Testing is moving from onerous to ridiculous.
In response to the new teacher evaluation agreement, where every teacher must be evaluated in part by student test scores, the city education department is moving rapidly to develop new tests for every teacher, including teachers of physical education, music, arts, and even kindergarten through second grade.
At this point, one must ask whether city education officials have lost all sense of education values or whether they are trying to make public school so dreadful that parents flee to charters and private schools.
Naturally the agreement was praised by a spokesperson for the rightwing National Council for Teacher Quality, which has a faith-based devotion to standardized testing.
Someday this testing madness will collapse of its own weight, as one foolishness is piled onto another and then another and then another.
And those who created this regime will go down in history as opportunistic, anti-intellectual, or worse.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
PLEASE TAKE THIS POLL FOR MY BOOK “TEACHING IN 2013”. THANK YOU. I NEED 1000 PEOPLE AGAINST THESE RIDICULOUS TESTS TO MAKE A DIFFERENCE WITH MY BOOK AND WITH THE PUBLICITY! PLEASE! THANK YOU!
DO YOU AGREE WITH STANDARDIZED TESTING FOR CHILDREN?
_______I’M A PARENT AND I DISAGREE
_______I’M A PARENT AND I AGREE
_______I’M A TEACHER AND I AGREE
_______I’M A TEACHER AND I DISAGREE
_______I AGREE
______I DISAGREE
Please send your answers to garychatty@aol.com, privately.
https://apps.facebook.com/polldaddy-polls/?view=poll&id=7053790
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Spambot?
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Diane- When you mention testing in the ARTS, I hope that parents realize that we are Pre-Testing and Post Testing in Instrumental Music as well.
Marge
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Ah, but are you doing it objectively? *wink*
Our school system has already had in place materials and procedures for testing the elementary grades in general music for some time; I ended up blowing 2 class periods at the end of the marking period when I was a long-term sub, showing videos to the classes while I tested each kid individually per my instructions from the teacher I filled in for, who in turn was following procedure. 2 class periods of 9, and subtract another for the odd holiday and snow day, and that is a LOT of time NOT spent actually TEACHING music. 😦
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I teach in Albany NY and the State dept. of education is crazy. I just completed 1 month of testing. and no real teaching. We are giving more tests than I ever dreamed possible. Not only the state exams, but now local measures to help teachers with low testing students. These new evaluations have spurred the worst frenzy I have ever seen. It has been brought on by the Race to The Top money. What a terrible idea no distict should have accepted the money.There should have been mass protested about the strings attached and it should be given back.
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“There should have been mass protests”
This is something that many will be saying after Public Education is completely destroyed. We should-DA!
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I have three words: NUTS, HARMFUL, and GREED.
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Same three here and more I really need not publicize!!
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Have you watched an NYC high school PE class? P is for pathetic. Why bother? Why not teach HS kids CPR, first aid or something they can actually use, especially since SO many students either don’t participate or don’t show up anyway. The student I worked with this year was a super senior because she lacked 1 credit, 1 PE credit. So everyday she had to show up 10:40-11:20 for “PE” or sit on the gym perimeter and wait til the bell rings so IF you have enough attendances you can pass and get your “diploma.” Amazing. She made it, just barely. But you know what, when encouraged/threatened two weeks before the end of the semester to make it to every remaining class or else, I had to wonder, why? The day after two weeks was up, she’d have no place to go. Not college, not a job, not anywhere. Fortunately, she likes the library where she has internet access. What to do? Oh, what to do? She did complete her requirement, no test. And she has nothing to do. Little if anything to look forward to. CityYear? YearUp? CUNY? Probably not, as her mother won’t release the family’s financial aid information.
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Yes Susan,
Let’s straighten the frame on the wall while the house is burning down!
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“. . . which has a faith-based devotion to standardized testing.”
And that is what it (the devotion) is-faith based. As Noel Wilson has shown* educational standards and standardized testing need that faith based devotion in order to survive. It is an ideology and, like any religion, one must cast aside/deny/ignore the multiple contradictions of the ideology to be a “true” believer.
