Ira Shor writes:
I refused PARCC for my 5th grade son in Montclair, NJ, and refused all PARCC test prep. AP at his school said that an alternate learning session will be available for him. My exchanges with AP and Principal have always been cordial; it’s the Broadie Supt. hired by the reactionary Board of Ed appointed by our developer Mayor which has created hostile turmoil and aggressive punishment here. Despite their fight to silence and suppress parent criticism and opting-out, the movement grows all around them. We parents have the power to shut down PARCC, CCSS, Gates, Pearson, Duncan, and their paid cronies in govt and media if we refuse to let them experiment on our kids with nonstop testing and refuse to let them waste our precious school moneys on endless tech buys, consultants, bandwidth, software, etc. We are gaining ground and soon will be an idea whose time has come, overtaking the bullies and the billionaire boys club with our multitude of concerned parents allied with all those brave enough to join against the abuse of our kids and the wreckage of our public schools.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
I’m still unclear on how one can refuse/opt out of test prep considering the sheer bulk of time devoted to it.
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In the letter it mentions an “alternate learning session.” At this point, I would rather have my 7th grader read or play with his 7 x 7 Rubik’s cube than have to go through test prep on grade level material that he mastered years ago.
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May I suggest a good read for my fellow bloggers?
“Thieves of State” by Sarah Chayes.
I’m not suggesting out-right corruption, but the confluence of high-level education bureaucracy and the mega-education companies that profit from the sale of educational material and tests is bending the ideals of American education.
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If I may change one word:
“. . . and tests is CORRUPTING the ideals of American education.”
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I shudder to think how many Wal Mart and Gates funded press releases will issue after the Common Core testing data is in.
I expect a full court press campaign of public school bashing. Armed and ready, relying on data provided BY tens of millions of public school kids, TO hammer public schools.
Ohio gets the results in November (supposedly- up to the contractor). I expect a barrage of “public education in crisis!” media/political campaigns.
I’m just dreading it. I think it’s such a profound betrayal of what was a good faith effort by public schools to comply with this mandate. It’s a breach of trust.
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The ire of parents is complicating the calculus and timeline of when the Reformers need to declare victory.
I don’t think we’ll see many quotes like Duncan’s “white suburban moms who — all of a sudden — their child isn’t as brilliant as they thought they were, and their school isn’t quite as good as they thought they were” in the near future.
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The public needs to be re-educated to see that tests don’t tell us very much at all about what a student knows. Just like medical testing, tests tell us about one part of the system in the living complicated human being. Tests in education work pretty much like this. They narrowly tell us about a small segment of the learning of that child.
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To continue this analogy some more, medical tests need to be evaluated by experts who can make use of other sources of medical information in making a diagnosis.
The education “reformers” who push testing want to use the tests results as the sole measure of academic achievement. This, of course, as you have pointed out is a mistake.
I like your discussion of medicine and testing much more than Michael Petrilli’s attempt to compare parents who opt their children out of testing with parents who refuse to have their children vaccinated.
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I agree that if you take the medical analogy further that there are many parallels.
Teachers are the ones who should be using any test formative or standardized to evaluate, diversity and inform instruction just as you say doctors use medical tests to determine diagnosis and eventually treatment. Outsiders to the teaching profession are attempting to use these narrowly focused tests to diagnose the teacher, not the student. How backwards is that?
Although doctors do have some outside sources that interfere with their processes of diagnosis and treatment and these are the insurance companies.
This also brings up another parallel in that the money to do the job correctly, in education or medical care, is controlled by outside entities that view such essential parts of our society in terms of a business model only.
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So true.
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Reblogged this on biochemlife and commented:
The public needs to be re-educated to see that tests don’t tell us very much at all about what a student knows. Just like medical testing, tests tell us about one part of the system in the living complicated human being. Tests in education work pretty much like this. They narrowly tell us about a small segment of the learning of that child.
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Ira Shor is RIGHT. Love him and his work. Thanks for this, Diane.
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Corporations are mainly looking for new markets for corporate welfare. Their goal is to make money from our children. They have no great vision, solutions or insights. Parents, protect your children; you hold the key. Opt out or refuse the tests that allow corporate America to hold the future of our students hostage. No politicians will arrive on a white horse to save the day as the tentacles of corruption are too deep. Don’t let corporate America silence you and take away your democratic voice to have a say in what you want for your children. Once it’s gone; it may be impossible to recover!
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Yes, yes, yes refuse the tests. Without the tests, there will be no test scores to be weaponized against teachers and schools
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In RI there is no policy for opting out according to Elliot Kreiger of R.I.D.E. However when a parent in Barrington, RI asked to opt out his son, the school district refused and said his son would not graduate as a senior unless he participated in PARCC… How can that be that a town supersedes a state with no policy? Thought you should be aware..Maybe someone “in the know “in your blog has advice for this parent. thank you jo
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“How can that be that a town supersedes a state with no policy?”
Precisely because the state has no policy. A local law or policy can’t be preempted by a state law or policy when there is no such state law or policy.
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Check out the Testing-Opt-Out/Refusal Guide for Rhode Island: http://unitedoptout.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/Rhode-Island-Opt-Out-Guide-rev-2015.pdf
A great amount of info is included.
Pay particular attention to the section Sample Language to include in Opt-out/Refusal.
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Nice compliment from Jon Pelto in his blog this morning commenting on Ira Schor’s remarks:
“Ira Shor is a professor at City University of New York and one of the nation’s leading experts when it comes to teaching critical literacy and critical pedagogy. He knows what our children need to understand and learn in order to live more fulfilling lives in our ever increasingly complex world.
He also knows what doesn’t work and in a recent note to the nation’s leading public education advocate, Diane Ravitch, Professor Ira Shor wrote: …”
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Great to hear from Ira on this issue. Let’s all make our voices heard in opposition to these tests whose only purpose is to set such a high bar that most students fail and public schools can be called to account for their failure and thus privatized for corporate interests. Why? Because developmentally inappropriate standards have been used to determine test items and far too much legitimacy has been given to these tests. The solution? Just say no to the tests!
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