Fred Smith, who worked for many years in the research department of the New York City Board of Education (back when it had a research department, not a public relations department), offered the following testimony at public hearings in New York City on the Common Core testing (he was limited to only two minutes to speak):
My Two Minutes at the December 11, 2013 Forum in Manhattan – Spruce Street School
Chancellor Tisch, Commissioner King, thank you for visiting us.
I didn’t come here to discuss the merits of the Common Core, or rigorous standards, or high expectations, or equity for all children.
I’m here to call for a moratorium on all New York State testing associated with the Common Core, because the tests themselves are indefensible.
The 2013 exams were developed by trying out items on samples of children in June 2012. The State Education Department and its test publisher, Pearson, were well aware the stand-alone method they used to field test material for future exams was not viable, because children are not motivated to do well on items and field tests that they know don’t count—and in June, no less.
SED and Chancellor Tisch also knew the separate, stand-alone field testing approach had failed in 2009 when that year’s operational test results were so implausibly high the Chancellor could no longer sustain an obvious farce. That’s why she led us on the path to the Common Core.
So, it is outrageous to learn the 2013 tests were assembled by replicating the same discredited field testing approach that produced the 2009 fiasco.
Yet, the Chancellor and the Commissioner have described the April 2013 test results as the baseline against which students will be measured in relation to the Common Core Standards.
That the 2013 tests were poorly developed is evidenced by the fact that less time was allocated to finishing the exams than had been allocated in 2012 (7% less for ELA; and 13% less time in math). And, correspondingly, my research finds a significantly higher percentage of students were unable to complete this year’s exams.
How can tests that purport to tap critical thinking, deeper understanding and college readiness give students less time to complete? How can the results of such ill-conceived exams possibly serve as a baseline? It’s simply irrational and points to defective testing.
To make matters worse, the upcoming 2014 statewide tests are built on the same unworkable stand-alone field testing framework—trying out items this past June. Saying that you now intend to embed more items on the 2015 exams, the preferred way to field test them, acknowledges but fails to address the deficiencies in the pivotal 2013 and 2014 exams.
And the State intends to give two more rounds of stand-alone field tests this spring. If precedent holds, SED will not inform parents in advance that taking field tests is not mandatory. Keeping parents in the dark prevents them from withholding consent should they decide they do not want their children to be unpaid subjects in commercial research that only begets unreliable exams.
The State has acted in bad faith by administering a dishonest testing program for over a decade. This shows no signs of changing with the rush to make the flawed 2013 “core-aligned” exams the new baseline. Therefore, nothing short of a moratorium on these tests is acceptable.
~Fred Smith
Fred Smith – Retired from BOE – Worked in Test Department – Member of Change the Stakes
Diane Ravitch's blog 
P.S. You’re not fooling anyone with that astro-turf circus you brought along to the community forums in Manhattan. Those paid and/or duped rent-a-mobs carrying mass-produced-cum-handmade signs and cheering on cue to those paid shills regurgitating your scripted soundbites… well, all I can say is that it was as phony as a Chinese redhead.
LOL
Seriously, though, the fact that both John King and Bill Gates spend tens of thousands of dollars to keep their own children figuratively as far away from Common Core as possible—King to a Montessori school and Gates to Lakeside in Seattle—has to expose this whole thing as a sham.
If King and Gates—or anyone with children—really and truly believed that Common Core curriculum and testing was the greatest thing for children’s education, and that their kids missing out on it would be a disaster, they would be doing the opposite, and be demanding loudly that their kids’ chi chi private school adopt the total Common Core package, and if the school officials did not, Gates and King would immediately move their own children to a public school that does so.
Wouldn’t ANY parent who believed what Gates and King proclaim about Common Core also do likewise?
But Gates and King are not.
At the same time, however, Gates and King are ducking any questions about this hypocrisy, and are totally ignoring all those parents who are complaining about Common Core. They’re basically telling those parents that, no matter how much those parents hate it and point out the damaging effect it’s having on their children, Gates and King are going to forcefully shove it down the throats of these children and parents…. because Gates and King believe that there’s no one with the power to stop them.
Are they right that there’s no one with the power to stop them?
Parent HAVE the power to stop this by opting their kids out of the testing. If no one will test, this whole thing implodes. The tests drive everything and without the tests the results will become invalid and can’t be used for anything.
Both my kids are now in college so I can no longer opt them out (but I DID do that when they were younger). Parents with kids in the public schools who oppose the education “reform” need to take some action and take it this spring.
