This week begins the make-or-break, do-or-die standardized testing that will label your child a success or a failure. I urge you not to let your child take the state test.
Opt out.
The best test for students is the test made by their teacher. Teachers know what they taught; they test what the students were taught. They get instant feedback. They can find out immediately which students didn’t understand the lesson and need extra help. They can get instant feedback about their own success or lack of success if the students didn’t learn what they taught.
The standardized tests are useless for instant feedback. They have no diagnostic value. The test asks questions that may cover concepts that were never introduced in class. The test is multiple-choice, creating an unrealistic expectation that all questions have only one right answer. The tests may have errors, e.g., two right answers or no right answers or a confusing question. The test results are returned months after the test, meaning that the student now has a different teacher. The test scores give no breakdown of what the student did or did not understand, just a score.
These days, the purpose of the tests is to evaluate the teacher; most researchers agree that using student scores to evaluate teachers gives inaccurate and unable results. This year’s “effective” teacher may be next year’s “ineffective” teacher. “Value-added-measurement” has not proven to work anywhere. Most teachers don’t teach tested subjects and they are assigned rating based on the results of the school as a whole. A music teacher may be found “ineffective” based on the school’s math scores. This is madness.
Because the tests have no diagnostic value for students, they are worthless. If they can’t be used to help students or to improve instruction, they shouldn’t be used at all. We can learn all we need to know about states or cities by sampling (like NAEP, which compares states to states, and cities to cities). We can learn all we need to know about individual students by relying on teacher judgment and testing in specific grades, like 4 and 8.
The reason we have so much testing is because our policymakers don’t trust teachers. If we trusted teachers, we would let them teach and trust them to do what is right for their students. The more we distrust teachers, the less appealing is teaching as a job or a profession.
Another reason we test so much is the power of the testing corporations, which pay lobbyists in Washington and the states to push for more testing. This is big business.
Elite private schools rarely use standardized tests. They trust their teachers to evaluate their students’ progress.
We are trapped in a machine that is profitable for the few, but demoralizing to teachers and students.
Testing is not teaching. It steals time from instruction. Making it so important leads schools to narrow the curriculum, cutting funding for the arts, eliminating social workers and counselors, cutting recess and physical education. Making testing so important leads to states and districts gaming the system, to schools shedding low-scoring students, to cheating, to teaching to the test, and to other anti-educational actions.
How to stop the machine?
Opt out.
Don’t let your children take the test.
Deny the machine the data on which it feeds. There are corporations ready to mine your child’s data. Don’t let them have it.
I am reminded of the famous speech by Mario Savio, leader of the Free Speech Movement, during a protest rally at the University of California at Berkeley in 1964. He said:
There’s a time when the operation of the machine becomes so odious, makes you so sick at heart, that you can’t take part! You can’t even passively take part! And you’ve got to put your bodies upon the gears and upon the wheels…upon the levers, upon all the apparatus, and you’ve got to make it stop! And you’ve got to indicate to the people who run it, to the people who own it, that unless you’re free, the machine will be prevented from working at all!
Assert your independence. Protect your child. Stop the machine.
Opt out.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
We have been told that the state of New York does not recognize a parent’s RIGHT to opt out. Only refusal…
This observation appears to be far short of any reasonable approach to evaluating teachers. The argument is “just leave them alone and trust them”.
Everyone is evaluated on some basis, from the President of the U.S. to the lowliest ditch digger. How do you propose to evaluate teachers….just the “touchy feely” let them teach and then let the principal write a touchy feely report.
We need to start somewhere. What modest, ever so slight type of evaluation would you permit? Something? Anything?
Your warning to parents is also misguided. It sounds very much like “don’t vaccinate your child as it causes autism”. Preventing your child from testing could well be harmful, not helpful
Come on now….what very slight little start of teacher evaluation would you condone?
Gipper, there are excellent peer evaluation programs in place in Montgomery County and elsewhere, wherever the US DOE has not wiped them out. Teachers are evaluated by peers and supervisors, offered help, and either retained, offered more help, or fired. In Montgomery County, more than 200 teachers have been fired by peer evaluators. It works.
Her warning is just that… A warning. It’s not misguided, yet her own opinion given to others based on her intelligence in this matter. She has looked at our options and based on the well researched matter by people such as herself, given many parents another choice for their children instead of allowing the “misguided” perception that a one size fits all should be a standard for all our children, moreover, be crammed down our throats whether we like if ir not. Parents such as myself, who not only don’t vaccinate their children for reasons way beyond that of autism, look for more effective ways to educate children and evaluate teachers, it should be based, not biased, on the individual needs of the child and the needs of the teachers to effectively educate them to the best of their ability.
