Two websites have been created to allow students, teachers, principals, and parents to register their comments about the Common Core assessments created by Pearson for students in New York.
One was created to discuss the English language arts exam. If you open the link, you will see numerous comments about the ELA exams. The comments are varied and interesting. The site was set up by by Professor Lucy Calkins at Teachers College, Columbia University.
Despite the efforts of the New York State Education Department to shield the exams in the deepest secrecy, those who took the exams have plenty to say about them. I didn’t see disclosure of any confidential information, but a great deal of concern about the lack of time to complete the exam.
Another website was created to collect reactions to the math tests.
Once again, social media may be the best source of information for parents, students, and teachers, and the mainstream media.
Ask the experts, those who took the test and those who administered them.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
I grew up in NY with Regents exams. They were a fair test and well devised. What happened to them?
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Billdelaney,
The NY Regents exams used to be a mark of high achievement.
But about ten years ago, State Commissioner Rick Mills decided that all students should take and pass 5 Regents exams. They got dumbed down. Otherwise most students would not get a diploma.
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Bingo! Dilutes the concept of “high achievement”.
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Some regents exams were eliminated. For instance, in 2011 New York State eliminated the foreign language regents. I guess they don’t feel the regents in a foreign language contributes to the student being college and career ready. It’s a decision that doesn’t make much sense to me.
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I hope all the comments are confidential because this will be used as a tool to fire teachers. But the truth needs to come out.
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Just want to add this website was started by Lucy Calkins–who btw was not so well-liked by NYC educators. I personally liked using her methods, but only if I could apply them the way I saw fit. The problem was she expected schools to only use her methods and that’s when the problems occurred. Principals would give bad reviews if a mini-lesson went over the “suggested” time limit. Many administrators who didn’t understand the program gave teachers a hard time. I spent a few summers at her institute, and until it became a lecture series, I really enjoyed them. Teachers today are no longer using any of the many strategies that help develop good reading and writing skills and that’s a shame. Everything is now based on testing where The Workshop Model was supposed to instill a lifelong love of reading and writing. But like everything else, it became more of a profit model than one that could be used as an effective tool. Every new method has some good and bad. But a good teacher can adapt them to meet the needs of their students.
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After reading these and other reactions to the NYS CC tests, I’ve concluded that NYSDE and Pearson have had the exact same reaction to the pressure of these high stakes tests as everyone else — they’ve cracked. They’ve done the institutional equivalent of having a panic attack and throwing up on your answer sheet.
There is no conceivable explanation for giving a test that is supposed to emphasize close reading which does not allow enough time for careful analysis. Whatever more subtle issues may be hidden in the individual items, they can’t deny making one of the most fundamental errors in design. Every teacher dozens of times every day has to make judgments about timing. How did NYSDE and Pearson get it so wrong when the stakes — for them as well — were so high?
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Thoughtfully said, Tom. The concept of Common Core may not be a bad thing (desiring a higher academic standard for children across the country) — but, one has to give pause for how NYS is “running away” with this — sadly, causing an avoidable ruckus. Maybe we need to take a step back & make sure we haven’t lost focus of the big picture: better educating our children.
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The goal of too many politicians is to kill public education and Pearson is the hired gun that is doing it
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When I tried to open the link about comments about the Common Core Standards on a Department of Education computer, I received a message, “Security Risk, Content Blocked”. If that isn’t Orwellian, what is?
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I got the same message and thought the same thing!
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Please people, do NOT ever use any DoE computer to surf or post. It’s insane that you even tried. All communications are not private on those computers.
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I sent the link to Lucy’s website to many of the public school teachers that I work with. One of the teachers emailed me back to tell me that the site has been blocked by the Department of Education!
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Have New York state tests always been timed or is this a new component with Common Core? Or is speed reading one of the Common Core standards?
In California, we’ve always given kids all the time they need to finish the tests.
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Also, the all-important question regarding the essays: WHO or WHAT will be correcting them, and how much time is allotted to grade each essay? Pearson allows humans an average of 2-3 minutes per essay. An automated reader can “read” 16,000 essays in 20 seconds.
For a pretty hilarious look into how to outsmart robo-graders, check out this NY Times article on how MIT writing professor Les Perelman games the system:
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Yes, they have always been timed. ELLs (less than 2 years in the system) and those with IEP’s get extra time.
Classroom teachers usually grade the essays. They report to a location outside the school, but I have a feeling Pearson’s robo-graders will be grading them soon.
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Our 8 year old son took the NY State Exams over the last 2 weeks. After all the hype about how this years test would be more difficult, he felt that the test was VERY DUMBED DOWN. Especially the math! I think Pearson felt all the pressure from NY about the test, and created a test that any simpleton could do well on. This in order to keep the state and schools happy. So, the schools will continue to have their false high rankings with falsely high test scores, and they will continue to graduate numbskulls.
Also want to mention that our son told us that the teacher was “helping” the students who are weak in math during the test. She walked around to them and was looking at their answers and saying things like, “You should look at that problem again”. Why are teachers allowed to administer these tests to their own students? The tests should be administered by someone who does not know the children and has no stake in the outcome of their tests. I can only imagine the amount of cheating that went on in classrooms around the state.
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Saw this on your Network page. All I can say is UNBELEVIALBE!!
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