A group of teachers at a progressive public school in Néw York City have formed “Teachers of Conscience” and written the Chancellor of the school system to say that they could no longer administer the state tests to their students.
For their willingness to act on the demands of their conscience rather than serve as compliant enforcers of actions intended to rank and rate their students, I place them on the honor roll of this blog. They are indeed Teachers of Conscience. They are resisters and conscientious objectors. From small acts of conscience, multiplied, grow revolutions.
They were inspired to act by the Seattle teachers’ boycott of MAP testing, but also by their conviction that the tests distort the purpose of education. They act in opposition to market-based reform and the Common Core.
Here is their letter to the chancellor from Teachers of Conscience:
Teachers of Conscience
A Letter to Chancellor Carmen Fariña
“The ongoing wars, the distortions of truth we have witnessed, the widening gaps between rich and poor disturb us more than we can say; but we have had so many reminders of powerlessness that we have retreated before the challenge of bringing such issues into our classrooms. At once, we cannot but realize that one of our primary obligations is to try to provide equal opportunities for the young. And we realize full that this cannot happen if our students are not equipped with what are thought to be survival skills, not to speak of a more or less equal range of literacies. And yet the tendency to describe the young as “human resources,” with the implication that they are mainly grist for the mills of globalized business is offensive not merely to educators, but to anyone committed to resist dehumanization of any kind.”
– Maxine Greene, In Search of a Pedagogy
Dear Chancellor Carmen Fariña,
We are teachers of public education in the City of New York. We are writing to distance ourselves from a set of policies that have come to be known as market-based education reform. We recognize that there has been a persistent and troubling gulf between the vision of individuals in policymaking and the work of educators, but we see you as someone who has known both positions and might therefore be understanding of our position. We find ourselves at a point in the progress of education reform in which clear acts of conscience will be necessary to preserve the integrity of public education. We can no longer implement policies that seek to transform the broad promises of public education into a narrow obsession with the ranking and sorting of children. We will not distort curriculum in order to encourage students to comply with bubble test thinking. We can no longer, in good conscience, push aside months of instruction to compete in a city-wide ritual of meaningless and academically bankrupt test preparation. We have seen clearly how these reforms undermine teachers’ love for their profession and undermine students’ intrinsic love of learning.
As an act of conscience, we are declining the role of test administrators for the 2014 New York State Common Core Tests. We are acting in solidarity with countless public school teachers who have paved their own paths of resistance and spoken truthfully about the decay of their profession under market-based reforms. These acts of conscience have been necessary because we are accountable to the children we teach and our pedagogy, both of which are dishonored daily by current policies.
The policies of Common Core have been misguided, unworkable, and a serious failure of implementation. At no time in the history of education reform have we witnessed the ideological ambitions of policymakers result in such a profound disconnect with the experiences of parents, teachers, and children. There is a growing movement of dissatisfied parents who are refusing high-stakes Common Core testing for their children and we are acting in solidarity with those parents. Reformers in the State Department of Education are now making gestures to slow down implementation and reform their reforms. Their efforts represent a failure of imagination — an inability to envision an education system based on human development and democratic ideals rather than an allegiance to standardization, ranking, and sorting. State policies have placed haphazard and burdensome mandates on schools that are profoundly out of touch with what we know to be inspired teaching and learning. Although the case against market-based education reform has been thoroughly written about, we feel obliged to outline our position at length to address critics who may see our choice of action as overstepping or unwarranted. You will find a position paper attached to this letter. We are urging you, Chancellor Fariña, to articulate your own position in this critical and defining moment in the history of public education. What will you stand for? What public school legacy will we forge together?
Sincerely,
Colin Schumacher, 4th/5th Grade Teacher, P.S. 364, Earth School
Emmy Matias, 4th/5th Grade Teacher, P.S. 364, Earth School
Jia Lee, 4th/5th Grade Teacher, P.S. 364, Earth School
If you have written a letter or statement regarding market-based education reform and the Common Core state standards, please consider submitting it for publication on our blog.
That is wonderful. People and parents don’t understand just how much time we waste just setting up to test children. It’s a lot of pressure on the students too. Children are burning out of school at a very young age.
It is very brave of these teachers. I worry that they will lose their jobs. It would take a national rebellion to get rid of all the tests!!!!
well, be part of a national rebellion then….
Diane Ravitch; how do I email you?
