This letter was forwarded to me by Long Island Opt Out. It is a model for other parents who object to high-stakes testing.
Dear Dr. Lonergan,
I received your letter dated June 22, 2015 regarding the NYS Assessments that was sent home with my third grader and was disheartened by its message. So much so, that I felt obligated to write a response.
Going into this 2015-16 school year, I will have three children enrolled in the Longwood Central School District. One in fourth grade, one in second grade and one in the universal pre-kindergarten program. I have been extremely pleased with their performance thus far. All of the teachers and staff that we have interacted with have been welcoming, encouraging and helpful both to myself and my children.
It was upsetting to receive a letter such as yours at the end of the school year. A letter that was not commending the staff of your district on a job well done or wishing parents and children a happy and productive summer, nor was it to thank the community for consistently approving the school budget or to show excitement about the new programs and staff that are being added because of passing that budget. Instead, this letter was a threat to parents that if they continued the opt out process, they would be hurting the district that we had just shown our collective support.
Opting out of assessments has not proven to hurt any district and to state otherwise to parents is to promote threatening propaganda. Opting out has proven to be an effective boycott, which has forced our elected representatives to hear the message we are trying to send. If I allowed my children to be involved in something that I do not feel has a place in their lives, I would not be doing my job as a parent.
My children have accomplished great things while attending school in the Longwood Central District. To state that a flawed assessment process is a necessary tool to show that growth is an insult. I have the utmost confidence in the highly qualified staff of Longwood.
By opting my children out of the state assessments, I believe that I am showing Governor Cuomo that I not only feel these exams have no place in my child’s learning, but that I wholeheartedly support the teachers that work with my children everyday. By opting my children out, I am clearly stating that:
• I will not support exams that look to punish those teachers.
• I will not support exams that will make up 50% of a teacher’s yearly evaluation.
• I will not support exams that require my child to sit for three consecutive days reading texts that are designed to be more challenging than their readability level.
• I will not support exams that require my child to sit for three consecutive days involved in math skills that they have not had the time to master.
• I will continue to opt my children out of these assessments and encourage others to do so if they believe it is the right choice for their child, regardless of what type of letter they receive from district administration.
I believe that changes will come. I don’t believe that I have to be forced to subject my children to a faulty system in order to change the as you stated, the “next generation of assessment.” I believe that the people with experience and knowledge of the educational field can get together and make the changes needed without subjecting current students to something developed to rank and dismiss hard working educators.
I sincerely hope that the district’s message at the beginning of the 2015-16 school year is a more positive and encouraging one than the message that was put out at the close of this school year
Sincerely,
Susan Sclafani
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Beautiful letter.
Just wish I could have seen the superintendent’s nasty-gram.
This parent appears to be a public school teacher in another Long Island district. This of course does not invalidate her concerns as a parent, voter, and taxpayer, but it is something that should be disclosed.
Why, she wrote it as a parent, not a teacher.
Tim, I don’t understand your implication. The writer of the letter is a public school parent. Are her views less worthy if she is a teacher? You sound like Michelle Rhee.
sorry, Diane, it matters that the public school parent is also a teacher. It would matter if it was a public school parent who belonged to a “reform” group.
Tim, the writer is a parent. If she is also a teacher–which I don’t know–then she is very well informed. Reformers typically are uninformed about public education. Few attended public schools or send their children. There is so much reformer money that many are paid shills.
dianeravitch: now I could be wrong, but I sense a philosophical principle (or selling point—take your pick) at work here…
The “soft bigotry of low expectations”—includes the unproven assumption that public schools are automatically “factories of failure” and the “obvious” corollary notion that the parents that send their children to those schools are obviously uncaring and by nature and nurture incapable of thinking on their own because they oppose high-stakes standardized testing and its conjoined twin of faux accountability.
Of course, I could be wrong. Rheeally! In the most Johnsonally sort of ways…
But really? I think not.
