A letter from a parent in New York City. Any advice for
her?
I just learned about Common Core
Standards this afternoon at a school orientation in Queens, New
York. I have a 1st grader and a child in kindergarten. I am told my
child will have a test tomorrow and he is expected to know how to
read. He is in Kindergarten! He only recognizes every letter in the
alphabet but I never took on teaching him to read at 4. He has to
write the main idea of the story. This test will only make him feel
frustrated and inferior. The parents in the class agreed with me
and I said I will see what I can do, in terms of a petition, a
class action lawsuit, or however I can make a difference. Please,
please, I have parents on board, help me, what can I do next. Last
night my 1st grader had 3 hrs worth of homework. By the time I fed
them dinner, she was not done with homework until 9:30 p.m. I was
not even able to read to her with all the homework that needed to
be done. They are not sleeping the appropriate amount of time. I
wake them up at 6:30. This is a traumatic time for us. I am turned
off about sending them to school at all. They get no recess and are
only allowed one gym period, bi-weekly! How can they burn off
energy properly? Please help me help my
children.
Thank you,
Yesenia Gomez
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Yesenia – You must refuse the tests. Protect your children. Let me know how I can help. My email is writepeg@juno.com. Our website at United Opt Out National has a wealth of information on how to refuse the tests. Check for our NY guide and also see here for our guide on early childhood: http://unitedoptout.com/a-guide-for-parents-advocating-for-your-child-in-the-early-years/ . Best, Peg, http://www.pegwithpen.com, http://www.unitedoptout.com
Wow…I knew they were going younger, but I didn’t realize they were testing that young. I would suggest a petition, send it around the parents, try to get the word out. Maybe get the media involved, and tell people what is going on. Once enough people know about it, it’ll get recognized as being wrong, and hopefully that will lead to it being changed.
Oh, and good luck. I hope that will help.
My ideas:
Opt-out of the kindergarten testing. Set limits on the amount of homework you will allow your children to do. Indicate that a bedtime of 7:30 or 8:00 is necessary for your children to maintain good health and that you will put your children to bed at that time whether or not the homework is finished. Look into independent and parochial schools that follow a developmentally appropriate curriculum. Consider creating a parent homeschool co-op. Continue to agitate in your school district but I suspect you’ll only get so far at the moment. Administrators are “digging in” and you’ll be considered the problem, not this unprecedented and radical re-alignment of elementary education.
You are describing psychological child abuse.
Call CPS
Opt Out of testing and any test prep activity
A class action law suit will be most effective.
Too true and horrifying.
I know this may sound silly and completely not radical, but have you talked to your children’s teachers about this yet? Their principal? Have you made appointments to talk to the administrators or superintendent? I know these may seem like small steps, but honestly, all the big things (like petitions, challenging the boards, and lawsuits) take incredible amounts of time and won’t help your little ones today or tomorrow. If you can opt out of any of the testing or set strict bedtimes and forgo homework that is still not done, great – but this still requires talking to your children’s teachers. Please keep them in the loop, because they are trying to do their jobs AND care for your children.
Make an appointment with the 1st grade teacher explaining the situation. Ask the teacher if it is appropriate for students to do 3 hours of homework, and if most of the students are spending this amount of time on homework. Ask if you can observe in class to get an idea how much work they are doing at school. See if he/she will reduce the amount of homework to about 20 minutes per night. If he/she won’t do this then make an appointment with the principal with the same concerns, and let them know you’ll allow your child to do about 20 minutes a night and that is it. I did this with my daughter’s first grade teacher and she told me to circle math problems that I thought were too “abstract” for 6 year olds, and that she didn’t have to complete those. Research on internet studies showing why recess is important and bring those in. If they still won’t budge then spread the word among your parent friends and get that petition going. Good luck!
In first grade, students should have less than 20 minutes of homework. Ideally, they should have NO homework except for reading or being read to, but if they MUST have homework, it should be 10 minutes or less.
