Recently the Néw York Times ran a front-page article about the growth of the Opt Out movement and how it was becoming a powerful political force in Néw York.
A mom who was interviewed for the article wrote a letter to the Times to challenge its description of the motives of parents (the letter was circulated among supporters of Opt Out):
“As one of the parents quoted in this article I was deeply disappointed that the true reasons parents are refusing these particular tests were not clearly identified.
“We did not initiate a test refusal movement because we are supporting teachers or because we don’t want our kids to be over tested.
“The NYS common core tests in math and ELA are leading to a trend that is ruining public education as we know it. Because they are linked to 50% of teacher evaluations they are forcing teachers to teach to the tests.
“Our children are learning that there is only one right answer to a question, they are being taught how to take a test, not to ask questions, and science and social studies are disappearing from our children’s curriculum due to these high stakes tests that emphasize math and ELA.
“The children in our district in grades 3- 8 take over 15 other standard tests over the course of the year to track their progress. Those other tests are shorter in duration , age appropriate and educators and administrators have actually found the information in those tests valuable.
“If inequities of a school are not being identified, its not because of a lack of testing. The NYS common core tests are non transparent, and therefore useless tools for teachers to see where they need to improve, not to mention they are developed by corporations, not educators, and they take over 3 weeks of time out of our children classroom that could be used for meaningful instruction.
“In all fairness, these reasons for test refusal should be more clearly identified to the general public.”
Respectfully
Heather Roberts
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Opt out parents and teachers succeeded in improving the test situation for every public school kid in the country:
“Washington, DC (May 21, 2015) — The PARCC Governing Board, made up of the state education commissioners and superintendents, voted Wednesday to consolidate the two testing windows into one and to reduce total test time by about 90 minutes beginning in the 2015-16 school year.”
I’m glad someone was providing oversight and asking real questions about these tests. Kids would still be sitting for 2 ridiculously long testing sessions if everyone had shut up and gone along.
The bottom line is, the opt-outers are effective advocates. They were ignored until they threatened to withhold their child’s data. Only then did lawmakers and others in the “ed reform movement” act.
Contractors shouldn’t be directing the agenda in public schools, and lawmakers shouldn’t have “relinquished” what happens in public schools to a testing contractor. Lawmakers can’t be both effective regulators and industry cheerleaders. They’re going to have to choose.
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PARCC waves the white(ish) flag. One battle in the war. One small victory.
The Resistance still has a long uphill struggle to completely stop the testing madness.
A must read regarding the truth behind standardized testing. Jersey Jazzman explains why testing will always be a never ending tail chase.
http://jerseyjazzman.blogspot.com/2015/05/standardized-tests-symptoms-not-causes.html
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Never ending TAIL CHASE is right. It’s about ka-ching … $$$$$, NOT about the best for our young. Our young, their parents/guardians, and teachers are just being used FOR PROFIT. SIC.
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PARCC had NO answer for anyone who questioned the rationale for a second test battery just 30 school days after the first test session. Maybe 20 hours of math or ELA instructional time between tests was going to yield what exactly? Can we get at least some of our money back?
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Thanks.
I wonder where the leaders of this thing would have drawn the line. If “PARCC” had said kids need 3, or 4, or 5 sessions would the ed reform “movement” in government had gone along blindly with that too?
They can’t regulate and oversee this if they’re cheerleading it. That’s a conflict.
I haven’t heard one critical word out of my state education department or the US Dept of Education on this testing. They are not doing their jobs. They were completely captured before the testing even began.
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PARCC actually offered TWO optional test sessions (0% and 50%) in addition to the original requirement of TWO session at 75% and 95% course completion. I think their ivory towers are so tall that the oxygen runs a little thin.
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Yes, PARCC agreed to reduce the “testing window” by 90 minutes, a victory for the opt-out movement. Now the testing will last “only” 7-8 hours for little children. We need more such victories until testing is reduced to one hour for reading and one hour for math and until the tests are age and grade appropriate, and the questions and answers are released after the testing.
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I thought this was amusing, from a professional ed reform advocate in US News:
“For starters parents should demand that schools ratchet down the focus on tests. No more rallies, no more making the tests the focus of the school week, month or year. And parents shouldn’t tolerate adult stress becoming an issue for their kids. Some policies need fixing, too, but there seems to be little correlation between specific policies and how much of a circus testing becomes in some schools.”
He finds “little correlation” between the absolute obsession on test scores in the ed reform “movement” and testing pep rallies? Really? Thousands of public schools just mysteriously became obsessed with pumping up scores to the exclusion of all else? That had absolutely nothing to do with DC, states and hundreds of ed reform groups focusing exclusively on test scores and tying everything in the world to test scores?
Come on. Talk about an “honesty gap”. He’s shifting responsibility for the negative consequences of policies he promoted and blaming public schools rather than ed reform leaders. The whole piece is an accountability dodge.
