Juan Gonzalez has a front-page article in the New York Daily News about the historic opt out that swept across New York State.
He writes:
The entire structure of high-stakes testing in New York crumbled Tuesday, as tens of thousands of fed-up public school parents rebelled against Albany’s fixation with standardized tests and refused to allow their children to take the annual English Language Arts state exam.
This “opt-out” revolt has been quietly building for years, but it reached historic levels this time. More than half the pupils at several Long Island and upstate school districts joined in — at some schools in New York City boycott percentages neared 40%.
At the Patchogue-Medford School District in Suffolk County, 65% of 3,400 students in grades three to eight abstained from the test, District Superintendent Michael Hynes told the Daily News.
“There was a very strong parent contingent that spoke loudly today,” Hynes said.
At West Seneca District near Buffalo, nearly 70% of some 2,976 students refused testing. Likewise, at tiny Southold School District on Long Island’s North Fork, 60% of the 400 students opted out; so did 60% of Rockville Centre’s 1,600 pupils. And in the Westchester town of Ossining, nearly 20% of 2,100 students boycotted.
“It’s clear that parents and staff are concerned about the number of standard assessments and how they’re used,” Ossining school chief Ray Sanchez said.
The final numbers are not in, and may not be in for a few days, but it is already clear that the number of opt outs will far surpass last year’s 50,000.
Contrary to the official line that this is “a labor dispute between the Governor and the unions,” the opt out movement is parent led. Parents don’t work for the union, and parents aren’t dumb. Parents protect their children from tests that have no valid purpose. Parents protect their children from tests that were designed to fail them. Parents protect their children from tests that force schools to cut back on the arts, on recess, on anything that is not tested.
Bravo, New York state parents!
Bravo especially to the New York State Allies for Public Education, a coalition of 50 organizations of parents and teachers who have testified in Albany, held community forums, informed PTAs, met with their legislators, and raised funds to pay for billboards and roving trucks with banners, plastered towns with car magnets, opt-out stickers, and lawn signs, and been truly herculean in their dedication to bringing down the state’s mean-spirited and pointless testing regime. Go to their website to learn how they mobilized the Empire State to say no to the Governor and his misbegotten plan to bring down public schools and teachers.
This is grassroots democracy at work. The hedge fund managers have millions to buy allies, but they can’t buy millions of parents, whose first and only concern is for their children. As a parent said earlier today in the Long Island Press, “The most dangerous place on Earth is between a mother and her child. Cuomo has crossed the line.”
Make no mistake. This is parent resistance to high-stakes testing and to Andrew Cuomo’s plan to make the stakes even higher than they were. He was able to push his plan through the legislature, but parents have just thrown a huge monkey wrench into his ability to make it work. It won’t and it can’t. That is how democracy works. Only with the consent of the governed.
Fantastic! Parents are doing it, stopping the billionaire boys club with their govt. bullies and their commercial parasites.
Civil disobedience at it’s finest. Put that in your pipe and smoke it Andrew Cuomo.
“And how they are used” is a really important point and something that often gets missed in the opt-out reporting, in my opinion.
I don’t think the national promoters and/or supporters can truthfully tell parents how the Common Core tests will be used re: students. They can state their opinions or intentions on how the tests should be used, but they can’t offer any kind of commitment or guarantee. I think they ARE offering a guarantee (“just to see where kids are and help them”) but I don’t think it’s wise to do that. We’ve seen test scores used for all kinds of things. They have no earthly idea how these scores will be used to make decisions. The safe bet would be to predict that we will end up over-relying on the scores, based on past history and because the tests have been sold as both accurate and determinative for everything from College and Career Ready to “critical thinking”.
“. . . the tests have been sold as both accurate and determinative for everything. . . ”
Which is almost as good as my new elixir “Aceite de serpiente” that will diagnose, treat and cure any and all physical and psychic complaints you may have.
Call now, operators are standing by. By calling now you will receive two bottles for the price of one!
Complain no more!!
