An invitation to join a new website and share your stories about the Common Core tests.
Hello friends,
I am writing with exciting news about testingtalk.org, a national website created to gather on-the-ground feedback about the new Common Core tests being piloted this spring.
Your help in spreading the word about testingtalk.org is critical. With this new forum, parents and educators across the country can share their real-life experiences with PARCC, Smarter Balanced, and other standardized tests.
Any decisions about the future of these new tests ought to be informed by the voices of those who have experienced the tests firsthand – that’s why testingtalk.org is so important.
I am asking for your help in two ways:
1. Visit testingtalk.org. Read what others are saying, and add your own voice to the mix. If you are the parent of a child taking any of these new tests, if you are a teacher giving the tests, if you are a superintendent leading the implementation of these tests – log in and tell us what you have observed. Remember: please be as concrete and detailed as possible when writing. The more grounded we can be in real-life specifics, the more accurate our emerging picture will be – and the more influence we will have in future policy discussions about standardized tests.
2. Spread the word. Share the link to http://www.testingtalk.org with anyone in your life who may have some connection to standardized testing in K-12 education.
Working together, we can generate a powerful and illuminating national discussion about PARCC, Smarter Balanced, and the other Common Core-aligned tests.
Thank you for spreading the word about testingtalk.org, and please feel free to let me know how I can help you join the conversation.
Patricia
One more note: testingtalk.org was developed independently by a steering committee of education leaders from across the country. The site is not supported by the testing industry, or to any departments of education at either the state or national level. As you can see when reading the biographies of steering committee members, there is quite a range of experiences and perspectives among the group. We sought out this range of viewpoints quite deliberately: the site is not intended to push the conversation in any predetermined direction. Instead, we hope to promote the most vigorous conversation possible, one grounded in details about real-life experiences with the tests.
The Steering Committee for testingtalk.org:
Richard Allington
Carl Anderson
Kylene Beers
Henry Braun
Lucy Calkins
Anthony Cody
Kathy Collins
Eric Cooper
Tom Corcoran
Smokey Daniels
Steve Leinwand
Mary Ehrenworth
Anne Goudvis
Stephanie Harvey
Julian Vasquez Heilig
Heidi Hayes Jacobs
Peter Johnston
Bena Kallick
Ellin Oliver Keene
Patricia Kinsella
Robert Marzano
Mariana Souto-Manning
Jay McTighe
Debbie Miller
Pedro Noguera
Nancy Carlsson-Paige
David Pearson
Robert Probst
Gary Rubinstein
Alan Schoenfeld
Rick Stiggins
Grant Wiggins
Diane Ravitch's blog 
I have been informed that one of my English II (Sophomore) classes has been “selected” to take part in the pilot test for the new PARCC Assessment. I am frankly, livid. My students have been tested ad nauseum. For the past 4 1/2 weeks prior to Spring Break, we did virtually nothing but testing and test prep. Four standardized tests in 4 1/2 weeks. I am supposed to be getting students ready for the EOC test, and now they throw this at us. It makes me sick. My kids are so burnt out. I refuse to practice or prepare for this test. I am telling my students that it doesn’t count for a grade or anything except information for a very wealthy company. I hope they refuse to answer it. They are so burnt out that it’s even hard to get them interested in what should be interesting stories. They enter the class like zombies. This is in Nashville, Tennessee. We have already asked if we can opt-out, so that we can concentrate on preparing for the EOC- which determines AYP for the whole school.
When is the last time an adult bought what they needed for their house and remembered over 30 items without a grocery list? Why are we expecting young children to know more than they had to know in the grade above them? Having a difficult curriculum was for the students who qualified not for students who aren’t ready. When students are tested on a year’s worth of material in March it is like telling people to put on winter coats, boots, gloves and hats every day no matter the weather, 3 months before winter. Common Core requires students to have talent with computer skills even when they are 7. This is not fair to students who do not have a computer to use at home. School budgets have been cut. Students have no workbooks. Teachers spend hours at the copier if they are still allowed to use the copier. Now that teachers must compete against teachers in their own school they refuse to help others, tenure and seniority are virtually useless in some states which have also okayed attendance to be used in evaluation, so if you, or anyone in your family is sick plan on being fired, even if you have 200 saved “sick days”.Overwhelming students and teachers is not any child.