I’ll bite. Why don’t you have your children vaccinated?
So you’re saying that a useless evaluation based on junk science that would cost thousands of good teachers their jobs is better than the current evaluation system?
BTW, nice (but tired) strawman. No one is saying teachers shouldn’t be evaluated at all. They already are and have been for generations. Principals have always done observations, listened to student and parent feedback, etc., and, in conjunction with other necessary school officials (superintendents, board members, etc.) have always had the ability to fire teachers provided they have adequately documented the situation and followed proper due process procedures. Which is what we all deserve.
Why don’t you find somewhere else to troll?
So Gipper, the purpose for the tests is to evaluate teachers?
In the University setting, we use peer evaluations and student evaluations. Are they perfect approaches? No. But, do such approaches provide information to University administration and to the teacher being evaluated? Absolutely.
I have made this same point many times, but there seems to be some opposition to the idea of having teachers evaluate other teachers at the K-12 level. This was made clear to me when one frequent poster, LG, posted that
“One must be very careful in speaking up about one’s colleagues. It is unprofessional to do so unless there is evidence that the colleague’s actions are bringing immediate harm to students.
To simply have opinions on a teacher’s style of teaching, management, etc. is one thing, but when you are actually calling someone a “lemon,” there must be real evidence of unprofessional (read, harmful) behavior.”
And in a subsequent post
“Peer evaluation is never a good thing, especially when someone’s job is at stake. Peer observation is only a good thing when the observing peer seeks to help–not “score” an eval upon which a person’s career is based.”
I do not know how widespread this view is among teachers, but the fact that Montgomery County Maryland seems to be the only school district that is discussed in connection with peer evaluation suggests that it is not widely used.
The discussion about peer evaluation is here:
https://dianeravitch.net/2012/08/15/is-this-a-failing-school-with-great-graduates/comment-page-1/#comment-24161
Aren’t college students adults? Are you comparing k-12 students to college students? When would you think it is appropriate for a student to be surveyed? Teachers in these setting still need to be able to discipline students and hold standards.
I think student’s perceptions of the class are useful in any educational institution no matter the age of the students. They can provide another piece of the puzzle.
In K-12, principals can use peer-to-peer evaluations, their own observations and some form of evaluation from the students &/or their parents/guardians.
If the peers have the same view as poster LG, peer evaluation is a mostly useless exercise.
As Diane points out, teachers are already, and always have been, evaluated. Here is the problem: I am a special education teacher in an alternative high school. I teach students with severe psychological and behavioral disorders. These students are not exempt, and must take all the same state tests (including Regents) that other students take. My evaluation is based upon what percentage of my students improve their test scores by an amount estimated at the beginning of the year. Because I teach what are called 8-1-1 classes (8 students, 1 teacher, 1 teacher’s aide), my evaluation will be based upon, at most, 16 students. However, at this point in the year, it looks like only 6 of the students I began the year with will still be in our school at the end. This isn’t unusual–students move, get put in residential facilities, drop out, or become chronically truant at a high rate in my school. Of the 6 students left, one has become pregnant and has gone off her meds. Most days she can’t even make it into class because of her emotional breakdowns. One student has been hospitalized for months, not receiving instruction from me. One comes to school about once a week. Two swear at me whenever I try to get them to do work, and tell me they don’t care, they’re dropping out as soon as they’re 16. Their parents tell me they can’t help, they can’t make their sons do anything, either. One is facing incarceration, and may not be here at the end of the year. If 4 of these 6 don’t reach their goals on the end of the year test, that will “prove” I’m a bad teacher.
I wanted to work with students who really needed me, to help students who are struggling the most. But because I work with students who are impoverished, disabled, homeless, incarcerated, and mentally unstable, I may very well be labeled as “ineffective.” Does this really mean I’m a bad teacher?
You obviously have not looked at what is required on a teacher evaluation lately. It is quite extensive and detailed. No touch feely. Maybe you should educate yourself “slightly” is the word you seem to prefer.
If you want to know measurements are reasonable or not, why not have reformers and politicians take the standardized tests? Since they are the ones preaching the faith in testing, they should know everything in the test. If they can’t comprehend the language of test questions, and fail to get the decent scores, that’s when you see aha moment(test-based evaluation = bad science).