“Andrew Rotherham is a cofounder and partner at Bellwether Education Partners, a national nonprofit organization working to support educational innovation and improve educational outcomes for high-need students.”
http://www.usnews.com/news/the-report/articles/2015/05/21/stop-the-standardized-testing-circus
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“The schools are to blame as much as any test, test company or public official. When did it become OK for educators to make the tests into such a circus? The idea that this kind of environment is inevitable is belied by all the public schools that don’t treat testing this way.”
Just wondering if this data-head has any idea what % of public schools actually turn the tests season into a circus? My guess is, not many.
Any building administrator that sanctions using a few days of testing to create a pep rally atmosphere should be ashamed.
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NY Teacher, as I reported in an earlier post, the Success Academy charter schools begin test prep months before the actual exams, and they festoon the walls with slogans like “Slam the Exam!”
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It’s just so contradictory. They laud Success Academy for exactly this stuff, right?
I didn’t opt my son out because he’s uncomfortable with being singled out. He’s in 6th grade and he has a group of friends who come here. I asked them about the tests and they all pretty much repeated that they had done “great!” Since they vary, like any group of kids, I doubt they all did “great!”
I’m not blaming anyone. I’m sure they were told they would do “great!” and I’m sure that was well-intentioned, but to pretend that this isn’t being driven from the top down is ludicrous. Of course it is.
When the CC scores come out my local newspaper will have a front-page “analysis” that will consist of listed districts with test scores. That’s it. Scores and a ranking. The idea that this is somehow “nuanced” or we’re all studiously including “factors” outside testing is a lie, and they know it’s a lie. They created this monster. It’s cowardly and irresponsible to deny that.
If you make a mess you should clean it up.
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Didn’t SA also endanger their kids by holding test prep classes in a blizzard?
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Chiara,
Andrew Rotherham’s firm represents reformster organizations like TFA. He has long been a leader in the reformer movement.
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Government can’t regulate these industries when they are promoting them.
They’re doing the same thing with ed tech that they did with testing:
“Did you know that IES provides funding to develop computer games and other applications to support teaching and learning?
The U.S. Department of Education’s Small Business Innovation Research program, operated out of the Institute of Education Sciences (IES), funds projects to develop education technology products designed to support student learning and teacher practice in general or special education. The program emphasizes rigorous and relevant research, used both to inform iterative development and to evaluate whether fully developed products show promise for leading to the intended outcomes. The program also focuses on the commercialization once the award period ends so that products can reach students and teachers, and be sustained over time.”
They are not credible as regulators when they are creating private sector products that will be sold to schools. The relationship is too close. They can’t be in bed with these companies.
We already have a private sector to sell tests and ed tech. We don’t need public sector actors as salespeople for what are commercial products. They are supposed to be acting on behalf of the PUBLIC interest.
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NY Teacher: “It is not the answer that enlightens, but the question.”
Glad to see another Ionesco fan on this blog.
😀
But answers aren’t bad either…
From the NY MAGAZINE, online, 4-25-2010; (Paul) Fucaloro is described in the piece as the “director of instruction and right-hand man” of Eva Moskowitz.
[start excerpt]
The day before the scheduled math test, the city got socked with eight inches of snow. Of 1,499 schools in the city, 1,498 were closed. But at Harlem Success Academy 1, 50-odd third-graders trudged through 35-mile-per-hour gusts for a four-hour session over Subway sandwiches. As Moskowitz told the Times, “I was ready to come in this morning and crank the heating boilers myself if I had to.”
“We have a gap to close, so I want the kids on edge, constantly,” Fucaloro adds. “By the time test day came, they were like little test-taking machines.”
[end excerpt]
Link: http://nymag.com/nymag/features/65614/index3.html
Slam that exam, you little test-taking machines!
Ugh ugh ugh…
😎
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“little test taking machines”?
I thought they were referred to as “scholars”
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My recent novel, THE GEOGRAPHY BEE, based on my experience as a teacher, has it all – the rallies, a teacher who encourages discussion of issues and defies the administration by teaching social studies in lieu of drilling for the test. I watched it happening 15 years ago and applaud the parents and teachers who are taking such an active stand against meaningless testing. Dr. Marie Fonzi
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http://b2.caspio.com/dp.asp?AppKey=18321000d37d672a0edf4f8ca00a
In an earlier post about the field tests, Tim posted this link to how the non-public schools that “opt-in” perform on the state ELA and Math exams. None of these schools “must” accept every student, and the parents who send their kids are willing to seek out and pay money to have their children attend these schools. And yet the results of these NON-PUBLIC schools where Gov. Cuomo wants to send millions in tax dollars — appalling. In Manhattan, only 8 of 35 schools had more than 50% of the 3rd graders meeting math standards. In Brooklyn, large numbers of Yeshivas have simply terrible results. By my count, only 22 of 132 schools had at least 50% of the students meeting 4th grade math standards. 30 schools had no students meeting standards and another handful had 2% or 3% of students who managed to meet standards.
