Jaime Franchi of the Long Island Press has established a reputation for in-depth reporting on education. She does it again, with a comprehensive analysis of New York’s opt out movement.
After the historic opt out of 2015, where some 240,000 students did not take the tests, Governor Cuomo made a concerted effort to tamp down parent anger. He appointed a task force to make recommendations about the Common Core standards and tests, which John King had botched. He promised that the tests would have no stakes for students or teachers, at least for a while. The state commissioner took steps to alternately warn and placate parents.
Despite the efforts to court parents, the opt out leaders decided they were being played. They thought the moves by Cuomo were a facade. And they determined to continue their fight in 2016.
No one knows whether there will be more or less or the same number of opt outs. What matters is that parents across the state realize that there is power in numbers. They cannot be ignored.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
YES! Good 4 the parents. They have their children’s best interest in mind, not those who look at their children as FOR PROFIT … $$$$$.
I am tired of the Hunger Games.
Thanks, Diane.
LikeLike
STATE TESTING 2016 – DAY 1
Day One of ELA State testing here in New York is over.
37% of my fifth grade students didn’t take the test.
30% of my district overall didn’t take the test.
I’m curious to see what the numbers are across the State.
Part of me feels victorious. There are still people taking a stand and using their democratic right to protest in the face of injustice and government overreach.
Make no mistake about it.
There have been NO substantive changes this year. Despite what you may have heard in the news or from Education Authorities, things are much the same as they were last year.
I don’t feel any greater trust of the State Education Department than I did last year.
There will still be six long days of testing.
I will never have the opportunity to see my students writing, nor receive their scores for writing to see if my teaching has been effective.
The math tests will still come too soon for me to have finished teaching the topics I know will be on the test.
I again haven’t had the time to teach “deep comprehension” of math topics as required by the Common Core “Shifts in Focus.”
And I still have to feel like a criminal as I read the test my students are taking to see if the test has, in fact, been made “more fair.”
But part of me is also sad and exhausted.
No one wins in the day to day struggle to maintain sanity as a public school teacher.
The confusion of having my class so divided is overwhelming.
The cognitive dissonance is exhausting.
Elementary students should not be put in such a compromised situation of taking or not taking a test their teacher is giving to some of the class. It is a confusing message to be sure.
I don’t blame the parents, as my administrators do. I don’t hold my parents in contempt as my principal does.
I lay the blame squarely on the backs and at the feet of those completely responsible for the mess we’re in.
I call out the bullies who have complete control over the debacle they’ve created.
It is the Governor, the Commissioner, the State Education Department, and the Board of Regents who have the power to turn this around immediately, TODAY.
There is no need for measured decision making in the face of the disaster they’ve created.
If you want everyone to opt back in, if you want classrooms to be made whole again, if you want parents and teachers and students to have trust in our State Education Leaders,
then bring on change today.
Real Change.
Today.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Real Change!
Today!
LikeLike
I am in the interesting position of teaching eighth grade and having a daughter who is in eighth grade in a neighboring district. My daughter is a good ELA student. She loves to read and write, and it’s always come naturally to her. I say “naturally” but the truth is she grew up in a home that valued books and valued reading and writing. I used to tell her stories before bed and I read the first Harry Potter books to her when she was in the third grade. After that, she took off on her own. So when I say “naturally” what I really mean is that she entered school with an advantage, as opposed to some students who enter with a 30 million word gap. This year, she’s in an honors ELA class with a truly amazing teacher. This gifted educator is a published author and poet herself, and in November inspired my child to stay up till 2 in the morning writing her NaNoWriMo. She’s spent the year reading provocative books that have fueled amazing discussions around our dinner table such as arguing the pros and cons of GMO’s. I’ve watched my daughter grow in an area that I I didn’t believe she could grow because she was already operating above her grade level. More than that, I saw her excited about learning.