It’s totally unreasonable to force children to take the exams that even educated adults cannot understand.
Yes, how do you opt out? And while we’re at it, how do you opt out of the Whole Brain teaching methodology?
Check with United Opt Out (google), which has specific instructions by state.
Send a letter to the teacher saying that you will not permit your child to take the tests.
in my school, though granted an excellent suburbian school, parents could request teachers. Word-of-mouth got around, fairly or otherwise. Having parents directly rank teachers, no way they are that knowledgeable and, of course, the conflict of interest.
Yes, how do you “opt out” And while we’re at it, how do you “opt out” of that dreadful Whole Brain teaching methodology?
I too would like to know how to “opt out” of the horrible “pedagogy” that’s proliferating these days. Opting out of a few days of testing is one thing, but when schools use animal training methods (which aren’t even the best methods of training animals) day after day, what is a parent supposed to do. I thank my lucky stars every day that we can send our kids to private school, but most people can’t, and with one job loss or serious medical issue, I could easily be among them. Heck, even if food, water and utility prices continue to rise like they have been I could be among them. Our gas bill was nearly double this month because Nicor raised rates to cover all their infrastructure problems from that terrible winter. I have a lot of infrastructure problems from that winter too, but I have to eat them myself. Pays to be rich and powerful.
HOMESCHOOL- and it is hard but wonderful. Your children will flourish. It takes 1 month for every year for a child to decompress from the environment. Hence a finished first grader should get the hang of it after a month or so. Think of it as saving the next generation.
Are you suggesting that a Principal, the boss, cannot write an appropriate evaluation? Can your boss? I am sure there are no “touchy feely” evaluations in corporate America (sarcasm). We should evaluate teachers the same way corporate America evaluates its employees, by letting the bosses do it.
My daughter maxed out the State test one year, missing none. The next year, she missed two problems, total. According to most VAM (and the State test) her fourth grade teacher was a worse teacher since the scores dropped. That is just crazy talk. Did she grow as a student, as a person? Furthermore, we have no idea what she missed. Was it a foolish mistake, or a lack of knowledge? Was the question poorly written?
By evaluating using test scores, no sane teacher will teach either the super high kids, or the super low.
We will be opting out!
I agree! Why is Supervisor evaluation such a crazy and foreign concept? I work for a private company and my direct Manager does my review. It’s not done by a peer. It’s not done by the end users of my company’s work product. My boss sees what kind of job performance I do, that and my self-evaluation of the goals I set for myself are it. Why is a normal performance review a way-out there crazee idea when it comes to teachers?
I think the same thing. Most people have their boss evaluate their performance and it works.
I think whoever hires you, should be the same person whom evaluates you, and ultimately makes the important decision of future employment.
Diane,
Just wanted to share a (heavily edited) piece I wrote that appeared the Muskegon Chronicle (after being held in editorial limbo for several months). I published the entire piece on my blog, but here is a portion relevant to the discussion here:
“NCLB and Race to the Top survive on three seemingly unlimited resources:
• Our ignorance: I’ve just given you a very brief glimpse into what has transpired in our classrooms during the past decade. For a more complete overview of the whole steaming mess, it would be hard to beat Diane Ravitch’s “Death and Life of the Great American School System.” Ravitch was an early proponent of No Child Left Behind, and the first to have the courage and integrity to admit that it had failed.
• Money: We are beaten hands down here. The people behind the takeover of our schools are 1 percent of the 1 percent. They own virtually everything — the media, the politicians, and the banks. No amount of bake sales is going to allow us to come close to matching their resources.
• Data: Here is the Achilles’ heel of the colossus. Viewed from a distance, it looks daunting, but on closer inspection, the whole thing is made of eggshells. It thrives on the data we feed it when we present our children to be tested year after year like some kind of annual pagan sacrifice. Starve the thing of data and watch it fall.
Let’s simply walk away from the test. Not just in Michigan, but across the country. Exempt your child. Refuse the test. Both state and federal law acknowledge the right of parents to guide the education of their children. Reclaim that right and take back our schools.
You won’t be alone in doing this. Organizations across the country — United Opt Out, Save Our Schools, the Bartleby Project, and Parents Across America — are successfully encouraging parents to join them in exempting their children from these tests, making their voices heard, and taking back public education.
Government does not mess with angry parents. They will threaten the schools, but our public schools are supposed to serve us, not the government. Let’s refuse the tests and then see which legislators step up to defend the rights of business over the natural and legal rights of parents. Knowing who they really support will make choosing a candidate much easier come the next elections.”
