A parent reported in an email to me that questions from the ELA tests are plastered on Facebook and other social media, despite Pearson’s efforts to monitor students’ comments on FB or Twitter. While many thousands of parents have opted out, some students are engaging in civil disobedience by copying test questions and releasing them. I read one long and rambling passage written in what I imagine was cowboy slang. I won’t reproduce it because I don’t want to be sued by Pearson.
Teachers are reporting readability levels that are 2-4 grade levels above students’ age/grade. They are also reporting incomprehensible reading passages. A poem on the 6th grade test baffled students and teachers alike.
No one has a final talley on opt outs, but they are likely to exceed 200,000. Wow! Last year it was 60,000.
I have been told by a very high-ranking official in Néw York that the sheer number of opt outs will invalidate the governor’s plan to use the scores to evaluate teachers.
There is so much wrong with these tests and so little willingness to listen by the governor or state board, that only massive civil disobedience was left to parents and students. They are acting in the spirit iof a great American tradition: civil disobedience. Don’t Tread on Me.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Great news. Would they forego the evauation plan statewide or just in districts with high opt out rates?
Cuomo and people will try to use whatever data they have, wherever they have it.
To do otherwise would admit defeat, and also they really believe in what they are doing.
They really believe that they want to bust unions, fire teachers and ruin their careers, end pensions, and hire revolving door TFA. They don’t have a worthwhile cause, because all this testing is costing monies, monies being paid to their political cronies, monies that should be going into the classroom. Are these austerity measures? Perhaps. That is what the 1% wants, besides an ROI.
“They really believe in what they are doing.” Oh, please. Haven’t seen them putting their money where their mouth is lately…
They’re working on VAM 3.35 as we write.
“While many thousands of parents have opted out, some students are engaging in civil disobedience by copying test questions and releasing them.”
Love this! Civil disobedience by the students. Just what we need to be a stop to these people.
I have seen a few reports floating around that NYSED will use the data – no matter how LITTLE of it they get to generate growth scores. I don’t see how those scores could possibly be valid – but of course the tests aren’t valid either.
Somehow – teachers will be punished – maybe teachers in the highest refusal districts won’t get that magical bonus money that Andy put in the budget …. I’ll be honest, I wouldn’t take his stinking blood money anyway…….unless it was to purchase age appropriate materials for my second graders: music, Legos, paint, play-doh, that kind of stuff that you don’t find in the darn modules!!
NYSED can use it if they want. Keep in mind that the total % of opt outs statewide or even district-wide is irrelevant to individual teacher APPR ratings. A 3rd grade math teacher may have only 5% opt out from her elementary class of 20. An 8th grade ELA teacher in the same school district might have over 60% opt out of his class load of 125 students. Either way, NYSED will have enough data to produce a student growth rating. This wanton methodology will probably make the inevitable litigation much easier to win. The state claims that a large enough student sample is available. That may be so on a scale of 1,000,000 test takers and 200,000 opt-outs. Not so regarding many individual teachers. Either way, Captain Education has created one helluva mess. And he is now the private owner of it all. Voters won’t soon forget. His plans for 2018 will be met with angry payback.
“This wanton methodology will probably make the inevitable litigation much easier to win.”
Bazinga!
😎
You rock, antiqueteacher!!
Clarification Please: Who is calling it Civil Disobedience? Where is that “term” coming from ? Pearson??? Thanks
I call it civil disobedience.
Because, of course, it *is* civil disobedience. I am sure Pearson is calling it something else altogether; something largely unprintable.
I call it that too.
That’s what my wife called it.
I think she’s right.
Newsday article just stated that LI OPT OUT numbers reached 64K. That was based on numbers from about 100 (out of 124 LI districts). That number equals the entire state number for last year. The people have spoken–it is time for Tisch to “spend more time with her family.” It is also time for Albany bureaucrats to end this fiasco. Next weeks Math assessments should be cancelled. Kids should be instructed for three days–not waste everyone’s time. We have shut down the oppressive system–now it is time for us to call for this fiasco to be ended immediately! Demand that Cuomo and Tisch shut down this wasteful, foolish use of schooltime!
I gave the 5th grade tests the last 3 days. The biggest issue I have is readability and the quantity of the test, meaning It’s too long. There were no talking pineapples unfortunately. On the first day there were at least 4 or 5 questions I punted on. Still trying to figure out why we do this.
