Want to end the obsession with standardized testing? Opt your children out of the state tests. Ignore the threats from state and federal officials. The tests today have taken over too much of the school year. Teachers should prepare and give tests that cover what they taught.
What if all students opted out of testing? That’s democracy in action. The elected officials who mandate these tests would take notice. They might even discover that no high-performing nation in the world tests every child every year.
The tests today are pointless and meaningless.
The tests are meaningless because the results are returned months after the test, when the student has a different teacher. The tests are meaningless because the scores provide no information about what the students learned and didn’t learn. The teacher is not allowed to find out what students got wrong.
Officials claim that the tests help students and teachers and inform instruction. Balderdash. The tests rank and rate students. Worse, the developers of the Common Core tests selected a passing mark so high that the majority of children are expected to fail. The passing mark is a subjective judgment. What exactly is the value of telling children they are failures when they are in third grade?
Schools have cut back on the arts, civics, science, history, and physical education because they are not on the test.
The tests are given online because it is supposed to be cheaper. But many states and districts have had technological breakdowns, and the testing period starts all over again. Students who take pencil and paper tests get higher scores than similar children who take online tests. It may be cumbersome to scroll up and down or sideways, wasting time.
In some states and districts, children with disabilities are expected to take exactly the same tests as children their age, regardless of the nature of their disability. Florida became famous for trying to force a test on a dying child. He cheated the state by dying before they could test him.
When students write essays online, most will be graded by computer. The computer understands sentence length, grammar, and syntax. But the computer does not understand MEANING. A ridiculous essay that is complete gibberish can get a high score.
The testing regime is destroying education.It is driven by politicians who think that tests make students smarter and by educrats who fear to think an independent thought.
There are two ways to stop this madness. One would be to require legislators and policymakers in the states and federal government to take the tests they mandate and publish their scores. This would prove the value of the tests. Why shouldn’t they all be able to pass the 8th grade math test?
Since this is unlikely to happen, the best way to restore common sense to American education is to stop taking the tests. Parents should discuss the issues of testing with their children. Explain to them that the tests can’t measure what matters most: Kindness, integrity, honesty, responsibility, humor, creativity, wisdom, thoughtfulness.
The best and only way to send a message to the politicians is to let your children refuse the tests. Do you really care how their scores compare to those of students in other states? If you want to know how they are doing, ask the teachers who see them every day.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
And “Blended Learning” is ALSO BAD. Where do these yahoos come up with these labels? Oh … forgot MARKETING a BAD IDEA FOR the PROFITS of a FEW at the cost of our young. HORRID.
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Ya! and the cafeteria food is ALSO BAD. Wait, huh? Blended Learning is also bad? Seems like you took a personal step away from the context of this article Yvonne.
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Now that’s a post to copy and paste everywhere! Excellent! A TAGO!
With one small but important change (you knew it had to be coming, eh, Diane):
“The tests today are COMPLETELY INVALID, pointless and meaningless.”
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Absolutely correct. In a discussion with Dr. Nikki Woodsen, superintendent of Indianapolis Public Schools, she said she told her schools not to wait for the test. Do their own assessment because they need immediate info to develop their plans.
This goes for ever reasonable school system. However, as long as we don’t offer a viable alternative to the test i.e. a systemic whole child assessment process that provides immediate feedback, are words are empty.
It is unethical and even immoral to be against testing without offering a vision for the future. Just say no is not a solution. It’s the position of the tea party and other politicians who have no clue what the future should look like. Where is the vision for the future?
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Educators do not owe the invaders of the public school system anything, much less an alternative to their oppressive policies.
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It isn’t about invaders, it’s about kids and their needs. Remember the kids?
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If an outside group of billionaires forced surgeons into using operating procedures that proved harmful to their patients. the surgeons would not have to provide the billionaires with an alternative to bad procedures and techniques that they were forced to follow.
Teachers have the same answer as the surgeons would: Leave our profession alone, go away – and stay there!
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I’m a parent; I’m opting out of the PARCC and into authentic assessment, teaching and learning. My children spend 22h/year on standardized assessments. What is each one bringing or showing that the others are not?