Best regards,
Scott
P.S. – My daughters haven’t taken the MEAP in years, nor the thrice yearly NWEA MAP testing. They are doing just fine.
“Government does not mess with angry parents.”
Oh how I wish that were true. Parents massed by the thousands to protest the closing of 50 schools in Chicago. It was done anyway. Same story across the nation – parents protesting everything from school closings and charterization to testing to Common Core. Even in relatively affluent places like Long Island the powers that be don’t seem to care what parents have to say. We are, after all, just “special interests”.
I agree that standardized testing has no real beneficial value to students or teachers and i believe they only work to frustrate the students and make rash decisions about teachers, however, I wonder if Opting out is really the solution?
Opting out of the test hurts the school and the teacher and they are the ones that are against testing the first place.Opting out can hurt the funding of the school, and the evaluations of the teacher.
I wonder if there are different, more influential moves we can make towards change in standardized testing that have more of an impact than opting out.
If enough students opt out, the school can’t be hurt because the scores will be invalidated. If everyone opts out, the school itself won’t have scores.
It seems like something drastic has to be done to force the change.
I live in Virginia. How do we go about Optting OUT of state testing?
Mel, contact United Opt Out. Google it.
The other option to opting out, which I see parents doing in my community, is not paying any attention to the test scores. These parents do not want their children singled out as an opt out, but when attending parent conferences, immediately ask the following question: how is my child doing –please do not mention test scores in this meeting–they are meaningless. There is a growing backlash to the testing/accountably movement, which like the modern math wars may years ago, will bring this entire movement down. I do blame professional educational associations for jumping on this crazy train in the first place. Too bad it took non-professionals, parents, to finally say, this is crazy what you are doing to our children.
Diane, Spo-ton. Resist, Resist, Resist, in whatever manner you can summon.
Once again, we find truth and sustenance in Mario Savio/s 1964 improvised, brilliant speech in Sproul Plaza, University Of California, Berkley, in support of the Free Speech Movement. We have a useable past upon which to draw wisdom and strength and which can’t be appropriated and perverted by the ‘reformers’. Let us use the words and actions of our historical comrades as our guide. They would have it no other way.
Diane,
The NEA and AFT also exercise great power and pay lobbyists in Washington D. C. and the states to push their own agenda. That, too, is very big business. Would you not agree?
Since the SAT and AP exams are also standardized, should parents discourage their children to attempt them? Later in life, what about the GRE, the GMAT, the LSAT, medical licensing board exams, bar exams, engineering exams, CPA exams? Bogus, all, fixed by malefactors of great wealth?
Oh get over the union shtick. What unions spend pales in comparison to what the billionaires spend. And in any case, there’s not that much of a gap between what the unions support and what the billionaires support, at least if you’re talking about the national unions and most state ones.
Those are all all test taken by seniors or juniors, or by adults. If you want to make a fair comparison, you have to find a test that is taken every year and overrides all other information. If you don’t do well on the PE engineering test, you can still find a job as an engineer. If you don’t pass a test in 5th grade you get retained. Not the same.
And I bet you didn’t have to endure all this testing when you were a child and still did your personal best on the SAT.
Apparently not enough because there has been nothing but garbage passed by our legislatures.
College admissions tests are less reliable as predictors of student performance in college than Grade Point Average in high school, which shows four years of persistence. The other exams are choices, not mandates.
You miss the point, but no matter. Such tests are still, despite demurs presented here, very heavily depended on. Anyway, why should a high-quality test not also reveal four years’ persistence? Finally, anything that can be opted out of is, by definition, not mandatory.
many, many reputable colleges accept kids’ applications without SATs etc…. Fair Test lists them: http://www.fairtest.org/university/optional
For those refusing, don’t just refuse with your child who is hopefully resilient enough when asked by classmates “What?” and “Why?” (and probably “How?”). If you refuse (which I know many disagree with me but I do not condone it; just comply with it) – and if you don’t but think testing is excessive and driving far too much in curriculum and evaluation, call your state legislator and your Congressmen and Congresswomen.
The OVERUSE and MISUSE of standardized testing, single test scores attached to a teacher, testing which is high-stakes and narrows curriculum is State policy.
The ANNUAL use of standardized testing (3-8; ELA and math) (and requiring practically every child with disabilities and who is limited English proficient) is a Federal issue (NCLB/RTTT).
