In this post, New Jersey high school teacher Dan Ferat reflects on how many tests he is now required to give to his students, as compared to ten years ago.
Here is a sample, read it all:
So, in only ten years, we have gone from students taking five exams per year (six for juniors with the HSPA) to 34 exams per year (30 for seniors) with many more in sight because there will be a PARCC for EVERY SUBJECT supposedly because there are CCCS for every subject except electives (plus those PSAT/SAT/ACT tests which I’m not even counting).
Forget the amount of time teachers will have to spend grading all these exams and writing them and adjusting them over the years. Honestly, that’s beside the point when it comes to education. It’s true we don’t get enough time “on the clock” as it is, but the real issue is the students. See, I always thought education was about LEARNING a subject in a classroom from readings, teachers, and experiences (like labs). But with all this testing, there will be less learning and more studying for tests. We teachers are evaluated on how well our students do on all the tests, so of course we’re going to teach to them. One would be a complete moron not to since one can wind up fired if one gets too low scores in two years. This will narrow curricula, which means less information and fewer skills learned. It will standardize curricula more, which means fewer choices for students and less of a need for EXPERIENCED TEACHERS, who share so much of their insight and experiences with students to bring their subjects to life. But if everything is just straight out of a book, like a script, all you need is a warm body to watch the kids and lead them through the standardized curriculum.
If parents understood this, they would not be happy. They would begin to recognize what the legislators and the federal government are doing to undermine genuine education and to dampen students’ ardor for learning as well as to demoralize teachers.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
In Texas 50 odd years ago, we took 2 statewide assessments during the whole 1st to 12th grade experience, not counting PSAT, SAT, and ACT, which were of course optional. As far as the latter went, the College Board publicity release for the Merit Scholarship winners strictly advised schools and local newspapers against making comparisons among schools and districts based on test score and winner statistics because it said that scores were individual accomplishments very often achieved in spite of local school factors.
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Not to worry! Marketing has been hard at work on a bewildering array of redirection arguments, jingles, and other promotional material. Any objection that may be raised by the consumers will be neatly covered over with haste and efficiency.
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A Common Core mascot and theme song! Brilliant.
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Jon, is there a source for the College Board release to which you refer?
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I might be able to dig up old newspaper clippings given time, but it would probably be easier to find online in newspaper archives. It seems like it was some sort of standard disclaimer that the College Board requested papers to attach to the bottom of each such article.
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And every one of those tests is draining much needed money from the system.
Standardized testing under Common Core is the ultimate money hole.
3,080 letters/emails have been sent to the President, Senators, and Representatives. since Sunday morning. Please take the time to read and sign the petition entitled:
STOP COMMON CORE TESTING.
Thank you all.
http://www.petition2congress.com/15080/stop-common-core-testing/?m=5265435
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NY Teacher – did you read the replies from our senators? Even Higgins, who is an excellent congressman, missed the mark in his response. Although they supported “delaying” the testing, they all seemed to support the idea of CC as a way to improve education.
This is just too scary for words.
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Yes. Absolutely clueless. What a bunch of tools.
It scares the hell out of me. One of the big, hot button issues in NY and they have no idea. Gates sure is getting his moneys worth.
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That’s only one standardized exam every 5.29 days. Well on our way to all standardized testing all the time.
Funny thing, everyone I know got a good education before any of these.
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This is what happens when people who know nothing of education decide that they are going to “fix” it.
And oh, yes, what a fix we are in.
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Well stated. When educators are allowed to be part of the process of fixing education, then it will truly change.
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It’s become such a farce. Teachers need to take their profession back, and they need unions that will stand up and demand that that happen.
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They do. Union bashers need to go away. The unions are the only way that certain groups of workers got the benefits and pay that they have today.
Of course I live in Texas, a “right to work” state where unions are not recognized.
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I am beginning to feel that no matter how much we protest, there is no way to fight people, like the Koch’s who are worth 100 BILLION dollars. Money wins, and this republic is now an oligarchy, beyond our control. These captains and kings, who Taylor Caldwell described in her novels in the 1920s, must begin by ensuring an ignorant population… the schools must be in their control. It is that simple.
Sorry to be a bringer of doom and gloom. I try to convince myself that there are beacons of hope, and school systems here and there, like in Cincinatti, will break the trend, but I do not ha much hope.
