This story in the Hechinger Report has good news about the Common Core PARCC test: teachers assembled by TeachPlus really like it. They think it is appropriate for the grades they teach. They say it is an improvement over their current state tests, even the MCAS in Massachusetts. Some even want the tests made “harder,” for the benefit of their students.
TeachPlus was created and is funded by the Gates Foundation, which has invested hundreds of millions of dollars in the Common Core. Thus, it is not surprising that TeachPlus would discover that teachers really like the PARCC test and think it is just right.
What the article does not mention is that the results of the Common Core tests are reported four-six months after the students take the test (in some states, even later). The student no longer has the same teacher. The teachers are not allowed to see how any student answered particular questions. Thus, they will learn nothing of any diagnostic value from the PARCC or Smarter Balanced Assessment. The results will be used to rate students, rate teachers, and rate schools. Did the teachers who participated in the TeachPlus survey know that?
What do you think? Please leave a comment on the article on the website of the Hechinger Report. And here too.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Every teacher I know is opting their own children out of testing. No doubt those teachers that were polled were AFT teachers or charter school teachers that have an agenda.
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AFT teachers? What are you talking about, is the AFT pro-CC, or something? At the convention this summer in LA, delegates were extremely divided on the issue, and those who didn’t condemn it outright didn’t exactly give it a ringing endorsement. The resolution that passed was something like “Affirming the Proper Role of Standards,” as in the CC is not doing that. Also, what’s with the slam on charter teachers? People work at charter schools because they need a job, not because they have an agenda.
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I work at a charter school that has no ties to any corporation. It was founded by a group of parents and educators. We are on the same side. Charter schools are very different from one another. My school i is progressively-minded and child-centered. We are, however, in a tight spot for opting out because we are so small and we worry that the state will shut us down when we are up for renewal next year.
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There are corporate Charters and then there are indie charters that stand alone and are not part of a chain. Once there is a chain, it is a corporate Charter.
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I’m sure that TeachPlus will happily share their survey methodology for the asking, right?
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CONGRESSIONAL INVESTIGATION OF BILL GATES!!!!
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I’d rather see Gates’ emails than Hillary’s any day of the week.
You can only imagine the kind of names Gates has called this blog’s host.
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I’m sure Gates has said some lovely things about Bill and Hillary Clinton as well.
Gates absolutely despises Bill Clinton for (rightfully) going after Microsoft for monopolistic practices.
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There’s actually a connection between Gates and email and the Clintons.
Email was a huge issue in the Microsoft anti-trust depositions of Bill Gates.
You can read his responses to questions on his email correspondence here 🙂
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/business/longterm/microsoft/documents/gatespart1.htm
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No surprise there. There’s plenty of evidence that anything Gates Funds says exactly what he wants them to say. Money from Gates comes with restrictions that must be agreed to that insure the results are what Gates wants.
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Investigate Gates and let’s see who, including union leaders, have been bought and sold by him and his foundation
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I think Mercedes Schneider—and a few others, including Anthony Cody—have already done that.
https://deutsch29.wordpress.com/
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From the article: “Before the teachers were allowed to assess the tests, Teach Plus provided them with training to ensure they had the necessary background knowledge. This included information on the goals and intentions of PARCC and the Common Core, as well as a rubric on what high-quality tests look like.”
First, what sorts of teachers were they using for this survey who don’t know what a “high quality test looks like”?
Second, why am I thinking that their “rubric” looked an awful lot like the PARCC?
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I am an Ohio teacher currently suffering through this horrible monster called PARCC which has brutally captured my precious instructional time. My last PARCC PBA is this Friday, and then I have 4.5 weeks to teach the rest of a new, very difficult common core curriculum. Then, the PARCC monster starts again. I am depressed. I am doing my students such a disservice, and sadly I can do nothing about it. Local boards and parents must rise up and begin to fight. It is hard for teachers, because we now have the new teacher evaluation system beating us down. As I’ve said before, I now really only have the first semester up until Christmas to teach. January on has been devoured by the PARCC monster. Thank you, Diane, for your blog. It helps me to cope with a situation I currently cannot change. I have 5 minutes left of my lunch, and it was great to read your articles.
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I promise you, sad teacher, I am on the case. I only have my little [med-sized NJ wealthy town] network, but I’ve lived here 23 yrs. I am linking my somewhat-activist friends [tho their kids are pretty much through the p.s. system] to many enlightening links. & I have friends (thro my paltry choral network, but it includes teachers, & parents of kids still in h.s.) who are getting an earful from me about PARCC, & I’m keeping up to date through them.
