Jim Arnold, former superintendent of schools in Pelham, Georgia, explains why he encouraged his grandsons and their parents to opt out.
He writes:
“Just imagine the millions of dollars spent on standardized test development, scoring, actual testing, test training and test security that could be spent to hire new teachers, lower class sizes, restore art and music and elective classes, buy new school technology, books, materials, end furlough days or – gasp – give teachers a raise.
“Imagine an end to the silly insistence that standardized testing is the only way to hold teachers and schools accountable.
“Imagine the return of the authority of the classroom teacher to actually teach their students rather than follow a scripted test-centric routine designed not to improve teaching and learning but to improve test scores.
“Just imagine schools focused on taking students where they are educationally and socially and concentrating on teaching and learning rather than on how they test.
“Just imagine students being judged by the classroom work they do rather than by a score on a standardized test.
“Just imagine your kid’s school being judged by the parents, teachers and community members on their effectiveness rather than some made-up metric based on the junk science of standardized testing.
“Just imagine teachers being judged by their administrators and mentored by other teachers to help them learn how to be more effective in what they do rather than being evaluated by student test scores — often of students they don’t even teach by a method condemned by the American Statistical Association?
“Just imagine. That’s why we’re opting our boys out.”
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Reblogged this on David R. Taylor-Thoughts on Texas Education.
Great!
Here’s a good one. Nancie Atwell on PBS last night.
:http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/worlds-best-teacher-believe-tests-quizzes/
This is an interview btwn John King and Joanne Weiss from last year, on the Common Core and Common Core testing. They were at a conference promoting charter schools. Weiss is formerly with the Obama ed dept and King is of course currently with the Obama ed dept.
I thought it was interesting because they are clearly aware that there is a lot of opposition to the CC and CC testing (Weiss says “middle class” so that must be where she sees the opposition).
Why would Cuomo double down on the anti-public school policy and rhetoric after they already knew public school parents in NY had huge problems with this?
http://www.nsvfsummit.com/
But Jim, don’t you understand that America will wither and die unless we can rise to the top of those PISA tables? They are the sole determinant of our future. That’s what we are Racing to the Top of!
That money is well-spent because it gives our students endless amounts of practice and prep for taking those tests. We’ll show those Finns and South Koreans and Canadians what success looks like. We can fill in bubbles with the best of ’em.
And we need those metrics, and only those metrics, to tell the whole story. Test scores are the currency of the field now. The end-all be-all. Every study and analysis of school performance, school improvement and comparison of schools is via test scores. There can be NO OTHER factor or judgment. None. Because it’s the test that tells us everything.
Schools are only for skill-building in academics. No room for fun or empathy or anything resembling humanity. Just master that test format. Give the government and politicians and foundation leaders their stats.
It doesn’t matter that myself and another teacher saved the day for a student today that underwent high school social drama. She tearfully thanked the adults who helped her today and expressed that she appreciated being supported. I was happy to do it, but that experience won’t help her reading scores. Another student lost his mom earlier this week and shows up to my room an hour before school starts to play chess and feel some sense of continuity with his life. But we can’t measure that so what’s the point of even engaging, I guess.
In this era of ever-increasing non-nuclear families, of economic distress for the working class which takes parents away from their kids even more, we don’t need a safe place for kids. We need a test prep center that gives them skills, and only academic skills, for navigating this increasingly inequitable society. Just think, with a high enough test score, they can toil away at their $32K job in the future.
Steve,
Your observations tie-in perfectly with the comments (and attitude) of Indiana House member Tim Brown, MD (R-Dist.41) made earlier this year when discussing changes to the educational funding formula in Indiana. Brown, an ER physician and House GOP budget writer, stated, ““Did Mary’s mother get arrested the night before? Did Johnny not come with shoes to school? Those to me are not core issues of education.”
I suppose Pearson and McGraw-Hill just haven’t figured out how to extract dollars from these “non-core issues of education.”
Sad….
Steve K,
Spot on!!! WELL SAID!!!
Former and current admins that have a heart and a brain and compassion?
I knew there were a few, but apparently there are more than I imagined.
Good. Every drop of water in the bucket of a “better education for all” helps.
Thank you to the owner of this blog for highlighting this one.
😎
KrazyTA,
Yes!!! They’re actually out there!! And, Dr. Arnold has had the courage to speak out consistently over the years in Georgia–many times with great ridicule from the “testing powers on high”!! Thank you, Dr Arnold!!!
Our local HS got around Opting out by making it a HS requirement to graduate….so disappointed…http://www.mchs154.org/mchs/depts/guidance/
Cary,
Try challenging that so-called “requirement”!! Georgia tried that, too, but it didn’t hold up! All along, teachers were told in faculty meetings that the tests wouldn’t count in order for students to graduate–“just don’t let the students know!” This past session, Georgia’s legislators passed legislation that students who did not pass the “required” tests could come back and get their diplomas–years later! Of course, schools had students lined up to claim what was rightfully theirs in the first place! But, ALAS, teachers are still held accountable and evaluated on student test scores! Now, how is THAT going to work???!!!–when students know their tests don’t count for themselves AT ALL!!!
Reblogged this on Network Schools – Wayne Gersen and commented:
As a retired Superintendent I must confess to being in a quandary on this issue. When I was Superintendent in NH I advocated against VAM (see: http://waynegersen.com/2011/11/14/nclb-waivers/) and continue to do so today. However, my daughter notes that if my 4th grade grandson in NYC opts out he might jeopardize his placement for middle school because those test results are now part of the algorithm they use. She (and the PTO at her son’s school) are actively working to eliminate the testing… but in the meantime I believe she is doing what is best for her son by permitting him to take the tests. If she lived anywhere else in NYS I am sure her son would be at home. I’m also sure there are many parents like her in NYC, which might contribute to the lower opt-out rates in the city.
Mr. Arnold,
Thank you for your wonderful points! Your words need to be aligned with the music of that timeless Beatles song!! Thank you, too, for your unending willingness to speak out against the ridiculous testing in Georgia. Over the years, you were truly one of only a handful of Georgia superintendents that had the fortitude and backbone to stand up for all of Georgia’s students when many, many other superintendents statewide remained silent! Georgia teachers and students thank you!!!
What a beautiful letter! With all of the toxic changes to my profession, I thank God every day in my morning prayers that I only have two more school years to teach after this year. I can’t even describe the stress that the developmentally inappropriate Common Core and the PARCC monster have brought to my daily job in the classroom. I have never felt this tired and this weary at the end of a school year. It is very sad. Thank you so much, Diane, for your wonderful blog. You and all of your wonderful bloggers help me cope daily in the classroom.
The most encouraging thing about this is the idea that school leaders could generate the backbone to speak from their hearts and do what’s right for kids. Yes, some administrators see their job as “just following orders,” but others are hugely conflicted about managing bad policy. And when school leaders and teachers and parents join forces, the odds of shutting down bad policy increase exponentially.
I, too, talked with a retired superintendent (and a career-change principal) who were openly encouraging their grandchildren and colleagues to opt out. Here’s that report: http://blogs.edweek.org/teachers/teacher_in_a_strange_land/2015/04/_why_arent_more_school_leaders_and_teachers_joining_forces_to_get_rid_of_destructive_policy.html
Any data on teachers opting out for their own children?
It’s hard for an inservice teacher to opt out his or her own children because of retribution. It would be the “make your life miserable” kind ultimately ending a few years later in the teacher being fired or quitting. Teachers and their families have to eat, pay bills, etc.
Reblogged this on education pathways and commented:
Just imagine…