New York State’s Education Department has warned teachers that they can be fired and lose their teaching license if they discuss the Common Core tests they graded. The New York State United Teachers has filed a federal challenge to this restriction of teachers’ First Amendment rights. This is an integral aspect of the secrecy that surrounds the Common Core tests. Teachers are not allowed to know what their own students got right or wrong. They are not allowed to discover what their students learned or failed to learn. And if they graded the tests, they can be fired for talking about what they saw.
John Ogozolak, a teacher in upstate New York wrote me to say:
“The New York State United Teachers (NYSUT) filed a federal lawsuit Wednesday of behalf of five teachers who are challenging “confidentiality agreements” they were made to sign prior to grading state exams in 2014. The gag orders threaten teachers with punishment for even mentioning what they saw on the exams and restrict the teachers’ rights to talk freely in public as citizens. The punishment could include the revoking of teaching licenses and even criminal prosecution. According to a NYSUT press release,
“The suit charges SED’s rules unconstitutionally make teachers’ speech conditional on government approval while establishing a ‘system to police the free exchange of ideas and opinions regarding its compulsory and costly testing regime.'”
“It’s all somewhat amazing, really. Yes, I guess I’ve been somewhat naive all these years. Who would have ever thought it would come to this in our great country? Citizens in Hong Kong have been fighting all week for their rights and look what is happening in our own backyards, courtesy of the apparatchiks at the NYS Education Department. I guess the testmongers there believe that their bureacratic process of creating useless exams as well as the proprietary rights of the billionaires who are their corporate overlords trump our individual First and Fourteenth Amendment rights. Who will be able to speak out for our students?
“And, what lesson does this crackdown really send to our kids? It certainly has a chilling effect on the rights to free speech in our public schools. My nominees for the 2014 Education Hall of Shame: NYS Commissioner of Education John B. King and all his enablers on the Board of Regents and at the NYS Education Department and as well as all those spineless lawmakers who are letting them get away with this power grab. Of course, NYS Governor Andrew Cuomo is already there to welcome you to the Hall of Shame.
“I’m imagining a protest involving thousands of teachers and parents across New York State who for just a few minutes some morning at the start of the school day put black electrical tape over their mouths to draw attention to this outrage. And, wouldn’t it be great if our friends in the media world join us, too, in making that point? I’m wondering if the New York Times, those self-proclaimed protectors of the First Amendment, would have to cover that story then? If only…… “
Diane Ravitch's blog 
If teachers and parents put black tape over their mouths in protest, wouldn’t it get confused with a class in behavior management presented by Michelle Rhee? 😉
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The testing industry has long required confidentiality agreements so that items can be put into a “bank” of items for later recycling. NAEP will release some items but not all of them. The items not released will have been field trailed and some of these are then candidates for inclusion in future tests. This practice saves money.
If teachers are hand-scoring items, my best guess is that these are essays not yet set up for computer scoring or they are extended response items short of an essay but requiring some rubric-like judgments by teachers.
The state department if education might have avoided a lawsuit by explaining to the public and to the teachers why there is any need for confidentiality, the principles for invoking that privilege, when the sequestered items might be released, and more importantly the point of the whole testing regime if it is set up to prevent students and teachers from learning from the outcomes!!!!!!
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High school teachers in NY use old Regents exams from previous years as test prep material for the new, upcoming exams. Same with all of the math, ELA, and science tests administered in grades 3 to 8 under NCLB form 2002 to 2011. Back in the day, the copy rooms in NY state were churning out old exams all spring long. So pardon us if this new CC secrecy and security issues caught us by surprise. It is the scrutiny they fear!
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So true, NYS Teacher. The Empire State has a long tradition of allowing teachers to talk about the Regents Exams and use those tests to help students. I’ve graded New York State exams for 27 years and never faced the prospect of being gagged. But, of course, this gag order isn’t just about the tests. It’s all about power…power over teachers, power over students, power over local school boards. It’s sad to see what’s happening to New York State’s public education system under the reign of Governor Cuomo and Commissioner King.