We do this so that we can set up the system to fail, and then have a reason to turn it over to profiteers who will give campaign funds to Cuomo and monsters like him . . . .
That’s why we do this.
I gave the 5th grade ELA. I did not read the test myself, but my students did raise their hands a number of times to ask me questions or to point things out to me. A couple of my students noticed a grammatical error and a spelling error. Both times I read and reread to ensure that they were correct and they were. How pathetic is it that the children taking the assessment notice the errors of the test creators?
Not surprised. My kids find spelling and grammatical errors on their EngageNY handouts almost daily. I guess the propaganda is more important than any kind of accuracy.
“How pathetic is it that the children taking the assessment notice the errors of the test creators?”
Just one of the many reasons-errors-that it is UNETHICAL for a teacher to give a test without having read, edited, vetted it beforehand.
Yes. The whole secrecy thing is ridiculous.
Tsk. Tsk. There are no errors. There’s only language change and creatove spelling.
I told my students that if they are bothered by it, they have just as much power to write to our representatives as adults do. One of my students said she’s going to write to Commissioner King. I hope she follows through with it.
My daughters said that their entire class determined afterwards that on 2 questions, there were 2 correct answers-and their teacher agreed.
I am amazed that the teacher COULD agree. In our district, discussing anything on the test, or even looking at the test is grounds for discipline or dismissal.
Somewhere in a bunker deep below the streets of Albany Andy Cuomo and his advisors are meeting. On the chalkboard are three possible courses of action. The first, “take it to the mattresses” with NYSUT. The second, “Blame Tisch and King.” The final option is, “Take ownership of this fiasco…Cancel next weeks Math assessments ask the public for a second chance.” Cuomo’s gut tells him to go to war against NYSUT but his advisors tell him right now the vast majority of parents are aligned with the union. Cuomo’s advisors have to physically restrain him while they air the pro’s/con’s of cancelling next weeks assessments and trying to find an honorable way out of the fiasco he now owns. After about an hour, Cuomo decides the best strategy for him to pursue is to follow the tried and true approach that has worked for him the past two years. Sorry despite your wealth and connections it is time for you to spend more time with your family Madame Tisch! So it goes.
hi diane, here are the two articles that were used today for 8th grade book 3. Both for short responses and longer “essay”
http://mobile.nytimes.com/2011/07/19/science/19tierney.html?referrer=
http://www.slate.com/articles/life/family/2013/01/loose_parts_are_having_a_moment_putting_the_play_back_in_playgrounds_with.html
Imagine a bunch of urban 8th graders trying to make sense of this nonsense! Painful.
The irony of a standardized test excerpt trumpeting the benefits of a child designed and created world where children have input and their ideas are respected…
As a teacher in a school for high risk students, who formerly worked in educational publishing, I find the information I’m learning on this blog about Common Core and high stakes testing frustrating and heartbreaking.
Twenty five years ago educational publishing, driven by sales and the potential of state adoption was corrupt. The only solution would be to make it not-for-profit. The testing might have a better chance if it was not for profit.
If family income is the greatest indicator of student success, help the less advantaged.
If a good part of the reason charter schools perform better is because they counsel out disruptive students, help those disruptive students in public schools. Those students are a small percent that can make learning hard for everyone. Send those students para-professional help, one on one.
Give schools in the ghetto more money for smaller classes, more guidance counseling, more individual help for struggling students. Stop blaming teachers and send help for the kids.
Replace all this drama with some common sense.
Sorry, common sense is not allowed. Teachers are not allowed to be a part of the solution but on the scapegoat for all that is wrong in education.
And don’t forget, we’re parasites, because we have pensions.
You are correct. Everybody in the country is allowed to have a comfortable retirement but not teachers. In Texas we have one of the healthiest retirement funds in the country but if the state continues to tinker with it then it will be in danger very quickly. Oh, and in Texas, we are not allowed to draw Social Security if we are teachers, even if you have qualified by other means in our lives.
I wonder if non-profits are always that much better. Often, they are astroturf organizations or agenda-driven. In either case, they divert money meant for classrooms to private jobs (and high CEO salaries). I would be interested in hearing more about the ed publishing business. Are you a member of the BATs?