Here s Bob Braun’s piece about the news in Newark: http://bobbraunsledger.com/majority-of-newark-board-promises-legal-action-against-cami/
It seems perhaps something will get done now that the Board is becoming active. The kids can’t do it alone.
If I knew your email address, I’d have done so rather than put it here.
There is a history of resistance to unjust laws with acts of conscience.These brave teachers stand in ht same line as the conscientious objectors of the Viet Nam War and previous wars. Saying “no” to participating in an unjust set of policies and regulations that hurt children and destroy public education is a brave act. These teachers, regardless of the consequences, are, in effect, burning their own draft cards They are joining the long lines of those who have taken moral stands and in Camus’ words are siding with the victims not the executioners . We should honor them and support all acts of resistance to those who would harm children and destroy the public schools. Finally, acts of resistance do not occur in a vacuum.
Let’s be clear, by and large, with some sterling exceptions, ( for example in Chicago and Seattle) teachers unions have abandoned their members and students by providing little to no opposition to those who are harming students and destroying public schools. Who knows, perhaps tmore eachers will take matters into their own hands and join the resistance movement. .
john a: well stated.
These three individuals are part of the genuine “new civil rights movement of our time.”
Two of the most obvious markers—
It’s bottom up, not top down.
By putting themselves at risk there’s not a smidgeon of $tudent $ucce$$ to be gained by their actions, only the satisfaction of doing the right thing.
The owner of this blog has rightly put them on her honor roll.
😎
They have nothing to win. Their act is unplagued by greed or untold need for power. They put the NYC UFT chapter to shame (which they well deserve). it does my heart good. i am proud to have them as comrades.
Here’s to hoping that three become three million. Hopefully this act of resistance will spread throughout the state and the country as well. These brave teachers should get the same legal protections that war protesters had during the Viet Nam conflict.
Bill Ayers was interviewed by Salon. He talks about school reform, the roles of education and teaching in working towards a just society. I recommend that you read this article/interview. It complements much of what we post on Diane’s blog.
http://www.salon.com/2014/09/18/megyn_kellys_eyes_are_very_cold_bill_ayers_on_his_fox_news_appearance_education_reform_and_the_problem_with_the_ivy_league/?source=newsletter
Cross posted at http://www.opednews.com/Quicklink/Teachers-as-Conscientious-in-Best_Web_OpEds-Action_Conscience_DISTORT_Demands-140918-531.html#comment512020
I would like to play devil’s advocate on this issue so we can be better prepared to defend the principled stance of these three teachers.
How exactly, does high stakes testing “harm” children?
With a test prep limit of 2% in NY (see Common Core Implementation Reform Act), sitting for 10 or 12 hours out of an entite 180 day school year can’t possibly “hurt” a child? Can it?
NYS Teacher – I can tell you how high stakes testing harmed my own child. She’s 15 and in 10th grade. Last year she took honors physics and got an A+. Not only did she do very well she found her calling in wanting to be a physicist. Her school works on a block schedule and that means she finished the physics course in January and then switched to 4 different subjects. In June, she took the physics MCAS, so felt a bit rusty. She attended the review sessions the school offered. The physics MCAS had in her mind many very ambiguous questions where there may have been two answers that could be argued to be correct – one she told me about was which of the following is a vector?and one answer was velocity and another was speed with a magnitude and direction. Both are vectors, but there was only one “right” answer. Since then she’s had nightmares and sleepless nights about not graduating because of this exam and severe doubts about whether she’s actually good at physics. It is mid-October and the state has not yet sent results so the anxiety over it continues. What exactly is gained from this? If you look at cut scores in Massachusetts for high school is about 25%.
http://www.doe.mass.edu/mcas/results.html
I would love if her teachers stood up to say this is wrong.
I would tell her just what I tell my 8th grade students. Never, ever, let a test score define who you are or what you can accomplish. And even if this one score is lower than she hopes for, it will not keep her out of the college or career of her choosing. My own daughter had a very weak chemistry and physics teacher (seme person) in HS and her Regents exam scores were only in the upper 80s and low 90s. She is now completing her senior year as a biology major at a very prestigious university despite her weak Regents scores.
Regarding the physics MCAS, I would recommend contacting the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education and bring this sample item to their attention. Sometimes mistakes are made in test construction. If so, that item can be voided and scores adjusted. This has happened here in NY. Also ask (demand) to see the entire exam so that any other errors or points of confusion can be rectified.
