Archives for the month of: February, 2015
« Older Entries
Newer Entries »

Fairtest: The Uprising Against High-Stakes Tests Grows

By dianeravitch
February 7, 2015 //
16

The other day I went to a book party to launch Jesse Hagopian’s new book “More Than a Score: The Néw Uprising Against High-Stakes Tests.” The book is a collection of short essays by activists across the nation. Someone with a guitar sang “We Shall Overcome.” A grassroots movement begins. And, as we see in this post, grows, week by week.

Ever-strengthening assessment reform pressure has kept proposals to roll back test misuse and overuse at the center of education policy debates on Capitol Hill and in many state capitals across the country. This week’s news stories, opinion columns, and advocacy resources come from 22 states as well as Washington, DC

Email Congress Now to Demand Less Federal Testing, End to High-Stakes
http://fairtest.org/roll-back-standardized-testing-send-letter-congres

FairTest Statement to Congress — Grade-Span Exams, No Punitive Consequences
http://fairtest.org/less-testing-more-learning

Independent Test Results Show NCLB Fails to Boost Achievement, Narrow Gaps
http://fairtest.org/independent-test-results-show-nclb-fails

U.S. Senate Seems Unlikely to Push for Test-Based Teacher Ratings
http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/senate-appears-unlikely-to-push-for-test-based-teacher-evaluations-in-revised-law/2015/01/27/c985d4a6-a63a-11e4-a06b-9df2002b86a0_story.html
Sign This Open Letter to Sec. Duncan on Teacher Evaluation
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1Hzx75h4EcVFIPbpm3icVI0tJqLRACuaF64UkVWNz5JE/viewform

Opt-Out Week in Arizona
http://www.tucsonweekly.com/TheRange/archives/2015/02/02/opt-out-week-on-the-range-day-one

Colorado Teachers Respond to State Report Documenting Test Overkill
http://www.thecherrycreeknews.com/colorado-teachers-respond-testing-report/

A Path Forward for Reducing Testing in Colorado

Vail Daily column: A path forward for tests

Florida Parents Defy High-Stakes Tests; Lawmakers Listening
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/education/fl-opt-out-testing-20150130-story.html

Southwest Florida Group Targets Testing Volume and High-Stakes
http://www.nbc-2.com/story/27979752/local-group-aims-to-reduce-number-of-standardized-testing#.VMt_W53F_HR

Editorial: Throttle Down on Florida’s Overzealous School Testing
http://www.bradenton.com/2015/01/29/5607289_throttle-dow-on-floridas-overzealous.html?rh=1

Georgia State Super to Feds: Stop “Measure, Pressure, and Punish” Policies
http://getschooled.blog.ajc.com/2015/01/27/georgia-school-chief-to-feds-stop-measure-pressure-and-punish-approach/#__federated=1

Bill Would Award High School Diplomas to Georgians Denied Them By Exit Exam
http://www.daltondailycitizen.com/news/it-s-all-about-fairness-new-bill-could-lead-to/article_2776182e-a900-11e4-bcb0-e7770b8cb1dd.html

New PARCC Test Sparks Angst Among Illinois Parents and Educators
http://www.chicagotribune.com/suburbs/winnetka-northfield-glencoe/ct-winnetka-common-core-met-20150127-story.html#page=1

Stand-off Escalates Over Chicago Schools’ Snub of Federal, Illinois Testing Rules
http://www.chicagobusiness.com/article/20150130/BLOGS02/150139992/standoff-escalates-over-cps-snub-of-federal-testing-rules

Opt-Out Bill Filed in Illinois Legislature
http://www.altondailynews.com/news/details.cfm?clientid=17&id=162018#.VNDLXuFLUZw

Indiana Educators Feel Tested to the Limit by New State Exams
http://www.journalreview.com/news/article_18d7b730-a759-11e4-8de3-a36c6f1f0d93.html?TNNoMobile