“And the State intends to give two more rounds of stand-alone field tests this spring. If precedent holds, SED will not inform parents in advance that taking field tests is not mandatory. Keeping parents in the dark prevents them from withholding consent should they decide they do not want their children to be unpaid subjects in commercial research that only begets unreliable exams.”
Informed consent of parents aside, is this ethical practice regarding children?
“Field tests” given to children solely for the benefit of the CC testing proponents and testing companies?
Are there guidelines or standards or rules about this sort of thing?
When teachers asked, in May 2012, how they could motivate students to try hard on tests that were of no consequence to them, the NYS Dept of Ed overseen by Chancellor Tisch and Commissioner King instructed teachers to lie to their students, writing: ““Students should not be informed of the connection between these fields tests and State assessments. The field tests should be described as brief test of achievement in the subject.”
See: https://dianeravitch.net/2012/05/28/ny-state-ed-dept-lie-to-students/
Most educational organizations today have an Institutional Review Board (IRB) for the expressed purpose of ensuring that rights are not violated in research involving human subjects, and informed consent is required and cannot just be set “aside.” I would agree with Fred Smith that field testing of commercial assessments on students would probably be considered human subjects research warranting informed consent.
I’m no lawyer, so I would defer to those experts, but I suspect that there’s a serious problem if the state Board of Ed has no IRB, or fails to follow IRB protocols for research that includes children. I think parents might have a legitimate legal case against the BoE based on that lack of informed consent. I would be very surprised if there was no state regulation that requires informed consent for research involving children.
Heck I had to fill out human subjects paperwork and get it signed by people singing in a choir when I wrote my Master’s thesis on Balkan Folk Singing, so it does seem odd that a testing giant making gobs of money (which my thesis did not) researching on children would need to do the same. Maybe this is where some action can be taken.
Like I’ve said: more lawyers (smart, rational ones) could help this entire scene.
Tis the age of irrational leadership.
Sounds like a fascinating project, Joanna!
I, personally, don’t even like the “test” questions to be embedded in the actual tests. I questioned that practice several years ago with Joe Willhoft who was in charge of Washington State’s statewide test (he is now in charge of the Smarter Balanced tests). I had concerns that the untested questions could trip up students and make them do worse on the questions that count in the final score.
In addition, a reporter working on a story about the state testing told me that people who graded the exams weren’t told not to count some of the questions (the “test” questions) in the scores so I assume the “test” questions became part of the students’ score.
Also, NCLB required that ALL students in each grade level take the SAME test on the SAME day and the “test” questions were different for the students (that’s how I knew they existed because my kids told me they had different questions than their friends did).
At the time, my kids spent about 15-18 hours testing each year on the Washington State test. After I did some research, and exchanged a few e-mails with Joe Willhoft, I started opting my younger daughter out of the statewide testing. My older daughter started high school and she had to pass the state tests to graduate so I couldn’t opt her out.
Using taxpayer money (and lots of it) to perpetrate a fraud on the taxpayers of NYS should be a criminal offense.
A class action civil suit at the least. With experts like Mr. Smith and others more than willing to testify, the case should be a slam dunk.
Send lawyers, guns, and money, the tests have hit the fan.WZ
You think any lawyers from the ‘tony’ mid town or wall street firms, would touch such test cases with a ten foot pole? Similarly, taking on such a case pro bono, would quickly strip the resource of any legal services office (to that extent such offices still exist). No, the hope for remedial litigation will come from either those who can some how pay for such services, or by making connections and alliances with back up centers for law and education that may have the resources and time to to engage in class action litigation ( the odds of prevailing in either certifying a class, or gaining substantive relief in the Federal Courts has cruelly diminished of the last 20 years.
What will stop the madness is, first, parents must opt out of testing, Second parent and educators must publicly confronting the ‘reformers’ when they deign to enter a public forum; no more acceptance of limited participation, tantamount to exclusion from public meetings and discussions. Third, parents and educators must push back against the ‘reform’ agenda with the same ferocity that the agenda is imposed on them.
No, it isn’t nice. No, it will not be easy. The ‘reformers’ would just love to avoid conflict and confrontation; their medicine goes down so much easier that way. But then one has to live with the results. Is that acceptable?