Tell the policy makers!
Talking about not feeding the beast…. imagine if there was no beast!!!
If you are going to OptOut, and I hope you all do, then please, ALSO, sign this White House petition, which calls for an END to standardised testing put in place by NCLB and RTTT… https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/direct-department-education-congress-remove-annual-standardized-testing-mandates-nclb-and-rttt/1lSSvnYK….
The Petition was started by two respected public education advocates – Victoria Young and Susan Ohanion, who explain why they started it here: http://itemactions.us/
The Petition needs to go viral, so that it meets its target of 100K signatures by April 16th….
Diane gets hundreds of thousands of hits on this blog every day… There are now 40K BATs, according to Mark Naison…. If even 10% of Diane’s readers and those BATS signed TODAY, this petition’s number target would be met….
Surely there are 100K of us that want an end to this standardised testing plague? We’re opting out…. we’re calling for congressional hearings…. isn’t it simpler to just get RID of the testing altogether?
One of my two children is an 11th grader in North Carolina. State law says they have to take the state tests or they will get a zero and fail the class. What should I do?
Diane,
One of my sons is an 11th grader in North Carolina. I want to opt him out of the standardized tests, but the way the laws are written, he will fail his classes if I do that. What should I do?
David R Phillips
Get every parent in the class to join you. They can’t fail everyone.
He is going to a school 100 miles from where I taught so I would not have that kind of pull at that school. I am thinking more of a whereas/therefore protest statement that gets appealed up the chain. My main objective is to just educate the teachers and administrators up the chain for now. I suspect none of them knows what is really going on. It will be difficult to convince a Southern town educated by Fox News, much more convince a classroom of parents from 3,000 miles away that they should opt their child out of the test.
I will have a much better chance of having that kind of pull where I used to teach, where my son will be going next year as a senior.
Most teachers and administrators know what is going on. They just have no power to stand up to it since it is a right to work state. Administrators can be fired on a whim and teachers who do not have career status can be let go without cause. Those with career status will be losing it soon. So even though I know of many activist teachers – they are are not plentiful in NC. The harm of all the standardized testing has not truly reached here yet and there are so many other attacks on schools and teachers- everyone is a bit distracted. Plus- the state will punish anyone who refuses the test by giving them a failing score (1). With an atmosphere like this there is an active Opt Out movement but it is tiny compared to what is happening in New York. Now the first show to drop will be the Read to Achieve program that potentially could prevent half of our 3rd grade students across the state to not be promoted to 4th grade. Now that is an abuse of standardized testing that will have a big impact and it will not just impact children from poverty- every child with a mild reading disability will fail too. I think getting a statewide opt out movement will be easier to accomplish at that point but I dislike that children will have to be harmed before people realize the danger.
Here’s how you can opt-out in Texas. We finally got our school district to create a policy:
http://kyledmassey.com/opt-resources/
My children will be taking the tests, but I will complain yet again to the chancellor, our principals, and anyone else who will listen that it’s not the tests that are the problem, it’s the tragedy of having a real curriculum replaced by test prep for so much of the year. I laugh anytime I see someone here refer to charters as “test prep” factories; just about every NYC DOE school that I’m aware of replaces real teaching for intensive test prep starting months before the exam. That’s the tragedy, not the tests themselves.
You need to take it back one more step. The reason that test prep has replaced a real curriculum is that teachers’ salaries and jobs and even the existence of the school are predicated on the kids getting high (or at least improving) test scores. When you’re doing your explaining to anyone who will listen (and, BTW, how do you find such people?) make sure to point out that using test scores to evaluate anything or anyone other than the students is a violation of the stated use of the tests themselves. VAM and other similar “evaluation” methods are the root of the tragedy.
Well, I’m saddened by your response, but I guess I appreciate your candor.
So until test scores are completely unlinked from employment decisions, you’ll have no moral or professional qualms about test prepping the hell out of the kids, including (this is the part that gets me) the kids who opt out?
This doesn’t strike me as being very progressive or pro-child.
Tim.
In many cases the pedagogical decision making has been taken out of the hands of the teachers. In NY if a school or district has been labeled as a “Focus” school, the NYSED approved improvement plan often dictates what is happening in the classroom; EngageNY modules. benchmark testing, practice testing, posting of learning objectives, behavioral intervention plans, and more.
That doesn’t explain the rampant prepping going on at non-focus schools, and some of the “reward schools” are the worst test-prep offenders of all.
