New York’s first Common Core tests, administered last spring, produced a dramatic score decline. 70% of the students across the state allegedly “failed.” State education leaders said the tests set a new “benchmark.” They implied that the tests demonstrated the failure of the state’s schools, that more “reform” was needed, and that more years of testing and accountability would cure the widespread “failure.”
However, suburban parents in successful districts see the matter differently. They know they have excellent schools. They don’t believe in the validity of the state tests.
The low scores have ignited a revolt against the state tests among parents and local educators.
Here is an excerpt from the article:
“But the state is looking at a hard sell, particularly in the Lower Hudson Valley and on Long Island, as a growing movement of educators and parents is questioning or outright dismissing the test results for grades three to eight. Their main argument: Most local students already go to good colleges and do quite well, thank you, so the state’s findings can’t be right.
“What do these results mean, that our kids are not at the level we thought?” asked Lisa Rudley, who has three children in the Ossining schools and recently co-founded a statewide group, NYS Allies for Public Education, that plans to fight “excessive” testing and sharing of student data. “I think parents are informed about what the state is saying, but they don’t like it and don’t accept it.”
“Her group has started a campaign urging parents to send their test-score reports back to Education Commissioner John King in Albany. The group is asking parents to write on the envelope: “Invalid test scores inside.”
The state’s strategy backfired. It has fueled the resistance to high-stakes testing.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Gary Stern is one reporter who gets it, despite his newspaper’s usual anti-educator stance.
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I think an unintended consequence of this horrific round of testing will be a larger number of parents opting their children out! I have had parents point out that their children have always scored well on the previous tests, maintain high 90 averages, and all of a sudden their children are not proficient. Parents in our school have articulated that last spring’s tests are the last NYS test their children will take. Parents are the critical factor in turning the tide.
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Reblogged this on PUMABydesign001's Blog and commented:
Good for the parents in not settling for the status quo. We know that NYS had always had a history of fudging the numbers.
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I’ve said many times that when the corporate reformers finally turned their sights on suburban districts, they were going to meet stiff resistance. These are the “helicopter parents”, the ones who know what goes on in their child’s school and are educated enough and have the time to assess for themselves the quality of their child’s education. They can be fooled about what goes on in urban districts they don’t know, but when you start to tell them that the teachers they like, the schools they support, and their own children don’t make the grade, the response isn’t going to be belief and cooperation with the privatizing agenda; it’s going to be “get you dirty hands off our school, you lying snakes.” This is exactly what we’re seeing now in New York and what we’ll see elsewhere when the full set of CCSS-based testing hits.
This time, the corporate reformers have bit off more than they can ever hope to chew. These parents aren’t easily rolled over or convinced to ignore what they know to be true; that they have good schools and that their children are learning and succeeding as a result of those schools. This is what will finally bring the corporate reformers down. These suburban parents, who contribute to candidates and (more importantly) vote, are not a force that can be ignored. Once they see the corporate reform agenda first-hand, they will reject it and will also be moved to ask why it is good for any child, not just their own.
The corporate reformers’ own over-reach into the suburbs will be the final crack that brings the whole structure of privatization down.
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Yup – whenever I thought something was unfairly limiting my student’s learning I just got the parents to back me up!
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Too true!
We who are teachers do need to remember, as we fight the reformers, that our best and most natural allies are the parents of our students. We are on the same side and have the same concerns, no matter how the corporate reformers try to divide us. Together, we make a political and social force that they will not be able to resist, but we must overcome the political inertia that keeps those who support the corporate reform agenda in office. Once we do, once the majority of parents are scared that their child’s school might be the next to suffer from the reformist attacks, we will have won this fight and saved public education.
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If they’ve bitten off more than they can chew, may they choke on it
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It remains our job to keep shoving it back down their throats with a 2×4, the one they keep handing us to hit each other with.
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The corporate reformers are “gaming” the system. Next year, they will adjust the cut score so that a larger percent will pass and they will make the claim that their “reform” is working! This will give their minions (the politicians) ammunition to push for more “reform” and tend to quell some of the critics.
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They will try this but it will fall short as too many already know the truth about them. That will not stop them from doing as you say and pushing their toxic agenda as far as they can in spite of the increasing push back from parents and teachers. Only when the push back becomes an open revolt as it appears to be ready to do in NC will we bring them to a halt and be able to reverse the damage they have done.
