Bianca Tanis and Marla Kilfoyle are parents and educators in Néw York. They have fought against inappropriate testing of children with special needs. They are leaders of the state’s large Opt Out movement.
They became outraged when they learned that the Chancellor of the State Board of Regents said that, if she had a child with certsin disabilities, she would “think twice” before letting the child take the state tests.
This is the message that parents of children with disabilities have repeated again and again, only to be rebuffed.
“For some time now, the parents of New York have been in full revolt over the testing requirements set down by both federal and state leadership. Parents of children with special needs have been extremely vocal about the fact that Common Core state tests in grades 3-8 are abusive and inappropriate for their children. You can read examples of parents informing Board of Regents Chancellor Merryl Tisch that these tests have harmed their children with special needs here, here, here, and here. Despite anecdotal stories of children engaging in self-injury and soiling themselves during state testing, Merryl Tisch blatantly ignored parent concerns and allowed testing abuses to continue. As a result, New York is experiencing the largest parent test revolt in education history…
“In fact, just a few months ago, Chancellor Tisch penned an editorial in which she criticized parents who planned to opt out of state assessments by asserting that opt out hurts the neediest children, characterizing opt out as “putting blinders on….”
They then link to an opinion article by Tisch in which she disparaged parents who opt out and insisted that the tests provide valuable information. Tisch wrote: “It’s time to stop making noise to protect the adults and start speaking up for the students.”
They note:
“As Chancellor of the Board of Regents, Merryl Tisch is keenly aware of the fact that a current 5th grade student with a disability who receives a testing accommodation of extended time may sit for as long as 9 hours over the course of 3 days for a single exam. Despite being aware of this and other egregious examples of abuse, the Chancellor has done nothing to lessen the duration of testing or to mediate the harm to students. Rather, she has overseen changes to the New York State testing program that have doubled and in some instances, tripled the length of testing and allowed the inclusion of reading passages years above grade level.”
They conclude:
“The Chancellor’s actions are tantamount to sitting by and not only watching, but commissioning the abuse of the most vulnerable children. Her failure to inform special needs parents of the potential for harm while simultaneously encouraging them to subject their children to inappropriate tests is inexcusable.
“Merryl Tisch should immediately relinquish her Chancellorship and step down from the Board of Regents. Failing her resignation, parents and educators must urge their legislators NOT to reappoint to Merryl Tisch to the Board of Regents when her term expires next year. New York needs education leadership that will protect our children, not lead them to harm.”
Diane Ravitch's blog 
This is also abusive to their teachers, parents and other caretakers.
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Hi Diane,
Things are getting really bad in Mexico. This is part of the global attack on public education. Here’s a brief summary from my colleague at the University of New Mexico. She’s given permission to share this but did not mention if I could use her name:
REPRESSION OF OAXACAN TEACHERS UNION TO IMPOSE “EDUCATION REFORMS”
On Tuesday morning, July 21, the Governor of the Mexican state of Oaxaca, Gabino Cué, issued a legal decree “disappearing” the Institute of Public Education of the State of Oaxaca (IEEPO). His reason for taking this “transcendental act” was “to reclaim for the state the direction and leadership of education.” He insisted that this was done “so that boys, girls and young people could be given the chance for a quality education.”
In the same decree, he created a new education entity to take over all administrative educational functions. Emilio Chuayffet, Secretary of Education for Oaxaca, made clear that “the new educational entity will not be staffed by any teachers in service or teacher representatives. There will be no teachers in the administration of the new Oaxacan institute of education.” Gov. Cué has since announced that the new institute will be headed by Moisés Robles, who directed the former IEEPO.
Mexican President Peña Nieto confirmed his support of the actions taken in Oaxaca, saying that the federal government will assure that the federal education reforms, “approved by an ample consensus of the nation,” are carried out across the Mexican Republic. He emphasized that the federal government has worked hard, “and will continue to do so,” to assure that there is implementation of the education reforms in every state of the nation.
Shortly following Cués’ announcement, federal police encircled the former IEEPO building, preventing any employees from entering. Federal police also patrolled the streets of Oaxaca “to maintain order.” The CNTE remained in plenary assembly to determine its next steps, such as protest marches in the 8 regions of the state and blockades of both state and federal offices.
