We are accustomed to seeing the Opt Out movement misportrayed in the mainstream media as union-led, when in fact the unions have sat on the sidelines.
John Merrow produced a fair and honest presentation of the issues in this PBS segment.
The transcript is included in the link. Merrow interviewed parents, students, critics and advocates of the Common Core standards and tests. He reports from Néw Jersey.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
I watched and thought he did an excellent job; I sent an email to Media Matters to proclaim that he was splendid….
The woman principal was trying her very best but she must have used the word rigor 15 times… and of course she has been sold the “bill of goods” that the policies will ensure her students are “career ready”…. she has memorized the script from Pearson and the educational commissioners who are foisting Pearson PARRC or SBAC onto the schools.
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“commissioners”
Did you mean “commissars”?
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“JULIA SASS RUBIN: They’re impacting the kind of education kids are getting because they’re eating up a lot of introduction time with test preparation and test drilling. If what you’re measuring is English and math, then all these unimportant subjects like art and music and science and social studies, languages, you know, that gets put aside.”
She should be careful with that. All they have to do to “fix” that problem is add standardized tests in science and social studies, or so the thinking seems to go:
“Ohio’s new state tests are administered this school year 2014-2015 in the areas of English language arts, mathematics, science and social studies. These tests are in computer and paper format. Please check below for information on the individual tests. This landing page reflects the transition from current state tests to the new state tests.”
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I wonder why gym teachers aren’t held to the same kind of standards that subject teachers are held to. Shouldn’t they be rated on how many situps, pushups, etc. their students can do? Shouldn’t gym teacher have to show “growth” and “add value” to their students in terms of how physically fit they are? Since sports are so important these days and practically everyone can be a star athlete, doesn’t this make sense? Everyone has to be “college and career ready.” It shouldn’t matter what the students eat outside of school or how they take care of themselves (or how their parents take care of them) since nothing besides the teacher has any influence on that.
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I also forgot to mention that ALL students should reach the same physical standards at the same time regardless of disability, injury or illness. Surely teachers, if they are “effective,” can bring this about.
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Actually in Massachusetts they are using this crazy online system, Fitness Gram (http://www.fitnessgram.net) Students have to show improvement in fitness as part of the Gym teachers assessment.
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Hah! But they are, or were, in my state:
“The Ohio Department of Education has, as mandated by state law, put together a 165 page “Physical Education Evaluation System” that is now being used across the state to measure the effectiveness of PE teachers. The document not only spells out the standards students are to meet in gym class, but also has a number of suggested written items for students to pass.These items for K-2 students (five to eight year olds) include questions like:
To throw a ball overhand with your right hand, you should step forward with your left foot.
A. True B. False”
They’re out of their minds.
http://edexcellence.net/commentary/education-gadfly-daily/ohio-gadfly-daily/2013/teacher-evaluation-overkill-in-ohio-what-about-pe-teachers.html
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“To throw a ball overhand with your right hand, you should step forward with your left foot.
A. True B. False”
Of course, everyone thinks about that when they throw a ball…and that’s all there is to throwing a ball. Answering a true false question. That’s how they choose major league pitchers, right?
That reminds me of the time I went cross country skiing with one of my sisters who had never been before.
She kept asking me which pole hand was supposed to go forward with which foot.
And, for the life of me, though I had cross-country skied for years, I didn’t know what to tell her. All I could say was “Don’t try to analyze it. Just do it. Pretend you are walking”
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TIme to jump out the window!
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Only if it’s on the test.
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Apparently this is part of John’s atonement for unleashing that skeezy Michelle Rhee and Kevin “Sweet 16” Johnson on us.
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sarah5565
March 12, 2015 at 12:22 pm
Actually in Massachusetts they are using this crazy online system, Fitness Gram (http://www.fitnessgram.net) Students have to show improvement in fitness as part of the Gym teachers assessment.
That’s really funny. Someone should tell the sales force that parents won’t consider “data mining” a plus 🙂
I do give them credit for laying the purpose right out there, though. Truth in advertising.
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We really have lost it.