NYS Teacher I want to point out that in Massachusetts the Physics MCAS is a graduation requirement for high school additionally the test qualifies students for free tuition at state colleges and universities. The stakes are very high and if she did poorly it would absolutely have an impact on her ability to graduate from high school and pay for it. This was not the case for previous MCAS exams that she did not worry about.
sarah5565: my best wishes to you and your daughter.
Not surprising, but IMHO these tests are mostly a bunch of nonsense.
Standardized tests have been around for many decades. They are concerned in very large part with providing items that have “best” answers not “correct” ones. Even if inanity results. And of great importance to the test designers, makers and pre-testers are their statistical properties. For example, google “point biserial” and “DIF” [Differential Item Functioning]. *Be prepared to employ some “grit” and “determination” in making your way through psychometric jargon.*
Assess using misleadingly precise numerical measurements? So many wonderful qualities are ignored or poorly represented—creativity & persistence & courage & compassion & capacity to learn & the list goes on and on and on—that standardized tests and their resulting scores are often worse than useless.
They cause great harm.
If nothing else, google “pineapple” and “hare” and “Daniel Pinkwater.” I give one link below.
Link: http://blogs.wsj.com/metropolis/2012/04/20/daniel-pinkwater-on-pineapple-exam-nonsense-on-top-of-nonsense/
Then ask yourself—
Who put these knuckleheads in charge of “reforming” public education by sucker punching teachers, students, parents and whole communities with these bludgeons of measuring and punishing?
Hint: the same people that put THEIR OWN CHILDREN in schools like Lakeside School [Bill Gates] and Sidwell Friends [Barack Obama] and U of Chicago Lab Schools [Rahm Emanuel] and Harpeth Hall [Michelle Rhee-Johnson] and Delbarton School [Chris Christie]. What they mandate for OTHER PEOPLE’S CHILDREN is vastly different than what they ensure for their own.
Don’t take my word for it. Go to the websites of the above and similar schools. See for yourself.
In addition, from this blog on 3/23/2014, the following posting re CCSS and its conjoined twin, high-stakes standardized testing:
“This is an unintentionally hilarious story about Common Core in Tennessee. Dr. Candace McQueen has been dean of Lipscomb College’s school of education and also the state’s’s chief cheerleader for Common Core. However, she was named headmistress of private Lipscomb Academy, and guess what? She will not have the school adopt the Common Core! Go figure.”
What kind of people don’t walk their own talk? Flaming hypocrites, standing firm on their Marxist principles:
“The secret of life is honesty and fair dealing. If you can fake that, you’ve got it made.”
¿? Yes, Groucho, the famous one.
😎
NYS Teacher.
Are you aware that the Regents in your state want to have “secure” and “rigorous” exams in art, music, dance, and theater at every grade to determine students’ readiness for college and careers?
Are you aware that only one end-of-course test a school year is unlikely to do the job because there must be a pre-test and post-test to measure “academic growth” every year and content changes year to year are typical in the arts, and many other subjects?
Are you aware that these proposed secure and rigorous Regent-approved exams are to be required from pre-school (ages 3-5) to high school? Yes. PRESCHOOL and if you are not by then career ready and college ready you are already behind before Kindergarten.
Do you think rigorous exams given under conditions to maximize the security of the tests while being totally indifferent to anything the student thinks, feels, or learns from the testing process is just hunky dory?
Have you never encountered a student who learned to hate a subject that they really loved and primarily from the fear spawned by tests?
I think this regime of testing is totally out of control. I am sorry that any teacher thinks there is no problem. Those teachers are part of the problem.
Laura
I am as anti-testing as any teacher could possibly be. Re-read my original post. “Playing devil’s advocate”.
The answer to this depends on what you mean by high stakes testing, but in general boys score higher on standardized exams than their grades predict.
Standardized exams can be helpful as an alternative measure of academic achievement. In my middle son’s case, his score on the state mandated mathematics exam (much higher than his grade in the pre-calculus class would predict) convinced the principal of the high school to give him the freedom he needed to get an appropriate education.
I’d like to see a source on this study.
Threatened,
Here is a link to the working paper: http://people.terry.uga.edu/cornwl/research/cmvp.genderdiffs.pdf . The published version is likely to be behind a paywall. You might also look at the work cited in the bibliography.