Why isn’t this being publicized more? My contention has always been that these are inappropriate exams designed to be outrageously “tricky” so that even smart students will pick a bad response. And they are needlessly complicated. Now, it is possible that these religious Yeshivas are just terrible in teaching students math and rewarding them for their poor performance would be outrageous and their parents should demand their terrible teachers are fired or the school closed and the students dispersed elsewhere. Or it is possible that these exams are just not very good. But why isn’t a reporter covering how terribly these religious schools are doing? Especially when the same “reformers” advocating the value of this exam and bashing public schools for their students’ performance are also advocating giving public money to these private “failing” schools.
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Here’s a column by Jerzey Jazzman, embedded in a Peter Green article, explaining the best of all reasons to opt out: it’s a losing game (for all but the rephormers, that is): http://curmudgucation.blogspot.com/2015/05/bell-curve-beatdown.html
Both Jazzman’s column and Greene’s comments are well worth a read (or many reads), but the money quote is: “We’re insisting that all children demonstrate high performance on a test that, by design, only allows a few children to demonstrate high performance.”
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The never ending tail chase.
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In all curiosity: is there a reason that in many posts, it is written “The Néw York Times”, with an accent mark? I can’t tell if this is some kind of dig I don’t understand, or an almost-ubiquitous typo, or what.
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Proofreader,
My ancient iPhone 4 puts an accent over the “e” whenever I type “Néw.” I don’t know why. Nor do I know how to correct it. Suggestions welcome.
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iPhone 6.
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Dr Ravitch, Many cell providers offer a “new every two” or some upgrade policy. (I swapped a nonsmart phone for iPhone 5; paid only for charger & case, which seemed a decent deal.) Ask your provider re iPhone 6.
They can upload your contacts from old to new model.
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The linked article, particularly the embedded video, may help: http://osxdaily.com/2015/01/06/disable-auto-correct-ios/
Although I will miss the é in New!
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so why should auto-correct give me an accent over the E in “New” on my cellphone but nowhere else? Why can’t I just shut down the E accent without eliminating autocorrect, which is sometimes useful?
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I like the posting because it gives the lie to the rheephorm talking points (repeatedly endlessly by the MSM) that it is only about 1), misguided (if not duped) parents supporting teachers that want to avoid accountability and 2), there’s too much testing.
In other words, the MSM relies on rheephorm sales pitches, literally copying what on standardized tests are called “misleads” and “decoys” and “distractors”—all the while hoping that no one notices that their approach is a dead-end and shuts down conversation.
As in so many instances, the twisted narrative of the rheephormsters avoids addressing one of the central issues: parents want their children to get a genuine education, well-rounded and life-affirming and individualized.
Here’s a more productive approach: a Lakeside School education for all. Whatever it takes—and that means, among other things, small class sizes and world-class school facilities and a stable experienced faculty.
How effective is that sort of education, the kind that Bill Gates got, and that his two children are receiving?
Mr. Stack Ranking His Own Bad Self, at his alma mater on September 23, 2005.
Link: http://www.gatesfoundation.org/media-center/speeches/2005/09/bill-gates-lakeside-school
No excuses. Whatever it takes. Whatever it costs. And no shopping at the Rheephorm 99¢ Store for a Mercedes-Benz world-class educational experience.
😎
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Reblogged this on Network Schools – Wayne Gersen and commented:
This confirms my suspicions that the Times botched their coverage on the opt out movement. The notion that children in minority communities “may be left to drift” because of failing schools is preposterous. Schools serving minority students have been allowed to drift for decades… and not even a national Supreme Court ruling overturning “separate but equal” or State Supreme Court rulings requiring funding equity have changed that one iota. The civil rights organizations promoting the use of standardized tests to provide equity should first promote the passage of legislation in their states that would provide schools serving minority students with the same services and curriculum offered to students in affluent suburbs.
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When every single state and federal. lawmaker signed on to cheerlead the Common Core, did they believe they would have any credibility at all when providing “oversight” on the Common Core?
Because they don’t. They traded that away when they all decided to act as salespeople for this new product.
Any effective oversight or informed criticism will have to come from outside the “ed reform movement” people in government. They’re all but useless as regulators or public advocates.
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We just finished SBAC 2 weeks ago followed by MAPs the very next week. I am, I guess fortunate to work in a district where test scores are not yet tied to my evaluation but the legislature is working on this very thing at present. We were told this year that it would be a ” no fault” year due to the fact that our district could not correlate last year’s CBM to the new test. This after initially saying they had a “special formula ” to do just that. Then, in the first days of the test, the whole system shut down and the largest district in our state received permission to forego the test this year. So, the rest of us took the test over two weeks. I did some online test prep in January but refused to overwhelm my students with weeks of test prep. I taught all the subjects in the curriculum normally. I will not subject my students to the stress that assemblies, daily test prep., and rigmarole I have seen in other schools, it’s just not right. I’m pleased to see other states such as New York sounding the alarms to what these tests do to students, their parents and schools. I am hopeful that this current movement to opt out will spread across the rest of the country.
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