Just learned, for example, that my h.s. is ‘doing well’ (compared to nearby NJ towns) by restricting lost curriculum time to 10 days for PARCC tests (why is it OK to lose 5.5% teaching days to a test which does not teach??)… & am advised that PARCC will soon replace the NJ h.s. grad [HSPA] test?! OK I’ll admit I wasn’t crazy about the HSPA (as a newcomer to NJ in the ’90’s), but it gained my respect when my youngest (w/IEP) failed the math-practice HSPA in 11th gr, & was required to take back-to-back math classes senior yr– which enabled him to pass! & go on to college. I suspect things won’t go so well for today’s kid taking PARCC math in lieu…
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“Gates Pol(l)s”
Gates-funded polls
And Gates-funded pols
Different spelling
Identical goals
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Anyone notice how Gates, the actual person, has been laying low lately? Is he just waiting for the testing storm to blow over…or is he, hopefully, on to something new?
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He is currently working on to his other favorite topic- collecting data in Higher Education….
https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2015/03/11/gates-foundation-announces-four-priority-policy-areas-college-completion-data-system
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So TeachPlus teachers love the test and want to make it harder? Why not survey the students and get their feedback on the testing, test- practice and the ensuing mania. What do the kids think?
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Delaware on fire! https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10103076368554633&set=pcb.10103076370066603&type=1&theater
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Gates and all microsoft products are garbage. I do not know anyone now who still uses the “explorer” web browser. Just about everyone I know uses googles chrome. This is consistent with all of microsoft’s software. Even in the days when Microsoft ruled in software and of course the operating system, most of microsoft’s products were garbage, faulty, crashing software that was terrible but everyone was almost forced to use except for Macintosh people.
Today, microsoft exists because they still own the operating system world and of course they own Xbox. But, if you take away Xbox and the windows operating system, gates and microsoft would be history. There was actually a time when Microsoft could compete with Apple but history has showed up who really was superior of a company even though microsoft stole the operating windows system from apple – read the case microsoft vs apple. So now this guy Gates wants to
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implement school strategy and dictate how schools should be run?? This is a guy who just got lucky in life plain and simple..other than that he is just another geek
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You are insulting geeks.
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I attended one of these PARCC events at Teach Plus Chicago. As I’m sure it will surprise no one, Teach Plus is masterful at recruiting a completely unrepresentative and reform-friendly group of teachers. I’d be interested to know the exact breakdown of charter/turnaround teachers and teachers from Teach For America-at my table alone about half were TFA and many from AUSL-Chicago’s worst corporate turnaround company. The event was even held at a charter school. Per usual Teach Plus behavior, they intentionally asked leading questions (i.e. asking the question about PARCC being better than previous tests after showing us a whole PR-style powerpoint on how PARCC is better!) They also didn’t ask any open-ended questions, i.e. what are your feelings on the PARCC? When we had a chance to actually share our opinions, everyone who spoke was very upset about the tests, especially them being too difficult for special education students, ELLs, and how they warp the curriculum. Here was one teacher who attended’s reaction: http://secondcityteachers.blogspot.com/2014/11/teach-plus-parcc.html
Teach Plus is just another astro-turf group created to legitimize neoliberal edreform.
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Yeah, the report of the survey says they had to educate teachers on the Common Core tests prior to collecting opinions, which is a huge red flag to me. Obviously they could manipulate the “education” process. It stuck out when I read it.
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Katie: Please add your great comment to the Hechinger Report article that Diane provides above.
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Already did! They haven’t moderated my comment yet. Hmm…
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Thank you for attending so the rest of us don’t have to. Can I send you a bottle of soap to replace what I’m sure you used to wash the stink off afterwards?
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Teachers and students need PARCC like a fish needs a bicycle.
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In other news, after extensive research the H2O Foundation has concluded that water is still wet.
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Another instance of “The Emperor’s New(d) Clothes”.
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Isn’t this called “push polling?”
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And in another recent survey conducted by the Gates Foundation, it is reported that cattle overwhelmingly support the increased production of burgers and other beef products…
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Gates may hate Bill for going after Microsoft but guess what the lead attorney is up to?
Campbell Brown was just on Morning Joe again with David Boies as her new Chairman of the Partnership for Education Justice to fight teacher tenure. Remember David Boies, the respected, folksy, tennis shoed, liberal lawyer of Gore v. Bush fame? The son of two (2) public school teachers.
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“Remember David Boies, the respected, folksy, tennis shoed, liberal lawyer of Gore v. Bush fame?”
He lost that one big time!
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Does anyone even watch Morning Joe? I keep trying, but I find the interplay between Scarborough & Brzezinski cloying/ disgusting, & the whole show like some kind of frat-boy bullying event. Yecch!!
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Just wondering what substances they’ve consumed or smoked? Another result of 10+ years of NCLB and the lack of critical thinking skills being taught anywhere.