If you look at highly selective universities outside the elete schools that have automatic admission you will see a large gender gap. UNC Chapel Hill, one of the top public universities in the country, is about 60% female, 40% male.
My two high school sons also fall into this category, and I am relieved that my oldest son’s ACT score is his doorway into college. I am not in favor of all this standardized testing at all, but I hope people keep an open mind that not all students are good at completing homework, for various reasons, and these students need other ways to show their abilities. I am a high school teacher who gives and believes in homework, so this viewpoint comes only after witnessing this homework struggle firsthand.
Here in Nevada in my district we are not allowed to see the test questions or raise any objections to those that wrote them. I have violated this policy on numerous occasions and am likely on the verge of being fired. My own children do not take the tests despite there being no official opt-out policy. He, and now, 20 of his classmates, just refuse and are absent on test days. I try to be out at a medical appointment on test days, they need to find a certified teacher in my place to give the tests. This is also why I live and teach in different districts, I can more effectively advocate for my kids.
Here’s the test if you want to see it.
http://www.doe.mass.edu/mcas/testitems.html
As a physics teacher, I can tell you that this looks like a reasonable test for an introductory physics course. I spent several years wriitng science items for the company (Measured Progress) that produces the MCAS. Their philosophy was to produce fair and reasonable exams that gave the benefit of the doubt to the test taker. This test seems to follow that guideline.
well we’ll see how it went. I expect they’ll send results in mid October.
cx, I have one son still in school, my others are grown up.
At one time educators were admired. That has been lost especially since “A Nation at Risk” reared its ugly head. My view: there are educators, teachers, and instructors. It seems that instructors is what is wished for by these politicians, polluters of intelligent discourse.
Education in its best sense has been lost in the maelstrom of political agenda. The brave teachers who have put their jobs on the line join the long list of groups who have even had to put their lives on the line to achieve freedom. Freedom does not come cheaply. I take my hat off to those who have that tenacity and bravery to do what they believe in when they have worthy objectives. History is replete with a few who have done just that. “Profiles in Courage” enumerate a few. History records many. That which we have which and is worthwhile is obtained when people are crucified, drink their hemlock, run for their lives to escape an emperor et al.
Gordon Wilder: thank you for your comments.
In a nutshell, what do the “thought leaders” of the “new civil rights movement of our time” aka the self-styled leaders of the “education reform movement” want for the schools serving the vast majority of children?
I am not always being facetious when I write “eduproduct delivery specialists (née teachers).”
Ah, but for THEIR OWN CHILDREN there’s Lakeside School [Bill Gates] and U of Chicago Lab Schools [Rahm Emanuel] and Delbarton School [Chris Christie] and Harpeth Hall [Michelle Rhee-Johnson] and Sidwell Friends [Barack Obama] and the like.
Because when it comes to the schools THEIR OWN CHILDREN attend, nothing is sacrificed in order to ensure genuine teaching and learning.
But it’s starting to get harder to dip their hands into the pot of $tudent $ucce$$ gold at the end of the “Education Rheephorm” rainbow.
“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.” [Mario Savio]
Again, heartfelt thanks to three members of the real civil rights movement of our time.
😎
What if they scheduled a test, and NO teacher agreed to administer it?
Three is a start and I admire their integrity. But how many more are willing to join them? If we could eliminate all fear of professional repercussions. If we could eliminate all threats to our reputations and our livelihoods. If we had the same protections afforded the conscientious objectors of the Viet Nam war era, how many of us (teachers and administrators) would refuse to test? With the right protections, three might become 300. Three hundred might become 3,000. Three thousand might become 300,000. And if 300,00 teachers and administrators joined the Resistance by refusing to test, this becomes a serious movement. And if all three million of us opt out of this insanity and refuse to remain complicit to the educational malpractice we are witnessing in our schools, it becomes a movement filled with defiant professionals, not compliant followers, And Bill, and David, and Arne, and She Who Will Never Be Named Again,- they will realize that their days are numbered and their dream will be just that.
I would join in a heartbeat, if my family didn’t need my income. This is what happened to a teacher in my state who refused to grade a district, not state, mandated test.
http://archive.sltrib.com/article.php?id=30550267&itype=storyID
TOW
How many of your fellow teachers would also REFUSE TO TEST? Administrators?
TOW
What if you had legal protection from professional retribution? A true conscientious objector would never have to fear losing their job or position. No threat to livelihood either. We become the threat!