Validity? Reliability? Statistical Analysis? If the entire staff @ Pearson collaborated–they could not even complete a thesis? It would be interesting to view the problem (statement). Methodology & Data Analysis–Pearson Staff ought to be embarrassed. (i.e. incompetence) Shame on all involved in facilitating this hoax. History shall not be kind to those involved.
Mr. Smith is ripping a new one for Pearson’s test writing/design protocol. Can’t imagine what he would have to say if they let him actually see the tests.
Reblogged this on Transparent Christina.
English teachers were of course given no “common core” curriculum with which to design lessons around. So, in trying to look around corners, I led my 7th grade students through my own curriculum, similar to what I had taught my high school students – but developmentally modified to meet my 7th graders where they were. I used the list of common core standards as a blue print. We spent many hours on close reading of poems and novels, looking at connotation of words and context.(I had used Francine Prose’ wonderful “Reading as a Writer” as a guidebook for my lessons.)
We also deconstructed news articles (I had edited for them) to see how they were put together. We spent months writing essays; focusing on development of ideas around a thesis, organization of paragraphs, and how to write short pieces for best impact. We watched films and wrote movie reviews to examine how best to communicate to a certain audience. Students adapted chapters of one novel we were reading into short scenes, and performed them. We had many conversations about our reading, including Socratic Seminars. I saw tremendous growth in the ways that my students worked to communicate clearly in writing and speaking. I graded piles and piles of essays, and got plenty tired, but excited to move to the next lesson, which was designed around my assessments of their work.
Seventh graders are wonderful to work with, because the door is still wide open, and they work so hard to meet the bar. Even the ones who struggle are still mostly willing and able to give it their best shot. Seventh graders are characteristically hopeful, and so are usually, the people who teach them.
During the days of the testing, I saw the enthusiasm drain, and frustration take hold, and cynicism set in. The readings were voluminous and dull and appeared to be recycled from old tests. There was no opportunity for my students to apply the close reading strategies that we had worked on. There was no opportunity to appreciate the language choices an author made. There was no poetry. There was one short excerpt from “Jo’s Boys” – the sequel to “Little Women”, which was not on our syllabus. (We were given no common core novel syllabus, and besides, asking 7th graders to read and understand Alcott without any context around the time of her novels, which are dense with subtle relationships and unfamiliar vernacular is not realistic, nor developmentally appropriate. ) There was no time to craft a well structured and economically written short answer. There was no time to craft a well developed and organized five paragraph essay. (Silly me, and to think I had pressed my students to understand that rewriting is part of writing.) There was no time for my students to demonstrate what they had learned or did not learn in my English class.
There was no time to even complete the reading about prospectors locating gold in the Klondikes, and others finding diamond veins in African mines. (weirdly similar choices that were passed off as being “informational” articles.) (Silly me again, – I thought informational articles were what we read in newspapers, a skill they will need to build on as they move toward adulthood.) Some of my students were tearful – they had felt they’d let me down, and let themselves down, and let their parents down.
And I felt like the Pied Piper who had let them down, in leading them off a cliff.
Pearson and NYSED pushed them off the cliff.
The state exams are anti-intellectual and insulting to any thoughtful student or adult.
Pearson ELA was so poorly constructed that was test-prep-proof. Good teaching does not work. An ELA supervisor told me that most experienced elementary teachers are exasperated and stressed beyond reason because of this. They are at a complete loss as to how to proceed in the best interest of their students.
Wow! It actually sounds like you constructed a curriculum that dealt with what CCSS was supposed to be about and still managed to make it interesting. As a special ed teacher at the middle school level, I spent a lot of time in mainstream classrooms soaking up some excellent instruction from talented teachers. You continue to demonstrate that teaching is an art that is beyond these bozos. How could anyone who purports to be an expert lay claim to such a fiasco?
indeed
Thanks for teaching your students skills that will stay with them the rest of their lives!!!!!!!
”
And the State intends to give two more rounds of stand-alone field tests this spring. If precedent holds, SED will not inform parents in advance that taking field tests is not mandatory. Keeping parents in the dark prevents them from withholding consent should they decide they do not want their children to be unpaid subjects in commercial research that only begets unreliable exams.”
Just curious … is it true that parents are to be informed in advance that taking field tests is not mandatory? Our students in Massachusetts are scheduled to take the field tests next spring 2014. There were implications that they could opt out of MCAS testing but NOT the PARCC field tests. Is that untrue and just another way the general public is being deceived?