Tim,
Although the reformers do not want you to believe it, in many ,many cases EXCESSIVE TEST PREPPING does raise test scores. One of the MET studies even confirmed it ( buried though) .
The curriculum is replaced BECAUSE of the tests. Simple as that.
Much as I like you posts, if your kids take the tests, then you are contributing to the problem you call a “tragedy.”
I think we all contribute to tragedies every day. I do.
why is my comment, with the link to Victoria Young’s and Susan Ohanion’s White House petition asking for the END of testing, and the link to their website explaining why they created the petition, still sitting in moderation?
Multiple links tend to delay publication of comments. You might want to post as two separate comments.
Cross posting Dienne 🙂
Anytime you have more than one link in a post it sits in moderation. Split them up into two posts and they will go through. 🙂
Our daughter will again be going to school this year and refusing to take our state’s standardized test. I prefer to think of her more as a “conscientious objector” than an opt-outer. Our state considers this an act of civil disobedience, and I agree. You do not need the right to opt out. Your kid just needs to go to school and refuse to comply. But it is important that they crack the test book seal and invalidate any make-up test.
I am in a dilemma in North Carolina. I have been supporting parents across the state in opting out/refusing but will not be opting out my own children since the state has retaliatory measures. If you refuse the test they give you a 1 on it ( not passing). This has no effect in elementary in most cases ( with the exception of 3rd grade) but in middle school is impacts placement in classes and in High school it impacts the child’s grades and possibly graduation. Some of these impacts are imposed by districts some by the state. I make sure parents are informed of what happens but it makes it harder to make a stand when there are ramifications. http://optoutoftestsnewhanover.weebly.com/
Talking about not feeding the beast…. imagine if there was no beast!!!
If you are going to OptOut, and I hope you all do, then please, ALSO, sign this White House petition, which calls for an END to standardised testing put in place by NCLB and RTTT… https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/direct-department-education-congress-remove-annual-standardized-testing-mandates-nclb-and-rttt/1lSSvnYK….
The Petition was started by two respected public education advocates – Victoria Young and Susan Ohanion… The Petition needs to go viral, so that it meets its target of 100K signatures by April 16th….
Diane gets hundreds of thousands of hits on this blog every day… There are now 40K BATs, according to Mark Naison…. If even 10% of Diane’s readers and those BATS signed TODAY, this petition’s number target would be met….
Surely there are 100K of us that want an end to this standardised testing plague? We’re opting out…. we’re calling for congressional hearings…. isn’t it simpler to just get RID of the testing altogether?
Susan and Victoria explain why they started the White House Petition here: http://itemactions.us/
I couldn’t see the petitiin on whitehouse.gov.
I signed this some time ago. I urge all to do so.
TEXAS…..yea!!!… can you believe it….TEXAS PARENTS OPT OUT has started
a movement that is gaining…..Must have gotten a boost from NPE Convention!
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Texas-Parents-Opt-Out-of-State-Tests/121316371311714
Diane,
Thank you so much for everything that you are doing. I had figured out about 2/3rds of the corporate takeover stuff myself, but did not see the full picture until I discovered your blog a little over a month ago. I could see what was going on, but had no idea what to do about it. Opting out of the exams is a great solution. It is much like Gandhi telling the people of India to defy the unjust mandate forbidding them from making salt from the sea, and to make salt anyway. Except the parents and students would be defying the unjust testing mandate which has obviously been designed to harm our children, America’s public school tradition, and the democratic process itself. Why would anyone knowing allow someone else to slowly feed their children poison. The corrupt politician’s illusive game aren’t just fooling folk’s reason anymore, they’re messing with people’s parental instincts. Once people figure out that they have been had on the education issue, it could open their eyes to the rest of the shenanigans going on as well.
Although I live 3,000 miles away in British Columbia now, I am going to attempt an opt-out-of-the-test campaign where I used teach in North Carolina anyway, while the students I had are still there. But what is the best way to do that? How do you communicate this complex situation as to why their children should opt out of the test without having the parents roll their eyes at you. It is difficult to explain without sounding like a conspiracy theorists. My biggest dilemma right now is figuring out the best approach. Is it better to tell them the situation first and that the solution is to opt-out, or is it better to say opt-out and then explain why? Perhaps it is better to explain the situation in one letter, and then follow up the opt-out solution with another? What have you found to be the best way to approach this?