Website looks really great. Impressive group of folks.
Good to see.
“Because Shawnee tested both the math and English assessment, known as Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers, or PARCC, as well as the science and social studies test, known as Ohio Online Field Tests, Straub found that these two formats are extremely different, creating additional problems for districts that have to administer these tests.
“The field testing was complicated by the fact that we were testing two different systems, PARCC and Ohio Online, which is a whole different setup, with different instructions and scripts,” she said.
Another issue districts are facing is that to administer these assessments, the computers used by the students have to be set up to exclusively offer the exam and nothing else.
“We will have to utilize our computer labs for testing during the testing window and not for the intent that they were originally designed for as student and teacher resource labs,” Ottawa-Glandorf superintendent Kevin Brinkman said.
“The problem is that each testing window is 20 days, so you tie up that computer lab for 40 days out of the year, those are 40 days when instruction does not occur,” Lima schools director of technology Peter Badertscher said.”
“Why don’t they just release the test for one grade this year and just add a grade every year after?” Diglia said. “That way, it wouldn’t be all at once and we could get some experience with this under our belts.”
Because they would be less grim, joyless and divisive for you, and they’re bold and brash risk-takers, that’s why.
http://www.limaohio.com/news/news/896579/A-little-testy
I visited the site and was underwhelmed by the steering committee roster, primarily because it includes so many wonks promoting variants of behavorial objectives, continuous improvement, backmapping, and the like.
But I did trip upon a great report on events in New Jersey from an unexpected source: Check this out, and look at the photo too. Not much cheerleading for tests and the rest. http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2014/3/25/new-school-testsdontmakethegrade.html
agreed
That’s a VERY good point…I wondered the exact same thing.
Bob Marzano? Please.
Grant Wiggins says the Common Core is “common sense,” says now that now that the Common Core imposes accountability on teachers they are whining, and calls the motives of Bill Gates and David Coleman “pure.”
Many of these people will sell their consultant services to school districts to “help” them with the Common Core.
Right!!!!
Whereas I am huge fan of Pedro Noguera’s research, I am also quick to point out that he is on this steering committee, and he has openly advocated for charter schools in the past. While his voice on poverty is welcome, his leanings and all too open mind for charters leaves a very bad, of not toxic taste in my mouth. Readers should know about this. Ms. Callkins also has remained relatively silent about the proliferation of charter schools.
Doctor Noguera, if you are reading this, I would like your current views on charters. I have read with great relish works by you in the past, but as a Nationally Board Certified public school teacher of 20 years who speaks Spanish and serves low income Latino populations, I hope you really understand the implications of charter schools and the motivations from powers beyond the charter scene that drive its direction and agenda.
The reason I mention this is because the motivations are not completely pure or genuine . . . . . . Are you aware of that?
http://thetruthoneducationreform.blogspot.com/2013/01/kicked-to-curb.html
Professor Noguera has not only advocated for charter schools, but was for a time the head of the SUNY Charter Institute, which grants charters.
Among those granted by SUNY at the time of Professor Noguera’s tenure were Success Academy schools that invaded and took away space from neighborhood public schools.
I’d be very leery of any organization he is affiliated with.
Reblogged this on Transparent Christina.
Robert Astorino, who is running for the governorship against Reptile-faced Andrew Cuomo, has his own Cuomo/education reform statement, and it’s PROFOUND!!!!!!
A MUST SEE for anyone from any part of the country:
http://perdidostreetschool.blogspot.com/2014/03/rob-astorino-says-his-own-kids-will-opt.html
Personally, I don’t have at all major issues with CCSS, but I have issues with the fact that its genesis did not involve educator, parent, and cognitive scientist voices, and tying the scores from CCSS tests to teacher evaluations is pure junk science.