These tests are indicative of the whole of the reform movement. Every piece of it is rushed, incomplete (though with a thin veneer to make it look like it is complete), incongruous with research, developmentally inappropriate, in opposition to what most teachers want, and cloaked in a shadow of secrecy and/or falsehood.
The proponents of these “reforms” are either grossly incompetent or have ulterior motives or both. I’m thinking both at the moment.
Joshua Starr called for this over a year ago. This is a man ahead of everyone else. But politics will somehow derail his being chosen the head of the NYCDoE. He does not believe in evaluating teachers via test scores and his teachers are judged by what they actually do in the classroom and by real progress of the students, not the ones that are just quantitative.
I just read the NYTimes piece on the documentary “The New Public”. Has anyone here seen it? Is it another Superman or is it based in reality and not on agenda. I saw on their website it will be shown at TFA headquarters and some other reformers are going to be screening it as well. Meanwhile “The Inconvenient Truth Behind Waiting for Superman” never saw the light of day.
The test can never compare to authentic assessment that shows what I student can actually do. That doesn’t mean all tests are useless. Remember, assessment is for the classroom. To help teachers take kids from where they are. The only way to have a successful test, is to have pre and post to check for rowth and to compare with what the teacher sees everyday of the year.
Here’s a sample of how that can work in your school. And you can start immediately http://savingstudents-caplee.blogspot.com/2013/12/accountability-with-honor-and-yes-we.html
Diagnostic and formative tests are wonderful tools, if used properly. Summative assessments should come with a warning, “Danger. Toxic. Use only for the very limited purposes described herein and in full knowledge of their limitations and consequences.”
Well if more lawyers got involved, that might be the end result. Disclaimers. Right now all the disclaimers are slanted in the direction of the test company and its customer (the state) with all the rules and regulations and so forth. It is out of whack. The test is king. And the company that made it is the master of the universe.
There needs to be a balance.
We have been told that there will be no sample regents exam provided for the new NYS Algebra 1 Regents that will be administered on June 4th ( oh yes…two weeks earlier than in the past)…why you may ask????
A reliable source has said that there are not enough test bank questions to create a sample exam…are the Algebra teachers, schools and students being set up to look like failures????…oh BTW…passing this regents is a graduation requirement for all students in NYS…thanks Commissioner King for all you do…NOT 😦
And they will not let you keep, copy, distribute, and review with the new exam like they have in the past. Lucky if they let you see it in its entirety. Any idea how procedures for scoring will change?
NYS High School Regents exams have always been made available for teachers to use…not sure if the same will hold true for the new exam…or will Regents Exams become a “secret document” like their 3-8 Exam counterparts????? This strategy will not help Barron’s sales…the red bible of most HS students in NYS.
CCSS aligned Algebra and ELA will be kept under lock and key. They will threaten you if you dare look at or discuss. If you score the exams you will have to sign a legal non-disclosure agreement. Welcome to our (3 to 8) world!
I just read the link that JC commented about http://www.timesunion.com/opinion/article/Common-Core-and-doing-better-5067427.php:
Common Core and Doing better
By Merryl H. Tisch and John B. King, Jr., Commentary
“Concerns with testing. We’ve reduced the number of questions and testing time on the federally required assessments for grades 3 to 8, and our state budget request will include funding to further reduce testing time and eliminate standalone field tests. We are also asking the U.S. Department of Education for adjustments to assessment policies for English language learners and students with disabilities.”
and… “We hope that parents, teachers, students, and administrators continue to be open about their concerns, and partner with us to make Common Core a continuing success.”
It’s the calm world of those living in the eye of a hurricane.
Why on earth is funding needed to reduce testing time? The whole thing is insane!
He speaks this way to craete a fog of confusion.
“Recent data show states that have adopted the new learning standards and raised standards for teaching show significant gains in student performance.”
From King’s lips to the devil’s ear. (Times Union editorial)
The only CCSS test data comes from KY and NY.
A 70% failure rate shows significant gains in student achievement?
What planet is this man from?
And at one of his forums King actually said that teachers in NYS do not have to administer formative, pre- tests! The entire APPR evaluation system is based on growth bands that require pre and post test scores.
“Some concerns are based on misinformation. For example, we have not increased testing as part of Common Core. The fact is, all but two state tests in place now are required by federal law.”
Pieces of the truth amount to deceit. King fails to mention that APPR requires pre and post testing in every subject at every grade level.
