the same time; ignoring the arts.
Instead Race to the Top wanted us to all agree to “fire ourselves” if our students’ scores were not growing fast enough. All students would be measured with the same test, whether their strength is in Art, Music, P.E., or Math. Only the Math and Language Arts tests would count and some also added Social Studies and Science tests, but never was there to be Art, Music or PE tests.
Since some teachers traditionally had high testing students, some teachers were moved to unfamiliar grade levels where no testing took place so no child’s success could determine if a teacher was employed. With tenure gone in Illinois, it was easy to hire and fire at will.
The Olympics analogy works for me because now we expect every student to win a gold medal in every event/subject. That’s not possible in schools nor in life. The jitters are real among the teachers who are tasked with raising test scores when students are sometimes tested when they have headaches, or their mom just died or two weeks after their friend died.
Thank you for the article. Thank you for understanding what is happening. Kathleen Podwika