This is great, but let’s look at this closely. Why do parents who are supposed to run the schools have to fight the feds in this way? Because the FEDS aRE TOO POWERFUL.
We are NOT slaves to the FeDs and we are showing it.
Until you kill off the beast, we have to plead, beg and scrape for what is our FUNDAMENTAL RIGHTS.
When the Feds TAKE power from the parents, yes it’s good to refuse to comply. However that power should NEVER have been taken in the first place.
It’s time to look for a President who will ABOLISH the U.S. Dept. of Ed . We are not slaves, so we need to stop acting like it.
Hopefully the federal government will stop sending any funds to schools in New York.
Your expression of ill will toward the children of NYS is not very becoming.
If it weren’t for the fact that the tax payers of New York are some of the major financial contributors to the federal government then maybe your comment could actual hold some value. Since that is not the case, it does not.
Thanks for showing your true colors. Not that we didn’t already know.
I hope that doesn’t happen, particularly since the opt-out rate is going to well short of 5% in the cities where Federal funding is needed the most, New York City most of all.
http://westchester.news12.com/news/parents-greenvale-elementary-school-using-bully-tactics-with-common-core-tests-1.10280678
Here’s an interesting twist, which screams “bullying”…..the state does not want to give this school their Blue Ribbon Award because of refusals. The superintendent sent a letter to the parents asking for them to have their child take the test during the make-up days! Really??!!
I was going to encourage the Greenvale parents not to accept the “bribe” of a Blue Ribbon Award. Then I saw one of the comments following the news piece that used a more accurate descriptor: “blackmail”. Let the State and that particular superintendent take their coveted “Blue Ribbon Award” and stick it somewhere painful.
Why did you let Brady talk you into letting Nick take the test?
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Reblogged this on stopcommoncorenys.
Lucy Calkins seems awfully quiet this year about the ELA exams, interesting, perhaps it has something to do with her close affinity to Carmen Farina?
“Follow the money,” as they like to say around here.
I really did not find the Lucy C approach to writing to be useful other than as an idea to contribute to many other ideas. These forulaic, time constricted activities do not work well for all students. The time needed to “undo” the damage caused by allowing too much time wasted, too many uncorrected errors, and too much “structure” simply does not work well in conjunction with the other subjects we teach during the day.
Last year you had a link where teachers could post anonymously. Is there a link for this year’s test?
Of course the reading is too difficult. When you have clueless rheeformers choosing reading passages, in their arrogance, they simply assume students are born with a full backpack of prior knowledge and a plethora of learning experience and automatically understand the myriad of words and multiple meanings of words in these passages, so by God, if these students fail, then it must be the incompetent teacher in the classroom! Sarcasm aside, I find their agenda terrifying. These tests are meant to further scapegoat educators so they can push their agendas, and we are all well aware what happens to scapegoaters when the propoganda continually hits the fan. I wonder what law will be hastily passed to thwart the growing opt-out movement. It truly makes me I’ll.
MORE PRODUCT PLACEMENT? Even despite the controversy from last year, this year’s 7th grade test included a passage all about the founding of a certain large US manufacturing company. It was the ultimate infomercial for the company, entwining it’s backstory into US history as a phenomenal success. Talk about a captive audience.
Just wanted to quietly announce that in Delaware, as of last night, the top three largest school districts’ boards, have now all passed resolutions stating that they will NOT penalize any student choosing to not take the test. This is being deemed treasonous by the Delaware “Chief for Change” Mark Murphy and our governor, Jack Markell, who originally ordered all districts to send imposing threatening messages regarding opt out. One district’s superintendent, desperately wanting to become the state’s next Secretary of Education, swallowed the baited hook.
There is currently a bill that goes into our House Educational Committee hearing on April 22, (HB 50 for reference) which extends these same protections across all our state… One district so far is reporting an 11% opt out rate .. That is all we know one month into testing….. 🙂
It seems that Cuomo and Tische have been shown to be INEFFECTUAL for two straight years and should be fired !
#optcuomoout!
Reblogged this on David R. Taylor-Thoughts on Texas Education.
fohttp://www.nyu.edu/projects/ollman/docs/why_exams.php
I vetted Pearson online tests for my school district (Rochester, NY) and found many mistakes. Not only the frequent syntactic error but profoundly
incorrect content errors. So the tests are inappropriate and poorly constructed.