Still, see what Astorino, a major politician (a county executive from one of the top 7 most expensive counties in the United States) has to say; it’s fascinating . . . . .
Diane, could you fix the typo “Commin” in the first sentence so when I share with people who don’t know you, they don’t focus on that? Tnx.
Diane, in at least two earlier posts you had much fun mocking the misspelling of the name ‘Lowell’ in the invitation to a conference sponsored by white-faced billionaires. Would it be rude of me to point out the word ‘Commin’ in your invitation above? Let me answer: yes, it would be rude.
Yes, Diane. That should have been the Commoners’ Core.
PARCC will require students to take math and ELA tests TWO separate TIMES per YEAR. The first required battery of tests, the PBA (performance Based Assessment) is in March/April (75% course completion). the second round of testing EOY (End of Year) is in May/June (95% course completion). If you think field testing is tying up your computers, PARCC doubles down next year when the PBA and EOY rounds of actual testing kick in!. In the summer of 2015 PARCC plans on setting the cut scores.
When I bring this point up (double barrel testing) to teachers they look at me in utter disbelief. Go to their website and check it out. Its very hush, hush for obvious reasons.
Oh, that’s not all. This is the gift that keeps on giving.
The Common Core College and Career Ready Assessment Program (C.C.C.C.R.A.P.) will also include (will anyone be able to use these terms again in the future without gagging?) “portfolio-style performance assessments,” pre-scripted for you by the educrats at PARCC and SBAC, complete with paint-by-number rubrics to ensure uniformly regimented and machine-gradable innovative and creative thinking to be done over some vast amount of the precious time that you and your students have together.
Seriously?
Seriously. That’s the plan. It’s been the plan from the beginning. They haven’t backed off it.
https://www.naesp.org/principal-januaryfebruary-2014-assessments-evaluations-and-data/testing-and-beyond-common-core
We are opting out of them, so not much to tell!
LOL!!!
More of that!!!!
Item 49 of the 613 commandments of the Hebrew Bible enumerated by Maimonides says that you are “Not to pass your children through the fire to Molech.”
Don’t feed your child to the data maw. Starve the beast! Opt out!
LOL
Kill the tests if you must, but save the STANDARDS!
Gosh, before I had David Coleman to do my thinking for me, I had to try to do that myself. Can you imagine??!!! Thinking is so HARD.
Fortunately, Achieve appointed Lord Coleman absolute monarch of English language arts instruction in the United States, and thanks to the standards, I can now just do as I am told.
Remember, everyone, that Lord Coleman brought VAST experience as an educator to the task of turning education in English into a Powerpoint bullet list to tag Gates’s and Pearson’s and Amplify’s software to!
I know that some haters have claimed that Lord Coleman didn’t have the right experience for the job. Haters gotta hate. But I have it on excellent authority that he actually once applied for teaching jobs for a while. So there!
And such PROFOUND scholarship! Lord Coleman has actually CLOSELY READ King’s Letter from the Birmingham Jail. Wow! So many big words in there! What’s the Lexile on THAT???!!!! Before Lord Coleman, my students and I just tried to struggle our way through the big letters on the outside of cereal boxes.
Lord Coleman. The man just kinda takes your breath away, huh? Listening to him is up there with reading one of those profound philosophical pieces in the Reader’s Digest back in that day! What a mind! They sure do turn out some impressive Rhodes Scholars these days!!!
Where could Achieve and the NGA have possibly found another such towering intellect? The author of The Secret is just too busy, and the only comparable thinker might be, say, GW Bush, but he’s now retired after his careful guidance of our country in the War on Turrur. You never would have caught me misunderestimating that one!!!
Whatever would I do if I had to go back to deciding for myself what learning progressions to follow, what outcomes to measure, and how those outcomes might be formulated operationally?
I might have to fall back on, uh, my teaching experience, my knowledge of kids,my scholarship, the vast research literature in each domain of the English language arts, my creativity, my colleagues, my professional judgment.
But lucky for me, none of that matters anymore. I have Lord Coleman’s BULLET LIST.