Hahaha. I really love and enjoy reading your post. Thank you Señor Swacker. May
This is what democracy looks like. The NYS DOE spokespeople live in a bubble world as they continue to rebut with the same old harried lines. Parents know that these tests DO NOT help them assess their kids growth. Tests and projects made by their teachers do. Parents know that they are fighting for THEIR CHILDREN, not for adults.
David – slight correction — this isn’t what democracy looks like. It’s what people have to resort to when democracy fails / is taken away.
Here’s a good video overview:
And here’s another good one:
I think they should also tell parents that PARCC is a testing system and there are other components of the system that will be rolled out. States or districts don’t have to adopt all the parts of the system, but I think it’s fair to say that if they adopt the main test they will be more likely to adopt the system because schools will (understandably) believe students will do better on the Big Test if they use the system all year.
https://twitter.com/PARCCplace
“The U.S. Department of Education levied a $30-million fine Tuesday against Santa Ana-based Corinthian Colleges Inc., alleging the for-profit college operator recruited students with inflated job placement rates.
The fine represents another blow to ailing Corinthian, which over the last year has been selling off and closing dozens of campuses across the country amid a crackdown by the Education Department. Job placement rates for Corinthian graduates have been at the center of the controversy: The department restricted Corinthian’s access to federal student aid last year amid concerns the company falsified the data.”
Falsified data. Hmmmm.
It’s funny how we can manage to find and apply “racketeering” charges for middle class public school teachers for falsifying data but not here.
Maybe state AG’s will pursue some real accountability, like that applied to the lesser folk.
The Deputy Secretary of Education is a prominent supporter of for profit education. I suspect that the Corinthian fine was a gentle tap on the wrist
Here’s a different part of the Georgia RICO law that was applied to the teachers :
“insurance fraud, usurious payday loans, deceptive commercial e-mail, and residential mortgage fraud.”
Maybe they could find a federal law like that for ripping off low income college students and saddling them with ruinous debt that they will carry their entire lives.
Corporate Ed Reformer Frederick Hess weighed in:
http://www.nydailynews.com/opinion/frederick-hess-testing-opt-out-tsunami-article-1.2185594
Check out the false premise Fred espouses:
“Starting in the 1990s, the idea of annually testing students in reading and math and then using those results to keep an eye on schools enjoyed broad support among parents and elected officials in both parties.”
Really, Fred? Exactly when did this “broad support” from parents actually come about? Because I’ve been following ed. issues since the 1990’s, and I can’t recall the emergence of such a consensus among parents. I must have missed it.
But hey, let’s keep building on that false premise:
” That consensus has existed for a reason. Used with appropriate humility and discretion, annual testing provides a useful snapshot to parents, educators, and voters. It helps ensure that vulnerable students don’t slip off the radar. It lets schools and school systems make the case that what they are doing works.
“That consensus now shows signs of unraveling.”
No, Fred… THERE WAS NO SUCH CONSENSUS AMONG PARENTS!!! It’s only recently that they’ve woken up to a reality that—had they closely followed and been aware of what ed deformers were doing—they would have fought from DAY ONE, the way they are finally getting around to waging such a fight.
Ultimately, Fred finishes this article with common sense—though he can’t help characterizing testing advocates as employing “measured, restrained test-based accountability”… no, Fred… 400 minutes of inappropriate testing for an 3rd Grader / eight-year-old is neither “measured” nor “restrained”:
“In many ways, the anti-testing backlash is just more collateral damage brought by the headlong rush to adopt the Common Core standards across the nation. Frustrated parents have fought back in the ways they can, and one of the most powerful is to de-legitimize the tests that make those standards matter. The backlash is not just about the Common Core, of course, it’s due also to a sense among many parents that these tests and the accountability systems linked to them are not good for their kids or responsive to their concerns.
“Proponents of measured, restrained test-based accountability should not dismiss these concerns. School reform advocates have sometimes belittled this kind of pushback as misguided or malicious. That’s a huge mistake. Hundreds of thousands of New York families are sending a signal flare: that they’re skeptical of the value of these tests, don’t necessarily trust the results, and think test-based reform has distorted the nature of schooling. This is a useful and healthy warning, and one that policymakers would do well to heed.”