Calling for a moratorium on the Common Core simply postpones the moment when these ridiculous tests will be given and the deform movement will implode. Mark my words–when these tests are rolled out nationwide, that’s when the villagers are going to grab their pitchforks and shovels and track this deform monster to it lair.
it’s lair
Do you believe pitchforks and shovels will win out against some of the most powerful people on earth? I’m beginning to have my doubts.
NY Teacher–the devils have pitchforks, and it’s them, not us, who are the devils!
Seriously, though, what you describe is correct. However, the way to fight back here is to OPT OUT. They did it in Seattle–the MAPS were stopped by the initial action of teachers, but it was the parental support (97% of the students were opted out) that did the testing in–not enough test-taking students? No reliable data could be derived. Now, the administrators were directed to give the tests, but not many had to–only 3% of students taking them.
So, my usual mantra–parents, go to United Opt Out NOW, download the Opt Out materials for your state, and OPT your kids OUT!
NYS will never see anything close to a 97% opt out. My guess is that the powers that be are scheming up ways to scare parents and teachers enough to prevent widespread protest. Inner city parents have been sold the line that CCSS is a civil rights movement and Arne Duncan is the second coming of MLK.
Extending the Frankenstein metaphor: what is reqeuired is to drive a stake through the vampire’s heart: the ‘reformers’ have all the characteristics of vampires and their close relatives zombies. There is nothing new to be learned about their behavior.
Nationwide resistance to implementing Common Core is the tonic to those who ignore participatory democracy.
My sole question relates to why you have come to so strongly believe that parents and educators will, at the the moment of implementation, summon the urgency of human agency required , ” to grab their pitchforks and shovels and track this deform monster to its lair”.
We have experienced an endless string of deforming’ moments. While parent, educators and community resistance has been real, it has paled in comparison to the ‘reform’ blitzkrieg. What will be different?
obviously, I am skeptical of epiphanies, but, regardless, I am most interested in the source of your optimism.
Imagine the outrage that the parents of New York experienced on being told that the tests had proved that only 30 percent of their students were on track to be college and career ready. That outrage was not, as the deformers expected, directed at “failing schools.” It was directed at the nutcases who set these scores and backed these tests. Now, imagine that being a nationwide phenomenon. Imagine it being the headline in every paper. The lead story of every news program. Imagine every parent demanding to see these tests. Imagine every pundit and scholar in the country having a whack at those questions. Have a look at the sample questions on the PARCC and Smarter Balanced websites–at how convoluted and invalid they are.
Robert,
I write in reply to your post, below.
I can absolutely imagine, visualize and hear the parent ‘outrage. Outrage and parent resistance will be the only mechanism that can stop the levers of the ‘reform’ machine. What I have a hard time ‘wrapping myself around’, is the mechanism parents will use to make the leap from outrage to action.
Resistance and protest movements require building alliances with other like-minded groups,, coordination and logistical planning. Those directly affected ‘reform’ must commit themselves to collective action.
Parents must come to believe in the efficacy of collective action when working in the best interests of their children, schools and communities. Lacking a belief in that efficacy, we will see, once more, drips and drabs of isolated actions. Isolation and alienation is the arch enemy of collective action.
I believe, with you, that there are growing numbers of stake holders who are willing to actively engage in the struggle for participatory democracy to determine the nature of public schools. Who can deny that in these times, mobilization is demanded. However, between thought and action, lies the lurking shadow of the pathology of passivity and inertia. Of course this is exactly that the ‘reformers’ would love to see. Even in their eternal arrogance, they will not be able to ignore attempt to ignore or delegitimize large scale opt outs and demonstrations.
Well said, john a!
My comment is about uninformed parents whose kids have been exploited since NCLB and turning the screws even further by using taxpayers’ money, public money. These are the most indecent, licentious and deceitful kinds of inhumane people that walk the Earth. They are up there with child predators who have destroyed innocent children from growing to their full potential. What makes matters worse is that like child predators their premeditated plan is to gratify their cowardly lust for control and destroying futures instead of growing our democracy through integrity, social justice, and egalitarian principles. They have no morals.
Producing a clear and rational thought process by a pattern of obfuscation and cryptic explanation? Personally I don’t think that is going to work to well. Confusion in, confusion out.
It works perfectly well. King wants to confuse the public. Confusion slows down the search for truth.
The deformers imagine that these tests are valid and reliable measures of how students perform.” What do they mean by that? Clearly, the test results are measures of how they perform on the tests. But that’s a tautology. We want a bit more, I think, of tests.