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I am a middle school teacher with the sad job of administering this test to my students. I’m also an adjunct professor, currently teaching a course on classroom assessment. I spend most of my day thinking about, designing, and evaluating assessment. I find it personally insulting that people think this test is designed to give teachers, as the Chicago Tribune recently wrote, “a mother-lode of information” about our students. There is nothing this test can tell me about what my students know that I haven’t already found out through my daily use of formative assessment.
Here’s what this test (and others like it) and the resulting scores will tell me:
I teach in a district with high poverty.
I teach in a school with a large population of English Language learners.
I’m losing about a month of instructional time.
My state does not spend its money wisely.
Again, most of this I already knew. It is disappointing and scary that we put so much faith in test scores as a way to measure success.
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“I’m also an adjunct professor, currently teaching a course on classroom assessment. I spend most of my day thinking about, designing, and evaluating assessment.”
Beth,
Have you read Noel Wilson’s work regarding standards, testing and grading?
If so, your thoughts, please.
TIA
Duane
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I taught for a year in Japan. The Japanese testing was one of the reasons we have gone to testing. Students in Japan are take far fewer standardized tests than US students take and Japan has questioned the validity of high stakes testing. My library will be closed for over 6 weeks this year to accommodate tests and test make-ups. If I had students in the school system currently I would opt out of testing. I find it to be intrusive and unimportant. I feel that the vast majority of my children’s teachers were outstanding and had a very good grasp of what they needed to succeed. As I look at test questions and see the ridiculousness of the tests, I really challenge the idea that tests are good for our students . In addition I think that testing is driven by business, not education. I’m sick of big business interfering with education to its detriment. Teacher are trained to teach, businessmen are not. They haven’t been the classroom and don’t have a clue as to what is really needed. Children are not raw materials that need to be formed in to widgets. Each one is different and their family situations change. One of my biggest complaints is how we are moving toward evaluating schools and teachers through test scores. Approximately 1/3 of the students at my school, who will be tested this Spring, did not spend the full year with us. An even larger number did not spend the last two years. How can this school and its teachers be judged by someone else’s instruction? Testing is meaningless unless it is tied to specific classroom
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Teach Plus has no credibility as an independent source of information about PARCC. The survey highlights data intended to please supporters of PARCC and Pearson, the mega-corporation marketing PARCC. The survey also buries some of the most negative findings, creating what is known as a “push survey.”
Look at the full survey and note that much support for this came from Student Achievement Partners, key players in the development in the Common Core State Standards. Read the questions and the lots of negative answers buried at the end of the report.
We have no idea about the teachers recruited for the “test-the-test” training that preceded the survey. A footnote tells us that some teachers (unknown number) walked out early.
PARCC is supposed to test proficiency on the CCSS. The survey does not really probe how thoroughly teachers have been oriented to these standards or give information about the grade-level assignments of survey participants. The survey is clearly the work of amateurs.
Teach Plus is one of five or six “teacher voice groups” enlisted by foundations to speak on behalf of many of the federal policies that have been doing damage to public schools. Teach Plus has been funded by the Gates Foundation (at least $9.5 million). Gates paid for the Common Core and for a batch of contracts and sub-contracts to people who market it.
In August, 2014, Teach Plus members in Tennessee, who appear to be fond of teaching to the test, had this to say about the PARCC tests.
“A key educator concern with Common Core is a lack of test-aligned resources. This concern came to the forefront during PARCC field testing this past year, and it has not improved with the existing uncertainty surrounding the future of next-generation assessments. This lack hurts teacher morale and ultimately lowers student achievement by confusing their academic targets. To be accepted by educators and ensure success by students, these assessments must have classroom-ready resources such as item samplers, practice questions and full-length practice tests available for teachers to utilize as soon as possible.”
Wow. That is a well-crafted statement for Teach Plus. We want to teach the test. Help us practice. Give us practice tests ASAP.
It is important to note that Teach Plus members are working “in urban districts with high needs students.” That is an announced mission. That mission seems to include teaching to the test, and plenty of test prep. Given the high stakes attached to test scores on PARCC and other tests, it is likely that these students, who certainly need and deserve a rich curriculum, will not learn much beyond this and other test, along with test-taking skills.
Click to access ensuring_high_quality_next_generation_ela_math_assessments.pdf
The largest donors listed on the Teach Plus website are: Barclays—Barr Foundation—Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation—The Boston Foundation—Carnegie Corporation of New York—Charles & Lynn Schusterman Family Foundation—CityBridge Foundation—Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation—Eli Lilly and Company Foundation—Harold Whitworth Pierce Charitable Trust—The Indianapolis Foundation, a CICF Affiliate—Joyce Foundation—Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust—The Mind Trust—Moriah Fund—Noyce Foundation—Reeder Foundation—Resnick Family Foundation—SheGives—Shippy Foundation—W. Clement & Jessie V. Stone Foundation—Wasserman Foundation.