“i·de·ol·o·gy 1. The body of ideas reflecting the social needs and aspirations of an individual, group, class, or culture.
2. A set of doctrines or beliefs that form the basis of a political, economic, or other system. (from thefreedictionary.com)
The ideological movement of educational standards and standardized testing has gone from the individual (Spearman, Yerkes) to the group (educators) to the class of “elite” edudeformers and finally through the edu-philanthovulture’s monies to buy media time and politicians to come to permeate our culture.
“Someday this testing madness will collapse of its own weight, as one foolishness is piled onto another and then another and then another.”
It will when the “group”, the teachers, administrators (although I fear the vast majority of them are far too “invested” in their jobs and believe they are of the class of elite rheeformers) and parents read, understand and heed Wilson’s work, return to an egalitarian mode of education from the “merit” based sorting and separating modus operandi that is educational standards and standardized testing. Until then, we will keep reaping the rotten fruits of educational standards and standardized testing and continue to cause harm to the most innocent of society, the children. What an abomination this educational standards and standardized testing ideology is!!
*See: “Educational Standards and the Problem of Error” found at: http://epaa.asu.edu/ojs/article/view/577/700
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Yet again I call out the use of faith-based as a pejorative—I think that is beside the point. My dedication to public school and fewer standardized tests is faith-based, or rather I intepret my values and the values I want for institutions based on my framework of personal faith. Faith-based in and of itself is not bad. I don’t think that argument would ever change anyone’s mind following a policy. The facts of the matter are where you look—not at how one arrived at the facts they want in place.
I repeat—my support of public school and looking after “the least of these my brethren” is faith-based. And there is nothing wrong with that. It is what we are allowed to be in this country, so long as we reach compromise (better yet, synergy) with others whose faiths lead them to different values. The problem here is that no synergy is happening–one interpretation is seeking to dominate. In my opinion, because reformers don’t seem to be looking out for the “least of these my brethren,” I really don’t see how faith could be behind it. At least not faith in the God I believe in. But, my main point is that when I read “faith-based” as a negative fuel for not backing reform, I disagree. I don’t like the reforms, and that is faith-based.
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Perhaps it is a matter of context but I took Diane’s “faith-based” reference to mean that their beliefs are not based in scientific research nor have they been proven to work through pilot programs, both scientific methods that once were the bedrock of academia.
I don’t see it as being discourteous to religious people in general or religious allies in particular but perhaps that’s my own privilege showing even though I too am a person of faith. A new and/or different term might not convey the same meaning but if you have a suggestion please share it.
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I said this in another comment, but it really should be here. Education in NYS will be one that is devoted to testing and devoid of any creativity or actual learning. Schools should be a place where students get excited to learn. And to force this upon young children is criminal. We are already taking away the ability to teach through creative outlets like fiction and creative writing. So let’s also take away the ability to express themselves through art while learning at the same time. Kindergarten is supposed to be a place for children to learn socialization and readiness skills. Now it’s unlikely to be play centers anywhere in a NYC kinder room. Kinder is the new first grade.
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In 2000, Missouri talked about a state music test—they even sent us to training on it. But it never happened. Usually when it comes to spending money to implement tests for “specials,” it doesn’t happen.
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Just think what could have been done with the time, money and energy it takes to make these new tests (something that would truly improve learning). But that isn’t the real goal; the dismantling of public education and teachers are the focus, not the kids. They don’t give a damn about kids.That’s the difference between reformers and real teachers.
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“At this point, one must ask whether city education officials have lost all sense of education values or whether they are trying to make public school so dreadful that parents flee to charters and private schools.”