Now, I can imagine all sorts of tests that would provide accurate information. It would be child’s play, for example, to design a test that would tell us whether little Yolanda knows her multiplication table through 12 x 12 or whether little Kwame knows the meanings of “viviparous” and “oviparous.” But to imagine that these tests, as poorly designed as they are, tell us anything meaningful about anything as vague as “general math ability” and “general reading ability” seems pretty fanciful to me. Against what independent measures have these claims been validated? Now, the theory behind these tests seems to be that there is a checklist of standards and one can test each to see if a student has mastered it. If that were true, then one could make a list, based on the test results, of the standards that the kid has mastered and those he or she has not mastered. But no such lists are provided by the testers because they know that the notion that they are testing specific standards validly is ludicrous.
Let’s consider ONE ELA standard:
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.11-12. Analyze the impact of the author’s choices regarding how to develop and relate elements of a story or drama (e.g., where a story is set, how the action is ordered, how the characters are introduced and developed).
Now, let’s ask 600 English professors each to write a multiple-choice question to measure that standard [sic]. Let’s suppose that our professors will be forced by the Common Core Curriculum Commissariat and Ministry of Truth to read Tom Clancy novels if they don’t carry out this insane demand.
Of course, we would end up with six hundred WILDLY DIFFERENT questions. Against what independent measure of this standard [sic] would we validate our choice from among those 600 questions of the ONE QUESTION we are going to put on our test to measure the standard [sic]? How will we know that the item we have chosen is measuring what we say we are measuring–that standard [sic] listed above? How, I ask you? Consult an oracle, perhaps?
But perhaps there is some sort of incantation that one can perform by means of which all this invalidity of particular items can add up to validity for the test as a whole. Perhaps a whole lot of completely invalid items can add up to a test that is valid overall. Perhaps I shall encounter the shade of Jeanne D’Arc wandering down my hallway this evening. Yes, that seems more likely.
The reasoning from the deformers is simple. One might even say simple-minded. This education business is easy. Simply make a list of what the kids need to have learned. Then test to see if they have learned each item on the list.
It’s the Powerpolnt Bullet List theory of teaching and learning. And look how it is being implemented. When these tests are rolled out nationwide, EVERYONE will be demanding a look, a close look, at their reliability and validity.
Even the likes of politicians, with intelligence below that of television journalists and heads of lettuce and morals below that of parasitic wasp larvae, will start figuring out that they had better figure it out.
Ok so I read all this. Then I talk to teachers in NC and I am not picking up the same type exasperation. I do not hear NC teachers complaining about CCSS testing quite as much as in New York.
Is this because we are right to work state? Is it because we are slower? Is it because we are southerners? Is it because we buy what our state supe tells us hook line and sinker?
Is it because NY is just a few steps ahead of us? I don’t get it. I read this stuff about New York and I ask teachers in NC and I do not hear the same things expressed. Is it because we have a seriously high stakes third grade reading law to figure out how to keep from hurting children? Is it because NC has been a test happy state for decades?
There is a disconnect here for me when I read. I am not discounting what is going on in New York, but why the differences in reaction?
NYS is one year ahead of the curve. APPR has placed undue strain on teachers. The Pearson generated tests were a true nightmare for students. Were the parents in NC told that 70% of their 8 to 14 year olds are failures? Patience, soon the whole country will be feeling our pain.
NY Teacher:
our state supe had the cunning, if that’s the word (I do like her, but I am curious about her adamant, unapologetic support of CCSS and RttT) to propagandize over and over about “the test scores will drop, as they always do, when new standards are adopted.” And it was pretty much left at that. Not a lot of questions asked. People pretty much accept it like it’s just another mandate from on top. Seriously, I hear very few people complaining. (I do have a cousin who took his daughter out of public school because of CCSS—–but most people just accept when a kindergarten teacher says “we have to teach them how to take the test.”) I am still trying to figure out why that is.
Perhaps our leadership is not using it to do a nanny-nanny-boo-boo, you-suck-and-glad-we-ain’t-you song and dance as they are in New York (although our General Assembly does drop the “failing schools” bomb here and there, which just makes me roll my eyes). Our state board and state supe are not anti-public school. So there is that difference. We don’t have a Commissioner of Education like King. We do have a TFA alum education adviser to the governor, but he has kept a pretty low profile thus far.