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Opt-out has hit its firewall–we know that 70, maybe 75% of the kids in New York State are going to take the tests no matter what is done to convince them otherwise (I got TWO robocalls!!) We also know that the kids who opt out are overwhelmingly white and non-urban.
While we puzzle over that, we also might want consider the following:
— why are districts and schools with high opt-out rates, who are well-versed in the argument that teachers have very little influence on test scores, still test-prepping the hell out of their students? Why aren’t they following the same approach as MS 22 in the Bronx?
http://www.wnyc.org/story/how-one-school-resists-test-prep/
— if the tests are cruel and abusive, then why aren’t teachers, principals, and superintendents opting out of giving the tests? If they are going ahead and administering the tests, parents can only assume that A. the tests aren’t really cruel and abusive, or B. teachers are willingly participating in abuse to keep their jobs.
— what specific measures does the non-urban opt-out movement propose to take to ensure that NY’s urban schools are adequately funded and monitored? You see, we know about the communities where you live and the legislators you elect, and it takes a big leap of faith to assume you have NYC’s, Buffalo’s, Yonkers’s, etc best interests in mind.
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As KTA often reminds us,
“It is not the answers, but the questions that enlighten us.”
You got 2 out of 3!
Q1 Is your best!!!!
Q2 Would require breaking state and federal education laws.
Q3 is not one for the opt-out movement.
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The problem is that minority parents believe tests are a good thing. They haven’t been informed sufficiently about how damaging this new breed is—they’re mainly going by the kinds of tests they remember. If the opt-out movement wants to expand, it needs to find a way to inform urban/minority parents.
In other words, the movement needs to get a move on and get up close and personal, not rely on email newsletters and whatnot. That’s why the people who start movements are called “activists.” Teachers and administrators are often risking their jobs if they appear to be encouraging opt-out.
More important, though, they’re doing so would play into the reformist narrative that they’re the ones behind opt-out. The big money people can afford to hire PR professionals, which means the grass roots have to be constantly aware of how their activities can be twisted.
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The minority parents I worked with wanted to know how their child was really progressing. Not just whether they get a letter grade, but actual progress. They support the test because we don’t offer a viable alternative such as whole child assessment on a systemic level, blended into the every day classroom.
Many good teachers do it already, so we simply formalize it to assure parents that their children are moving forward. Is that too much to ask? And the test does not do that.
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Assessment is only as good as the information gathered and it’s application to the education of the kids. And the “test” is merely second class assessment. Whole child assessment tells the real story. And it can only be done at the local level.
And that includes chapter tests and other simplistic forms of assessment designed to give quick, artificial answers
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NYS Parent: thank you for the nod, but in all honesty I must credit Ionesco:
“It is not the answer that enlightens, but the question.”
😎
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“Officials claim that the tests help students and teachers and inform instruction.”
Even scarier is many of the “reform” schools, including the one I used to work for before quitting teaching, actually used these tests to DRIVE instruction.
My former school actually hired a company to teach us teachers to use data to “DRIVE” instruction. In other words, a list of ACT standards were given to us that we had to teach each quarter. It did not matter if these standards were normally a part of the course, or if they aligned to state standards (for example, our Spanish teacher was forced to teach English ACT standards in lieu of Spanish content). These standards had to be taught, and the data had to be pinned on the wall! Also, if students “didn’t perform” on these test standards, we had to reteach each standard as many times as necessary until students has an “80% mastery average”.
I fought against this and taught actual mathematics content. Oh boy, what a fight! Many arguments with my administration.
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Your fight is/was recognized. Too many of us out here in the I Used To Teach category know exactly how vindictive the “reform” system became whenever we fought back — and simply tried to teach.
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Former Teacher and ciedie aech: let’s go right to one of the heavyweights of rheephorm’s test-to-punish establishment, David Coleman.