Here are the particular circumstances. My oldest son will be attending the high school where I taught last year so I have a legitimate reason to be contacting the school board about this issue. I have already talked to some of the teachers I used to work with and they were unaware of the corporate takeover, one was highly skeptical of what I was telling him. I also talked to one of the school board members, she was also unaware, although already suspicious. To explain things I have been using the Myth Behind Public School Failure: http://www.yesmagazine.org/issues/education-uprising/the-myth-behind-public-school-failure, ALEC’s Extensive Plans for Education Restructuring in Your State: http://deutsch29.wordpress.com/2014/01/29/alecs-extensive-plans-for-education-restructuring-in-your-state/, ALEC Rock http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NXUPDAMc_6o, A Guide to What Happened to Public Education in North Carolina:https://dianeravitch.net/?s=ladd+and+fiske, and your latest interview with Bill Moyer, bit.ly/1pBrhCT. How are those resources in Goldilock’s world, is it too much stuff, too little, or just right? Where is the best place to add in the opt-out part?
Here are my thoughts out loud. Please feel free to interrupt me with a better idea at anytime you see fit.
1. Educate key people (the person I know on the board, PTA groups, retired teacher friends) so that they will have a better understanding of the subject and will be able to better respond to the public’s questions when I start releasing the information more publicly.
2. Release the information publicly (letters to editors, local news websites, every member of the board) Although the university town is relatively progressive, it is still in the South and therefore overall conservative. The majority of people watch Fox News so this will sound unbelievable to them. Is it best to try to explain things to the skeptics, or to those more likely to listen, or to both?
3. Utilize the student representative of the school board to inform the students how these tests have been misrepresented to degrade them and their schools. The current student representative is a particularly talented individual at such things. Look at how the student body responded to his leadership as they stood up to a book challenged supported by Franklin Graham (Billy Graham’s son who has Samaritan’s Purse headquartered in the same town). (http://www.hcpress.com/news/students-stage-the-house-of-the-spirits-read-in-at-watauga-high-school-on-thursday-morning-final-appeal-tonight.html) Watch the public debate to see what these students are capable of (http://www.hcpress.com/news/school-board-hears-from-21-individuals-from-both-sides-of-pending-book-challenge-at-watauga-high-school.html). But this school board student representative graduates in June, so time is limited.
4. Compare the student’s opt-out-of-the-test protest of an unjust law to Gandhi’s protest of the unjust law forbidding the making of salt. Students love Gandhi, it will not be too hard to talk the students into changing the world like Gandhi did. Besides, it would make a fantastic lesson for history and civics class.
But what exactly should I encourage them to do? By state law, the students have to take the exam as part of their overall average, or they get a “0” and fail the course. I can not ask them to fail all of their classes, but I don’t think it will be necessary. The local school board has already put these tests “on notice” which means they are still debating whether to have the students go along with the tests or not. It may not take too much campaigning to sway the board to reject the tests altogether. It seems to me if the parents and students were to merely “protest” the tests publicly, that would be good enough. But will the message still work watered down like that? What do you think?
One last question, can we start calling you the Gandhi of Education, because that is what the awakening you started feels like to me?
Oops! I forgot to leave my name on the Gandhi of Education request.
David R Phillips
I love your enthusiasm but it may be best to connect with the people in NC already working on this issue. https://www.facebook.com/groups/OptOutNorthCarolina/
I love your enthusiasm but it may be best to connect with the people in NC already working on this issue. https://www.facebook.com/groups/OptOutNorthCarolina/ or http://www.mecklenburgacts.org/opting-out/
Thanks for the resource, I will check them out.
We are refusing for our daughter to take the NY state tests. As both a parent and teacher in the district, I’ve spent many moments contemplating this. (I’ve never been one to stray from the norm, and I was fearing retribution.) However, it is not just the test that I am opposed to. Our daughter took the tests in third grade. We received the results 6 months later, and nothing useful was provided.
In addition, while groups of teachers were scoring the tests, we couldn’t believe the answers that were allowed to be accepted. We have a “wonderful” new reading and math curriculum where our “teacher talk” is scripted. It is as though we are turning our future generation into robots. What happened to differentiated instruction? We are data rich and information poor. As a teacher, I knew more about my students using our “old” authentic assessments that were individualized vs. our “new” bubble sheet tests (administered twice a year to all K-5) that are standardized. The money spent on all of this is reprehensible.
As parents, educators, and community members, we need to take back our schools. I know that we made the right decision in refusing the tests. Hopefully more parents will do the same. There are many websites and blogs that can help you make an informed decision.