Keep yourself focused on what is good for your children. If you want them to be readers, teach them to love reading. It sounds like you were already doing that before the homework nightmare. Tuck them early with a few good books you read to them. Teach them to love to play with words.. If what they are telling you to do made them top test takers would you do it? Obviously not, or else you would not be frustrated. A top test rank doesn’t mean they can read well nor does it mean they WILL read. They will hate it. Keep doing what you are already doing. It is not only the right thing for teaching them to read; it is the right thing period. Opt out of the tests. Read the letter here from the Catholic educators. Stay tuned in here on the DR blog. It will give you the courage you need to do the right thing.
I just want to add one more very important thing here. We are all here because we READ and WRITE. We are the “informed.” The reformed don’t want us informed. It is their worst enemy. We are (sadly) becoming a minority. The reformers want us to be illiterate. If we can’t read and write, or don’t read and write…they win by default. Nurturing your children’s literate behaviors by modeling for them, engaging them, and nurturing is the most important thing you can do. I think the most important things we can teach our children is to develop an interest in them and teach them to think. Teaching to tests is antithetical to this. It is what spells W I N for the reformers. Keep your focus on your children and stay informed…. DR’s blog is a great place to stay informed. DR does the homework for us, nurtures our literacy, develops our interest, and motivates our engagement. This is exactly what you are already doing:)
Look for an alternative school situation for your kids. It’s not worth the fight with these bureaucrats. Schools and classrooms in NYC are currently in disarray. Particularly in Title I schools. I’m a 20 year veteran teacher in Brooklyn. I wouldn’t put my own child in one of these hyper segregated racially isolated schools. While you are wasting your time filling out these petitions you could be trying to help your two little ones become real readers with a love for books and all things learning. Enrich them with art, music,sports, and such. Don’t wait for these people to educate your child. Don’t trust what’s going on in that school building.
Homework at the first grade level – any amount, let alone 3 hours – is ridiculous. Research shows absolutely no benefits to it, and plenty of harms – loss of time for unstructured play/chores/family time, family conflict, feelings of incompetence/inferiority, etc. Opt your child out of homework completely.
Opting out of tests should by now go without saying.
When I was a new teacher (and not yet a parent myself) a wise parent told me that I had her child 6 hours a day and she wouldn’t allow me to have” her child another 2 hours a day!
🙂
Love it!
Bless your heart. This sounds like something out of Cold War USSR. I can hear strains of The Volga Boatmen Song.
All of the above suggestions are good. I particularly like the idea of contacting the media.
Be strong and stay strong, you are in a fight for your children and every other public school child as well. They are children first, and students second. They will be reluctant students for life if this situation continues.
If there is any one group that can bring an end to this insanity – it is the parents.
Especially parents who vote. Call your state representatives and let your voices
(and votes) be heard.
You have gotten good advice above. Arm yourself with some understandings about early literacy development (on the prairie noted many important ones). The evidence is clear that children who “are ready” to learn to read when they get to kindergarten and first grade are those from a language enriched environment. This environment includes LOTS of talk, AUTHENTIC experiences with print (reading to your child, noting what signs “say,” making the shopping list together, etc.) – it does NOT include things such as drills and worksheets on letters, words or a diet of phonetically regular books (“The cat sat on the flat mat” is not a story – it is a LIST of words). My child (and I) had to endure spelling tests in kindergarten in the name of rigor. Children are learn SOMETHING from every experience they have. What are they learning when they have experiences in school like those you describe?
Colorado Teacher,
“What are they (children) learning when they have experiences in school like those you describe?”
The kids are “learning” – or, rather, being drilled – to accept overwork, tedium, powerlessness and the reach of arbitrary authority.
Those who are pushing so-called education reform see those as the most crucial skills for being “career ready” in the 21st century.
You are an awesome mom with your heart and head in the right place. Follow advice from above that sounds doable to you and stay true to your convictions!
