The 2013-2014 school year may be winding down but Testing Resistance & Reform Spring actions activity continues to accelerate. Remember that back issues of these weekly news summaries are archived at http://fairtest.org/news
Local Delaware School Board Pursues Opt-Out Policy
http://www.doverpost.com/article/20140522/NEWS/140529891/10082/NEWS
Florida Kindergarten and First Grade Teachers Question Standardized Testing Plan
http://www.tampabay.com/blogs/gradebook/pasco-kindergarten-first-grade-teachers-question-testing-plans/2180712
Graduation Test Trips Up Most Florida English Language Learners
http://staugustine.com/news/florida-news/2014-05-26/fcat-reading-test-can-spoil-graduations-english-language-learners#.U4MpuLGiUng
Teaching and Learning Corrupted by Georgia End of Course Tests
http://www.ajc.com/weblogs/get-schooled/2014/may/24/what-good-teaching-student-helps-teacher-realize-a/
Kansas Investigates Test Score Validity After Computer Administration Problems
http://cjonline.com/news/2014-05-21/officials-check-whether-2014-state-testing-data-valid
“Test Score Gate” in Louisiana
http://crazycrawfish.wordpress.com/2014/05/22/test-score-gate-for-john-white-failure-was-not-an-option/
One-Shot Tests Fail Maine Students
https://bangordailynews.com/2014/05/25/opinion/not-all-evaluations-are-created-equal-how-maine-is-failing-its-students/
Massachusetts School Rankings Beget Fuzzy Math
http://www.telegram.com/article/20140523/COLUMN44/305239900
Minnesota Parents Resist Test Misuse and Overuse
http://www.southernminn.com/faribault_daily_news/opinion/guest_columns/article_fef745da-c29f-5b79-b9ed-64825397147a.html
Missouri Uses Flawed Test Data to Punish Poor, Minority Students
http://www.stltoday.com/news/opinion/columns/missouri-uses-flawed-data-to-penalize-poor-minority-students/article_fd33baf3-1871-5209-8697-8aa902fb94e7.html
Local New Jersey School Board Joins National Testing Protest
http://essexnewsdaily.com/news/bloomfield/boe-joins-national-protest-against-standardized-tests
Some New Mexico Teachers Burn Their Test-Based Evaluations
http://krqe.com/2014/05/26/taos-teachers-burn-their-evaluations/
Many New York State School Districts Boycott Pearson Field Tests
https://dianeravitch.net/2014/05/21/many-new-york-districts-are-boycotting-pearson-field-tests/
New Yorkers Rally Against Test-Driven Privatization
http://www.alternet.org/education/how-free-market-education-reformers-captured-civil-rights-narrative
North Carolina Warns Schools About Problems With Online Tests
http://www.thestate.com/2014/05/22/3462324/nc-warns-about-problems-with-online.html
Families Launch North Carolina Opt-Out Movement
http://www.thestate.com/2014/05/25/3466561/a-few-nc-parents-plan-to-refuse.html
Oklahoma Legislators Override Governor’s Veto to Allow Alternatives to Third Grade Promotion Test
http://www.edmondsun.com/local/x1760073731/Lawmakers-override-Fallin-to-rewrite-literacy-rules
Limits on Testing Will Save Pennsylvania Schools Millions
http://www.dailylocal.com/social-affairs/20140504/limits-on-exams-will-save-money-dinniman
Providence School Board Supports Waivers to Rhode Island Grad-Test Requirement
http://www.providencejournal.com/breaking-news/content/20140527-providence-school-board-votes-to-issue-broad-waivers-for-200-seniors-to-graduate.ece
Unlikely Tennessee Allies Unite to Fight Test-Driven School Changes
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/27/us/unlikely-allies-uniting-to-fight-school-changes.html
Texas Superintendents Push Back Against Test-Driven Education
http://www.dallasnews.com/news/education/headlines/20140521-superintendents-push-back-against-staar-before-latest-results.ece
Time to Dump Texas’ Testing System and Find a Better Way to Assess
http://www.news-journal.com/opinion/editorials/editorial-time-to-dump-the-test-find-a-better-way/article_46786766-b7db-5efc-828f-b617261a10b3.html
Roanoke, Virginia Parents Rally Against State-Mandated Exams
http://www.roanoke.com/news/schools/gathering-in-roanoke-mobilizes-against-sols/article_1021564a-e095-11e3-b3a0-001a4bcf6878.html
New Documentary Chronicles Teacher Boycott of Washington State Tests
Require Parents to “Opt In” Before Their Children Can Be Tested
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/chris-goering/standardized-test-opt-out-movement_b_5347225.html
Way Past Time to Overhaul NCLB, “One of the Most Poorly Constructed Laws of Its Time”
http://www.latimes.com/opinion/editorials/la-ed-nclb-20140526-story.html
Let’s Stop Measuring Fish By How Well They Climb Trees
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/wp/2014/05/24/lets-stop-measuring-fish-by-how-well-they-climb-trees/
Test-Based Grade Retention Does Not Help Kids
http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2014/05/21/32stipek.h33.html
Common Core Testing Landscape Fragments
http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2014/05/21/32assessment_ep.h33.html
Portfolios Are Next Wave of Student Assessment
http://createquity.com/2013/12/portfolios-next-wave-student-assessment.html
Lawyers Run the Legal Profession, Doctors Run Medicine, Why Don’t Teachers Run Education?
http://www.laep.org/2014/05/19/lawyers-run-the-legal-profession-doctors-run-the-medical-profession-why-dont-teachers-run-education/
The Lighter Side of Teacher Evaluation
Bob Schaeffer, Public Education Director
FairTest: National Center for Fair & Open Testing
office- (239) 395-6773 fax- (239) 395-6779
mobile- (239) 696-0468
web- http://www.fairtest.org
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Popham is PERFECT. Love him.