Wedn., July 22: Today the national head of the PRI political party (Peña Nieto’s party), César Camacho Quiroz, announced that he wants to see the federal education reforms “crystalized, with all their benefits, consequences, and impacts.” According to the Informador.MX online, “Camacho Quiroz made it clear that ‘there can be no exceptions’ to the implementation of the education reforms, and he emphasized the PRI’s conviction that the only basis for hiring, promoting or retaining teachers would be their professional skills, ‘with absolute respect of their labor rights.’”
(What Camacho Quiroz did not mention is that, under the federal education reforms, teachers’ profesional skills only will be assessed on standardized tests, and their labor rights have been massively diminished.)
Also today, organizations participating in the Civic Space of Oaxaca released an urgent public alert to denounce that governmental sectors have initiated a generalized repression of Section 22 of SNTE-CNTE, involving the militarization of the State, the “disappearance” of the IEEPO, and the criminalization of social protest. About 20 organizations that make up Civic Space of Oaxaca and the National Network of Civic Organisms for Human Rights “All Rights for All Women and Men” (RedTDT) demanded the immediate exit of the Federal Police and the Gendarmes of Oaxaca, and also held the Federal and State governments responsible for any actions that result from or are sparked by the process of militarization that Oaxaca is living out.
Important background info:
1. In an important agreement dating from 1992 when the IEPPO was created, the then PRI Governor of Oaxaca and the Secretary General of Section 22 agreed that Section 22 would control the assignment of teaching and administrative positions in Oaxaca and in the IEEPO. Cué´s new legal decree erases this agreement without consultation or negotiation with Section 22.
2. Section 22 has been the most powerful (something like 73,000 teachers) organized state union delegation, though not the only one, that has actively resisted the Mexican government’s current so-called “education reforms.” These reforms have been “supported” by the National Syndicate of Education Workers (SNTE), the huge national Mexican teachers union that has been co-opted by the federal government agenda. And Section 22 is probably the most powerful segment of the radical, democratizing wing of the SNTE, called the National Coordinator of Education Workers (CNTE). Oaxaca and other CNTE state union delegations (e.g. Chiapas, Michoacan) have actively protested against and resisted the federal “education reforms.”
For the federal and Oaxaca state governments to “suppress” Section 22 and impose the federal “education reforms” is intended to be a powerful lesson of “hard-fisted forced submission” for all other resistant state unions.
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For the fact that the words “common core” do not appear, shows their support for the Union, seemingly independent. Is Common Core not an issue with these children?
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It’s time to have Chancellor Tisch resign. She is not who we need to run NY State’s Board of Regents. Please Chancellor Tisch, from one in the trenches, you do not know our children such as we do. You have created a nightmare in our state with Common Core for children, families and teachers.Delete all now and relinquish your throne. All of the King’s Horses and all of the King’s men, need to listen to the parents and teachers who know what is needed in our public schools. With respect, I sincerely have watched your forums, your comments and criticisms. Humpty Dumpty can’t be put back together. Delete it now! We, the teachers, can create our own standards. We had great ones. This has all been one big lie.
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ELLs SHOULDN’T BE TAKING THESE RIDICULOUS TESTS EITHER!!!!!
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TISCH IS LISTENING: Merryl Tisch is not oblivious to what inappropriate tests do to kids, but her M.O. has consistently been to say comforting, sympathetic things in interviews, and then when it comes time for action, she sides with Cuomo and his Wall Street donors.
Her slick, measured speaking style is meant to assuage reporters and sway her puppet Regents, but in the end, she won’t cross the billionaires that fund Albany and DC.
If Tisch spent some time in my school and got to see high needs kids having their confidence destroyed, she might think otherwise, but she prefers the high life, in the toney suburbs, where her thick shrubbery drowns out the voices of distant school kids.
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“They became outraged when they learned that the Chancellor of the State Board of Regents said that, if she had a child with certain disabilities, she would “think twice” before letting the child take the state tests. ”
…which would be two more times than she has thought to date.
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