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You forgot to mention John, that under APPR, we are no longer trusted to score our own students Regents exams. This now deprives HS teachers of the valuable feedback obtained from grading short answer responses and DBQs. Mind you, teachers have done nothing to break the trust that has been implied for the past 150 years of Regents examination scoring. being unable to see our own Regents exams also prevents teachers from spotting errors in the exams.
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In Ohio, our tests have always been secret. We aren’t allowed to discuss tests until a partial or half-test is released by the Ohio Dept of Ed. We would be in danger of termination and having our certificate revoked.
We get results as to skills each child needs to work on. There are online explanations as to how to solve for correct answers and why other answers are incorrect. They leave out the Field Tested Questions. There is no real bridge from test at one grade level to the next.
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If they (the tests) are copyrighted, you can get access to them at the Library of Congress in Washington, DC. Just saying…
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Only the CC standards are copyrighted. Not the tests.
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Can they be FOIL’ed?
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CROSS POSTED THE LINK TO THE NYSUT ARTICLE AT
http://www.opednews.com/Quicklink/Lawsuit-State-Education-D-in-Best_Web_OpEds-Challenge_Citizens_Education_Education-Curriculum-141014-3.html#comment515940
WITH AN EMBEDDED LINK TO YOUR POST IN THE COMMENT.
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Chancellor Merryl Tisch was recently interviewed on this topic. She knew of no teacher who had encountered a legal issue over this restriction–so she could not begin to fathom why NYSUT was suing NYSED. How stupid is the woman–or how stupid does she think we are? Over several years the Pierson tests were riddled with embarrassing issues–not just over the reading passage about the pineapple racing the hare–but questions with no correct answers, questions with multiple correct answers, and questions with four choices that referenced another item. You do not think those problems went away this year did you? But did you hear anything about problems with Pearson’s products? The reason you did not hear about the embarrassing atrocities our kids were subjected to was that NYSED trampled on the Constitutional rights of teachers and said if you comment about their tests you could well lose your license. Chancellor Tisch has problems with being truthful! She should be embarrassed for what she has done to education in NY State!.
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In Utah, the standardized tests are NEVER released, and cannot be discussed, with threat of termination. A group of 15 parents has been able to see the test. We are also threatened with our license if we even suggest opting out of the testing. Now with this new superintendent coming, who is no teacher (lawyer), more of this stuff will probably be coming at us. The Utah Education Association lawyer told me that this abrogation of free speech rights for teachers is perfectly legal. http://www.standard.net/Education/2014/04/24/25-SAGE-warning.html
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Oh my, so much to write and so little time and space.
Hypocrisy:
1) Collecting massive taxes from property owners and denying them access to their children’s graded documents. (BTW, some students write about their ideas which, in some cases, are grand! Who gets to use such ideas?)
2) CC math standards explicitly directing that students shall persist in solving math problems, yet, causing the students NOT to persist by loading up numerous assessment tasks without enough time to persist on perhaps only a few. (I know, I know, CC is JUST standards… no harm no foul.)
3) Knowing that we all learn best when feedback is clear and certain, then, giving NO student ANY feedback that is clear and certain particular to each assessment item. (Perhaps the government is most interested in learning from feedback. Then they can conclude that more “deformation” is needed.)
4) Deciding that math assessments, unnecessarily burdened with excessive reading challenges, are in any way a valid and/or reliable measure of math aptitude. (With ALL the technology available, why not video questions created complete with the “real life” scenarios?) Ya think those youngsters with reading deficiencies would like to experience some “leveling of the playing fields” when it comes to mathletics?
It’s come time to demand that future politicians (and their puppeteers) be apprised:
The best “reform” is to let children and their minds form “organically” with a healthy dose of inspiration. Teachers, parents and students understand that when it comes to
education, ideology clashes hopelessly with reality.
We vote them in and we can vote them out!
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