Louisiana Opt Out Campaign Gets Attention of State Education Board
http://www.thenewsstar.com/story/news/local/2015/01/29/parents-opting-state-testing-bese-concerned/22520161/

Governor’s Executive Order Lets Louisiana Students Opt Out of PARCC Exams
http://www.theadvertiser.com/story/news/2015/01/30/just-in-jindal-issues-executive-order-on-parcc-tests/22603021/

Some Maine Parents Balk at Having Kids Take Standardized Tests
http://www.njspotlight.com/stories/15/01/30/diegnan-enters-parcc-fray-with-bill-formalizing-opt-out-procedures/

Maryland Students Stressed by Testing Overkill
http://www.fredericknewspost.com/z/content_type/letters/stressed-by-testing/article_c5947fc5-6345-56f2-8532-fa14e414ed64.html

Massachusetts State Test a Flawed Measure of School Quality
http://somerville.wickedlocal.com/article/20150131/NEWS/150139909/?Start=1

Tests Don’t Improve New Mexico Schools; Economic Opportunity Would
http://www.alamogordonews.com/opinion/ci_27409767/bill-varoula-tests-dont-improve-schools-economic-opportunity

New Jersey’s Landmark Polling on Testing: What it Means
http://jerseyjazzman.blogspot.com/2015/01/why-does-public-hate-standardized-tests.html

Educators, Parents Urge New Jersey Commission to Drop or Delay New State Tests
http://www.northjersey.com/news/educators-parents-urge-commission-to-drop-or-delay-new-state-standardized-tests-1.1260069

Bill Filed to Establish Opt-Out Procedures. Bar “Sit-and-Stare”
http://www.njspotlight.com/stories/15/01/30/diegnan-enters-parcc-fray-with-bill-formalizing-opt-out-procedures/

New York City Parents Urged to Opt-Out of Testing Obsession
http://thevillager.com/2015/01/29/ravitch-urges-parents-to-buck-testing-obsession/

North Carolina Superintendents, Education Advocates Join Effort to Reduce School Testing
http://www.newsobserver.com/2015/01/29/4515445_more-call-for-fewer-tests-superintendents.html?rh=1

North Dakota Legislation Would Allow Parents to Opt Their Children Out of Standardized Tests
http://bismarcktribune.com/news/local/education/opt-out-bill-would-ensure-right-to-skip-standardized-tests/article_623f0ae2-e5cb-52a3-9de3-ff36b3afa614.html

Ohio Lawmakers Favor Plan to Trim Testing Time
http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/local/2015/01/28/state-lawmakers-hear-plan-to-reduce-testing.html

Oklahoma PTA Urges Parents to Opt Out of Field Tests

Oklahoma PTA Urges Parents to Opt Out of Field Tests

Growing Pennsylvania Opt-Out Movement Shows Growing Resistance to High-Stakes Testing
http://thenotebook.org/february-2015/158154/opt-out-movement-reflects-growing-resistance-testing

Hearing Set on Bill to Repeal Pennsylvania Graduation Exam Requirement
http://www.newsworks.org/index.php/local/item/77853-should-pa-require-students-to-pass-standardized-tests-to-graduate-high-school

Texas Tests Can’t Measure What Really Matters
http://www.dallasnews.com/opinion/latest-columns/20150130-shane-bybee-testing-cant-measure-the-gap-that-really-matters.ece

Virginia Senate Advances Bill to Further Reduce State Testing Mandates
http://hamptonroads.com/2015/01/further-reduction-school-tests-advances-va-senate

Four Seattle Washington Teachers Refuse to Administer State Test
http://www.livingindialogue.com/four-seattle-teachers-declare-refuse-give-tests/

Washington Students Lobby State Legislators: Junk the Science Test
http://kuow.org/post/students-lobby-lawmakers-junk-science-test

Wisconsin School Ratings Must Account for Effects of Poverty
http://www.greenbaypressgazette.com/story/opinion/editorials/2015/01/28/school-ratings-must-account-effects-poverty/22490781/