Yesenia – Attempting to post again – I think it’s not posting due to the links. You must refuse the tests. Protect your children. Let me know how I can help. My email is writepeg – at – juno – dot – com. Our website at United Opt Out National has a wealth of information on how to refuse the tests at www – dot – unitedoptout – dot – com. Best, Peg
From Wiki:
“A review by researchers at Duke University of more than 60 research studies on homework between 1987 and 2003 showed that, within limits, there is a positive interaction between the amount of homework which is done and student achievement. The research synthesis also indicated that too much homework could be counterproductive. The research supports the ’10-minute rule’,the widely accepted practice of assigning 10 minutes of homework per day per grade-level. For example, under this system, 1st graders would receive 10 minutes of homework per night, while 5th graders would get 50 minutes’ worth, 9th graders 90 minutes of homework, etc.[4]
Harris Cooper,[5] a professor of psychology and chairman of the Department of Psychology and Neuroscience at Duke, said the research synthesis that he led showed the positive correlation was much stronger for secondary students — those in grades seven through 12 — than those in elementary school.[4]
Many schools exceed these recommendations or do not considered assigned reading in the time limit worthwhile.[6]”
And since K X 10 is not definable, no homework whatsoever is appropriate for kindergarten.
I believe Alfie Kohn has refuted Harris Cooper’s findings. I’d have to go back and read THE HOMEWORK MYTH to be sure, thought.
Parents in an upstate NY school district (near Albany) opted out last year. There were letters the parents submitted to the district stating they did not want their child to participate.
It is legal. Students stayed home or came to school and did an alternative activity. This however would be very difficult for a Primary student or teacher as testing conditions are very controlled. You can contact NYSED department in Albany. There is a procedure that can be followed. Good luck.
It should be noted that this Columbia County district had an approximate opt out rate of 14% in grades 3 to 8. To the best of my knowledge the district incurred NO loss of state or federal funding due to the opt out movement.
Opt out of that testing. Set limits on the amount of homework for your first grader. Of course they need sleep more than homework. Find an appropriate kindergarten. Kindergarten is more about socialization and exploring the world. The cooperative homeschool idea is great. But keep strong, it sounds like you have a great core group of parents. Remember, they are your children and OUR schools. Good luck!
What do you want to raise? A child that loves learning (and you are their best teacher, by the way) or a child that learns early on that it has to slave to compete? Arm yourself with some evidence – read this paper from Univ Cambridge
Click to access occasional-paper2.pdf
and realise that it is school that needs to be ready for children, not the other way around, and be encouraged!!!
Here’s the conclusion:
Conclusion
The model of ‘readiness for school’ is attractive to
governments as it seemingly delivers children into primary
school ready to conform to classroom procedures and even
able to perform basic reading and writing skills. However,
from a pedagogical perspective this approach fuels an
increasingly dominant notion of education as ‘transmission
and reproduction’, and of early childhood as preparation
for school rather than for ‘life.’ In this paper, we have
reviewed the now extensive evidence that the curriculum-centered
approach evident in many Key Stage 1 classrooms,
and the idea that rushing young children into formal
learning of literacy, mathematics etc. as young as possible is
misguided. This leads to a situation where children’s basic
emotional and cognitive needs for autonomy, competence
and relatedness, and the opportunity to develop their
metacognitive and self‐regulation skills, are not being met.
The problem is not that children are not ready for school,
but that our schools are not ready for children.
Well said, NY Teacher.
Hi Yesenia:
Fellow NYC parent here. Here in NYC, we have not only the state common core tests for grades 3-8, but also interim tests, which were created so DOE and NYSED can try to assess teachers’ effect over the course of the school year, even for grades K-2. I don’t know if teachers get any feedback on the K-2 tests, but the teachers will be judged on the results.
At least in years past the predictive tests that were taken multiple times per year by kids in grades 3 and up were designed to help teachers figure out what areas of the state tests the kids would be weak on, so that instruction could be focused on those areas. It allowed further narrowing of the curriculum as teachers focused like a laser on making sure kids knew how to answer a particular type of test question.