Contrast that with an 8th grade class in the district I work in and an ELA teacher with a group of reluctant ELA students, some reading far below grade level. I’ve watched as this phenomenal teacher has used her craft to entice and coax many disenfranchised students through a careful selection of reading materials and writing tasks designed to engage. Over the course of the year, I’ve watch their confidence and their skills grow.
Enter New York State Tests.
About a month ago both of these teachers had to make a decision. The New York State ELA test will be given April 5 through the 7th. Last year, the scores from these tests impacted the evaluation scores of, not only themselves, but also many of their colleagues too (since teachers of “untested subjects” like music, art, PE, etc.) are assigned an “individual” growth scores by averaging the ELA and Math scores of all the teachers in the building in which they work.) So when each of these phenomenal, experienced ELA teachers approached testing time, the question of whether, “To Prep or Not to Prep” could not be made lightly. For different reasons, both teachers faced an uphill battle to garner their State points which are calculated, not by the numbers of students who show mastery of particular skills based on common standards but instead on how their students compare to the average score achieved by students the state has deemed “similar.”
For my daughter’s teacher, the challenge is that high achieving students often don’t have room to grow on standardized tests. So it really is a competition to see who can “test prep” their students the best. Tricks and tips replace discussion and analysis. For the Southampton teacher, the stakes are even higher. The state tests are written at or above grade level. They are potentially damaging for students functioning below that level because learning happens progressively, much like climbing a staircase. Students need to climb up one step at a time balancing on the knowledge and skills they have, in order to reach the next step. Teach them too low on their staircase and they become bored; have them stretch too far beyond their current step and they become frustrated and lose confidence. This is called the Zone of Proximal Development. Since the state only allows the most severely disabled students to take alternative assessments, all others (regardless of their functional level) are required to sit for the tests. By asking students to do tasks that are well beyond their developmental level, we are not only frustrating them for the duration of the test (now untimed), but we’re also diminishing their willingness to take academic risks- a necessary attribute for growth to occur. As I said, both teachers had difficult decisions to make.
A few weeks ago, I noticed a change in my daughter’s level of enthusiasm for school. She appeared tired and unenthusiastic in the morning (even for an eighth grader!) When we talked about her day, she said it was boring. This was in stark contrast to previous months when she was reading The Omnivore’s Dilemma and insisting on accompanying me to the grocery store so she could remove any GMO products I might sneak into the cart, or nagging me to read her 100,000 word manuscript. On the night of her induction to National Junior Honor Society, she sat dejectedly at the kitchen table to do her homework, a test prep essay on playground design.
The teacher in Southampton made the frightening and difficult decision to continue instructing and not “prep” our students for the test. Instead she continued her unit on Shakespeare’s, A Midsummer Night’s Dream. The students read this difficult work, fighting over who would play Titania and who would be Lysander. They compared the intricate love triangles and quadrangles described in the work to their favorite TV shows and the 8th grade romances displayed daily in the hallways. They learned that Shakespeare wrote in Iambic Pentameter because it resembled the beating of a heart.
My daughter’s teacher did what New York State is mandating her to do. She followed the rules and went down the only logical path there is, if you think standardized testing and judging teacher’s work by the results is what’s best for public education. The Southampton teacher, on the other hand, was a rebel. She put herself and her colleagues at risk by refusing to allow the tests to dictate her course of action, and instead is basing her instruction on what SHE knows is in their best interests.
There are many reasons to fight against the standardized testing craze: to resist the privatization of public education, because it’s harmful to some students, because it’s impossible to accurately use them to judge teachers’ contributions to student learning. In addition, the intense focus on, and alignment to, ELA and math has marginalized the study of SS in K-5. Public education was recognized and established as a necessary feature of a democratic society. An educated, informed citizenry with an understanding of our societal beliefs and history is necessary to apply the critical thinking needed to select our leaders. Furthermore, the erosion of local school board control is no where more evident than on the East End. To insist that every child must go to college ignores the opportunities in hospitality, carpentry, maintenance, and retail that surround us. While it is true that every child should have the opportunity to go to college, the state’s policies make every alternative path feel like a failure on the part of the student.The most compelling reason for me, however, is that it is driving public education in the wrong direction. Instead of finding ways to light up our students with a love of learning, it’s forcing us to pause, stop, and even diminish their growth for reasons that are dubious at best.