Researchers Urge Sec. Duncan to Drop Test-Driven Teacher Prep Regulations
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/wp/2015/01/28/researchers-urge-arne-duncan-to-drop-proposed-teacher-prep-regulations/

Conservative Columnist Endorses “Choose to Refuse” Common Core Tests
http://www.nationalreview.com/article/397350/choose-refuse-parccsbac-testing-michelle-malkin

Why Won’t High-Stakes Testing True Believers Face Reality?
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/john-thompson/why-wont-arne-duncan-and_b_6542854.html

Activists Share Strategies for Opting Out at Florida Conference
http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2015/01/28/activists-share-strategies-for-opting-out-of.html

How “School Reform” Failed the Test
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/wp/2015/01/28/how-school-reform-has-failed-the-test/

Bob Schaeffer, Public Education Director
FairTest: National Center for Fair & Open Testing
office- (239) 395-6773 fax- (239) 395-6779
mobile- (239) 699-0468
web- http://www.fairtest.org

Categories Resistance, Testing

Peter Greene: Better Tests Are Always “On the Way” Yet Never Arrive

By dianeravitch
February 7, 2015 //
43

Today, the New York Times has an article extolling the virtue of annual tests. It is written by someone who worked in the Obama administration and now works for Andrew Rotherhan’s Bellweather Partners, a consulting group. The writer claims that we learn a great deal from annual testing, and that better tests, funded by the U.S. Department of Education, are on the way (PARCC and SBAC). Of course, it is very hard to learn anything about how any child is progressing when the results from spring testing are delivered in August and when no one is allowed to see either the questions or the answers. But he doesn’t go into that.

 

Peter Greene answers the article succinctly. It is a must-read, Peter Greene at his incisive best. He calls the article:

 

A mishmosh of false assumptions. First, there are no “necessary” tests, nor have a ever read a convincing description of what a “necessary” test would be nor what would make it “necessary.” And while there are no Big Standardized Tests that are actually designed for school benchmarking and teacher evaluation, in many states that is the only purpose of the BS Test! The only one! So in Aldeman’s view, would those tests be okay because they are being used for purposes for which they aren’t designed?

 

And he adds:

 

New, better tests have been coming every year for a decade. They have never arrived. They will never arrived. It is not possible to create a mass-produced, mass-graded, standardized test that will measure the educational quality of every school in the country. It is like trying to use a ruler to measure the weight of a fluid– I don’t care how many times you go back to drawing board with the ruler– it will never do the job. Educational quality cannot be measured by a standardized test. It is the wrong tool for the job, and no amount of redesign will change that.

 

Good reminder though that while throwing money at public schools is terrible and stupid, throwing money at testing companies is guaranteed awesome.

 

Annual standardized testing measures one thing– how well a group of students does at taking an annual standardized test. That’s it. Even Aldeman here avoids saying what exactly it is that these tests (you know, the “necessary ones”) are supposed to measure.

 

Annual standardized testing is good for one other thing– making testing companies a buttload of money. Beyond that, they are simply a waste of time and effort.

 

 

Categories Accountability, Education Industry, Testing

Sara Goldrick-Rab

By dianeravitch
February 6, 2015 //
46

Professor Sara Goldrick-Rab amplifies her perspective on the brief paper I posted this morning. The paper explains the facts about the Obama plan to make the first two years of community college free. In introducing the post, I wrote that she sought to “allay the fears of critics,” but she sets me right by saying that is not so. I also said that many critics worry that the plan is a subtle attempt to impose Race to the Top style metrics on community colleges and that she did not address this issue. She explains that she did not address the issue because it was not raised in the Obama plan.

