The New York Daily News reports that the revolt among the state tests is growing among parents. State officials are doing whatever they can to tamp down the parent rebellion against the state’s obsession with testing. No one at the State Education Department ever speaks of the “joy of learning,” as New York City Chancellor Carmen Farina did when her appointment was announced. The state department seems to be filled with statisticians, bean counters, technocrats, and bureaucrats who never read for fun, never enjoyed learning, don’t like learning. They love data. Data fill them with joy.
“…The revolt against the education overlords in Albany was gathering steam Thursday as parent organizers at Public School 368 in Harlem said they will not subject their kids to the annual English Language Arts (ELA) and math exams that begin next week.
Kimberly Casteline, whose 8-year-old son attends the school, said the tests are unfair.
“A child can have a bad day, a child can be a bad test taker,” said the Fordham University professor. “Test taking does not equate to learning and that’s where we’re getting these two concepts conflated.”
Casteline and the other refuseniks believe the emphasis on standardized exams takes the joy out of learning and forces teachers to teach to the tests.
“I decided to opt my son out of the test after realizing that he was going to spend six valuable days of the school year taking the test, and even more days preparing for the test,” Casteline said.
Jasmine Batista, who has two sons the school, said the test needlessly stressed out her 10-year-old.
“He was concerned that he would not go on to the next grade,” she said. “He was crying, he had no appetite, he couldn’t sleep. He was so happy when that test was done.”
Now her 8-year-old is feeling the angst.
“My third-grader is now also stressed out because of what he saw his older brother go through,” she said.
Donnie Rotkin, a former public school teacher who is now an academic coach at two elementary schools in northern Manhattan, echoed the worried moms.
“Too many schools spend weeks, months, narrowly focused on preparing kids for these tests,” said Rotkin.
While surveys show that many public school parents share those sentiments, so far very few have yanked their kids out of the classroom on testing days.
Last year, 5,100 of the 1.2 million students who were supposed to take the tests statewide didn’t do so, officials said.
He was crying, he had no appetite, he couldn’t sleep. He was so happy when that test was done. State Education Department spokesman Dennis Tompkins defended the testing as “one of many tools that should be used to measure student growth and help inform instruction.”
“The year, the parents of more than a million students across the state will ‘opt-in’ to the state assessments,” he said…..
But the rebellions in schools like P.S. 368 are spreading across the city and gaining in strength, the anti-testing advocacy group Change the Stakes claims.
Administered for roughly one hour per day over six days, spread out over five weeks, the results are used in decisions to promote students, evaluate school performance and educators, and figure into bonuses for school staffers whose students do well on the tests.
There are no official consequences for the kids who opt out of the tests. Instead of being judged on how well they did on the standardized exams, they will be evaluated on their school work.
Bad news – http://ny.chalkbeat.org/2014/03/27/boost-for-charter-schools-in-state-budget-deal-but-not-exactly-what-was-expected/
The worst part aside from the funding issue which at least was muted a bit, is that now NYC is going to be on the hook to provide space for charters a community might not want. How on earth can the legislature guarantee free public space to private organizations? What precedent is this?
I am near tears as this deal nears completion.
You don’t live in a democracy. You live in a plutocracy. Cuomo works for Wall Street. He doesn’t give a d@#$ about neighborhood schools. He symbolizes everything that has gone wrong in this country.
He is the poster boy for the destruction of public education.
He has earned his place on the Mt. Rushmore of Demagogues.
Andrew Cuomo deserves the political death penalty for being a failed governor.
What’s needed are parent or community run “opt-out camps,” so students can have a rich learning experience together, instead of sitting for the tests. Retired educators, who do not like the new test craziness, might be willing to assist as a form of protest against the degradation of the profession. Keep the kids out of school for those days, and don’t let the “suits” bully parents into caving.
An excellent idea
As a retired teacher, I’d show up.
Yes, an excellent idea.
When I retire I’ll show up, too.
Reblogged this on Crazy Normal – the Classroom Exposé.
The hero parents of Texas Opt Out, Kyle and Jennifer Massey, are gaining support:
http://kyledmassey.com/response-to-policy/
We must stand up to this administrative bullying and advocate for our children!!