Because nothing says “humility” like conducting a huge national (and mandated) experiment on tens of millions of public school children with little or no public debate.
They completely and utterly lack humility. It’s absent.
Wow, what a work of edudeformer blathering that is. My favorite line: “There are statistical fixes for some of this. . . ”
Yes, those are the “fudges” that Noel Wilson identifies that can be the source of much error in the standardized testing process. Obviously, Hess hasn’t read any of Wilson.
Clumsily rewrite history. Massage and torture numbers & stats. Spin and spin and spin.
Did I miss something or are y’all describing a piece written in pre-1992 PRAVDA?
Maybe my dates are all mixed up…
😎
“they’re skeptical of the value of these tests [they know they’re crap], don’t necessarily trust the results [crap again], and think test-based reform has distorted the nature of schooling [like a penny is distorted when you a train runs over it on the railroad tracks] This is a useful and healthy warning [like the a heart attack is a useful and healthy warning of clogged arteries] and one that policymakers would do well to heed.” [ya think?] — Frederick Hess with my translation in brackets []
Hard to believe that Hess (or anyone else) is actually obtuse enough to really believe his own drivel.
You are the Best among many best educational GURUS in this website.
I also love and enjoy reading your post. Thank you for your precious time to cultivate readers’ knowledge. May
Please pardon my predilection for rheephorm classics, but Dr. Frederick Hess of the American Enterprise Institute, came up with one of the best:
[start excerpt]
In truth, the idea that the Common Core might be a “game-changer” has little to do with the Common Core standards themselves, and everything to do with stuff attached to them, especially the adoption of common tests that make it possible to readily compare schools, programs, districts, and states (of course, the announcement that one state after another is opting out of the two testing consortia is hollowing out this promise).
But the Common Core will only make a dramatic difference if those test results are used to evaluate schools or hire, pay, or fire teachers; or if the effort serves to alter teacher preparation, revamp instructional materials, or compel teachers to change what students read and do. And, of course, advocates have made clear that this is exactly what they have in mind. When they refer to the “Common Core,” they don’t just mean the words on paper–what they really have in mind is this whole complex of changes.
[end excerpt]
To be found on the blog of the redoubtable Dr. Mercedes Schneider with necessary context and more info—
Link: https://deutsch29.wordpress.com/2013/12/28/the-american-enterprise-institute-common-core-and-good-cop/
High-stakes standardized testing. Parents not allowed to opt out their children because those little tots are now property of big gubmint.
Ain’t $tudent $ucce$$ grand?
Even if it doesn’t make a lick of ₵ent¢ to anybody unaffected by Rheeality Distortion Fields.
😎
This group is keeping a tally of opt-out numbers. It’s not clear how they are getting the data, but I think it will more or less agree with other projections, a 3 to 4-fold increase over last year.
https://www.facebook.com/United2Counter
In my sons 4th grade class in Ithaca,NY 12 of the 19 students opted out. Don’t know if that was similar in numbers to the other 4th grade class in his school or similar to other schools in our district but that was definitely representative of the overall sentiments and I’m sure the numbers will bear that out.
I consider any and all teachers/administrators/superintendents/board members who push these tests on these kids to be involved in mental/emotional/psychological abuse. If they are pushing these tests they are truly not educators they are minions of the corporate machinery that uses these kids for profits. I tell them this.
Stay on the offensive.
“I consider any and all teachers/administrators/superintendents/board members who push these tests on these kids to be involved in mental/emotional/psychological abuse. If they are pushing these tests they are truly not educators they are minions of the corporate machinery that uses these kids for profits. I tell them this.
Stay on the offensive.”
TAGO!!!
And thanks for telling it like it is!
In our district, in grades 3-6, we had 23 out of 220 kids refuse. So about `10%. Last year there were none, so I consider this pretty good, we’re just a year behind things.
I should add that’s on Day 2 of the ELA.
I guess the reformers thought teachers and parents were an easy target; guess again. Bravo to all to took a stand!