So, take the tests if you must, but spare me THE LIST!
This testimonial from a REAL TEACHER is brought to you by the AFT and the NEA, now propaganda ministries of the Common Core Curriculum Commissariat and Ministry of Truth.
CCCC MiniTru, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
Lord Coleman’s 100 (?) Commandments.
TAGO!
Kylene Beers and Smokey Daniels are cranking out books alleging to teach teachers how to teach “Common Core-style”. Their publisher, Heinemann, spams me constantly about their latest contributions. Heinemann must be making a mint these days.
And they send me their slick expensive catalogs, as well. They have to keep pumping in money for Pearson.
Becoming an “EdDeform” EduPundit Made EZ
The nineteenth century was the era of the traveling medicine show. Grifters slithered from town to town in rural parts of the country, peddling magical elixirs. John D. Rockefeller’s father was one such. He would show up in a town, put on a little spectacle, sell some bottled cures for cancer and lameness, and then skeddadle off just ahead of the law.
Today, in place of the Snake Oil Salesman, we have the EduPundit.
The EduPundit doesn’t sell magic elixirs. He or she sells Magic Formulas for learning. Now, how does the Aspiring EduPundit come up with a Magic Formula to sell? Well, that’s the easy part. Magic Formulas are lying around all over the place.
The secret to becoming a well-remunerated Edupundit is to take a blindingly obvious idea and make it into a Magic Formula by giving it a Brand Name. Or, if you are in a hurry, start with the Brand Name and then come up with the Magic Formula based on that. I’ve done some of this work for you. Just choose items from the following lists. Note: The Brand Name for your Magic Formula doesn’t have to have an item from List Three. Those are optional. And it can have an item from List Four OR List Five OR both.
List one:
Degrees
Design
Dimensions
Foundations
Paths
Program
Strategies
List two:
of
for
List three:
Close
Collaborative
Critical
Diagnostic
Disruptive
Effective
Empowering
Formative
FUNdamental
Innovative
Multidimensional
Peer
Performative
Positive
Rigorous
Successful
Total
Value-Added
List four:
Knowledge
Learning
Portfolio(s)
Reading
Teaching
Thinking
List five:
Assessment
Evaluation
Growth
Motivation
Outcomes
Performance
Power
Success
If you would like the complete Aspiring EduPundit iPhone App for Choosing Your Aspiring EduPundit Brand, which includes many more lists like the one above (Jump Starting Formative Engagement! Engaging Formative Jump Starting!) just sign up at our website or write your name on a stack of hundred dollar bills and send them to yours truly.
Of course, in addition to the Brand Name, you will need a “Key Graphic” or “Concept Map.” This you can very easily create yourself using Smart Art in Microsoft Word. A circle made of three arrows, an idea pyramid, a web—these are all standard. You know the shtick. Remember: In presentations, you must always unveil your inane graphic with great drama, as though it were the Holy of Holies. It is THE REVELATION.
2014 update: Be aware that the great river of Edupundit green is now running almost exclusively from the bank accounts of a few Ed Deform Plutocrats and from the coffers of those Plutocrats’ wind-up toys in foundations, think tanks, state departments of education, and the USDE. So, if YOU want to be a big barker on the educational midway this carnival season, if you want to be invited to speak at conferences, to write professional books for teachers, to be invited to chair committees, and to get paid for putting your name on textbooks you didn’t actually write or edit—if you want to be a PLAYAH—you will have to PRACTICE YOUR EQUIVOCATION. Hold your nose and learn to collaborate with Ed Deform, but do so with sufficient finesse that you can deny your collaboration when actual classroom teachers seem ready to identify you as Vichy swine.
For a copy of Equivocating on the Common Core and Standardized Testing for Aspiring EduPundits, sign up for my course at Anyone Can Be an InstaEdupundit dot com.
I just read a comment of yours where you discuss Bill Gates “A Road Ahead”. This whole thing has felt very “Mein Kampf” to me. There is an article in the Seattle Times where the B&M Gates Foundation had a room full of teachers chanting “honest feedback” and now I realize he has written his road map for all to see.
