Education reform is definitely found a home in Connecticut!
Through his efforts, the Legislature passed a “reform” bill that mandates new standardized tests for kindergarten, first grade, and second grade.
No child in Connecticut will be left untested!
No, sirree!
Remember if you will, that the three highest performing states in the nation on the no-stakes NAEP are: Massachusetts, Connecticut and New Jersey.
Malloy is very very worried about the state’s terrible performance. He will fix it with more tests.
His core belief is that teachers should “teach to the tests.”
Educators used to believe that teaching to the test was reprehensible, almost like cheating.
No more.
Governor Malloy will get his wish.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
As a second-grader teacher in Connecticut, I am very upset by this. The latest NEA magazine highlights CEA’s “victory” against the reformers: standardized tests for the youngest children and part of my job evaluation will now be based on those scores. A victory? Really?!
The genius Malloy was also quoted as saying if teaching to the test would improve test scores, he was all for it. How embarrassing for our state!
When will he and Pryor be tested? When will the self-proclaimed, know-nothing reformers be held accountable?
Why stop with testing K-12? Why not test earlier? Why not do pre-k testing? Why not test right out of the womb? Heck, why not test while in the womb? Or even better, why not test just at the moment of conception? Or best yer, why not test before conception, when junior is still a glint in daddy’s eye?
After all, it’s never too early to test for college and career readiness and hold teachers and schools accountable for the results!
And Pearson, the maker of some very sophisticated testing instruments like the “Pineapple and the Hare” test section and Korean language exams written in Mandarin can get on this job right now.
The absurdity of the testing regime and the politicians who do their bidding knows no bounds.
I have seen my students in first and second grade put their heads down on their tests and sob uncontrollably while taking district-wide assessments. I can only imagine what standardized tests will do to them. I keep wondering if I have the stamina to ride out this insanity for another 10-12 years before I can retire.
Over the years I have also seen these behaviors with my 1st graders. I’ve had children crawl under the table and huddle in a fetal position (a new student who had just moved to our district and was made to take the test on his first day — nice welcome, eh?), vomit on the test (which must be bagged and turned back in as is — yes, there is a protocol for that!), lose control of their bowels and bladder, and a few wise ones stayed home. And I place no emphasis whatsoever on testing or performance with my students because I believe it is ridiculous and the results are ALWAYS misused to categorize students.
END THE MADNESS NOW!
I believe there are state directions now on what to do if a student vomits on a test booklet. How sad is that? Pathetic!
Malloy famously said “I’m all for teaching to the test as long as the scores go up,” and also “all teachers have to do is show up for four years to get tenure.” His addlepated ignorance about the enterprise of teaching and learning is matched only by his truculent hostility towards teachers.
My daughter starts first grade tomorrow. Time to look into the Opt Out movement.
Yes it is. Hope you can find a way to do it!
Someone is getting rich with all the testing!! It is not the teachers!
Does anyone have any info on “opt out” procedures in CT? My daughter will not be subjected to this destructive nonsense during these crucial, early years.
Alan
http://www.fairtest.org/get-involved/opting-out
An online resource to support parents wishing to Opt Out of standardized testing. called Fair Test
Contact Robert Schaeffer at (239) 395-6773 or FairTest at (617) 477-9792
Good luck!
Yet in Montgomery County where I live we just eliminated the testing for second graders. Oh when fools are in charge foolish decisions are made.
So I guess we’ve just witnessed and heard why CT will now decline in educational metrics.
Medical excuses are usually accepted.
There are a number of Opt Out websites out there. They can help answer questions, and I know of one that has published letters from parents to the local districts explaining what they were doing and why. I am opting out this year (in NJ). If the district will not give my children suitable activities in place of the state’s meaningless standardized tests, I will simply keep them home for those three days.
Opt Out is a growing movement that is, not surprisingly, ignored by the media.
Kudos to you, John! If my children were still in elementary school, I would do it, too. Please keep us posted on what happens. I would LOVE to see this movement grow!
Why wait till Kindergarten? NYC testing starts in the womb (admittedly difficult to proctor though) http://goo.gl/xUbfT
Another boneheaded move by “DINO Dan” Malloy. Young children are notoriously poor test-takers. I teach second grade in Connecticut. On a recent district assessment on telling time, I noticed that one little boy had written 8-30-11 under one of his clock faces. Curious, I asked him to explain his thinking. He told me that it was on the bottom of the page and so it must be a hint! The numbers, of course, were the date the document was written. Young children are full of magical thinking. If the first answer on a test is choice A, then the second one must be B, etc. Or they will look for patterns, a concept we emphasize in the early grades. How reliable can these tests be?