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I sometimes feel that way, Susan. BTW, the Kochs have funded anti-Common Core initiatives. They are not the major funding source for all this, though they support ALEC and other organizations that support the deforms. The Kochs are opposed to Ed Deform as yet another example of big government intrusion. At least they are consistent in their principles.
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Sigh!!!
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Holy CCCRAP Bob, these dang tests are really cutting into our test prep time.
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I knew this would happen. Let the pre-k testing begin:
State lawmakers have lately thought better of the test-everything approach they’d embraced till just last year. In their dramatic conversion last legislative session, they cut high school testing by two-thirds and tried to cut elementary testing, though the federal government put the kibosh on that effort. A vocal bunch of activist parents, longing for the days before high-pressure drills and test prep ruled classrooms, now keep their kids home on testing day as a sort of civil disobedience. Even in Texas, the breeding ground for No Child Left Behind, “testing” has become widely scorned.
So it was a bold move when Greg Abbott announced in March that, as governor, he’d improve education in Texas by standardized-testing 4-year-olds.
To get in on the pre-K craze without looking like some kind of free-spending liberal, Abbott came up with a $59 million-a-year pre-K expansion with grants to programs that proved themselves worthy. He proposed a few ways to pick the best programs, one of which includes, of course, “direct assessment.” One form those “direct assessments” might take: “norm-referenced standardized tests.” The plan explains, “A typical question on a direct assessment might ask the child to identify the letter B and provide three options.”
Texas’ new anti-testing climate may have Abbott on the defensive, but testing kids in pre-K is well underway in other states, and big business is getting on board.
President Obama’s Race to the Top program has encouraged new “kindergarten readiness testing” ideas. Amplify, Rupert Murdoch’s education technology outfit, has developed pre-K tests for its tablet computers and—as the Austin-based Democratic consultant and columnist Jason Stanford wrote in February—its newest lobbyist in Texas is the Bush-era school testing evangelist Sandy Kress.”
You-all thought Sandy Kress was down, but he’s not out! Pre-k is the new growth sector.
http://www.texasobserver.org/education-industry-greg-abbott-pre-k-testing/
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How can any of this endless barrage of tests be considered to be standardized? The HUGE LOSS of class INSTRUCTION is a factor ignored.
If a child is referred for RTI and/or SpEd evaluation, the number of hrs/days of no instruction (only test prep & testing) would be considered time equivalent to NO SCHOOLING, same as repeated absences? Referring kids to SpEd, with significant number of days absent, not being taught, is a important factor. Not a disability. Just AIN’T BEEN TAUGHT (ABT).
Now, we multiply this scenario over several years….frightening! The only standardization in this is ABSOLUTE INSANITY! Plus, children cheated out of an education. Plus, children who may have learning disabilities, but how do we prove that? A.B.T? Or SWD?
This is like the worst nighmare for education.
Thanks for NOTHING…OBAMA, DUNCAN, GATES & Co!
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H A Hurley… ‘the only one who considers the tests worthwhile as ‘standards’ of evaluation are the tentmakers and those who want that loss of learning. Read my comments farther down about what the real Harvard and Pew standards research set as rubrics of genuine evaluations and AUTHENTIC assessment.
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Time allocated for testing in my Spanish classes for the year:
Spanish 1 & 2: 9 quizes @ 15 min each, 7 tests @ 50 minutes each, 2 final exams @ 50 minutes each = 585 minutes or about 10 hours/160 hours = about 6% of class time.
Spanish 3 & 4: 2 hours for finals.
And they are “low stakes” meaning that they count for about 25% of the semester grade. Anymore would be an educational travesty to me.
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A sample item from the new SAT using
“relevant words in context”
[. . .] The coming decades will likely see more intense clustering of jobs, innovation and productivity in a smaller number of bigger cities and city-regions. Some regions could end up bloated beyond the capacity of their infrastructure, while others struggle, their promise stymied by inadequate human or other resources.
Q. As used here, “intense” most nearly means
A) emotional.
B) concentrated.
C) brilliant.
D) determined.
(From todays NYT)
No more arcane/obscure vocabulary
Wonder if vocabulary analogy items are gone too?
Gates : Duncan as __
A) Abbot : Costello
B) Edgar Bergen : Charlie McCarthy
C) Moe : Curly
D) Kareem : Magic
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Test…Test…Test…Test…sing along to the tune of Spam Spam Spam Spam by Monty Python and the results will be the same…a silly comedy for all (but education for none).
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VAM works perfectly with that skit.
