Laura H. Chapman, a frequent contributor to the blog, raises some important points about Common Core test and its reach into kindergarten and into the future:
You should be aware that PARCC tests are in the works for Kindergarten. They are called “formative tasks.” They are more accurately labeled “Tests for Tykes. You can find a draft of the exam for reading informational text as called for in the Common Core category at http://parcconline.org/sites/parcc/files/PARCC%20DRAFT%20K-1%20Prototype%20ELA%20K_Reading_Spring_Informational%20Texts.pdf
The test is completely embedded in fully scripted lessons for the teacher. Judging from the reproducible worksheets designed for students, the test makers seem to assume that by the Spring of the school year, Kindergarten students will have learned, or been taught, to write complete sentences (with the proper heights of letters). They will also know how to color in a drawing of a fish. All of the questions are based on one “informational text” about fish. Additional plans are in the works for at least three more kindergarten tests, all of them called “formative tasks.”
There is a real mazy-hazy problem with retrieving trustworthy information about testing materials on line. For example “parcc.pearson.com” seems to be as authoritative as “parcconline.org/parcc-assessment. Then there is parcconline.org where you will find 194 pages of information prepared in 2012 by Achieve, Inc. and the U.S. Education Delivery Institute, the latter an organization lead by Sir Michael Barber, of Great Britain, and also the chief education advisor to Pearson. The lines bewteen the federally financed tests developed by PARCC and Pearson’s pursuit of profits is not at all clear.
Readers should know that parcc.com has test-prep materials for kindergarten math. They are called “games” and they are the product of a cartoon company in Great Britain, complete with audios in a British accent http://parccgames.com/?page_id=25 . The bottom of the page on the games website says: “This site is intended to match students and teachers with the most effective games for reinforcing Common Core curriculum.” Of course, there is no single curriculum for the Common Core.
At http://www.corecommonstandards.com/common-core/kindergarten-common-core-workbooks, you can find three “Common Core Assessment Workbooks” —test prep materials for Kindergarten, I kid you not. Another version of test prep for Kindergartener is discussed by a master educator who has a personal stake in the test-em-til-they drop ethos created by federal and state policies. Go to http://garyrubinstein.teachforus.org/2013/11/26/my-daughters-kindergarten-common-core-math-workbook/
Not to be outdone by the PARCC tests, and CCSS, The Maryland State Department of Education, has PreKindergarten Common Core standards!!! These “specify the mathematics that all students should study as they begin preparing to be college and career ready by graduation.“ The language in these extrapolated standards is so exotic that the writers of the publication had to color-code the language in the standards. See http://mdk12.org/share/frameworks/CCSC_Math_grpk.pdf
So there are more Common Core tests in the works, Kindergarten and perhaps preschool, multiple tests, every year. They are coupled with a cockamamie idea that the Common Core Standards and associated tests are perfect predictors and guarantors of college and career readiness of children in grades K-12, who may survive the testing regime and graduate in 2025-2028…Meanwhile a new Cngress is uncertain whether to say “college OR career,” or “colege AND career.”
The promoters of this belief system and agenda for public schools seem to think that this generation should be locked in a time capsule of ideas and tests. This frozen–in-time agenda for American education has been embedded in federal and state legislation as if to say: There are no paths to useful and rewarding work and the good life, except as set forth in the first decade of this century when these standards were written. The writers said, in effect, there is no need for educators, or parents, or students to think about what life offers and may require beyond passing these tests, getting a job, and going to college. Pathetic.
This is the awful mind-trap that has been set for this generation. Parents and teachers who will not comply with these tests know that the test scores are not 100% faithful and true predictors of life outcomes. For having this warranted knowledge and wisdom, they are being threatened by the purveyors of the non-sense.
Parents who are lawyers or who have access to legal help may want to look at whether districts are in full compliance with FERPA, the Family Educational Rights Privacy Act, and especially with COPPA—the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act, regulated by the Federal Trade Commission, not the US Department of Education.
The primary goal of COPPA is to allow parents to have control over what information is collected online “from their children” under age 13.
The FTC “consumer protection office” appears to be getting a batch of questions about the PARCC/Pearson relationship and specifically the on-line testing environment where Pearson—a commercial contractor—is empowered to get personal information from tests and social media websites.
You will find a lively discussion there, along with a clear indication that this matter is just now beginning to show up on the radar screen of a lot of people, especially those who say that parents have no legal right to opt-out. https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/blogs/business-blog/2015/01/testing-testing-review-session-coppa-schools
parcconline” even sounds like a sedative (which it is, of course)
“Parcconline”
Parcconline
Percodan
Zombie time
Reformer Land
..and of course, you can read it as parc con line (which it also is)
AMEN.
https://dibels.org/papers/Myths_0208.pdf Kelli Cummings of U. Maryland; Ruth Kaminski are beginning to write about the abuse of the Dibels in the high stakes environment.