Contrast this to the NYTimes Article on Monday titled “Some Parents Oppose Testing on Principle, But Not in Practice”. Maybe the Times editors don’t want to acknowledge that the “reform” movement is unravelling due to parent backlash…. or maybe they are like Ms. Tisch who believes testing is good for children raised in poverty but not that important for the affluent…
I thought that piece was good. It goes to your larger argument, which is not parents objecting to testing, but parents objecting to what testing does to their schools.
It rebuts the accusation that they are somehow “afraid” of testing or “coddling” or manipulated by labor unions.
They’re trying to manage this thing that they feel is out of control.
Children will remember their role in making history by sitting idle in an auditorium, and that sacrifice of boredom that they made, and allowed to be placed on their backs by elected officials. Visiting one school was to witness history and “We the People” in the making. My generation remembered where they were when President Kennedy was killed, or those who marched in Selma, Alabama. “Mom, Dad, where were you when we took back our schools”, their children will ask.
I heart NY (parents!)
Congrats to Baldwinsville doing the old Sit & Stare punishment.
http://www.syracuse.com/schools/index.ssf/2015/04/some_students_who_refused_nys_tests_forced_to_stay_in_testing_area_what_happend.html#incart_river
I wouldn’t even call this civil disobedience…it is just plain old common sense!
Can someone explain to me Duncan’s comments to Congress?
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/wp/2015/04/14/the-odd-thing-arne-duncan-told-congress/?tid=hybrid_linearcol_1_na
Your life will be far better off not trying to understand the blatherings of an idiot.
Macbeth had Arne’s number long ago:
Reform’s but a walking zombie, a poor player
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage
And then is heard no more: it is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of tests and VAMs,
Signifying nothing.
The NY Times reported the exact opposite. I am hearing in many districts the numbers are huge. I hope NYC parents catch up. And the NT Times gets egg on their face.
The NY Times (Judith Miller) also reported that Saddam Hussein had tons of WMD ready and waiting to go.
“The Presstitutes”
The presstitutes
Dress up in suits
And work at NY Times
While journalist
Is simply dissed
‘Cuz truth’s are simply crimes
“Stating the Obvious”
The NY Times has spoken
The obvious is true
The NY Times is broken
And LA Times is too.
A poem on the end of honesty in the so called free press.
“The Prototypical Pontificating Pundit”
The prototypical pontificating pundit
Is almost always wrong
But that won’t stop ‘em one bit
From singing their nutty song
(I’m in the process of compiling these into a “book”. Almost done. Stay tuned)
We are hostage to the middle school/high school admissions process–at least in district 2.
My hope is the momentum continues and this emphasis on testing stops.
Diane,
The opt-out explosion is wonderful, but do you think it will really make a difference? The people behind for-profit education have endless money to spend on getting things done their way. I don’t see them backing down for any reason. Hedge fund managers had no problem destroying the nation’s economy, so what would stop them from destroying the schools?
I think it’s very possible that teachers will soon have to take unfair exams annually in order to keep their jobs.
Bill,
The opt out tsunami is the best possible blow against the billionaires. The people are speaking. They can’t ignore mass civil disobedience.
“That is how democracy works. Only with the consent of the governed.”
But not in states where Democracy is dying—states that have been taken over by the 0.1%, who are buying their own govenrment to do their bidding, whatever that is.
For instance, in the state district where I live, we now have a special election between a very well supported and funded Steve Glazer, who clearly is being supported by the corporate education reformers, and Susan Bonilla—they are both democrats running for the same California state senate seat. There is no Republican candidate running for this seat.
This one state senate election is an example of the war taking place inside the Democratic Party between the Milton Friedman loving neo-liberals and traditional democrats.
I wrote about this May 19 special election here:
Too bad what is happening in New York isn’t happening to the same degree in every state. Maybe next year as the Opt Out movement continues to grow momentum.
Rise up, New York!
Today I am proud to be a New Yorker. Loud, proud, and unafraid to talk back.
Reblogged this on Who's Minding the Children? and commented:
Way to go New York!
Cuomo is so bloody stubborn and arrogant. Sad to say, but I’m afraid that he won’t care how many people opted out.