Opt out of testing. Send a letter to the teacher and principal indicating that you will not allow your child to participate in any standardized testing this year. I have done that for both my kids. To make sure my bases were covered, I said that my child would not be allowed to participate in any state tests, field tests, or tests used to evaluate teachers.
A school in Washington Heights opted out of the kindergarten test, and so many kids opted out, they did not have the test in the school AT ALL. There was an article in the Daily News about it.
My kids have done this and have not had to take the tests.
Even though my kids are opting out of testing, the need to prep the kids for the test infects every aspect of what’s being taught. My grade schooler’s new curriculum is now “Common Core aligned,” which seems to mean “designed to drive the joy out of learning.”
My third grader’s assignments seem completely developmentally inappropriate and unlikely to instill a love of reading or learning. For example, he is supposed to take his chapter book, and for each chapter, pick a character, describe a character trait, and used text-based evidence to show the trait. He is also supposed to show how the character changed over time.
To my mind, (but then again I’m not a billionaire with a well-funded foundation, just a well-educated parent, so what do I know?) this type of character study and textual analysis is really not appropriate at this age, when the main goal is to get kids to read books they like, so they read a lot, and develop greater fluency in reading.
Like your child, my third grader was taking through bedtime to get this work done, and missing out on valuable free play time and regular reading time. I said enough is enough. I told his teacher, and she said we could stop after 20 minutes, which is what we do now.
I would say start a petition at your school, give it to the principal, copy it for your state senator and state assemblymember, the incoming mayor, and the governor. Tell them you are unhappy and tell them what you want changed.
At both of my kids’ schools, there is growing unhappiness with the tests and the Common Core and I think if enough of us join together and opt out of testing, we will get a change.
The main worry of parents who are not opting out of testing, the reason they will let their kids be tested, is their worry about getting kids into middle school or high school. In my district, District 15 in Brooklyn, there is no zoned high school or middle school, so everyone is scrambling to apply to schools and many high school and middle schools screen via test scores. The worry is that if you have no test scores at all, these middle schools and high schools simply won’t look at you. Part of the solution would be to bring back zoned schools, where your child has to be admitted, regardless of scores, and the other is to have the middle schools and high schools agree not to use state test scores as screening criteria. I think if the middle and high schools did this, that probably 90 percent of the parents I know would opt their kids out of the tests.
Many Queens neighborhoods have zoned high schools and middle schools, so it would be easier for parents with kids in those neighborhoods to opt out of testing.
Good luck!
Good for you, Brooklyn Mom! Perhaps, now, with deBlasio, you can
get your zoned schools in Brooklyn & end this mess!
www – dot – unitedoptout – dot – com. look for the New York letter template.
Yesenia, esta es la Revolución socialista y democrática de los humildes, con los humildes y para los humildes!
Buena Suerte!
I am fully with this parent. As a teacher, newly moved to second grade, I do not assign homework. We work hard enough during the day. I tell the kids they can take a book home and read it if they like. My books disappear, they get time in class to share with each other, and they are reading well because they enjoy it. I know I won’t last long in this new regimen of testing little kids, but so be it, I won’t be complicit. I have also released my district’s testing schedule and have hinted those are fine days for family outings.
Subversive-ha ha!
We need a lot more like you!
Good for you, O.T. I’m with Duane, below–you need to be cloned!!
Oops–Duane is above–anyway, I concur!
There is power in numbers. It is extremely important to build a group of parents at your child’s school who will stand together to opt out of testing. Start an email list, a facebook group, and regular in-person meetings. This is going to take a lot of time and effort, but working to protect your child’s education may be the most important thing you ever do. Don’t give up and don’t give in.