His speech in December 2011 under the banner “What Must Be Done in the Next Two Years” (p. 4) at the Institute for Learning Senior Leadership Meeting:
[start]
But let‟s be rather clear: we‟re at the start of something here, and its promise – our top priorities in our organization, and I‟ll tell you a little bit more about our organization, is to do our darnedest to ensure that the assessment is worthy of your time, is worthy of imitation. It was Lauren who propounded the great rule that I think is a statement of reality, though not a pretty one, which is teachers will teach towards the test. There is no force strong enough on this earth to prevent that. There is no amount of hand-waving, there‟s no amount of saying, “They teach to the standards, not the test; we don‟t do that here.” Whatever. The truth is – and if I misrepresent you, you are welcome to take the mic back. But the truth is teachers do. Tests exert an enormous effect on instructional practice, direct and indirect, and it‟s hence our obligation to make tests that are worthy of that kind of attention. It is in my judgment the single most important work we have to do over the next two years to ensure that that is so, period. So when you ask me, “What do we have to do over the next years?” we gotta do that. If we do anything else over the next two years and don‟t do that, we are stupid and shall be betrayed again by shallow tests that demean the quality of classroom practice, period.
[end]
And now for Dr. Frederick Hess of the American Enterprise Institute, a charter member of the rheephorm establishment:
[start]
If the standards are better than those that many states had in place, swell. If more common reading and math standards make things easier for material developers and kids who move across states, that’s fine. But I don’t think that stuff amounts to all that much.
In truth, the idea that the Common Core might be a “game-changer” has little to do with the Common Core standards themselves, and everything to do with stuff attached to them, especially the adoption of common tests that make it possible to readily compare schools, programs, districts, and states (of course, the announcement that one state after another is opting out of the two testing consortia is hollowing out this promise).
But the Common Core will only make a dramatic difference if those test results are used to evaluate schools or hire, pay, or fire teachers; or if the effort serves to alter teacher preparation, revamp instructional materials, or compel teachers to change what students read and do. And, of course, advocates have made clear that this is exactly what they have in mind. When they refer to the “Common Core,” they don’t just mean the words on paper–what they really have in mind is this whole complex of changes.
[end]
For link to original and much valuable contextual info, go to—
Link: https://deutsch29.wordpress.com/2013/12/28/the-american-enterprise-institute-common-core-and-good-cop/
Game, set, match for those in favor of a “better education for all.”
Thank you both for your comments.
😎
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Lesson on Extortion Learned:
Long-time fan of sensible education standards, long-time “opt-outter” of standardized testing for my own kids, former English teacher and administrator of academic achievement at an American high school. With that said, I can tell you that when our high school tells our children that they do indeed have the right to opt out of the test with parent permission, but they will not be able to attend the Prom or be able to use the student parking lot their Senior year…it is hard to get the kids to want to follow their parents’ conviction. “Honey, they can’t enforce that…and I will definitely be calling the school and district to make sure of that.” is so easily dismissed with a horrified teen who pleads “Dad, please don’t make a big deal about this…I will just take the dumb test and don’t want all this drama.”
Now there’s a lesson learned.
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Cross-posted at http://www.opednews.com/Quicklink/Why-Every-Child-Should-Opt-in-General_News-Diane-Ravitch_Education-Curriculum_Education-K-12_Education-Testing-160411-861.html#comment592047
with links to this site and info on testing!
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How many public school teachers opt out their children?
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Sad to say, but from where I teach, parents are under and mis-informed about so much, I don’t feel as optimistic about the “opt out movement” as so many others seem to be. Whatever message is getting out in the hotbed of activist Long Island, isn’t making it to where I teach, nor where I live. Out here in the suburbs, I can’t find parents or even colleagues with any real degree of outrage over the reality that some elementary aged students are “choosing” to sit with a test for 3, 4, 5 hours and more. And no one thinks there’s an issue that an entire page was missing from test booklets last week. When I asked if we had an obligation to tell parents how long their children had been testing for, I was looked at like I was crazy.
And I don’t see anyone reporting these things in the news. (I’ve tried contacting many media outlets. I’m inexperienced at how to do this effectively, and haven’t had one positive response yet.) I don’t even see much chatter on the internet or on blogs. Although maybe they’re in places I’m not visiting…
This whole situation has created chaos, confusion, and a lot of crazy thinking.
I am tired of being forced into being complicit in the State’s illogical decisions and directives.
Has anyone heard of the Milgram or Stanford Prison Experiments? They were both wildly successful studies of exactly what human adults are capable of in the name of blind obedience.
I, for one, refuse to be blindly obedient.
I feel a lonely voice of one from where I teach, but my tiny inaudible voice will not be silenced.
