Susan Spicka is a public school parent in Central Pennsylvania and a strong advocate for high-quality public education. She wrote this post after her daughters finished their NINTH days of state testing in elementary school. The sentence that bowled me over was when she said her fifth grade daughter was crying for fear that if she didn’t do well, her school might not meet AYP. Why should this burden be placed on the backs of little children? Should they be afraid that their poor performance will cause their teachers to be fired and their school to be closed? There is a touch of sadism in these federal policies, as well as child abuse.

Categories Education Reform

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Joanna Best says:

May 22, 2013 at 1:15 pm

It seems to me that everything in this education quagmire for our entire country is that every aspect of it is just so over the top–I guess that’s the top to which we are racing. Taking things too far so as to create disasters instead of successes–once again on the backs of the coming generation. In compartmentalizing the various aspects (teacher accountability; pensions and tenure; money for private education–including vouchers and charters; alligned standards) a little tweaking in each area might not have created such upset everywhere (but I guess the goal of some was to upset). It seems more American to me that if you believe in charters and opportunities for the poor in private schools, you figure out how to raise the money without being so harsh to the public system. The best quote I have read yet is from a Republican in down east NC who said, “education is not the place where free market principles work as intended.” Using Common Core to make public schools compete for tax dollars is so unsettling. I am so sorry that children pick up on the weight it all seems to carry.

There had to have been a better way for the Education Blended Family to get its start. I hope we can figure it all out soon.

Maybe a family therapist who looks at all like that (a blended family analogy) can offer some tips. The divorce has happened (NCLB). The second marriage has happened (RttT). Now the step-kids need to figure out how to live together.

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Andrew King says:

May 22, 2013 at 6:20 pm

Diane, this post is very valid, and I have blasted Common Core and NCLB and the testing fetish myself, but here’s something to consider, and Susan Spicka’s essay made me think of it….

I am not opposed to testing; I’m not even opposed to standardized testing. i don’t even mind high-stakes testing. I *am* opposed to the idea that (standardized) testing is a sufficiently robust medium to judge the success or failure of students, teachers, programs or institutions, and I am ONE HUNDRED PERCENT DEFINITELY opposed to extensively intrusive testing that (as Susan pointed out):

* utilizes class/instructional minutes;
* forces the need for extensive “test prep” such that instruction is further hampered;
* is used as a substitute of, or a proxy for, the professional judgment of the educators whose boots are on the floor;
* creates a culture where the datum at the end of the process is more important that the learning experience in the classroom.

Quoting myself here: “We have become a nation of pure data, of test scores and dropout rates, ciphers which are at best simplified abstractions of critically important ideas – but raw numbers do not tell the whole story. Any educational process or notion that has at its heart the notion that it is the data that needs to be treated, and not the students, is fundamentally flawed.”

Unfortunately, our own Dear Leader, Mr. Obama, is less interested in what educators have to say about it than you or I are (http://askingquestionsblog.blogspot.com/2013/05/education-needs-bravehearts.html).

I’m afraid teachers themselves (ourselves) need to beat the streets, knock some heads around, make some waves. We can’t cower in our classrooms, afraid for our jobs. That’s how they WIN. Some of us may lose for having fought, but it’s so necessary — like any war, some soldiers will not escape unscathed. But it’ll be a better nation because of it.

Who’s up for a fight?

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- Joanna Best says:
  
  May 22, 2013 at 7:51 pm
  
  I liked your post.
  
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  - Andrew King says:
    
    May 23, 2013 at 7:43 am
    
    Thanks 🙂 I’m not as prolific as Ms. Ravitch 😉 but I try, in my own little way. Every time I would way things like this to an administrator, I would find myself strangely not getting my contract renewed. Makes you wonder where their bread is buttered. I never could play the game very well…
    
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- neanderthal100 says:
  
  May 23, 2013 at 5:38 am
  
  Andrew
  
  You are the brave one.
  
  You speak the truth.
  
  Retired teachers are here to help the teachers without a voice.
  They are very concerned about their grandchildren.
  More to come later.
  
  It is quite obvious that the Educator,s Associations are doing nothing to help the harassed teachers whose livelihoods depend on the flawed data.
  
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  - Andrew King says:
    
    May 23, 2013 at 7:50 am
    
    My wife curses you for inflating my ego… But seriously, with regard to ” Educators’ Associations are doing nothing to help the harassed teachers,” this is true, and is especially the case with pre-tenured teachers, who literally have no rights. I’m at a bit of a moral crossroads — I am NOT a fan of Teachers’ Unions AT ALL, but at the same time I blast them for not defending the flock. The two are not incompatible views, I just struggle with the elegance of expression necessary to marry the two into a meaningful whole.
    