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Unfortunately, most schools lack the social and economic standing to fend off these intrusions into their instructional program. I would add, that you will find many of these state and federal officials, including the President, sending their children to private schools that do not permit accountability mandates to interfere with their instructional program— those mandates, are for other people’s children.
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John King, NY Commissioner of (Public) Education, sends his two children to a Montessori school!
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If you are an educator or parent in the Hudson Valley area please join us at Twin Towers Middle School in Middletown, NY this Wednesday at 7pm. We will gather to talk about the importance of adequately funded public education as a foundation of democracy,the failures of the current funding formulas, and the myth of “failing public schools.” We must send a message to Albany that inadequate education funding will not be tolerated. Our excellent public schools are being starved to make political points. We must push back against the false narrative that our schools are failing and demand adequate funding. Connect to us on Facebook at Facebook.com/pages/FairfundingNY
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As the push back on all of the failed deformer policies increases, fueled in no small part by their continuing over reach, we have to be sure that no accommodation is made to come to rest on any so called middle ground. There simply is no reason to accept that any amount or version of their failed agenda by allowed to remain and thereby dilute and impugn effective, evidence based policy. They have no right whatsoever to divert any of our education dollars out of our schools just because their private sector insurgency made inroads into public education.
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If the common core tests were worth the paper they were printed on, the private schools would be spending days having students take them.
They’re not, the tests are a waste of time, case closed.
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Proceed with caution when making comparisons with private schools!
If you think they are wise for not giving their children Common Core-aligned tests (yet), are they also wise for hiring teachers as at-will employees?
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Didn’t they think the parents were eventually going to get angry and revolt? Never provoke a mother tiger….
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Have a look at the junk that is being produced by PARCC and SmarterBalanced. When these tests hit, the deform movement will stop cold.
What a mess these new tests are!!!!
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The public will demand accountability when these new tests hit, and then the analysis and critique of the tests will begin. And they won’t stand up to it. Again, have a look at the junk posted as sample questions on the PARCC and SmarterBalanced sites. And these are the ones that they have vetted for public consumption!!! When these tests hit, there will be hell to pay by those who called for them.
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Of course, one thing that the test makers can do to keep there from being an enormous storm of protest after the exams are given, initially, is to field test them and to toss out items until those that are left could be answered by a head of lettuce. It’s quite possible, of course, that that’s the tack they will take.
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When the scores of the higher performing suburban districts go down you know there will be heck to pay, and that the parents there are informed and thoughtful enough to know that it is not the teachers or the schools that are to blame, but a well-planned grab for public dollars and real estate…they will fight and not go down easily…but please keep in mind that there are plenty of districts that do not have such power and resources, and they will need continued help in this fight.
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I have said this before…we need a class action suit to release the tests! Once parents see how developmentally inappropriate they are, they will opt out.
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I administered both ELA and math (Pearson) exams at the middle level. I know why the fear the release. False claims of test security are nothing but a cover up for grossly incompetent (?) or willfully malicious (?) test writing.
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My daughter, who became concerned that my grandson was not assigned a reading group yet — this is now October. The response from the teacher was they had to wait until the school testing program was complete and the results could be analyzed. My daughter a non-educator, asked me an educator, if elementary teachers had the ability to diagnose/place students in a reading group without looking at a test. My response was yes, but having said that, I also knew that our state only requires 1 reading course in the teacher preparation program—that means, there could be a problem with not only diagnosing reading levels, but teaching reading.
Which leads me to the problem I am having with some, not all of Dr. Ratvich’s writings. While in her camp on almost every issue—and certainly find Mr. Dunkin and Ms. Rhee on the wrong path—the inconvenient truth of our teaching force is it is not as well educated or trained as our counterparts in Finland or South Korea or countries at the top. To teach math, or science, or reading well you must have deep knowledge in those disciplines which the majority of our teacher preparation programs do not provide. A systematic problem with our educational system today is the admission and training of our teaching force. I must say, that there is a nation wide push to past mandates that would require more preparation is subject matter areas and more months in student teaching. I would add that same goes for school leaders, particularly principals, or are ill-prepared for the job of instructional leader.I would go on, but, would add that so many of the instructional decisions made in schools today, from personnel to how time is used, is colonized by student activities and athletics. No other country at the top has to make a decision between hiring a head football coach or a good math teacher –in America there is no question what a principal will do. I know, I know, as I have had board members tell me—can’t you find a great football coach who is also a great math teacher—the answer is NO.