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Alice, get on the email list for NYSAPE and Class Size Matters and Leonie Haimson blog. You won’t be lonely anymore.
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To all concern parents for children in career readiness:
The following suggestion is sarcasm.
If you approve all dirty tricks in business, please welcome to be submissive and let your children endure 3, 4, and 5 hours of INVALID TESTS. The bottom outcome is to cheat in order to be ahead.
Please try to put yourself in your children’s shoes. Would you want to be subjected to endure all INVALID TESTS for 3, 4, or 5 hours annually?
If you can teach children to do simple calculations in math like: addition, subtraction, multiplication and division or fraction. This will help children to understand gross income, net income; tax versus saving; and earning versus spending. This will also help children to understand the concept banking interest on credit cards for all WANTED items like vacation and lavish lifestyle. This is the VERY BASIC step in math to have a successful and peaceful living.
Last, but not least, please read to your children all Dickens stories, and Aesop’s Fables in order to reach out the PRACTICAL lessons to apply in the workforce. This is a truly successful career in whatever children want to make their living from WITHOUT succumbing to any trick or manipulation from crooks.
Post education is to measure and to distinguish people with the endurance and nobility from the drop out and snobbish/cunning, not smartness.
K-12 is the most important duration to build children in a whole child education, so that children can be well developed into being sensible, caring, and considerate of their own well-beings and other people’s welfare.
Civilized society starts with a whole child education in K-12 education. Therefore, all leaders who commit crime of putting STRESS onto kindergarten and elementary students will be punished by people court = parents + educators.
All educators and parents should unify to take action in OPT OUT movement..
“Our solidarity is what gives us the credibility and power to make changes.” Back2basic
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The Ann Arbor Musings Blog, a few years ago, stated there were 5 state school superintendents who were Broad Superintendent Academy graduates. Lillian Lowery, Delaware and, subsequently, Maryland, Deborah Gist, R.I. and Christopher Cerf, N.J., were three of them.
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Possible 4th and 5th Broad state superintendents- John White, Louisiana and Rich Crandall, Wyoming
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Linda, neither Gist nor Cerf are state superintendents now. Gist is superintendent of Tulsa and Cerf is superintendent of Newark. Lowery is no longer state supe in Maryland. She is leading a nonprofit in Ohio.
So which Broadies are still state superintendents? John White in Louisiana; Rich Crandall, Wyoming.
They arrive with great fanfare, launch many initiatives, then are gone.
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As I recall, Ann Arbor Musings was looking at the landscape in 2012-2013.
Agree with you, Broadies, at the state level, lack stickiness.
On a light note, reportedly, Crandall posted a photo of his moving day to Wyoming, surprising his fellow Arizona state congressmen, who didn’t know he was leaving. I think a Wyoming court, quickly, ruled the position appointment wasn’t legal.
Lowery is a Broadie and, a Fellow of the Pahara Aspen Institute.
Her Ohio non-profit doesn’t have an easily-found tab where the organization’s funders are listed.
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Yes, Lowery bailed from Maryland early and unexpectedly – http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/education/bs-md-state-superintendent-resigns-20150828-story.html
to exert more “transformation” on Ohio
fhttp://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/local/2015/07/20/education_groups_merger.html
and http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/local/2015/08/28/Education_group_hires_Maryland_Superintendent.html
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Thanks for the Dispatch link, PAZ.
Noted… no mention of Broad or Pahara.
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Question: At what point after the test is administered is anyone allowed to discuss the content of these tests? From what I gather, adults are not to discuss it with each other and they certainly may not discuss it with the students.
Abusers are the only people I know that harm others and then tell them not to tell anyone about it.
Just sayin’.
We may be the only ones in our mostly black and brown district to do so, but we are opting out.
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The content of the test is secret.
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In a friendly conversation I asked a student at my school how testing was going. He replied that he could not answer because it was against the law for him to do so!
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Thank you Quay Roberts for your wisdom. I hope educators and parents constantly remind children that:
“Abusers are the only people I know that harm others and then tell them not to tell anyone about it.”
It is unlawful to forbid educators, parents and students to discuss the transparency of testing schemes’ procedure and content. Back2basic
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