    And I’m not retired… I was chased out of secondary teaching by a crooked administration at a corrupt and broken district who, after a 19-year career where I helped depose 7 crooked/incompetent administrators in two states, finally met an opponent I could not best. I didn’t get into education specifically to root out malfeasants as such, but when I fell in love with the teaching profession, I fell “in hate” with those who would do it harm. I just calls it as I sees it. There’s a lot I don’t know, and I may even be wrong once in a while, but like pornography, I know pedagogical evil when I see it…
    
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- Duane Swacker says:
  
  May 23, 2013 at 8:00 am
  
  “I’m not even opposed to standardized testing. i don’t even mind high-stakes testing”
  
  Well, Don A.S.K., you should be opposed to educational standards and standardized testing as the whole process is rife with error that completely invalidates any results. I challenge you to read Noel Wilson’s “Educational Standards and the Problem of Error” found at:
  http://epaa.asu.edu/ojs/article/view/577/700 to understand why standardized testing is a complete sham.
  
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  - Andrew King says:
    
    May 23, 2013 at 8:15 am
    
    Fallacy of equivocation.
    
    “Content-area educaitonal standards” are not the same as, nor do they imply, “standardized testing.”
    
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  - Andrew King says:
    
    May 23, 2013 at 8:15 am
    
    I support content-area standards.
    
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rick mangone says:

May 22, 2013 at 6:28 pm

I believe that when the IRS scandal unfolds the current mayor of Chicago who served as White House chief of staff will be involved up to his neck.

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Andrew King says:

May 22, 2013 at 6:35 pm

Diane, listen to this 5-minute interview with Kathleen Knauth, a Buffalo area principal who tendered her resignation due to all this madness – the interview is from a week ago; KK made her announcement a couple of weeks earlier. (Of course, I blogged about it, back on May 7: http://askingquestionsblog.blogspot.com/2013/05/first-gerald-conti-now-principled.html.)

I’ll post the audio link in a reply…

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- Andrew King says:
  
  May 22, 2013 at 6:36 pm
  
  Here’s the audio for the Knauth interview:
  
  http://audio.wben.com/a/74908084/too-much-standardized-testing-for-students-kathleen-knauth.htm
  
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  - neanderthal100 says:
    
    May 23, 2013 at 5:51 am
    
    I hope you post this again when the teachers finish this 4-5 week end of year testing chaos is over.
    From what I have observed, from what I have heard, from what I know, teachers are aware that the DOE’s are throwing standards on the wall to see what sticks.
    It is the biggest scam in education today and all of these politically motivated DOE people are in bed with the book companies.
    There are law suits pending!
    Race to the Top is the biggest JOKE in the history of education!
    FALL FLAT ON YOUR FACE..(.IN THE BIGGEST PILE OF WORTHLESS DATA) IS THE REALITY OF EDUCATION TODAY!!
    
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- neanderthal100 says:
  
  May 23, 2013 at 5:45 am
  
  This principal cares.
  Teachers do not Teach
  Teachers Test
  
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Mary Liz Towne says:

May 22, 2013 at 11:03 pm

The Wisconsin State Legislature had an informational hearing on the Common Core today, and the most adamant outcry against the standards was the North woods Patriots’ tea party group. Odd that in the great state of Wisconsin, with the motto “forward”, the DPI is the group pushing the Common Core Standards forward and the tea party groups are trying to stop it.

Attached is a link to another tea party group who is against the Common Core Standards
http://www.wisconsin912project.org/index.php/component/content/article/3-calendar/87-common-core-state-standards-inititative.html

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Mary Liz Towne says:

May 22, 2013 at 11:06 pm

The Wisconsin State Legislature had an informational hearing on the Common Core today, and the most adamant outcry against the standards was from the Northwoods Patriots’ tea party group. Odd that in the great state of Wisconsin, with the motto “forward”, the DPI is the group pushing the Common Core Standards forward and the tea party groups are trying to stop it.

Attached is a link to another tea party group who is against the Common Core Standards
http://www.wisconsin912project.org/index.php/component/content/article/3-calendar/87-common-core-state-standards-inititative.html

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neanderthal100 says:

May 23, 2013 at 6:06 am

Common Core Bull

http://www.substancenews.net/articles.php?page=2716

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Tracy Stroud says:

May 23, 2013 at 6:10 am

I absolutely agree that this testing barrage is child abuse. My 3rd grader has been sick for weeks because of the anxiety she feels over these tests. And it starts the first day back at the beginning of each new school year. Many teachers have a count down on their white boards. “180 days until the PSSAs.” Are you kidding me? This kind of thing, along with all the hype and drama, CREATES fear and anxiety in regular kids, let alone what it does to kids already battling anxiety, depression, home issues, etc.

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- Andrew King says:
  
  May 23, 2013 at 7:52 am
  
  You make an interesting case. Maye I just watch too much Law and Order, but there is a legal argument to be made here for psychological abuse and alienation of affection — two very real, actionable offenses. Any lawyers out there up for a 5-year pro bono fight?
  
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