This reader, named Megan, is a teacher. She does not teach in Néw York. She is grateful to the Néw York Opt Out movement, who keep alive her hope for a return to sane education policies:
“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.”
Diane Ravitch's blog 
From the Palm Beach Post: “Teacher greets new superintendent with epic anti-testing rant.”
http://extracredit.blog.palmbeachpost.com/2015/06/18/video-teacher-greets-new-superintendent-with-epic-anti-testing-rant/
LikeLike
From what has been reported about Florida on this blog, I am surprised that you are still employed. I would guess that you had better continue to be a vocal opponent of testing as teaching, so you cannot be quietly eliminated. Good luck with your new supe.
LikeLike
like
LikeLike
We had almost the exact same problems in our school. It was very frustrating.
Yes, thanks to everyone for all the great insight into the out-of control testing mania that is ruining our schools. We need intelligent discussion and accurate information to understand that it is an unacceptable waste of time and money with useless results- and to get the information out to more people.
This recent message to our staff from the Principal seems minor but, because of this Opt-Out movement, I realized how ingrained the problems are:
“State Testing – We have wrapped up state testing. Thank you all for your patience and perseverance. Special thanks to P and K for your ongoing support over the past six weeks.”
Six weeks were consumed with testing! Two teachers’ days were consumed with all the scheduling, organizing, make-up tests and multiple problems that occurred. That’s on top of their work in the classroom.
LikeLike
I wish there were more noise about the canned legislation all over the country which sets up the connection of evaluations and test scores. This just seems so undemocratic to me: these ALEC sponsored lobbyists promote legislation in closed door sessions with legislators in states all over the country, and the legislators pass the stuff, many times with the public not even knowing about it til after the fact. And if you DO know, too bad for you, you can’t get into the meetings. How is that right? How is that legal??
LikeLike