 

 

Goldrick-Rab writes:

 
Hi everyone. Thanks to Diane for posting this. But I have to admit, I’m surprised and concerned with how you framed it. There are a few missing facts that your readers might welcome as context:

 

1. I co-authored a lengthy proposal for making two years of college free which was used as PART of the blueprint for this initiative. That proposal includes a thorough discussion of the resources required to do this well. Moreover, in a 2009 Brookings Institution paper, I discuss the need for a major investment in faculty and infrastructure at community colleges. Please see:

 

http://www.luminafoundation.org/files/publications/ideas_summit/Redefining_College_Affordability.pdf

 

and

 

http://www.brookings.edu/~/media/research/files/reports/2009/5/07%20community%20college%20goldrick%20rab/0507_community_college_full_report.pdf

 

2. I do not address the questions about accountability/metrics in this FAQ because they have not been proposed by the President, not because I am avoiding them. I’ve written on this topic in the papers linked above as well.

 

3. I do not “seek to allay the fears of critics” in the FAQ, Diane, but rather to honestly and directly address the common questions asked. This is not “propaganda,” for I am selling nothing and am not in cahoots with anyone. I support the plan and am explaining why to the best of my ability.

 

4. In full disclosure, it seems worth mentioning to the readers who do not know me that I am a member of the AFT’s Higher Education Public Policy Council, recently co-authored an op-ed with Randi on the same topic, and that I’m also a new member of the board of the Shankar Institute. I’m also very active in my local here at UW-Madison, and I work with faculty, staff, and students across all public institutions in Wisconsin. I do not align with any of the elitism of my home institution, and work daily to implement the Wisconsin Idea. See the latest iteration of my efforts at the Wisconsin HOPE Lab (wihopelab.com)

 

I look forward to a robust and informed discussion on this blog. Again, thanks for sharing the FAQ. This proposal is among the boldest we’ve seen from the Obama Administration. While I’ve opposed pretty much everything that’s come from Arne Duncan, I like this one– and I don’t think it bears his fingerprints at all.

Categories Higher Education

New York Times Reports on Hard Times for Teach for America

By dianeravitch
February 6, 2015 //
20

Motoko Rich reports in a front-page story in the New York Times that Teach for America has seen a significant decline in the number of applicants.

 

TFA executives explain that the improved economy has drawn young people to work in high-paying jobs, instead of joining TFA (this explanation raises unintended questions about their interest in teaching or children).

 

Another suggestion is that the lure of teaching is down, since enrollments in education colleges has also declined.

 

The story suggests that TFA has lost its luster because of its close association with standards and testing, with charter schools, with evaluation of teachers by test scores (which seldom affects TFA recruits, who don’t stay in the classroom long enough to build up a record), and with weakening of teacher tenure. Some potential recruits are turned off, writes Rich, by TFA’s close association with the Walton Family Foundation, which has given it more than $50 million, no doubt because TFA staffs many non-union schools. In short, they are an integral cog in the movement to privatize public education and to undermine the teaching profession.

 

How are students learning about the underside of TFA, its close connections with the agenda of the 1%, who look down their noses at public schools and unions? At the end of the story, Rich mentions Hannah Nguyen as a student who has organized protests against TFA on campus. Hannah wants to make a career in education, not a jumping-off place to build her resume en route to working at Goldman Sachs or J.P. Morgan Chase. There are many other aspiring teachers who have become activists on their own campuses in opposition to TFA; even some former members of TFA have spoken out against the role that TFA has played in lowering the status of the teaching profession. Their efforts may have played a large role in dimming TFA’s image among their peers. What real profession would permit anyone to become a member with only five weeks of training? When veteran teachers complain about TFA, they are not protecting their jobs, they are protecting their profession.

Categories Charter Schools, Education Industry, Privatization, Teach for America, Testing

Tennessee: NEA, Local Unions Sue to Stop “Arbitrary” Evaluations

By dianeravitch
February 6, 2015 //
9

The National Education Association is supporting Tennessee local unions in challenging the constitutionality of a teacher evaluation system that judges teachers by the test scores of students they have not taught.