LikeLike
This was so well stated and easily understood. I struggle sometimes to explain “what the big deal is” to other non educators and people without students currently in testing grades. Awesome explanation.
LikeLike
Fairest posted this article. Looks like opt out is bigger than before! Go NY, you inspire us from other states.
http://www.newsday.com/long-island/education/tens-of-thousands-of-li-students-opt-out-of-common-core-exams-1.11653222
LikeLike
For pro-testing folks, help is on the way … in the form of a multi-million-dollar media campaign — “Say ‘Yes” to the Test”:
http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/education/state-exam-advocates-launch-yes-test-campaign-article-1.2585130
LikeLike
“This year’s tests are shorter, fairer, stronger — and parents should say ‘Yes to the Test’ for their children,” said Steve Sigmund of High Achievement New York.
“Ignore the naysayers who want to go back to past policies that left generations of minority children behind and millions of students unprepared for college.”
This isn’t just propaganda – it’s a steaming pile of stinking BS.
And it exemplifies how little the reform crowd understands the testing problem, how little they understand parent’s protective instncts, and how little they care for children.
They can run any multi-million dollar ad campaign they want but this toothpaste is not going back into the tube.
LikeLike
NYS Parent,
High Achievement New York is funded by Gates to undercut opt out.
LikeLike
You know those tests we’re all supposed to be supporting and pressuring parents to trust?
“Things have changed. Opt back in. Parents aren’t seeing change because they don’t want to, blah blah blah???”
Today, Day 2 of ELA tests written by Pearson but published by Questar, my students discovered there was no planning page for the essay. (Place to utilize the pre-writing planning skills I spend so much time teaching…)
The directions clearly tell students to use the Planning Page, and practice materials by Pearson have always contained a Planning page.
But today? No planning page.
And while that may seem like a relatively minor error, in this current climate of “trust us, things have changed” to have such an obvious omission is unacceptable. It is hard to have confidence in the existence of a myriad of smaller, nuanced details we can’t detect so easily if something so blatant has been overlooked.
Just thought I’d share…
(Not sure what this will do to the validity of the essay scores…
LikeLike
He’s not getting any bang for his buck, Another Gates FAIL.
LikeLike
Also on the subject of testing, here’s a snarky absence note from an anti-testing parent:
http://chicago.cbslocal.com/2016/02/11/cps-dad-pens-sarcastic-letter/
—————
CHICAGO (CBS) — A Chicago Public Schools (CPS) dad, Jeff Jenkins, has penned a sarcastic letter today to explain his daughter’s school absence.
In it he states, “She is feeling better today and is eager to get back to school in hopes of achieving a high score on any number of Standardized Tests that will be given this year to insure that Private Corporations continue to receive huge and profitable contracts from CPS voted on by the Appointed Board of Education.”
In recent years, Chicago parents and students have become vocal in their opposition to standardized testing.
In 2015, 11 percent of CPS students skipped PARCC — the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers.
According to CBSNews, “a growing cohort of parents, students and teachers are rebelling against what they consider a toxic culture of testing. And officials, including U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan, have begun to listen[.]”
A comprehensive study revealed that students spend between 20 and 25 hours taking standardized tests each year.
In an email exchange with CBS 2, Jenkins says he is “using humor and irony to point out injustice and hypocrisy can be an effective way to promote dialogue and change.”
Asked if he is concerned the school will not appreciate his humor, Jenkins responds, “I am confident the administration and staff will see the humor and appreciate the note. They are a wonderfully dedicated group of educators working hard for our kids each day under challenging conditions.”
CBS2 has reached out to CPS for comment.
LikeLike
“I don’t blame the parents, as my administrators do. I don’t hold my parents in contempt as my principal does.”