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More preparation in the subject areas to be taught–more acquisition of knowledge in these areas–is always a good thing. But that’s not where we are headed. There is no systematic attempt to make that happen. Instead, we have these stupid skill-based ELA tests, tests of skills abstracted from any content or context. And those stupid tests will drive everything else–teacher and school evaluation, passage of students from one level to another through the system, curriculum development, pedagogical practice. . . . What a disaster.
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Responding to Alan C. Jones
I am bothered by the fact that the school your daughter attends still hasn’t been grouped by Oct. Whose responsible for this? You didn’t mention what type of testing the school does to decide what reading group children are placed in. Standardized tests won’t give it to you except Marie Clay’s standardized test. The evaluations should have been done at the end of last school year – in May- so when the children return in the fall the teacher knows the level of her/his students. So much time has been wasted not having children grouped by the first week of school!
You stated, “I also knew that our state only requires 1 reading course in the teacher preparation program—that means, there could be a problem with not only diagnosing reading levels, but teaching reading.”
Your statement is very vague. The amount of literacy credits depends upon the certification the teacher is working toward. In NY, the state doesn’t stipulate the amount of credits, it is up to the college/universities to decide how many credits a student needs in literacy. The state requires three credits for a second certification for Childhood education; the student has to go through the university to request the second certification. The university has to recommend the student. In NY the Childhood student can’t apply for the second certification on his/her own. In NY, literacy has always received special attention.
Education never ends with the receiving of a degree. Through my years of teaching, teachers were always attending workshops joining other districts on weekends or after school. Teachers shared their expertise with one another during meetings or on a one-to-one basis. Many teachers were trained in Reading Recovery, Literacy Collaborative, or the Arkansas Program which required months of training after their master’s degree. Teachers had to travel out of state for that training.
Teachers are a unique breed – always searching/studying how to improve their approach in meeting the needs of their students. It could be that I was just blessed to work with outstanding, dedicated, caring, informed teachers who were always researching to improve their skills. They used personal money to buy literacy books for their classroom library and teaching tools. They applied for grants to develop special programs. They volunteered to provide workshops for parents. The teachers I was privileged to work with were well verse in the Constructivists philosophy that guided Marie Clay, Fountas and Pinnell. Our reading program was outstanding as were our teachers. Sadly the govt. is destroying the successful reading program that was in place but worse, destroying the teachers’ enthusiasm.
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You were in a special district/school. While most of the schools where I have conducted curriculum audits are composed of a majority of teachers who are dedicated, but where most of the teaching I observe is an assign/assess model, too many worksheets, and certainly not the kind of divergent questioning or problem solving that common core standards are looking at. While I applaud your situation and what your teachers are doing, the research on current state of teacher training in America paints a very different picture. Again our teaching force is not at the subject matter levels or training levels as our counterparts in Finland, South Korea, Japan, Poland, etc. I also question the ability of one or two day workshops—drive by staff development—to provide kinds of background, modeling, and practice that is required to master sophisticated pedagogies like reading recovery (whose training programs are superior). I address these concerns in my book: Teacher Matters Most: A School Leader’s Guide to Improving Classroom Instruction (Corwin Press).
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Stewart Riley–waay up there–is so right about suburban parents. In 18 suburban school districts in Illinois (a number of them rated excellent), K-12 Virtual Schools attempted to weasel their way into those districts. ALL of the parents, community members, school boards and administrators did their homework, knew their enemy well and faced it with educated resistance, denied the charter applications–ALL 18 districts–& won. As a result, two of their state reps. wrote legislation–which passed–placing a one-year moratorium on approvals for virtual schools. Everyone knows that, in one year, they’ll be back (just like Michael Millken–banished from the world of stocks & bonds, he left prison still determined to make big $$$, and so reinvented himself as an educational enterpreneur selling–instead of junk bonds–junk education.
Pushing this on the suburbs? No, Mike, you & your ilk WON’T win–EVER.
And this comes from the mouth of…a suburban parent.
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