Here I would like to share with all readers what I wrote (a small essay of less than 1500 characters) about American education in the period of 1950- 1960 versus 1980-1990 to NYT in article Nonlinearity, Multiple Equilibria, and the Problem of Too Much Fun (Wonkish) by Dr. Paul Krugman in NYTimes APRIL 15, 2015 8:12 AM
[start essay]
IMHO, if we understand the truth in HUMAN CONSCIENCE, then we know THE WISDOM (practical knowledge or intelligence with experience) in human beings who can and cannot do in terms of compassion (genuine with civility) and courage (take an action like speaking out for what is right.)
Let’s get back to the VERY BASIC of our planet of EARTH’s nature – water, air, and sunlight. All creatures and plants on Earth will extinct if one of these 3 important sources gradually disappears
Similarly, speaking of human conscience or the study of science of BODY – MIND – SPIRIT or the truth is CONSCIENCE that differentiates the difference between human and animals
.
1) CON = (vt) to learn, study, peruse or examine carefully (for wise people);
commit to memory, to become acquainted with, learn to know (for beginners).
2) slang: (vt) to swindle, trick; to persuade by deception (for corporations).
3) SCIENCE = any skills that reflect a PRECISE of FACTS or PRINCIPLES in the universal laws, like IMPERMANENCE, SUFFERANCE, AND DEATH
In conclusion, the most successful model in macro-economy should compose all three factors of BODY – MIND – SPIRIT which have the possibly LOWEST GINI COEFFICIENT FIGURE near to ZERO in all principles of study in education, sociology, economics, health science, ecology, engineering and agriculture.
PS:
[The Gini coefficient MEASURE THE INEQUALITY among values of a FREQUENCY DISTRIBUTION (for example, levels of income). A Gini coefficient of ZERO expresses PERFECT EQUALITY]
[end essay]
This below information is important to prove my point, but I cannot put in because my essay will be over 1500 characters.
”while the United States had the LOWEST education inequality Gini index of 0.14.”” (this expresses PERFECT EQUALITY)
“”They also claim education Gini index for the United States slightly INCREASE over the 1980–1990 period.”” (this expresses slightly INEQUALITY)
According to Wikipedia:
The Gini coefficient measures the inequality among values of a FREQUENCY DISTRIBUTION(for example, levels of income).
A Gini coefficient of ZERO expresses PERFECT EQUALITY, where all values are the same (for example, where everyone has the same income).
A Gini coefficient of ONE (or 100%) expresses MAXIMAL INEQUALITY among values (for example, where only one person has all the income or consumption, and all others have none).[3][4]
From a study of 85 countries, Thomas, et al. estimate Mali had the highest education Gini index of 0.92 in 1990 (implying very high INEQUALITY in education attainment across the population),
”while the United States had the LOWEST education inequality Gini index of 0.14.””
Between 1960 and 1990, South Korea, China and India had the fastest drop in education inequality Gini Index.
[look and think what US government have done to their citizens in terms of EDUCATION INEQUALITY as compared to three other countries – South Korea, China, and India at the same period of time of 1960-1990!]
“”They also claim education Gini index for the United States slightly INCREASE over the 1980–1990 period.””
Isn’t time for all conscientious parents and teachers to OPT OUT all INVALID and STRENUOUS TESTS in order to protect children’s self-esteem, confidence, and civility FOR LIFE?
These tests are not designed to see if the students have mastered skills. These tests are designed to rip teachers apart while using students as the tool. The best example I can give you is that an excerpt of a 6.8 lexile, which is meant for a 6th grade level reading, was used for the 4th grade ELA NYS Exam. Need I say more? Okay then. This is why politicians and Pearson does not want people talking about the tests. They want to blind side the people and hurt the students in the process. In the mean while, Governor Cuomo justifies why he is going to be depriving schools of federal funds as he allows the use and administration of unfair standardized tests. But wait! It is known that Gov. Cuomo received campaign endorsement from Pearson, the Publishing Company that creates the tests. Who do you think is benefiting? It is time for “We the People”, “We the Parents”, “We the Taxpayers” to elect politicians that are not going to use our children for their own personal agenda and gain.