This is taking a long time to gather momentum. I know in MA the teachers of the youngest children are forced to use “GOLD” and I think the college faculty are finally hearing the teacher’s complaints. Sam Meisels built some excellent observation and performance measures but when the ideas are brought into classrooms without preparation, with large class sizes, with diverse learners — the teachers are spending all the day on the computer and who is left to interact with the students while the teacher is recording observations?
I know when I went for my annual physical this year I remarked to the doc that she was spending all the time writing in the computer and next year I will ask : “Send me the questionnaire first” and then I will see if I want to come in. I did remark to the doc that as an adult I don’t need the interaction as much as the kindergarten kids do (plus I have had the same docs for over 20 years)… it is their “exciting new computer system” that they are being forced to use.
Some of the colleges in greater boston are using the GOLD, the WIDA and the state is mandating more and more. I think I mentioned my friend’s grandson who is repeating a kindergarten year rather than go into a first grade where he has to be at Level D by December and he has to pass all the DIBELS tests. Horrendous .
But I go on and on.. so see what Kelli Cummings et al) are saying about the myths and the misuses of DIBELS; I share it with college faculty who are supervising teachers but I don’t know if I am making any inroads even with my friends.
There is some kind of meeting coming up in Washington where they are supposed to go from our DESE (and other states) to talk about the PARCC — if I get any more information on this I will let you know.
Pegwithpen writes about the GOLD assessments: “Do no go for the gold” … The teachers are explaining how it is very difficult for them to be recording in the computer all the time — some of the faculty at the college are finally listening. DESE doesn’t hear any of it coming from the schools and the teachers…
http://www.pegwithpen.com/2013/09/do-not-go-for-gold-teaching-strategies.html
The medical profession isn’t all that happy, too. We have a totally dysfunctional government and what GREASES them is $$$$$, pure and simple. They make laws to benefit themselves and their rich friends who fund their campaigns for office. SAVE ME.
So here is what I am thinking as I read this horrific tale of Pearson creating Kindergarten tests… At one point in time we were incensed at having to pay taxes to a British king and the taxes were not for our benefit… hmmm… So now American tax payers have a hefty chunk of their tax money going to a “new British King” called PEARSON!!! Let’s face it, how much of the public school budget is either directly or indirectly linked to Pearson? Should we be dumping PARCC and Smart Balance in Boston Harbor next year :)????
What happened to kindergarten play and social skill development?
Our students are being trapped in an endless maze of Pearson products with the ultimate goal of providing executives with a big, fat bonus when they do their quarterly reviews.
Behavioral psychology?
http://www.alternet.org/culture/why-are-americans-so-easy-manipulate-and-control
Teachers and students are slaves. The revolution is inevitable, and I’m going to enjoy it.
How can any student do well on these tests, when the teachers are so busy administering these tests, that no one is actually TEACHING in the classroom any more?
Teaching=Learning
Doesn’t this make sense to others? How can students learn anything if their time is consumed with taking tests?
I much appreciate the many comments of Laura H. Chapman on threads of this blog. And the owner of this blog for making this a posting.
However, having a truly krazy bent for nitpicking about minor details like word order and punctuation choice—
Why does the posting read “Laura H. Chapman: Is This Generation Trapped in Stale Ideas?” when it should read (according to my own lights—or lack of them)—
“Laura H. Chapman: This Generation is Trapped in Stale Ideas.”
Declarative sentence.
My apologies if I somehow misread the whole thing.
😎
[…] the rest at Laura H. Chapman: Is This Generation Trapped in Stale Ideas?{ text-align: […]
I recently saw an article which stated that the overcrowding in the Chicago schools was so egregious that in the just ended school year there were kindergarten classes as large as 41. (Chicago has a special state rule that does not permit class size to be a topic for collective bargaining!) Imagine trying to get 41 little guys to spend 3 days of informational text about a fish’s body parts. How relevant to their lives can this be? Our job is well done only when we begin where the kids are. This is why traditional topics for earliest learners are focused on their family/school/neighborhood lives.
Secondly, this activity’s instructions to teachers are about as demeaning as they get: “Staple the handouts.” “Read slowly and clearly.” “Make sure the book remains open to these pages…”
I try not to violate the rules of Diane’s living room, but seriously, WTF?