This post appeared on EduShyster’s blog. It was written by the grandmother of a student enrolled in the North Star Charter School in Newark, New Jersey.
The child’s mother decided that the child should not take the state tests. That’s when the trouble began.
Her mother read about PARCC testing and decided that she didn’t want to put the child through that. She gets anxious over tests and she has nightmares after testing. From everything we’ve been following about PARCC in the news reports, these tests aren’t well designed, they don’t indicate much about the children’s progress and they’re being used to rate and assess the teachers and the schools. These tests also aren’t mandatory. Our question has always been: *What’s the benefit for the child?* We didn’t see any. She’s on her fourth school in three years and was just settling down and starting to get her grades together, and we’re not going to disrupt that for a week of testing that serves no clear purpose.
Our question has always been: *What’s the benefit for the child?* We didn’t see any.
At the end of February, her mother sent a letter to North Star letting them know that she was opting not to have the child take the test. That started such harassment! North Star would call and call and call. Sometimes they would call two and three times a day. They wanted us to change our minds about the child taking the PARCC test. They would tell us that she’s going to have to take standardized tests in high school and taking the test now would help her learn how to take these tests. They also argued that by not taking the test the child was letting down the North Star community, and that this was part of the responsibility to the school community that her mother agreed to when she signed the papers….
Testing starts on April 25th. I’m concerned about what North Star is going to do to my granddaughter during that week. I contacted Save Our Schools New Jersey because I wanted to know what happens if we keep my granddaughter out of school. The state says that the school can’t just make the kids sit and stare during the tests. Her brother is at a school for kids with special needs and the school is making all kinds of accommodations for kids who won’t be taking the tests. I also contacted the Charter Schools Association in Trenton and talked to someone who said she’d contact the school and find out what their plans are for kids who aren’t taking the test. When I heard back, I was told that there is no opt out.
I don’t trust the school. I have a feeling that if my granddaughter goes to school, they’ll either have her doing nothing or they’ll really push on her. At first our plan was to accompany her to school, to take turns just to keep an eye on things, but her mother has two other kids and I work nights. So we decided to keep her out of school that week. I’ll take her to New York to the museums. If she sits home and plays on the computer that’s OK by me too, as long as she’s not at school being pressured.
The child has taken up the cause. At first she was just relieved not to have to take the test. Now she’s in the fight with us. She’s all activist-minded at this point. When we asked her how she felt about telling her story to the newspaper, she said: “Absolutely. What if there are other kids who are being pushed around and being bullied like this and their parents don’t know how to stand up for them?”
Diane Ravitch's blog 
I suggest that the grandmother contact the local Vet Center that treats combat veterans and see if any former Marines or Special Forces troops are willing to help and act as her representative at this corporate charter school. Only a fool would harass a former combat vet, and most if not all combat vets would defend with his or her life the rights of American citizens and their children—something they already volunteered to do and did. For instance, former combat medics are very supportive. I know two. One is a former Marine medic who fought in Vietnam and the other one was in Special Forces and fought in Somalia.
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Unfortunately, that type of behavior is not limited to charter schools. Far too many public school adminimals have done, do and/or will do very similar harassment. Bullying to cause fear dominates modern educational malpractices that hold sway over public education and by extension charter schools.
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So has “public education” and expectations now dropped so low that schools should no longer use testing to assess students on proficiency of knowledge and skill sets expected to be obtained from curriculum covered and noted as the objective of achievement for the corresponding grade level for the school year?
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M,
The Common Core tests and other standardized tests do NOT “assess students on proficiency of knowledge” but on skills only. They are not related to the “curriculum covered.” They are not and should not be “the objective of achievement.” The testmakers in the UK have no idea what curriculum content was taught. The teacher knows. The teacher should write his or her tests.
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So has “public education” and expectations now dropped so low that schools should no longer use testing to assess students on proficiency of knowledge and skill sets expected to be obtained from curriculum covered and noted as the objective of achievement for the corresponding grade level for the school year?
Why don’t we just set up separate schools for those that want a traditional education that expects students to demonstrate a level of proficiency in literacy and numeracy and demonstrate that they have an acceptable mastery of the English language with the ability to communicate with minimum accommodation (as is expected of students that wish to find employment after they leave the parallel universe of P/K-12 public education.)
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Sure why not keep the foxes, responsible for overseeing the hen houses, in charge, as that works so well.
With that logic we will continue to get nothing different than we have been churning out for decades; young adults that graduate from high school without demonstrating acceptable levels of proficiency in literacy, reading, comprehension, written expression and numeracy skill sets.