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I put up this Ferat blot piece at
http://www.opednews.com/Quicklink/Ferat-isms-Basic-math–b-in-Best_Web_OpEds-Skills_Teacher-140416-133.html
This is the comment which I wrote at the end and on the blog site itself:
“Don’t miss these words: ” according to the syllabi we created” in the sentence: ” This, of course, required us to create generic exams that only covered basic skills or broad subjects because all of us were still teaching texts in whatever order we saw fit according to the syllabi we created.”
“And do not miss this one: “There were quarterly ‘test days’ set aside at the end of each marking period for teachers to use for marking period assessments, but it was left to us to use them as we saw fit.”
“Both of those sentences go to the core of the problem!
Tests for all of our educational institution’s history, were created BY the teacher and were USED BY the teacher, IN ORDER TO PLAN LESSONS AND JUDGE WHETHER PREVIOUS LEARNINGS WERE ACQUIRED BY THE BRAINS OF THEIR EMERGENT LEARNERS.
” I say this over and over, in all my comments and articles: Tests are for the use of the teachers — according to the GENUINE National Standards * rubric for ” ‘Authentic Assessment and Genuine Evaluation ” the 4th principle of LEARNING that was the real standards research before Bush waved a magic pen and substituted ‘standardized tests’
* By now, if you follow by posts on education, or have read my resume on the author’s page, you know my practice WAS the cohort chosen by Harvard and Pew for the NATIONAL STANDARDS RESEARCH…. which is wh y it is beyond my comprehension as to why we the national narrative in the media is about evaluation teachers, and schools, and…. etc, etc ad nauseum.
” ‘THEY’ MADE IT UP AND SOLD IT… By THEY I mean the coalition of corporate interests like Pearson and the media controllers like Koch/Gates/Broad and clones who spin the lies like Duncan and Rhee, and the political beasts and plutocrats that need an ignorant public to sell propaganda and lies…to end democracy
” Let me make it simple: Medicine and law offer the metaphor for grasping what happened:
Ordinary folk trust the professionals who practice medicine and law, because these are complex, complicated disciplines and the people who practice in these fields MUST BE bright, educated and dedicated people who gain experience in their practice; thus, they can be ordered by the directors of the hospital or firm to practice in ways that hurt the clients.
” But in eduction, the public has been sold the idea that teachers can be trained, like medics and mechanics, and that they must be DIRECTED to do the job well, evaluated and dismissed according to subjective criteria written by top-down administrators. The image of the dedicated professional has been destroyed. The word ‘teacher’ replaced ‘practitioner’ and the word ‘classroom’ replaced ‘practice. ‘Pedagogy’ * is replaced by ‘teaching.’
*PEDAGOGY, is the study of how the human brain and psyche acquires BOTH skills and knowledge.
“The word LEARNING is never heard although the real standards 3RD LEVEL RESEARCH WAS were actually BASED ON “THE EIGHT PRINCIPLES OF LEARNING”… 4 of which were for the support staff…THE ADMINISTRATION!
“A teacher is not created in a few months in Teach for America seminars. It is not a job. It is a calling, because bright, educated Americans who teach will never enjoy the monetary benefits accrued by other professionals.
“A novice practitioner learns in the PRACTICE what works and does not work with each population of LEARNERS, and applies that knowledge to what was learned in methods courses that deal with planning lessons and managing classrooms.
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Parents whose children are in SpEd or are being considered for services should ask many questions about the amount of testing and lack of instruction the eligibility is based on. Deformers have turned diagnostics in its head. Where are the psychologists in this matter? Any school psychologists and educational evaluators? Please chime in! This could lead to some legal issues. Ethically, to me, this is already out of wack! Anyone care?
Would we be concerned if all medical tests and diagnostics were turned over to companies who have no skills and their calibrations are all off, patients are receiving a diagnosis which can’t be supported by test data that is honest and true? We would scream loud and clear! Malpractice!? But, for children with disabilities ending up misdiagnosed…anyone care? As a career special educator, I am very concerned. In my career, we have gone from fighting for laws to serve our kids, back to junk science and using junk data. Lawyers are probably not interested because there is no money in it. Who cares about the kids?
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As many have aptly pointed out, Robert Shepard and Peter Greene to name two, none of this should surprise us: It is all part of a well-orchestrated BUSINESS PLAN and it doesn’t favor experience, passion, learning, students most of all. It decidedly favors corporate America, an no one or nothing else.
