Teacher Andy Goldstein greets the new superintendent of Palm Beach County with a brief lecture about the evils of high-stakes testing.
In Palm Beach County and in Florida, he says, the basic ideology is “Testing is teaching.”
Watch the video, where he explains that the purpose of all this testing is to label schools as failures so they can be privatized and turned into profit centers.
He predicts:
“At this rate, I can imagine the day in the not-too-distant future when my daughter comes home and tells my wife and I, ‘I want to be a standardized test-taker when I grow up.’ And my wife and I would beam at her and say ‘Oh, we’re so proud of our little data point. You’re gonna make some rich plutocrat so happy.’”
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Making public education unbearable is all part of the privatizers’ plan to destabilize public education. I hear parents discussing alternative placements for their children other than public schools here in Florida because the public schools are “mostly about testing.” This is Jeb Bush’s legacy. Recently Jeb Bush met with Governor Scott in what the media termed an “education summit.” It was probably like a couple of hyenas trying to decide which end of a fallen zebra to strip first.
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“Jeb’s Plan For Education”
“An education summit
Is what we really need
A rubber stamp of gummint
To satisfy our greed”
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It really does start to look deliberate at some point:
“Hayes said she loves the other parents at the school and wanted her son to be in the neighborhood, but decided to transfer him next year to a school where the principal is committed to keeping class sizes at 28.
“As a parent I was worried about my son being lost in the shuffle,” she said. “I wanted to make sure that my son had a chance to be in a more personal classroom and to have a less stressed out teacher.”
http://www.bettergov.org/public_eye__bga_cps_class_sizes_overflow/#.VYf1bgDiFr5.facebook
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‘Oh, we’re so proud of our little data point. You’re gonna make some rich plutocrat so happy . . .
. . . and rich(er).
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It sucks to teach in Fl!
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I know it’s risky but it’s so great that teachers speak out. If it isn’t questioned now it will be locked in forever because newer parents will (understandably) believe this is now how it is. Schools are snapshots for parents- we’re in and then we’re out when our own kids move on. We don’t see trends over years.
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Teachers and parents speak out, but it does not matter to those in power. I hope this teacher’s video goes viral so we can awaken the sleeping voters. The foolish public keeps voting for the legislators that have relationships with corporate wealth. The only thing that will scare them is if they are afraid of losing their seats. That was the only thing that scared some Democrats into opposing the TPP. The public needs to turn on them.
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I would make a distinction between teachers and parents. I’m a realist about the box teachers are in- go along or get accused of avoiding accountability, etc. but while there are parents who will suspect motives I think there are parents who “know what they don’t know” about a school and would appreciate a head’s up even if they love testing.
No one admits it but schools, day to day, are almost black boxes to “outsiders”. We DON’T really know what’s going on and we sure don’t know what went on ten years ago or before we got there.
I don’t really know what goes on in hospitals either, although I have been to one 🙂
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That is why we should cross post on other blogs to disseminate information that rarely hits the corporate owned mainstream media. Some active parents with children in school are complaining, but not enough for them to be worried. In fact, that is part of the plan. Make the changes in the shadows. Pretty soon your neighborhood school is gone, and in its place is “Pitbull Academy.”
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See, that’s the problem. In Utah, teachers aren’t allowed to even suggest opting out of the testing, so parents are mostly ignorant of their ability to do so. Even though state law actually allows them to opt out, and it’s a very easy process. If I could, I would contact each parent to let them know about their options, but not only is my job threatened, but my teaching license.
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Coercion is the new tool of the oligarchs. If you destroy people’s right to speak and any job security they may have, it is easier to crush them.
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Threatened Out West
June 22, 2015 at 10:55 am
See, that’s the problem. In Utah, teachers aren’t allowed to even suggest opting out of the testing, so parents are mostly ignorant of their ability to do so. ”
Right, but that’s opting out. What about telling them how much you’re testing and what it does to your class?
It’s easy for me to suggest this, so just know I’m aware of that.
“Go fight, I’ll hold your coat!” 🙂
I know some of them would dismiss it as complaining but I bet a lot would be interested. A couple of years ago one of my son’s teachers was telling us what sounded like a scripted line on “Singapore math”. I know her because my older children had her. I trust her. So I asked her to tell me what SHE thought and she did. It was interesting. I took it as reliable information although obviously an informed opinion. It IS reliable. It’s much more reliable than listening to the salespeople peddling the program, certainly.
We don’t know unless someone tells us.
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Oh, I tell everyone as much as I possibly can. My sons have also gotten involved by telling their friends and classmates. It’s a slow process, but we’re getting there. I’ve actually lost friends, who think that the testing is miraculous, by saying what I do. Hopefully, I won’t lose my job over it, as I’m the primary wage earner.
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