Joanna, since NCLB and the beginning of this testing mania, I have been asking myself the same question. Why aren’t more people furious? Why aren’t people subjecting this whole standards-and-testing paradigm to the least bit of critical examination? Well, increasingly, people are. But so many have become inured to this stuff that they have stopped thinking about it altogether. David Foster Wallace said, if you ask a fish, “How’s the water,” he or she will answer, “What water?” Well, this standards-and-testing stuff, as toxic and absurd as it is, has become the water people swim in. Perhaps that’s why.
Another answer, Joanna, is that people think that there is some test-making magic that comes up with these numbers–that the tests must be valid and reliable because they come with all that MATH attached. The results are numbers. They are given in charts and graphs. They come with explanations in an arcane language used by folks with doctorates in statistics.
The English word “glamour” used to mean “magic.” “Glamour” was a Scottish variant of the word “grammar.” Back in the day, when few could read, being able to conjure meanings out of squiggles seemed a magical art.
What people don’t understand typically does.
Why are we reading story after story of teachers from NC quitting?? And why the Monday protests?
“. . . I am curious about her adamant, unapologetic support of CCSS and RttT)”
To paraphrase Upton Sinclair “It’s difficult to get a woman to not support an educational malpractice when her salary depends on her supporting it”
Schoolgal, I think the Moral Monday protests have more to do with stuff our General Assembly has done than RttT. Teachers might quit over it, but I sure don’t hear complaints about it in my 680 student school, on the Parent Advisory Council to the State supe, or at NCAE. People talk about it like it’s just a new paint color.
Robert,
Add to this the requirement that there must be one correct answer choice and 3 or 4 “plausible distractors,” answers that could be true, but which are not, based on what I would deem arbitrary and capricious reasoning. That blonde oaf of a Regents fellow stated publicly that she could not answer some of the CCSS ELA 11 questions correctly, so what does this mean for actual students who need to pass this test to graduate? I hear the cha-ching of the four horsemen of the Pearson apocalypse pocketing the money of districts to remediate these high school students. Sad. Regents exams have been written by teachers and scored by teachers for close to 100 years. Our schools have stacks of these old tests. Now we won’t be able to see the new ones? Even medical students have practice materials for every Step and Shelf exam and law students have practice tests for their boards.
They are creating “test-prep-proof” exams. In order to perpetrate their lies and deceit, they need widespread failure and widespread panic.
Cant teach to a test that
a) you cant see
b) is written to confuse
This movement needs to be national as all school districts around the country are suffering under the yolk of common core and one especially linked to testing. The only difference between NYC and other regions is that they rolled their high stakes test out first. The environment around the schools all over nowadays is TOXIC.. teachers are pitted against teachers, teachers are so over-worked on things that should not be teacher related… that the stress is palpable. How can this be good for ONE SINGLE STUDENT let alone a nation of children??? Conducive to learning??? Heck no!
With all the accountability being asked of schools and teachers where is the accountability with the testing companies? They have been receiving tax-payer dollars for over 10 years. We should be demanding a full disclosure about the credentials of test writers and test scorers. Are these full-time professional test writers with educational backgrounds? Or are they employing part-time workers with no educational background no experience writing text questions and no classroom experience? High-stakes testing is being used to punish educators and schools. I believe the public should have knowledge of the backgrounds of those that are employed to create, design and score these exams.
Yes, we should be demanding that.
Good lawyers, please step up.
Our national teacher unions should take the brunt of the blame. They could have stood firm against this madness, instead they sold us out. We have been “politically orphaned”
We only have each other and the parents left to fight.
Well and in non-union states, we should take the lead instead of following places like New York. I have been reading the speeches of our governor from 1991 and 1992, when the idea of choice was first talked about in NC and he states numerous times that we will watch and see how it goes in other states. I think that’s unfortunate. Better to take the lead in what you think is effective, then wonder about what might be effective and just watch and then follow (particularly when non-union states don’t necessarily deal with the same manner of issues in public schooling).
I want NC to be a leader in this. So far we are kind of just keeping up with the Joneses, and the Joneses don’t really know what they are doing, it seems.
I think it is striking that reformers haven’t simply thrown Pearson under the bus, because they obviously have screwed these tests up, even compared to the default level of SNAFU. Apparently they regard Pearson as “too big to fail,” even if it is dragging down their entire national reform agenda.