Adminimals know only what they are told by the higher ups. Even if one day they are told white is black and up is down, adminimals believe it and cheerlead for it. And if the next day they are told white is white, black is black, up is up and down is down, adminimals believe and enforce it. And if the next day they are told that white is up and black is down, adminimals believe it and harass teachers and students to make sure they believe it.
LikeLike
As a parent of two children in public school on Long Island, each in the fifth grade, for the first day of the ELA exam, 20 out of 23 opted out in one class, and 19 of 23 in the other.
The is would equate to an 84.8% opt out rate, as compared around 54% from the previous year.
This is a snapshot of Long Island….of New York…of the entire nation.
Cuomo’s Common Core “Task Force” was all smoke and mirrors, as was to be expected…a poorly designed deception to perpetuate the privatization movement, and destruction of our public school system.
It is the parents, who have come forward to protect their children and keep the burning lamp of democracy lit…from the poisons unleashed on our society.
The pencil in the hand of a student that creates…remains more powerful than the force fed Common Core, the guilotine of Danielson, the diversion of public dollars from public schools to charters…the pencil is the symbol of defense of our children…a defense that cannot ever be extinguished…the dagger through the heart of the privatization movement.
LikeLike
Why should the parents of New York be out of step with what’s happening all across the nation?
Of course, this opt-out resistance is about education. But it’s also about what’s boiling folks from coast-to-coast … this never-ending, ever-intrusive, arrogant, and ruinous involvement of government to be front and center in the lives of every man, woman, and child.
This test-refusal effort is a scream at the federal and state governments to back off … retreat … and leave folks alone to craft the sort of society that will be … not the society envisioned by a few.
Parents want their schools back … among other things. This current effort … withholding kids from academic assessments … is way more complex than just a pile of lousy exams spawned by a wretched educational reform. That’s the surface stuff. The roots are much deeper. Only the daring will squint hard to see the links that are so obvious.
This society is set to explode … one way or another.
These tests are serious stuff for parents … and more serious stuff for children. This resistance has fired up lots of pretty ordinary folks into becoming very active managers of their own lives … and it will carry over into other issues soon enough. This election season is already the most bizarre of my long life … and it looks to get even more memorable in the months ahead.
Why? Because government … and a slender class of autocratic fops … has made it their business to be in everyone else’s business. We have these self-appointed wind-bags who have this neurotic, messiah complex that results in chaos for everything they touch.
They’ve ruined healthcare, border and homeland security, law enforcement, illegal immigration, the economy, education, and just about everything else they’ve knocked up against. Why are folks so surprised that people are fit to be tied?
The new Know-It-All class … the self-anointed oligarchs … have imposed their norms and values and programs and reforms with absolute ease over the last several years … but the breaking point is here. The signs are all about … just look at the sort of political figures who have captured the attention of the people. They’re not oligarchic types at all .. in fact, they’re the antidotes to the giant itch that troubles this nation.
The really amazing thing about this reform/test counter-action is the resistance to the resistance. The educational oligarchs … just like the social and political absolutists … will not admit what is underfoot. They will not concede that the agitation is THEIR fault … caused by THEIR ineptitude and THEIR arrogance. That is a sure-fire fuse that will easily flame up. Nothing pisses off good people more than being played for dummies.
And the people are plenty pissed off.
This moment … in education … is an early prelude to what’s in store for this political season. I’m certaint these parents … who stood tall for their children and their neighborhood schools … won’t vanish for a long while. They’re just warming up.
The oligarchs have blown it … big time. And it all began with the biggest dummy of all … Arne Duncan … that mother-bashing fop who lit that fuse.
This Duncan quote about suburban moms might be the most memorable educational gaffe of recent decades: ” … “their child isn’t as brilliant as they thought they were, and their school isn’t quite as good as they thought they were.”
Duncan is still in search of the world’s largest vacuum … but those words have stuck in the craw of every parent from Long Island to Los Angeles. And now those moms … and dads … are the first in battle against the snob class. And they’re winning.
Denis Ian
LikeLike