Even though the sheer numbers would completely invalidate the tests, especially for teacher evaluations, the state is planning to push through to the punish phase of test and punish. This from the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle: A NYSED spokesman said Wednesday that the state would still go ahead with its planned use of the data.
“We are confident the department will be able to generate a representative sample of students who took the test, generate valid scores for anyone who took the test, and calculate valid state-provided growth scores to be used in teacher evaluations,” spokesman Jonathan Burman said in a written statement.
If the state is able to do this then why is it necessary to test every child?
Hi Deb, this does make sense because the only other option for NYSED would be invalidating the results, which would be seen as a surrender and begin the collapse of the whole NCLB house of cards. They could never.
But this does ratchet us closer to a court showdown. I don’t know why teachers/parents don’t just expedite a legal confrontation, which all hinges on whether APPR validly does what it claims.
The evidence is so compelling, I wonder why we aren’t plowing ahead. The media and the legislature is all pretending the emperor has clothes the overwhelming opt out numbers suggest there is no faith in the testing regime either way!
Also, the NY BATs have surged in membership just since the budget passed, going from 2,800 members to over 3,200. As parents join the effort, teachers are also getting more active.
When we were told that new lexiles were going to be used with our students, we were appalled and our objections were met with threats. The changes were going to be accepted without question. Our experience with kids did not matter. We were rendered “opinionless” and in man ways stripped of our dignity. No proof was needed that these lexile adjustments were valid.we just had to participate willingly, or else. So it is no wonder that the test passages are 2-4 grade levels above the average student’s capabilities. They are designed to prove their point, not to serve education, or students, or learning.
The same things that corporate HR managers are doing to workers with experience and contentment on the job are happening to teachers and administrators. This article nails it. Just extend it to our experience. This relates to disruptive innovation, imo. It helps sidestep the mistreatment of older workers. http://www.salon.com/2015/02/24/your_hr_department_doesnt_give_a_damn_how_corporate_overseers_exploit_american_workers_partner/?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=socialflow
How did the word get out to the parents to Opt out. In the school district I teach in I think my 2 boys were among a handful of opt out students. Non of the parents are informed and non of the teachers or principles will tell them anything. They think that this test is completely fair and that their children have to take it. What are your suggestions to get the word out with out teachers getting I. Trouble by administration?
Rachael, I think it was really just word of mouth and social media. My district did not mention a thing to parents, but they organized themselves and we had a lot of opt outs. The PTA of my daughter’s school passed out information, but it was not through the back packs or anything, it was by email and word of mouth. In many districts where families have difficulty connected via social media (typically districts with a majority of families in lower socioeconomic groups), parents are not really informed of what’s happening.
Robo-calls by NYSUT
Billboards by NYSAPE
Blog by RAVITCH
Social media by ALL
The opt-outs will help very few teachers. The document Explaining Student Growth Scores to Teachers and Principals: Key Discussion Points
(https://www.engageny.org/…/resources-about-state-growth-measures)
clearly states: “Educators must have the minimum number of student scores (16) attributed to them to receive a growth score.”
You would think a statistically valid sample would be required, but there’s no other criteria (percentage of tests submitted out of students taught, perhaps?). In short, my teaching career is still in jeopardy even though fewer than half of my students took their tests.
I LOVE THIS! I proctored the 7th ELA exam…what a mess it was. I saw some of it while checking bubbles. The readings were DEFINITELY well over this grade level. The questions baffled the kids..they looked quite anxious..yet others didn’t care & wanted to be opted-out by their parents. The kids said it was hard & unfair. We had 560 students opt out in grades 6-8. Wondering what the numbers will be for the Math/
HOW does Pearson get away with this? They are scammers & need to be called out on this! How do we do this?
Since the governor’s plan was invalid to begin with, I doubt he will understand that this will further corrupt it. But then again he may understand corruption-until it gets too close.
Are we sure Cuomo actually has any knowledge related to the issues? Don’t governors have advisors to tell them what to think?
Imagine what would happen if all of the parents that opted out buy Pearson stock and attend the shareholders meeting as a voting block!!! Let’s think out of the CC box!!