 

 

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
February 5, 2015

 

CONTACT: Staci Maiers, NEA Communications, 202-270-5333 cell, smaiers@nea.org
Amanda Chaney, TEA Communications, 615-242-8392, achaney@tnea.org

 

NEA SUPPORTS TEACHERS CHALLENGING CONSTITUTIONALITY OF EVALUATIONS
***Tennessee students suffer because of state’s arbitrary, irrational teacher evaluation systems***

 

WASHINGTON—Two accomplished teachers will file a lawsuit today in Nashville, Tennessee, to challenge the evaluation of most teachers in the state based on the standardized test scores of students in courses they did not teach. The teachers are joined by their representatives from the Tennessee Education Association and the Metropolitan Nashville and Anderson County Education Associations in the lawsuit, which is being prosecuted by the National Education Association and TEA. The lawsuit argues that these arbitrary, irrational and unfair policies violate the Equal Protection and Due Process Clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.

 

“Students in Tennessee are being shortchanged because of the state’s arbitrary and irrational evaluation system that provides no meaningful feedback on their instruction,” said NEA President Lily Eskelsen García. “This unfair broken system conditions the teacher’s employment on the basis of standardized test scores for courses they do not teach, including some from students they do not teach at all. The system is senseless and indefensible but, worst of all, it doesn’t help kids.”

 

More than half of Tennessee teachers are being evaluated in the same arbitrary and irrational manner. While most teachers do not teach courses that use standardized tests, a Tennessee statue still requires that all teachers be evaluated substantially on the basis of student growth estimates calculated from student test scores using the state’s value-added model.

 

“The National Education Association is proud to support our members and the Tennessee Education Association in this constitutional challenge,” said Eskelsen García, who is a former Utah Teacher of the Year now heading the nation’s largest teachers’ union. “The use of such arbitrary measures to make employment decisions with high-stakes consequences reflects a national obsession with standardized testing run amok.”

 

Tennessee is not the only place where teacher evaluations and high-stakes decisions are being made based on faulty or no data.

 

In 2011, the Florida legislature passed SB 736, which required a significant proportion of every teacher’s annual evaluation to be based on a value-added model that only measures student growth on the state’s standardized reading and math tests. After seven accomplished teachers, with the support of NEA and the Florida Education Association, filed a federal lawsuit challenging Florida’s deeply flawed teacher evaluation system, Florida Gov. Rick Scott signed SB 1664, which requires teacher evaluations to be based on students they actually teach. Florida continues, however, to evaluate teachers based on their students’ scores on tests unrelated to the instruction they provide, which is an issue that the teachers, with the support of NEA and FEA, continue to press in that litigation.

 

“If we’re serious about every child’s future, let’s get serious about doing what works,” added Eskelsen García. “We need to end these arbitrary evaluation systems, which fail our students by undermining our public schools.”

Categories Education Reform

Jersey Jazzman Instructs Jon Chait

By dianeravitch
February 6, 2015 //
12

Jersey Jazzman calls out journalist Jon Chait for being against political correctness except when it serves his purpose.

It seems Chait was deeply offended when I said that former CNN anchor Campbell Brown is no educational expert. Her campaign to eliminate teacher tenure won’t improve education, I dared to say. We might, as a test case, compare the academic performance of states that have tenure with states that don’t, but that involves a rudimentary knowledge of actual research.

It is highly offensive to those bashing teachers to suggest that their campaign to remove teacher tenure and to provide merit pay has no evidence behind it and is illogical. They don’t like it when you point out that VAM sounds good but doesn’t work. If they read the statement of the American Statistical Association, they would be informed, but that requires research, or if you open the link, reading.

Categories Merit pay, Teacher Tenure, VAM (value-added modeling)

Buffalo: Teachers Union Official Thrown Out of Board Meeting When He Tries to Speak

By dianeravitch
February 6, 2015 //
69

Watch the fascinating video embedded in this blog post from Buffalo, New York. Kevin Gibson, the Secretary of the Buffalo Teachers Federation gets up to speak. Board member Larry Quinn (yes, the same board member who was texting as a high school student was speaking at a recent meeting) waves to a police officer and has Gibson escorted out of the Board room. He was not allowed to speak. Democracy in action. Under what interpretation is a representative of the district’s teachers barred from testifying at a public hearing of the Board of Education?