Hi Yesenia, I so feel for you and your kids! I am one of the parents at Castle Bridge, the school in Washington Heights that boycotted the new K-2 test. We are hosting a meeting December 2 to bring parents, teachers, and community members together to discuss and plan next steps at various schools. But it sounds like you might want to talk sooner rather than later. I really agree with what some commenters above have suggested in terms of opting your children out of any tests. But if there are other parents in the school who agree with you as you mention in your note, you could possibly get more traction by organizing at the school level. What do the teachers think? How about your principal, the SLT? Is there an active PA or PTA? I would bring it up for discussion at the meeting and go from there . . . You could also connect with people at Change the Stakes. Feel free to contact me at daoxtran (at) me dot com as well.
Here is some inspiration from a parent group in NYC that had a successful boycott of a K- 2 bubble test! Check them out on therealnews.com
http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=74&jumival=10911
So many good suggestions and expressions of support—
from the bottom of my heart, thank you everyone!
I think we all need to be careful with words, but if what this parent wrote is true, how does this not constitute child abuse?
Edufrauds. Edubullies. EduAbusers.
By any other name, they stink just the same.
😎
She needs some help right away. What are the local organizations that can help her? We have too few details to know if our advice is feasible. Keeping a child home can mean a day off of work with no pay, so the simplest immediate response becomes a major dilemma.
I think, since I am nearing 60, and can retire with the combination of age and 20 + years with my district, I can start a special day care for parents. If we band together as parents, those that are stay at home, and some of us older folks can cooperatively undermine this nonsense. We just need to form human relationships and work together.
It is going to take a group commitment. Parents have the power and two powerful words are “lawsuit” and “media”. Schools hate both of those words. The princiipal is demanding that the teachers do this to the students, but the superintendent is demanding that the principals do it. Go to the Superinendent and the State Superintendent and tell them what Common Core is doing to the kids.
There is power in number and a bunch of mad parents can be especially powerful particularly when the legislature is is session.
I do not advise home schooling because it makes the kids unsocialized and adult oriented. Parochials may be against your religion although some parents in New Orleans un-taught Catholicism over dinner. Plus there are the expenses of private schools Better to fight it and ensure that your kids are not punished for work you did not allow them to get done. I do not even believe in homework for K-2 and certainly no more than 30 minutes after that.
I also do not advise home schooling because, what this could lead to, is the death-knell for public schools. Additionally, parents who work, of course, cannot home-school, & aren’t they in the majority?
The ultimate demise of the truly public (not “public” charters) schools, then, would force the majority of children into charter schools, many of them questionable in quality, perhaps greatly staffed by under-qualified Teach for America staff (oh–I’m sorry!–I forget that they are now “highly qualified,” under the end-of-the-government-shutdown-knucking-under–er–agreement!”). All of this “choice” talk is nonsense for, in the end (as wanted by the privatizers, the 1% & the education muckrakers) there will be NO choice–just a bunch of charter schools whose CEOs are making big $$$$, while your children are suffering.
So, please, the best defense is a great defense–fight back with all your might–opt out now! Every last one of you!!!!
Yesenia, you are not alone and I applaud your willingness to take a stand not only for your child, but also other children in their school. Google “Class Size Matters”. There is a sample letter for New York State parents to opt out of testing of their children. Leonie Haimson, who started Class Size Matters is a NYC parent who is an advocate for students and their parents.
Don’t waist another minute and good luck!
Opt out, go to local school board meetings and voice your concern, go to PTA meetings (become an officer if possible), and be sure to call and write to your state’s representatives and senators. Let them know Common Core and standardized over-testing are unacceptable and will not be tolerated. Gather parents, teachers, and students together in solidarity.
Lucky you! You are in NYC, at the heart of the anti-reform movement! Get like-minded parents from your school/neighborhood together & form a group, then do contact
info@classsizematters.org , which is based in NYC & is an affiliate of Parents Across America & hook up. DO go to unitedoptout.org & print out the rules /methods for opting out from their site, & pass out to all interested parents (& GET more parents interested!). Most important, do DO this, & don’t give up! An ENTIRE school is opting out (&, I think it’s one in Brooklyn). So many families opted out of testing in a Seattle high school (97%) after the teachers refused to administer the tests (the school administrators did so), that the testing results were invalid–not enough info. to produce meaningful data. AND no one was punished AND the tests were DROPPED for the entire district!! (Granted, these weren’t state assessments or Common Core Tests, but we’ll be getting to that point if we ALL OPT OUT!!!)