B I N G O . . .!
from the smartest economist I know, this helps explain the motivation for the Chaos Theoy in such full bloom in our education policy circles
Re Emile Dupuit’s astute observation of the French rail system in 1849:
“It is not because of the few thousand francs which would have to be spent to put a roof over the third-class carriage or to upholster the third-class seats that some company or other has open carriages with wooden benches … What the company is trying to do is prevent the passengers who can pay the second-class fare from traveling third class; it hits the poor, not because it wants to hurt them, but to frighten the rich … And it is again for the same reason that the companies, having proved almost cruel to the third-class passengers and mean to the second-class ones, become lavish in dealing with first-class customers. Having refused the poor what is necessary, they give the rich what is superfluous”.
more: http://bit.ly/9OhJpV
Think this might have something to do with why the powers that be are doing their damnedest to ruin public education in this country and force us into a two-track system where there are special schools for the Haves and public schools for those other children?
And it appears they can do it . . . there’s a lot of money riding on privatization and they seem to have unlimited resources and are willing to spend them in the marketing, political and madia arenas.
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Bertis,
It is true that economists (and historians) can figure out why something happened in the past. As Bernanke stated ” “Economics is a highly sophisticated field of thought that is superb at explaining to policymakers precisely why the choices they made in the past were wrong. About the future, not so much.”
After the destruction of Public Education, will we end up with economists explaining to policymakers precisely why the choices they made in the past were wrong?
What we need is for everyone to figure out where this destructive policy is leading us!!!
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I know it might be a little bit of unwelcome “shock and awe” to say this, but the increasingly harsh hazing ritual known as “standardized testing” will inexplicably [?] largely bypass the schools that the children of the leading edupreneurs, edubullies and edufrauds attend.
In fact, I predict that some of these schools will begin to emphasize in their promotional materials that they provide the “most precious assets” of their prospective “clients” with an enriched learning experience that will leave the young “consumers” of their “enhanced eduproducts” happier than a “customer” who just bought the latest winning Powerball ticket.
Ok, that last bit about the Powerball ticket I just made up. But seriously, you think Harpeth Hall [Michelle Rhee, we hear you roar!], for example, is going to become a Center of Boredom and Compliance with steadily increasing dollops of test prep and testing? Or are they deliberately failing to keep pace with their public school companions by continuing to march to the beat of a different drummer? [many apologies to Thoreau]
From the Harpeth Hall website under the menu heading “About Us” and under that “Core Purpose”: “Our core purpose is to nurture a sense of wonder, to instill a will and facility for learning, and to promote cultural understanding, environmental stewardship, and service to others. The pursuit of these goals will inspire students and faculty to combine knowledge with goodness and reflection with action.”
But not a word about the wonder of training to bubble-in answers on high-stakes standardized tests? I guess they didn’t get the latest memo for the schools serving
OTHER PEOPLE’S CHILDREN
Or maybe they just deposit those in the circular file [an ed joke; means a wastepaper basket].
🙂
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NEW YORK..YOU ARE NERVE RACKING AND SO SO SO WRONG..
A;LL YOU DO IS
TEST-TEST-TEST-TEST-TEST-TEST-TEST-TEST-TEST-TEST-TEST-TEST-TEST-TEST
TEST-TEST-TEST-TEST-TEST-TEST-TEST-TEST-TEST-TEST-TEST-TEST-TEST-TEST
TEST-TEST-TEST-TEST-TEST-TEST-TEST-TEST-TEST-TEST-TEST-TEST-TEST-TEST
TEST-TEST-TEST-TEST-TEST-TEST-TEST-TEST-TEST-TEST-TEST-TEST-TEST-TEST
Is that nerve racking enough????
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Testing kindergarteners? That’s way too late. Let’s give exams to fetuses. http://studentslast.blogspot.com/2012/09/the-tiniest-test-takers.html
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It’s bullshit, plain and simple.
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I think you are right, Diane: the purpose of all these idiotic tests is, in fact, to drive everybody out of public schools by making them ridiculously unpleasant.
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My district in Westchester is administering them this week! We started today with a 50 minute final in ELA which was a past NYS 6th grade exam, given to 5th graders. The following days will include written exams in gym, art, and music. The gym teacher mused about what he was suppose to be teach that might be on the test. Perhaps something about gymnastics, like the higher a monkey climbs a tree, the more you see his a_ _. I leave it to you to surmise who the monkeys are.
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