Do you want to join with fellow educators and parents in a virtual book study group?
United Opt Out is sponsoring an online book club, and the focus of its current discussion is “Reign of Error.”
In the past few years, I have become a strong supporter of the opt out movement.
Standardized testing is out of control. Children are losing valuable time that should be spent on instruction, on the arts, on physical education.
Billions are wasted to fatten the testing industry.
Other nations test students twice or three times over the course of their schooling, plus end-of-course exams. We are the only country that tests every child every year. And Finland doesn’t test at all, other than teacher-made tests. Teacher-made tests are best because teachers know what they taught, get instant feedback, and help kids learn what they don’t understand.
By contrast, using New York’s experience as a guide, the results come back months later, and teachers are not allowed to see the students’ answers, just their scores. In short, the tests have no diagnostic value and are used solely to rank teachers, even though research show this to be a misuse of testing.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Hmmm, where I teach we’re not even able to see the students scores. They say that if we were able to see them that this would pigeon hole the children. Oh my, then what’s the point of the test if we can’t then address their weak areas, with the possibility of reteaching what was not picked up the first time? The whole thing is futile and a complete waste of time.
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Elin, if teachers can’t see the tests, can’t see what students got right and wrong, then the tests have no purpose. None at all.
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“Standardized” tests (in ” ,” because they are neither valid nor reliable, so they don’t meet the criteria to be called “standardized”) are, quite simply, the tumor, the core, of the problem. Excise the tumor and stop the spread of the disease which is killing our public schools, their students and their educators.
Everyone, OPT OUT!
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Oh… my… God… this is a funny
parody created by some NY parents
opting who are out:
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