Keep it up New York & Texas!
“Data fill them with joy.”
chuckle. (instead of crying)
I have known people like this, and even some who do like reading for pleasure and music and the arts. . .but I think some people arrive at that point because they simply don’t have any other answers and have not accepted life as a journey for everyone. Out of their frustration for not being able to fix things (as if humans could ever really be fixed, or should be for that matter), they resort to what they can measure. Lists and tallies comfort them.
Again. . .it comes down to 1) what is the problem? 2) can it be fixed? 3) should it be fixed? 4) what is the purpose of education. The “college and career ready” bit is just too limiting. . .it’s as flat a term as “21st Century skills.”
You may have seen this video before… it’s about the importance of the first follower:
It seems germane to what is happening in NYS…. and may be why some folks are getting nervous…
A great vid. Here, a scientific study of the % of people you need to bring about social change. Answer: about 10 percent.
http://freakonomics.com/2011/07/28/minority-rules-why-10-percent-is-all-you-need/
And this may be why we shall win against ed deform before it implodes of its own stupidity (and before it ruins the lives of millions more teachers and students).
We will win because parents love their children too much to let this abuse by testing continue. Parents all across NY are starting to realize that these tests are TRAPS designed to TRICK, CONFUSE, FRUSTRATE, TIRE OUT, and WEAR DOWN their children into FAILING. Just check out the math HW many 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade students are bringing home if you doubt this. These tests are the spear point of an invasion on our public schools. Be fierce and fearless.
If the deformers are smart, they will delay the rollout of the Common Core College and Career Ready Assessment Program (C.C.C.C.R.A.P.) nationwide. If they don’t, the same ire that is mobilizing parents and others in New York will mobilize parents nationwide. That’s when the villagers grab their pitchforks and shovels and track the education deform monster to its lair.
Just wait until the PARCC computer disaster hits. The perfect storm of CCCRAP tests and CCCRAP technology. The bandwidth boondoggle – coming soon to a laptop near you! The drag and drop demolition derby of 2015. Get your popcorn and pitchforks ladies and gentlemen. The death of deform. The Gatesian meltdown. The supernova of the century.
Wayne, that is a terrific video!
dianeravitch: what you said.
😎
I could swear that original dancer looks a lot like Arne Duncan.
NY Teacher, Arne Duncan is far less graceful and far more cowardly . . . . .
RR
You must be forgetting that he was the MVP of the celebrity basketball game during the NBA All-Star weekend.
Pardon the sarcasm I’m still feeling the sting of rejection. When David Stern stepped down as commissioner of the NBA I thought for sure I was a shoe-in for the job. Had the exact same qualifications as Arne. I never played basketball and I never even watched a game. Yet somehow they let that Silver guy beat me out.
BRILLIANT VIDEO!!!!!!!!!!!!
How can no much truth be encapsulated by such a little video. . . .
Power to he leaders, the momentum, the youth, and all other ages who are fighting back against the tectonic shifts in wealth and power here in the USA and globally!
I meant “so much truth”. . . . . I am a lousy typist . . . . .
One of the GREAT books which has created a focal point for my philosophy of life is Martin Buber’s epoch “I And Thou”, Ich und Du in German in which Buber points out two ways of perceiving the world around us; as objects, things – a scientific way – or as spiritual relationships, the world of beauty, poetry et al. Are people, the world around us merely objects, widgets, or do we interact with them as beautiful “spiritual” relationships. By spiritual I do not mean necessarily a religious connotation but as spiritual in its more comprehensive meaning.
My view is that whichever way one views it tells us a great deal about a person, about our society – how do we perceive the world: people, the children we teach; as things, objects or as “human” beings. For me, it makes a humongous difference. How we choose to perceive that world will determine what we do. AND do you know anyone who wishes to be considered a mere object, a thing? Or do YOU wish to be seen as a “human” being?
True: God, Nature, however one wishes to describe the entity, gave us two halves of our brain and to be fully integrated we need to use both but we should never bifurcate, become “half-wits”. That is my view.