Pearson did exactly as they were told. Widespread failure was an important piece of the puzzle. See, our public schools really are failing. “Your 8 year prodigy is suddenly not nearly as bright as you thought”
Well… they did it in an especially unconvincing way. For example, simply making the tests too long is one of the few ways that you can make a test unfair in a way that is clear to kids and parents. If you make it hard but fair, people will be much more reluctant to complain. It is pretty amazing that they screwed that part up.
Pearson was well aware of the time issue. To the best of my knowledge, they did nothing to adjust the scores accordingly.
Pearson fears no teacher.
Pearson is “too big to fall” if coddled by reform.
The recent NY fine on Pearson was only $7.7 million– for a company that expects to make $60 million per year on its CC iPad software license in Los Angeles alone.
More on Pearson: They started contributing to CCSSO (one of the CC copyright holders) in 2009:
And the fine went to Carnegie, one of the big promoters of CCSS and testing and co-developers of inBloom.
Extraordinarily well done again, Dr. Schneider! Arne Duncan’s Chief of Staff wrote in the Harvard Business Review Blog that the purpose of the new standards was to “create national markets for products that can be brought to scale.” This is something that almost no one seems to understand about the national standards. If there is one set of standards nationwide, then a company can publish one book in a print run of a million copies at a very, very low unit cost. A big company can print that million copies at a unit cost of, say, $5.97, whereas a little company has to print a much smaller run, say ten thousand copies, at a much higher cost, say, $13.64. So, having national standards is a HUGE paycheck for the monopolists, and those standards effectively shut out smaller competitors, who cannot compete against economies of scale that dramatic.
Just like every other initiative originated by ALEC and its various iterations, the Common Core is aimed at the heart of the middle class. The aim of public education, in the past a vehicle by which one might hope to move upward on the social ladder, now is to self-immolate upon the pyre of “accountability” and data. We don’t want learners anymore. We want products, humanoid techies at home in the Gates Dystopia. Shortly, our children will be PARCC’ed, our budgets stretched thin on mandatory expenditures forcing every kid to see the world through Windows, and a truly transmogrified profession with the light of learning in its eyes blown out by Obama, Duncan, King, and Tisch. What’s sad here is the similarity we see when we compare this to what has happened to unions; i.e., people turning on themselves and nodding blankly that what is happening is good. Ford’s in his flivver.
The “Ford’s in his flivver” line is particularly apt. Ford was a Nazi. Before the war, he received, from Hitler, the highest civilian medal the Nazi state had. Ford was a big fan of Hitler and his eugenics policies. Ford started a newspaper called the Dearborn Independent to promote the notion of an International Jewish Conspiracy as outlined in the notorious forgery The Protocols of the Elders of Zion.
There are separate ant-testing bills in the Ny senate and house. Legislators are responding to parental outrage. Political commands from above prevent action.
Only in the weak profession of education could a group of amateurs wander around in the classroom china shop and knock student/teachers/parents/administrators around in the name of saving the shop. Educators have lost control of the vocabulary and the methodologies of their profession. Even in our efforts to present expert viewpoints, educators are forced to debate within a framework established by the accountability/standards/sanctions sector. Unfortunately, when we attempt to challenge that framework we then fall into the unions/tenure/no excuses framework. I feel Dr. Ratvich is doing her best to present our case within a profession colonized by production framework, but it is tough going when you are unable to you the vocabulary and value system of your profession.
I don’t know… which strong professions are bearing up well and maintaining their standards against business managers and billionaires?
Tom:
You have a point—even the medical profession is caving into market demands to become more “productive.” In my last medical check-up my doctor spent the entire session asking me questions from prompts on a computer screen — he did take my blood pressure before I left.
Teachers and public schools are being victimized by the school yard bullies (Duncan, Gates, King, et. al.). We lost our voice when we lost our unions. Professional discourse not withstanding, we still end up being portrayed as a bunch of lazy, whining, high-priced babysitters.
Extraordinarily well said, Alan.
A teacher I know who worked for years, before teaching, as a marketing exec, said to me recently, “I’ve never seen such a profession for others thinking they know how to do the job better than you do. We used to think this was bad in marketing, but it’s much, much worse in teaching. Everyone thinks that he or she knows how to do the job better than the teacher does. Every dolt thinks he’s an expert because he went to school.”
It’s time for teachers to take back their profession from the plutocrats and from the politicians, educrats, and others who collaborate with them. If should a special circle of hell for the collaborators in this child abuse.
Too many Kool-Aide drinkers. Too much fear.