The website solicits contributions for specific roles including $2,500 to sponsor a Teaching Policy Fellow for an 18-month Fellowship, $1,500 to prepare a Teacher Leader to lead and train their colleagues on Common Core strategies and $500 to enable a teacher to meet with state or federal policymakers.
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The Heckinger Report routinely adds to articles: Disclaimer: The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is among the many funders of The Heckinger Report. http://goo.gl/d2ueYG The many other funders are a roll call of corporate education reformers http://hechingerreport.org/supporters/
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Disappointed that Chicago’s public television station gave air time last night to Teach Plus. There should have been full disclosure. http://chicagotonight.wttw.com/2015/03/10/parcc-testing-begins
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“Before the teachers were allowed to assess the tests, Teach Plus provided them with training to ensure they had the necessary background knowledge.”
“This training was preceded by a snack of psilocybin mushrooms laced with a generous sprinkling of lysergic acid diethylamide. Teachers were not only impressed with the quality of the PARCC items but were also mesmerized by cursors that continuously changed size, shape, and color, keyboard keys that greeted them by spelling out their name, and wallpaper in the test room that breathed as if alive.”
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NY Teacher, I always say thank you when a comment makes me laugh out loud. Yours made me laugh for several minutes. Out loud.
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My pleasure. This post was just too silly to ignore. I hope they really like the 10% pass rates they will be lucky to muster, given their student populations.
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Me, too: OUT LOUD LOL!!
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Clearly these teachers have not yet passed a basic child development course
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It’s amazing how Emannuel Felton and his overseer Lillian Mongeau couldn’t bring themselves to post my comment, as both a New York public school teacher and parent, how the PARCC project is a disgrace and shame. I also asked why he would choose to post both skewed and/or erroneous bits.
Perhaps the educators that they polled were limited to those who lack proper education qualifications, such as Gates and Cuomo, national sellers (wholesalers) of everyone else’s children.
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Read the background of the editorial staff. While experience as a classroom teacher should rank below their journalism qualifications, it is still disappointing that most have zero experience, one has a whopping ONE year of experience, one was a TFA lackey, and one or two teach at the college level part time. That is just a warmup. The list of financial supporters starts with the Broad Fdn and ends with AIR. Finally, working up to the most exciting part, look at the advisors. I’ll not spoil the surprise…I’ll never believe anything coming out of Hechinger.
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It all reminds me of the 8 blind men describing an elephant. It’s a fan, a snake, a tree trunk, a wall ….! Until the test questions are published and the public – including parents, teachers, students, we are evaluating these tests on too little evidence.
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To a certain extent you are right, but we should be able to assume that the sample test questions they have made available are representative of the actual tests. To date their sample tests seemed to have fueled dissatisfaction. We do know that the amount of time devoted to these tests is excessive especially for a test that no one will ever see. By the time that the tests results are available children will have moved on to a new grade and teachers. Since only a score and no item by item reports will be released, it will be impossible to see where students struggled. The tests are only for ranking purposes and nothing else.
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My comment at the article site: “I read all the links included in the article, and find nothing to counter the gist of the comments on the thread at this point. The article is presented as though it were a study, yet there is no detail on how the 1000 teachers were selected. That they were ‘trained’ before completing a questionnaire is suspect, yet there is no detail on the content of their ‘training’. Why should any thinking person give weight to this survey?”
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A friend of mine (who happens to work for the Gates Foundation) posted this lil’ bit of propaganda. Basically, they invited 1,028 teachers to a workshop (and paid them) in which they explained how the PARCC aligns with Common Core, then showed them specifically how the questions align with Common Core, then surveyed them to see if they believe that the PARCC is aligned with the Common Core. And now they spin it as, “See, teachers like the PARCC!” My favorite part is towards the end when it says, “We learned that teachers want more information and support regarding the actual PARCC test and want help in incorporating formative assessments that are aligned to the summative PARCC test.” Gee, from what company could we purchase materials to help us better prepare our students for the PARCC?
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I find the results of this report questionable. It is hard to imagine any teacher let alone large numbers of teachers agreeing that it is beneficial to test children then punish them, their teachers and their schools if they don’t do score appropriately as well as be of no instructional value to them or their theachers. Really??
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The fox is not only in charge of the henhouse, he wants the hens to enjoy it.
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Handpicked “teachers assembled by TeachPlus really like it.” Should we be surprised. After all, the reformers are spying on us gathering data on what we think so they know who to “assemble”—cherry picking teachers.
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