Thank you for all you have been doing.
Diane, thank you so much for spreading the word about testingtalk.org.
Several commenters have noted that there are folks on the website’s steering committee with varying perspectives on the Common Core or charters – or any number of issues in public education.
I’m one of the people who helped get the ball rolling on the project. Maybe a few words on strategy would be helpful.
By having a range of political viewpoints behind the project, we guaranteed that the website – and more importantly, the parents and educators who post on it – can’t be dismissed out of hand.
Now we have a national platform for parents, teachers, and administrators affected by the new standardized tests to talk about them- and it’s a forum that’s going to get a lot of attention. Use it. Get on the site and start posting. If you’re worried about pushback, which so many of us are, then post anonymously. What’s most important? That those of us dealing with these tests speak with a loud and clear voice about our real-life experiences. We deserve to be heard.
Thank you, again, Diane, for spreading the word.
This site will, I suspect, prove to be invaluable. The deformers of our K-12 system designed mockeries of “review processes” guaranteed to ensure that their extrinsic punishment and reward system would be rubber stamped. Your site gives people to opportunity to speak truth about their experiences of the deforms in a highly public forum, though any who have actually had students take the tests have been largely muzzled by the agreements they were forced to sign. Well done, Ms. Kinsella! Thank you for this great public service!
cx: the opportunity
It’s interesting how the marketing campaign for Common Core has ground to a halt. The marketing designed for the general public, I mean.
What gives with that? Once the testing begins they farm it out to the non-profit consortium(s) and dump all responsibility and accountability for the practical problems and real-life issues on local public school people? Mission Accomplished at the top executive level?
Must be nice to be a national ed reformer like Duncan and Bush. They can use public schools as a punching bag to push their agenda, then deputize the same public schools they’ve spent entire careers undermining and bashing into advancing their agenda.
I’m not an opt-outer because I fear I would undermine my fifth grader’s trust in the adults at his local public school-he likes school and I’d like to keep it that way- and I don’t base anything on standardized test scores.
I wish there was another way of taking a vote of “no confidence” and make clear that his taking a test has absolutely nothing to do with the “leadership” of these politicians and lobbyists who have done not one thing in the last decade of “ed reform” to benefit, support or “improve” public schools. If it goes well at our school it will be because the people who work at our public school did a good job with the absolutely lousy hand they were dealt at the state and federal “leadership” level. I admire them for keeping on keeping on. It can’t be easy to work in this climate.
Hasn’t Gates paid enough organizations to do their own marketing for Common Core?
My Story….What I have observed and done myself.
No fancy words..Just the truth.
“Every Teacher Teaches TO the Test.
Every Teacher Covers All Standards…(;-)Covers-Not Teaches)
No Teacher Teachers.
Teachers are Testers”
Teachers are Harassed if every students including all ec’s do not pass.
Truths!!!
My only child begins Kindergarten this fall and participates in a part-time public preschool program in Connecticut that he loves. From parents with older children in K – 8, along with several teachers that I know that teach in different school systems, they are telling me horror stories about Common Core. I have certainly come to the right place to learn more about this major education issue! All that I can say is that I made honors in school way back when, BUT, I was a horrible standardized test taker. Now, from what I’ve been reading, things are much worse for our children today, and the “system” has gone beyond test taking mad!
Today’s NYSED/Pearson ELA test had a new twist. Students were required to frequently revisit, re-read, and re-think specific lines in the text in order to select the ONE (????) supposedly correct response from a selection of four often, too similar options. This must be how close reading translates into MC tests items. According to students, some distractors were so lengthy that by the time you got to the fourth option they were hard pressed to remember the first one.
However, the good news is that most students seemed to agree that the reading passages were reasonably challenging and at least somewhat interesting. Definitely
not lobotomy inducing drivel.
It’s smart to use good bait, when you’re setting a TRAP designed to TRICK, CONFUSE, UNSETTLE, TIRE OUT, and WEAR DOWN tests takers into FAILING.