This teacher won’t let her child participate in state testing but she cannot shield him from the test-prep curriculum. Perhaps if everyone opted out, it would change. She thanks the teachers of Chicago for taking a brave stand. So much more is needed to change the direction of education in this nation and to make it worthy of our children and our nation. What advice can you give her?
Second career, 14th year in the classroom, tears in my eyes… Having a child in our public schools has left me with more enemies than colleagues – within the District and our neighborhood.
I know in my heart my teacher friends want to be and do better for my son, and all of their kids, but can’t or won’t stand up to rage against the machine. Watching our kid suffer in order to stand up and speak out for public education, our kids, and our communities has been one of the most difficult things my husband and I have ever done. While we do opt out from State testing (and I wish EVERYONE would), that does not opt our son out from the dull-dry-dead test prep curriculum his teachers and schools are measured by – not to mention the loss of social status by not buying into the notion that performance bands are a valuable label of one’s humanity, for those not afforded the privilege to make their own labels.
I hope for a better day, and our Chicago brothers and sisters have been INSPIRATIONAL, but after spending a PD day on the common core today I am assured, more than ever before, that I can hope in one and wish in the other but neither will result in anything but disappointment and disgust and anger over an utter erosion of our precious democratic ideals – which for those with the means and wherewithall matters NOT ONE IOTA. Raised fist, big sigh…
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Very sad… We do not have this at MSC–PS333, NY NY….. Best, Neal
Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T
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Try these.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/timothy-d-slekar/teachers-high-stakes-tests_b_976992.html
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/timothy-d-slekar/if-not-now-when-if-not-yo_b_846996.html
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I am sorry to hear your child is suffering. If it is happening to yours, it may well have also happened to others. Try to connect with them for mutual support. and document everything.
Also: you may want to organize an evening discussion for parents on over-testing?
An ed prof at a nearby college might want to speak with you?
Provide examples of bad test questions, like the pineapple and the hare.
Explain how test prep replaces curriculum. Mention the corporations who profit like Pearson, McGraw-Hill, ACT, Wireless Generation.
Also start up a facebook page.
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I’m a teacher-parent too, but (thank God) I am not employed as a public schoolteacher. Due to my deep convictions and outspokeness, no district/principal would hire me. I am so thoroughly disgusted by the current regime, that I have been reduced to civil disobedience (opting out of standardized testing). The principal of our school is hell bent on running us off. And that is why it is absolutely imperative that my kids be placed in a classroom with a teacher who shares my pedagogical beliefs. Fortunately, I was able to make that happen this year and my kids have really great teachers. It’s still early in the year. My advice is to request a classroom transfer. Perhaps your child can be placed in a classroom where there is an emphasis on authentic assessments and project-based learning. Explain to the administration exactly what you are looking for; try to have a detailed discussion about instruction and curriculum. Ofcourse, the administration will view this as a threat. Hang tough and go as high as necessary until you get the best placement for your child that they can offer.
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I think something else to think about is what this conservative agenda has done to curriculum too that many don’t see as test prep, but it is.
During the Bush era, The National Reading Panel looked at a limited amount of research on how children learn to read. It was of course one sided and they did not look at research that looked at emergent literacy and how children actually learn. Marie Clay comes to mind as one person who was showing how successful a learner is when they are able to learn to read in authentic meaningful ways. For instance one of the best ways for children to learn and understand letter/sound relations is through invented spelling. It brings what they know to their learning and they continue to grow. This more constructive view created kid watchers in teachers. They watched and valued what a child brought to their learning table.
But due to The National Reading Panel and Bush’s advisors who were involved in programs like SRA etc., the focus started to see reading as a fluency and decoding issue. This simplistic reductionist approach to learning is because the political National Reading panel looked only at research on fluency and decoding – not on comprehension. So. . . the behaviorist model is now the norm across this country. Instead of looking at what a child brings to their learning, it believes children learn in a very linear model.
So my kindergarten daughter has no play time, is drilled on sight words etc. I don’t blame the teacher as this is what they’ve been taught.
Play is a huge aspect of literacy learning for children as they work on creating lists, writing letters etc.
According to Dr. Richard Allington, a brilliant reading researcher as he refers to a chapter in The Handbook of Reading Disabilities Research the authors discuss the shift in early childhood assessments. “. . . .The focus on constrained skills means ignoring the unconstrained skills such as vocabulary growth, narrative development, written expression, and such. They (the authors) argue it isn’t that no one paid attention to letter rec or sight word acquisition before but that these small goals were subsumed by a broad focus on literacy understanding and development.
I would love for my child to be taught in a kindergarten classroom that had a broad focus on literacy understanding and development. I KNOW the skills will come within this type of learning.
Will we ever get back to best practices?
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