You CAN do it, wonderful parent! (In fact, muster troops form retired teachers you know–many of them retired early due to all this garbage–rest assured, they will GLADLY help!) Yes WE can…and yes we WILL!!!!
In the heart of the anti-reform movement, 172 children opted out of the New York state tests last year. There are approximately 475,000 kids enrolled in New York City public schools in grades 3-8.
The author’s children aren’t yet in testing grades, but opting out makes for a miserable 6+ days of school for the child, and it does nothing to protect them from the insane amount of test prep that even “progressive” DOE schools are serving instead of a genuine curriculum. NYC DOE schools have for years violated state laws regarding frequency and duration of recess, and there’s no indication that the issue is even on de Blasio’s radar.
I don’t think this letter is telling the whole story, or at least I hope it isn’t. I strongly doubt the teacher is knowingly assigning 3 hours of homework to her first graders every night, and there are a whole bunch of intermediate steps that could be taken before lawsuits.
I think the developmentally inappropriate pushed down academics of the Common Core and related testing are integral to the privatization movement, with the purpose of getting parents to pull their kids out of public schools and send them to charters –most of which are no better and stress drill for skill test prep during extended school days and years.
I would suggest staying and fighting, including by opting out of testing and test prep (including homework), and by collaborating with the many other parents who are similarly concerned. There are a lot of organizations in NY that support parents of school children, including United Opt Out New York: http://unitedoptout.com/state-by-state-opt-out/new-york/
First a disclosure, I work for an educational testing company(Not Pearson for those of you keeping score at home). I can’t say the name of the company, because it would probably cost me my job and I have a family to support.
The testing has gotten out of control. Many of my co-workers are also very troubled by the testing. We are parents and grandparents and we don’t like the level of testing. We aren’t some bunch of evil people.
My advice is to opt-out of as much testing as you can, especially any field tests and teacher assessments. Be vocal. Complain to the principal. Write Letters to the Editor. Organize other parents and get them to opt-out as well.
As I’ve said before, the best place to start is boycotting any field tests. I think NY State still has a large number of stand-alone field tests. That’s is where they get the questions for the operational tests. If not enough students take the field test, then the Dept of Education can’t validate the questions.
Complain to the NYSED in Albany. Call Candace Shyer Assistant Commissioner
Office of Assessment and Steven Katz Director Office of State Assessment. Here is their contact info. It probably won’t help, but you should still make your voice heard.
http://www.p12.nysed.gov/assessment/contact-osa.html
Don’t be silent. Educate your fellow parents. Don’t go quietly into the night. Don’t go down without a fight. Our children are too important to stand by and let this continue.
Howard “The Angry Prophet”
Like others, I’d strongly suggest opting both children out of testing. And this link to an excellent pre-common core essay about homework might provide some perspective: http://www.salon.com/2005/10/22/homework_5/
I felt free to opt my child out of at least some homework all the way through elementary school, threading a path between wanting him to understand how to live up to obligations and feeling that most teachers had no idea what constituted appropriate homework for young children. The best place to start is with the classroom teacher, by telling her/him that your child will do a certain level (20 minutes plus reading for a first grader) and no more.
But you’re going to have to do more than that. You need to reach out to other parents, armed with information from some of the sources named above, and start organizing. I am sure there are others who feel as you do, who may feel empowered once they realize there are steps they can take. On the testing front, the Castle Bridge story is wonderful–and certainly something that can be replicated. Reach out to other schools; maybe parents there or at Brooklyn New School might have some ideas? Good luck!
Yesenia, I agree with much of the advice given to you by the others. I have a bit to add. You’ve got Bill DeBlasio on your side now; let’s hope that change is coming. Sadly, it won’t be soon enough to help your children this year.
