From a reader in Chicago:
Teachers at 2nd Chicago school bravely boycott State ISAT tests
Also 1,000 parents in 57 schools opt out
http://www.wbez.org/news/education/teachers-2nd-school-boycott-isat-109797
Here’s a petition to share with your supporters on the “ICE the ISAT” movement. They need 500 more signatures.
http://petitions.moveon.org/sign/support-the-testing-boycott
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Their claims of benefit to teachers and parents are ludicrous. How can a standardized test whose results are confidential possibly tell anyone anything? It is a political exercise that is of no benefit to school improvement.
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It worse and stupider than that. CPS itself has said that the tests count for nothing, not school or teacher evaluations, not student progress or HS admissions, the data collected will not be used in any meaningful way for any educational purpose.
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Awesome. Two schools down, 98,815 to go!
I think we may just get there. 🙂 seriously, I do.
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So do I, Bob.
Here’s to consensus reality and consensus in general.
I would love to see students wanting to take tests one day, but when the tests are designed intelligently and sensitively by true educators and cognitive scientists. I would also love to see the right kind of policies attached to those tests rather than the punitivce ones now in place.
There is potential to the push-back movement . . . .
BTW, I loved the lexicon you designed.
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I would love to see students wanting to take tests one day, but when the tests are designed intelligently and sensitively by true educators and cognitive scientists
oh yes yes yes yes yes
When the test becomes, “Let me show you what I can do,” when it becomes the self check buried in the work that the student has participated in choosing and so is intrinsically motivated to do.
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when the tests are a wide variety of alternatives for showing competence, when they are portfolios of creative and substantive endeavor put together by intrinsically motivated kids guided by mentors whom they can trust
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When the tests are part of a wide variety to show what the students can do?
YES!!!!!
Great post as usual, Robert S.
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This is the only effective method that will stop standardized testing. Thank you for your courage.
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We are 69 schools as of this evening. This is probably an undercount, as is the 1000 number! There are a ton of people now who are opting out on their own without having spoken to someone in our organization etc, and they haven’t necessarily reached out and told us. Trying to keep this map updated though!
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Cassie, I TOTALLY agree. I’m not sure how we might get a final number, but the 1,000 figure is way low. Ironically, we must thank CPS for their ham handed response to this, it’s truly pathetic how behind the curve they are, but that’s what happens when you have no clue about what the parents of your students think about your policies or you just don’t care. How can they have forgotten about the support the union had from parents during the strike?
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I will opt my own child out of our state’s standardized tests just as soon as he is in the grade they are testing. He has a few more years to go.
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awesome
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Mike Klonsky, a long time progressive activist-educator based in Chicago, writes a daily bog on the education struggle in Chicago. Reading his blog is a MUST in order to keep current with the work educators, parents and communities as they resist the ‘reformers’ and their political allies. Below is the URL for his blog.
http://michaelklonsky.blogspot.com/2014/02/byrd-bennett-goes-postal-boycott.html
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Another great activist group is the Raise Your Hand group, http://www.ilraiseyourhand.org. They have formed alliances with other grass roots groups in Chicago. They are well represented in Austin at the NPE conference by Wendy Katten.
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Don’t forget his brother Fred: http://preaprez.wordpress.com/
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My column wherein I suggest legislators need new ears to hear truth, and we need new feet–to march to the ballot box and get rid of them.
bit.ly/1pN7rr3
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Once again, a reminder (Duane Swacker, where are you?!): these tests are NOT “standardized”–they are neither valid NOR reliable. They are ludicrous, with faulty questions (remember the Pineapple Question for 8th Grade in NY a few years back?)
and faulty answers (some having no correct answer, some having more than one correct answer, etc.). This is why Pear$on does not want teachers or parents to see the actual tests (although any teacher can read the ridiculous material in any of the Pear$on test preps). As a special ed. teacher (& colleagues) who read portions of tests (in accordance w/IEPs), the many mistakes were clearly seen by us (and continue, according to active sped. teachers I’ve talked to).
Of course, this is all about $$$ to Pear$on–wasted taxpayer money that should have been used for REAL education–for art & music & supplies, just like children get at U of C Lab School and other private schools. As Keith Reilly said, this is the ONLY way to stop this testing. And it is not just the ISATs (& not just because they are useless).
Next year it will be CCSS, brought to us by…Pear$on.
And parents should opt their kids out again, until we put Pear$on out of business.
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They are TRAPS not TESTS, designed to TRICK, CONFUSE, and WEAR DOWN the test taker into FAILING.
parents don’t let the reformers use your children to dismantle public education on very false pretenses. OPT OUT NOW!
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“Traps not tests”
Love it!
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A video that shows why teachers are going out of their minds
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Teachers unions can and should be powerful allies in movement to save public education. We have seen national unions waffling and collaborating with regressive, destructive foundations.
The Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) is a model of a union that has transformed itself into a powerful progressive force. What we can learn from the CTU is that the rank and file membership can mobilize and bring the union back into alliances with students, teachers and communities. This transformation is one that occur in any union that no longer represents the values of its membership and has distanced itself fom its natural allies.
I have copied a URL for a review of a book that analyzes the transformation of the CTU.
http://truth-out.org/opinion/item/22148-modeling-the-education-they-want-to-be-the-great-chicago-teachers-union-transformation
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