Categories New York, Unions

Mercedes Schneider: No Wonder John White Was Hiding La. ACT Scores

By dianeravitch
February 6, 2015 //
17

Mercedes Schneider has been trying to get Louisiana’s ACT scores, but the State Education Department would not release them. Mercedes would not be deterred, and she explains here how she finally got them. She always sssumed State Superintendent John White didn’t want the scores made public. Now she knows why.

“There is a reason Louisiana Superintendent John White has refused to release these scores to the public:

“The Class of 2014 ACT composite scores for RSD do nothing to support the now-ten-year-old sales pitch that The Reforms Are Working in New Orleans.

“The Class of 2013 ACT composite for RSD was 16.3.

“The Class of 2014 ACT composite for all RSD high schools was 15.6. For RSD-New Orleans high schools, it was 15.7.”

It turns out that the Néw Orleans-Recivery School District ranks 66 out of 70 districts in the state.

After a decade of “reform,” this is very sad.

Categories Higher Education, Louisiana, New Orleans, Testing

Sara Goldrick-Rab: The Facts About the Obama Plan for Free Community College

By dianeravitch
February 6, 2015 //
8

Sara Goldrick Rab is a professor of educational policy studies and sociology at the University of Wisconsin in Madison.

 

In this paper, she explains the likely effects of President Obama’s plan for tuition-free community college. She explains how the plan would affect students who receive Pell grants, how it is likely to affect community colleges, how the plan differs from the Tennessee program, and other frequently asked questions. She seeks to allay the fears of critics. She does not, however, address the question of whether the plan is an effort to impose Race to the Top metrics on this sector.

Categories Higher Education, Obama

FairTest: Congress Moving Swiftly on NCLB Revision: Act Now

By dianeravitch
February 6, 2015 //
2

FairTest sent out a blast email to urge everyone to contact their Senator or Congressman before it is too late. This is an opportunity to reduce federal testing mandates. If we don’t act now, we will be stuck with NCLB testing every year for at least the next seven years:

 

 

Hi everyone.

 

Congress is moving swiftly.

 

The House plans a committee vote in the next two weeks followed by full House floor debate the last week of February. Education Committee Chairman John Kline supports testing every grade. Those of us who want grade-span testing and flexibility must over-ride Kline in committee or win a floor amendment. Rep. Gibson’s grade-span testing bill provides a vehicle.

 

In the Senate, the HELP committee is expected to act before the end of the month with the full Senate taking it up shortly after. Chair Alexander’s ‘option 1’ on assessment provides an vehicle, but he also has ‘option 2’ which retains every-grade testing.

 

In both cases, however, it will not be easy to win. Our only real chance is grassroots pressure.

 

Attached and below find our latest call for people to contact their Senators and Representatives (with link to do so).

 

If you have not yet shared this with your people, please do so. If you already have, please do it again next week. As we know, people often miss their email messages, say they will get to it later then don’t, etc. In other words, repeated asks is the way to go.

 

Thanks,

Monty Neill

 
Dear Friends,

You can help stop Congress from reauthorizing a No Child Left Behind law that locks in another decade of testing overkill. Email your U.S. Senators and Representative today.

 

Tell them to scale back standardized testing to once each in elementary, middle and high school and end punitive sanctions. With strong grassroots pressure, we can win. So write now!

 

Congress’ decision will control what states and districts can do for years to come. Your voice is needed to put policy makers on a better track.

 

Washington, D.C. is acting quickly. Bills will move in both House and Senate in the next few weeks. That leaves very little time.

 

Send your email now!

 

Thank you,

 

Monty Neill, Executive Director

FairTest

The complete link is http://www.fairtest.org/roll-back-standardized-testing-send-letter-congres

Categories NCLB (No Child Left Behind), Testing
« Older Entries
Newer Entries »