Hi Dianne – there is more to the Rhode Island story. Our Senate submitted a bill that would delay for a few years the use of the high stakes tests as a graduation requirement for High School Seniors. The vote was passed in the Senate. 29 yes, 5 no, 4 other. The next step is to go to the House, but the Speaker (who is brand new and just appointed a couple months ago after our former Speaker had to resign on some corruption scandal the details of which are not even known) has said publicly he does not support the bill and does not think it needs to be considered. Just squashed. I find this odd and very dissapointing! The public has said our opinion, the Senate heard us and agreed, but now the future for this Bill is not looking so good.
I don’t think the fake education reformers will stop. All the evidence so far indicates that they will continue to ignore the protests—–and move ahead at full speed to achieve their agenda to privatize the United States federal and state governments—-court cases and attempts to stop them until the people are so angry, they riot and start burning cities like they have in the past when state and federal governments ignore the will of the impoverished 80%.
Then the military and private armies will be sent in, martial law will be declared and the reaction will be a rebellion that could end in success, or failure with the United States officially an oligarchy ruled by a few based on their wealth rank. The Constitution and Bill of Rights will either be abolished or meaningless.
At this point, I don’t see a peaceful end to the neo-liberal agenda. Any bets on the city where the spark will ignite the flames that will be felt around the world?
The city where the spark will ignite the flames that will be felt around the world?
Folks in Texas are already getting out their pitchforks and torches to run Pearson & lobbyists out of the state. Ysleta & Brownsville teachers are organizing a movement to Refuse to Administer STAAR in 2015.
If Austin ISD will recruit John Kuhn as the new superintendent as many are promoting, I would say the answer to your question might be AUSTIN, Texas.
Maybe it’s time that we direct our reform resistance from trying to hold onto what is looking like a “lost cause” (sadly), and start focusing on trying to dismantle the DOE and give education to the individual states. States can decide if they want to manage a state system or allow charters. At least it would be the death of Common Core, and perhaps inspire some creative thinking, since people become more involved when they feel empowered. This could provide a lot of potential for individual states to use their own resources and grow their own economies, rather than sending our money across the pond to Pearson. For example, North Carolina has great potential for outdoor studies with the mountains, oceans, and other unique natural resources, as well as historic sites. Years ago they had some amazing multidisciplinary outdoor school programs along the inter coastal waterway, but after the draconian testing obsession came into being, all that went away. Children need to be connected to their natural environment, not incarcerated in desks like cages all day for CCSS “obedience” training.
Just my thoughts as a long time public education supporter who thinks this illness may be terminal……
Getting rid of the DOE is a start, but then there must be a strong push for laws or a Constitutional amendment that says a two-thirds vote of the voters in each public school district is needed before allowing private sector Charters in.
Why?
Read Americans’ Views of Public Schools from Gallup, and discover the very wide gap between what the public’s views are between the school a respondent’s child attends and the nation’s schools.
77% of Americans like the public school their child attends but only 18% think the rest of the schools in America are good.
There’s only one way to explain this very wide gap:
Almost forty years of endless lies and propaganda from the fake education reformers has fooled most Americans to think all the other schools are bad except the one their child attends. And of course, there is no way for those American parents to know the quality of the rest of the schools unless they understood that there’s no way everyone’s local public school would receive a 77% vote of confidence unless all of those schools were doing an excellent job.
http://www.gallup.com/poll/142658/americans-views-public-schools-far-worse-parents.aspx
And don’t think the fake education reformers don’t know this. That’s why they are now bypassing the voters and getting their own people elected to school boards across the country, state legislatures, governors mansions, Congress and the White House.
The voters are being cut out of the process and once the fake education reformers control the majority of any state legislature or Congress, they move to pass laws that make crimes and fraud legal so there is no way for anyone to take them to court for breaking the law because those laws will be gone.
I am on the school board in Bloomfield, NJ that is supporting the NPE call for congressional hearings on abuse and misuse of testing. We collected over 1200 letters from parents and over 200 letters from teachers and administrators and board members in our town.
Commendable. Your Board worked hard for a good cause.
I agree that was a noble effort by the school board in Bloomfield, but if we are realistic, we will see there is no stopping the billionaire reform movement. It is like an out of control California wildfire, and continuing to throw buckets of water on it won’t stop it. Even if NPE is successful in getting Congressional hearings, that will be a long and painful process of grandstanding. Do we really trust our lobbyists supported Congress to acknowledge the battered children and battered teachers, since they are the ones who have allowed and promoted this battering? Do we really trust in anyone in Washington DC to care about the welfare of children more than they care about preening their big egos or their pocketbooks.
Bill Gates, the robot who thinks he is God and expects to create all children in his image, “owns” the US Congress, as well as the White House. Bill Gates is the personification of evil, and the best dystopiian example of how money can corrupt.
Reblogged this on Centerville United for Responsible Education and commented:
A wealth of information on the resistance to testing.