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I’m not sure “it” was ever in hand.
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Maybe one the teachers could answer this question.
Are teachers or schools telling children who are taking the first CC test that they have another CC test in a month?
It seems to me they should do that, just so kids don’t get this horrible surprise next month when they’re herding them back in for another test. Adults may have seen an advantage to calling it “two components- one test” but I bet your average 6th grader would consider it two tests (I consider it two tests).
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Don’t go getting no logical thinkin on us now Chiara!
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Our high school students certainly know this.
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So do my junior high kids. And THEY now that it’s really two tests…
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Good piece. Just want to point out that when they were talking about taking the tests on the computer, several video shots were of the MIT coding program for kids called Scratch, which is a terrific program and in no way associated with computerized standardized tests. Kudos for that school for using Scratch in their curriculum!
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Why cannot we, the voters demand the same RIGOR tests or conditions to all leaders positions in all applicable sectors before the election?
Currently, we, voters and educators should unite to draft a transparent and reasonable list of all actions and things need to be done within a reasonable time frame. This will also need to include a volunteering resignation clause with compensation for any leader in order to ensure that citizens (=workers in both white and blue collars) and children will not suffer in the hand of all corrupted corporate in the future or after the election.
Would that be a reasonable suggestion from a practical idea to the public view? Back2basic.
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Perhaps Charlotte Daniels could come up with rubrics for all of our elected officials.
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“We are accustomed to seeing the Opt Out movement misportrayed in the mainstream media as union-led, when IN FACT the unions have sat on the sidelines.
John Merrow…reports from Néw Jersey.”
I’m not sure which “New Jersey” John Merrow is in, but there is no sidelining on the part of the NJEA when it comes to encouraging a dialogue about what is wrong with the testing industry today. (Cannot personally speak for the efforts of the AFT, though.)
IN FACT, the NJEA is leading a huge push-back campaign for a moratorium on testing among SEVERAL other anti-PARCC bills.
IN FACT, members are in the process of taking action on the senate version of the PARCC moratorium bill by contacting their senators to encourage a yes vote to delay the use of testing, again among a myriad of other anti-testing bills the organization’s lobbyists have helped advise NJ legislators to craft.
IN FACT, NJ Assembly members have thanked NJEA members for educating them on the issue and have such voted nearly unanimously to push the moratorium bill forward.
IN FACT, along with this, local NJEA associations all over the state are sponsoring screenings of the film “Standardized” which was also featured last August at the NJEA Summer Leadership Conference.
http://www.njea.org/issues-and-political-action/take-action
That said, the NJEA does not encourage members to engage in acts of insubordination by explicitly telling parents to refuse the test. Instead, the organization is suggesting that members have the dialogue with parents about the amount, frequency and the resulting disruption to daily instruction the PARCC is causing. Members have been encouraged to state the facts with no opinion allowing parents to fill in the blanks.
Yesterday in my school, we had about 12 out of 100 fifth grade students refuse the test. In the middle schools, the refusal number is far greater. The message is getting out, but legislators would rather listen to parents than education professionals. This is why the NJEA is leading a campaign for members to take action as parents and citizens. Does that truly qualify as “sitting on the sidelines?” Hardly.
Disclaimer: I am in no way, shape or form, an authorized spokesperson for he NJEA. Nobody is paying me to make any announcements on behalf of the organization. I am reporting as an informed member, not some paid shill. I am personally tired of bad information about unions being thrown around. I know it’s easy to find enemies among organizations that are imperfect, but it’s important to stick to the facts of the issue at hand and not make blanket statements about an organization. The staff at NJEA work night and day on these issues. To be so flip as to say “the unions have sat on the sidelines” is irresponsible. There is no “opt out” option New Jersey, anyway, only an option of “refusal.”
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Merrow may have been speaking from NJ, but perhaps he was talking about the national mainstream media. Opt-out is not a union led movement although locals may support it in different ways. It gains its strength from parental effort; teachers have to be careful to “follow” district policy when they are speaking as representatives of their schools. What they do or say in private is something different.
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