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What I don’t get, is the total silence from Pew ( which funded the REAL standards research) and the deadly silence from Harvard and the thesis writer Lauren Resnick, whose 8 principles of learning ARE THE STANDARDS.
You see, of the 4 principles that are indictors for learning, ONLY ONE IS ABOUT EVALUATION… and it is for the teacher’s use only. It reads like this and (notice the adjectives) Genuine Evaluation & Authentic Assessment of PERFORMANCE. The standard is clear, explaining that all evaluations are for the use of the classroom practitioner so that the lessons can be planned with each student’s levels known.
Yes, none of us are surprised by the orchestrated business plan, but 15 years ago when I was celebrated by the standards and the state of NY, I had no idea that teachers like myself had to be eliminated.
Yes, everyone can see what this testing mania that Diane predicted when she saw that the Bush plan left all kids behind… a decade ago
But what all of us knew, we who told our stories on the NAPTA site, a decade ago, when no one knew ‘THE PLAN, was there was NO DUE PROCESS IN THE EDUCATIONAL WORKPLACE.
Lorna Stremcha, a Montana educator was one of those who experienced the utter absence of criminal law, testified in Congress. here is the link to the testimony, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nfNxj-O1DiI—- and if you have never heard it, you should.
She was very active, after her horrendous experience, in working with the legislature to create laws that govern workplace bullying in schools.
Isn’t it sad that no one reading this even knows of this teacher, when the media is filled with stories of teachers… you know… all those bad ones, and all the dead-wood.
She has written a book, soon to be published, about the entire process that allowed such utter lawlessness which allowed the failed human being called ‘principal’ to conspire with students to sexually assault her. She proved this in a court of law, when she used her life savings to sue, because AS IN EVERY SINGLE STORY OF HARASSMENT…THE UNION LOOKED THE OTHER WAY… enabling behavior that no American minority would allow.
I remember the AHA, I experienced when reading her introduction in which she describes the changes that indicated that a top-down management took over the school.
What I do not hear anywhere is the simple explanation that OUR profession, like all PROFESSIONS, DEPENDS ON THE PRACTITIONER* in the PRACTICE. (One never hears THOSE words applied to the ‘teacher’ in a ‘classroom’ — TEACHERS ARE TREATED AS if s they are trained medics, technicians, mechanics or office workers.
The very idea that A TEST is the teacher’s tool, was carefully eradicated, and yet, as the Mr. Ferat explains so clearly — teachers were ALWAYS the test-givers and the test-evaluators… FOREVER; and just as the physician evaluates the results of tests, the teachers did this, too — for the same reason — to know what to do next!
The evidence of success was clear at the end of the year. If the students met the clearly defined skills objectives in the STATE’S syllabi, their performance at DOING the required skills would be clear.
If they could spell, or take meaning from text, or organize thoughts for writing or speaking, or divide numbers with decimals, it would be clear without a 3 hour test.
Ironically, as I renovate my office, I have come upon a huge box of the state curricula objectives from 1963 through 1990, for every subject in every grade. NYC gave me a set, too, little books with the science objectives, that were clear about what physics objectives kindergarten kids should grasp… like what fiction does. The lesson they suggested was to put sand on the sliding pond.
I have a booklet for biology, physics, chemistry and astronomy.
I have a booklet for spelling goals for the 2nd grade, which was my main practice in the sixties. I have the NYS Curriculla for fine arts, and for communication arts, because I ‘taught’ those subjects in East Ramapo, when it was a top district in NYS, and even a substitute teacher was responsible for the OBJECTIVES in each subject.
With all the babble about standards and curricula that I hear, the first time I have heard the word SYLLABI was from Mr Ferat, and the total absence of the word OBJECTIVES — WHICH WERE FRONT AND CENTER AT THE TOP OF EVERY LESSON PLAN THAT I WAS REQUIRED TO WRITE- is the clearest evidence available that they have bamboozled everyone into thinking that teaches follow CORE CURRICULA instead of crucial grade objectives. Teachers create the lessons and curricula according to their education, skills and talents… engaging students with lessons based on what they know and enjoy using for those teachable moments when LEARNING is the goal, and the objectives for clear thinking are first and foremost!
But what do I know… I am just a teacher, have no blog, have written no book… but I do write. See my resume, my articles to see what I feel about leaning and the subversion of it in our country.
http://www.opednews.com/author/author40790.html
and click on my comments at my authors page.
http://www.opednews.com/author/comments/author40790.html to her me speak as a teacher.
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