I am a just-retired first grade teacher. I’ve been counseling parents like yourself on how to proceed.
First recommendation: opt out of tests.
Next: contact the teachers. Decide which homework you’ll support, and how much time is fair. Make sure the teachers won’t penalize your kids for their missing homework.
Then: (very important) Decide what’s developmentally appropriate for your children to be doing. Support that with your own FUN homework. You want to support reading, writing, and math in the right way.
Speak to an educator you trust, or contact me privately.
Beth Forrester
Ms Forrester,
I to am like this parent- concerned, frustrated, overwhelmed- I hate school and I’ve been done with it for years- but I have a 3rd grader and a 6th grader and the homework and everyday work is ridicules. I’ve spoken to the teacher about the homework and she said she would fight me over it. I just don’t know what to do can you help and maybe guide us through this difficult time. Anything would be helpful- I just don’t know where and what to do—
Thank you for your time in advance.
Dear Minerva,
Please call me Beth!
Can you tell me what the teacher said? And if you’ve spoken to the principal yet? And if your kids are good students who are hating school, or if they’re struggling students. Can you tell me more about their situations?
I feel so awful for your kids, and you.
Beth
Hi Beth,
I just began disseminating information to my circle of parents regarding the dangers of CC after many of us had horrible and deflating conferences. My 1st graders was most concerning. I would love to talk to you, as we begin the fight in California.
Richelle Mott
Happy to oblige. Live to chat.
Testing starts for my 3rd grader and 10th grader next week. I am turning in the opt-out forms, but i know my 10th grader in particular is going to suffer back lash. I need some links and support out here in Northern Ca….
Ms. Gomez, if you’d like to connect with other parents who share your concerns, please contact Change the Stakes at changethestakes@gmail.com. We’re a NYC group of parents and educators fighting high-stakes testing and what it’s doing to our children. We can also connect you with parents at Castle Bridge, a K-2 school in Washington Heights in Manhattan, who recently refused to have their young children take standardized tests. More than 90% of the parents at the school signed forms refusing to have their children tested, so the principal cancelled the tests! http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/uptown/parents-opt-city-test-article-1.1492127
Please know that you are not alone! As you’ve already seen from this overwhelming response, there are many parents, teachers and others who support you! There is strength in numbers. So please, contact Change the Stakes if we can help. If you’d like to know more about us, our website is changethestakes.org.
Yesenia
Do you have a lawyer?
Find a good one and find out how to start a Parent Class Action Lawsuit.
Some Parent must take this first step..
Teacher can not do this or they will be fired..
The retired teachers …especially the ones that retired early because of this Testing Mania will also help..
You are lucky to be in New York where you will have lots of support..
You have to take one step at a time…..but it will mushroom and your children may once again begin to enjoy school for the sake of learning and not for the sake of a Test Score..
oops..Teachers….correction
Ms. Gomez, if you live in Western Queens you might be interested in a new group based in Jackson Hts called Parents for Public Schools. The group is forming to advocate for our local public schools and to discuss issues like too much testing and too little play and physical activity so that we can organize ourselves to be a voice for making our schools better. The first meeting of this group is Thursday, November 21 from 7:30-9pm at Community United Methodist Church at 81-10 35th Avenue. You can find out more by emailing parentsforpublicschools@gmail.com.
Have you verified with the school district that your son must be able to “read and write” when he takes this test? Are you just going on heresay from a rumor mill? I’m hearing all kinds of stories that I know just aren’t true. Did you know some people are saying that ‘THEY’ could take your children away if they don’t take the test. How naive do we have to be to believe this nonsense. The US is falling behind the rest of the world in education because the parents would rather have stupid kids than be told their child is behind the curve.
I was just told that my child will be retained for the third grade we passed the Common Core reading but failed the math they told me that my child would be going to summer school and repeating the 3rd grade based off my child’s Profolio do I have the right to refuse