😎
So, Tim, an adult cannot parse out their concerns for their own flesh and blood child from their concerns as an employee? Really?
You have it all in reverse. Parents go by what they feel for their children, not by what employers want for those same children. It is the reformers who think that employers – who must follow the reformist law – should have power that has far greater jurisdiction over one’s progeny than one who has produced that progeny.
Of course, what’s good for the reformer’s children is never good for the rest of our children, which is why Arne Duncan and the president and nearly all other reformistas send their kids to private school.
Did you think this through?
Robert Rendo: I must confess that I didn’t know you were such an ardent fan of Ionesco.
¿?
I refer, of course, to your last sentence.
“It is not the answer that enlightens, but the question.”
And the answer is…
Not as difficult or thought-provoking or even CCSS-worthy as your question.
Thank you.
😎
Krazy TA,
I was JUST saying to my wife yesterday how I did NOT want to see her friends by going to a Broadway show in New York City (I cannot get into commercial musicals) and then out to dinner (what a ridiculous and expensive way to socialize with people when one can just invite them over to one’s home for dinner), and that if we were going to the theater, it would have to be an Ionesco play off Broadway or something in that vein.
Hail to Eugene for giving us great thought and life lessons . . .
For someone in CA, you seem to know me eerily well . . . .
🙂
Should be disclose? The Reformers shold follow such a philosophy and publicly disclose every backer of every anti-education initiative. Citizens United should be overturned. You, Tim, are simply demonstrating a passive aggressive attempt to discredit teachers as advocates for children, including their own.
In Tim’s world, teachers and public schools are always the enemy of children and families.
Are there two Tims on this blog?
Sometimes comments from Tim are aligned (not that they have to be) and others, they sound as if he is a hand puppet with either of the Koch brothers animating the puppet creatively with their hands.
Robert Rendo: I remind you that Dorothy Parker said—
“Brevity is the soul of lingerie.”
😱
Oops! Wrong thread. I meant that bit in Shakespeare’s HAMLET by Polonius, “since brevity is the soul of wit”—
You know how I hate to nit pick like an overly longwinded editor that asks a writer to be succinct, but isn’t your last paragraph one word too long?
Delete “creatively.”
And you do so then “this business is well ended.”
😎
Uh-oh . . . a well liked and effective professor implied the same to me. Consensus formed and considered!
. . . “hand puppet with either of the Koch brothers animating it.”
Wonderful statement
The claim that opting out does not harm the school district may vary from state to state. In my state, Arkansas, there appears to be a stick approach to assuring compliance with PARCC testing. Participation rates are part of a school’s state evaluation, especially for districts identified as low performing. The schools I have taught at have stressed over the issue. If the state is dissatisfied with anything, the schools are subjected to forced intrusion by outside (corporate) consultants. Local and community actions, good or bad, become secondary to the state’s advisors.
We parents have the right to opt out of a test that we believe was written by people who belong to special interests. If a diverse group of teachers were selected to write the test along with leading child development scholars we would take the test more seriously. Opting out is our way of asking education reformers to return to the drawing board and to try again. I think the most frustrating thing about the new reforms is the misleading nature of the packaging and marketing of it. We were promised a balanced assessment which provided different types of learners multiple opportunities to demonstrate command of the lessons. This is not the case. Some children like to expand on their answers and some children are less wordy and more succinct in their writing. Boys in general tend to address questions with short answers and prefer a more direct approach. This test hurts them especially. Forcing children to be more verbose and articulate before they are ready is damaging. Teachers would know this. Child Development experts would know this. Bring them to the table and we will likely OPT IN.
That is an eloquent letter. Unfortunately, many other opt-outers scrawl something on a piece of scrap paper about how it’s all a communist plot and sign it with something like “God Saves,” at least around here.
Her concerns are well founded. Now it will be interesting if the Supt. pays any attention to her. We need many more like her to do the same.