As I have just started student teaching, testing is becoming more and more popular. I as an observer and student teacher do not like the fact that teachers cannot create their own test. Teachers know what each students level is and what they have been learning. I feel like state testing is just teaching to the state test. I feel like state testing should be minimal and should not be a how students are looked upon.
I want to opt out for my kids to not take the starr test, but my sons who’s 11 & is in 5th grade his teacher told us that in order of him to pass 5th grade that he had to pass the starr test. My oldest daughter started yesterday, & my son & his 13 yr old sister who’s in middle school start today so I wish I would have seen this earlier, maybe next year we can opt out but I’m really complicateing on home schooling my 11yr old next year because he has a hard time in school & his teachers seem to only focus on the stuff they think he’s doing wrong. I’m just glad that this option exists. Is it leagal to do if say the child is dealing with the courts for truancy?
Opps i meant comtaplating to home school my son next year. Not complicateing LOL even tho it is complicateing dealing with the Texas schools!!
This is a very important article because it explains HOW standardized testing fails and as such it inspires the reader to think further. Teachers can think of how the test fails to meet the needs of their students and themselves. We need all teachers to be able to explain it in their own words, and students too. Parents can ask the teachers and students to explain why the organic evaluation is infinitely superior to the corporate test. Remember the organic student evaluation is to benefit the students and not to benefit either of the two domineering political parties or their corporate sponsors. The organic student evaluation overflows with the human spirit. The human spirit at the table of public discourse is not optional, but mandatory, and yet of the two sources of its driving energy, only the human heart can direct it in the needed positive direction, while the human ego can never choose the beneficial direction. The human heart gets the vote of the great majority of people, so if the will of the majority is to prevail in governance, the human heart must prevail over the human ego in all sectors. See that it does in your local community. Keep the power dispersed among the people, within each local community, within each townhall, within each classroom.
“The more we distrust teachers, the less appealing is teaching as a job or a profession”
The more we distrust our neighbors the less appealing is being a neighbor. The more we distrust average people the less appealing is being an average person. The more we distrust people of other races/nationalities the less appealing is being a person of another race/nationality. The more we distrust people working in public service the less appealing is working in public service.
But the people we are told to distrust are theones who do not provide us economic opportunities. Could I ask you to please think upon this for a moment?
If we were to distrust the billionaire who supplies us jobs, we may react with hostility. Now, if this is so, could this paradox be at the root of humanity’s chronic inability to solve its social problems? Can we think about this? Can we provide our own jobs? Can we dispense with elites, once and for all? Very much so, very confidently, very soulfully, we steward our own destinies. I suggest one get to work and stop playing the fool!
The problem with peace is that it is unprofitable. Most people are constantly looking for ways to economize and save money, which means less profits over time. Conflict is so much more profitable. It is much easier to manipulate people into buying stuff with hate and fear, than it is with reason.
American’s have been manipulated with hate since Richard Nixon when the Republican’s started using the “Southern Strategy” to trace migration patterns leaving the South after Civil War and aggravating people’s ethnic hatred. (http://www.nytimes.com/packages/html/books/phillips-southern.pdf)
It is one of the reasons American’s have become so unreasonable, politicians have been using hate to defeat reason for decades now.
It is also why Jesus told us not to worship money. He told us to care for each other instead.
There are some gross generalizations, misinformation, giant assumptions, and skewed logic in her argument but other then that i guess she can have her opinion. i dont know about other kids but my kids learns when she knows she has to take a test. pretty basic. (“subjects they dont know or havent been taught” – you mean “reading comprehension” questions which should be based on any and all subjects? Its all about the comprehension…learning…concentrating….absorbing…even subjects they are not previously familiar with.
Scott, I believe that children should be tested by their teachers, not Pearson
Thank you for the information
I have been a public school educator in Arkansas for 41 years. You are not correct when you say that state testing is not an important tool. It is! Our assessments include skills that have been taught in our curriculum throughout the year. It gives a good indication of how students have retained the skills as well as holds teachers accountable to teach the required skills. Our assessments do include teacher made tests as well as frequent district assessments to show us where we need to improve instruction for student progress. You cannot assume that teacher made tests are always reliable and that teachers are focusing on the district curriculum. I do agree that too much emphasis is placed on state testing but that is due to federal regulations. The Feds need to get out of the education business and allow states and local districts decide what needs to be taught. Encouraging parents to refuse to take the test only causes stress and issues and negativity between local educators and parents when neither are to blame.