Choose to refuse…
Out the door, with Common Core.
End privatization of our schools, by the corporate and destructive ghouls
Who place our children in collars, as they race to the bank with our public dollars.
This is a great letter, filled with just the strength, dignity, and verve we need to bring down the privateers who would destroy our public schools! As the congress shows signs (for whatever reasons) of hearing our concerns about what our young people do NOT need in school, we also need to let our lawmakers know what they DO need. As a new blogger, I address this question in my first public blog post:
https://jcreger.wordpress.com/2015/06/25/the-youturn-ahead-millennial-sophomores-speak-for-self-discovery-in-learning/
As the author of this letter, it is an honor to be posted on your blog!
You go! You rock!
Robert Rendo:
What you said!
😎
Bravo parents!
Purposely brief – tapping on glass
>
Well said, Susan Sclafani!
So this parent openly admits that the tests are “just too hard” for little angels who have accomplished “great things” by only the fourth grade. Seriously? I wonder if the Swiss, Finns, Singaporeans or Chinese regret having their kids master all of those topics by that same age. Maybe they worry their kids are too prepared and they need to go a little softer on these white soccer moms who coddle their precious babies from challenging texts and basic math skills.
I will never tell my kids to avoid challenges because they are “too hard”. Maybe her kids can’t handle the material and need to be tracked accordingly. But for most kids, especially those in affluent districts, they are seeking out challenges in very ordinary curriculum.
Virginiasgp, I would rather live in the U.S. than in any of the test-crazy countries. I urge you to read Yong Zhao’s wonderful book “Who’s Afraid of the Big Bad Dragon? Why China Has the Best and the Worst School System in the World.” What you will discover is massive pressure on students, massive cheating scandals, and test-prep that is ubiquitous and absurd. The U.S. got to be the greatest, most productive economy in the world not by worshiping standardized tests, but by encouraging young people to be their best at whatever they choose. I was on the board of the NAEP for seven years. I am not as impressed by standardized tests as you are. If you had any idea how often they contain errors, you would back off.
Virginia there is a difference between a challenging exam and one that is totally inappropriate.
The parents and teachers in NYS have been inundated by exams that are invalid not only due to subject matter but vague questions with one or more correct answers. Or how about text booklets missing whole pages of questions. Or an Algebra Final where students must graph unsolvable equations and answer questions from a different math curriculum. But that is only part of the story.
One does not lightly opt their children out of any exam. This is an issue involving an entire philosophy which is detrimental to the education of our children.
These are nothing like the exams you took when you went to school. Please, do a little research before you judge.
Go tell your kids to run a three minute mile and, if they don’t, they are “tracked” as failures. Some kids run hurdles while others get to sprint. You confuse testing with actual learning. There is a difference. But I do believe all test supporters should take those tests and post their scores.
If you really think the US is NOT hard enough for your kids, then why don’t you try for Asia(such as Japan, China, or South Korea) and send your kids to local schools? See how your kids will get so mad at you for daily encounter of language you will never understand because it sounds too gook for you(!), cramming, bullying, racism, xenophobia and exam-hell. Oh, and let’s see how long people like you can deal with some nasty treatment local people might do–especially if you are in Japan– calling you ‘gaijin!’ for being different, refusing you entry into restaurants/shops, and local cop stopping you for ID(for nothing).
A parent’s gotta do what a parent’s gotta do!
Sure the principals and superintendents of the various school districts are under pressure, but ultimately our main concern is for our children.
That should be the number one priority for everybody.
Reblogged this on David R. Taylor-Thoughts on Texas Education.
I also live in this district and have been battling with Dr. Lonergan for years. When asked to present his case supporting Common Core, he told me to research all the wonderful things that Arne Duncan has done and continues to do. Here is link to his original letter: (Diane: Feel free to add it to original post.)
Click to access Standardized%20Testing.pdf
Thank you for sharing and for this parent who so plainly stated her position.