And then we wonder why there are so many foreigners admitted to our nation for skilled labor employment opportunities. Foreigners who are more literate and skilled in communication and who learned English as a 2nd language with greater proficiency than a majority of our native born students.
If that is what you would like, then let’s give parents and taxpayers choices regarding the types of education they desire to support because many parents are realizing that they can provide just as effective an education WITHOUT the professional credentials that the supposedly credentialed educators heading up the classrooms are doing. And doing it with greater success than are those who graduated from teaching colleges! Barton, Wilson, Reading Horizons, etc are just a few of the Orton-Gillingham methodologies used by parents who have been denied access to appropriate reading methodologies from the public schools; even when such programs are advertised as available in the district ; yet they refuse to offer it to students needing it. Even when independently identified and with OBJECTIVE, nationally nor we, STANDARDIZED achievement TEST RESULTS for evidence!
So sorry if informed parents don’t by in to the whoa is me cries from the teachers when they are FAILING to provide the proper instruction to students who one would need to be blind to not see their struggles with literacy and numeracy skills.
But that is what your afraid of isn’t it? Yet that is exactly the environment you’re creating by not proficiently instructing students to read and write and do math with proficiency/when you won’t provide proper reading and math instruction/remediation with fidelity in the public schools.
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M, tests don’t teach anything. Standardized tests don’t measure the curriculum content.
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M,
Explain why there are more than 60 million avid adult readers in the US.
Explain why the US out of almost 200 nations, is ranked 4th in the world for the ratio of college graduates when there are almost three college graduates for every job that requires a college degree.
Explain why there are 7,289 different magazines in the U.S. The magazines that Time Warner publishes have more than 32.5 million subscribers. The Hearst Corporations’ magazine have another 30 million subscribers, etc. People Magazine has 76.7 million readers. Forbes has almost 53 million readers. Time Magazine has almost 45 million readers. National Geographic has almsot 36 million readers. And this is a only a sampling of the more than 7 thousand different magazines.
How about the U.S. Book Industry? Is anyone reading? Ahh, unit sales in the U.S. book makret are about 2.59 billion books annually.
Explain why the trades, that do not require a college degree and were once taught in public high schools, are dealing with a shortage of skilled workers that once learned those skills in high school. In the U.S. vocational classes in high school have vanished but they thrive in other countries — except for the UK where the public schools are being destroyed just like they are in the U.S.
For instance, Japan where only 70% of the high school graduates graduate from an academic high school. The rest graduate from vocational high schools with jobs skills that don’t require college.
I think you might have swilled down a gallon of the Kool-Aid the for-profit, avarice worshiping corporate public education demolition derby has been handing out through the corporate owned media.
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So that logic means that WOODCOCK JOHNSON OR WISC OR WIAT do not measure any useful skill sets or proficiencies, nor SAT or ACT ,or college entrance testing, or any type of licensing exams for lawyers, bet techs, doctors, etc since those are also standardized tests given to measure ones knowledge about various topics they are testing ones knowledge about?
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So then all tests are useless other than tests made up by a students teacher?
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M, it seems to me you are mixing a lot of ideas into your posts (some of which I agree with & some I don’t) to support a main point, but I am not sure I understand the main point. The article was explaining why the author intended to keep her granddaughter out of the [supposedly] Common-Core-aligned PARCC testing. So it’s anti-PARCC (perhaps also anti-CCSS since that is basis for test? she doesn’t say.) She suggests an additional issue, as her gdd is in a charter, & she’s getting an extreme level of pushback from admin– so perhaps she is also implying that charters (or her particular charter) are married to PARCC test-prep/ test-scores.
You interpret her statement, & comments supporting it, as suggesting expectations for ps students are so low that ‘schools should no longer use testing to assess students on proficiency of knowledge and skill sets expected to be obtained from curriculum covered and noted as the objective of achievement for the corresponding grade level for the school year.’
Keep in mind this is a NJ article. Here in NJ, we have for many decades used teacher-designed assessments to achieve those goals, & have throughout those decades been ranked among top 5 states in achieving those goals. The curriculum teachers used was designed to meet state-generated stds, & their assessments designed to the curriculum they taught. The point: our teacher-designed assessments were part of a long tradition of excellence.
There were also (pre-NCLB) a few grade-span stdzd tests which were useful for nat’l data accumulation– & which (in my experience at least) were handy for looking at my children’s progress in several subjects [not just math & reading per PARCC] over a 2-3yr period. It helped in choosing curriculum schedules at key junsctures (like entering midsch).
With the advent of NCLB, annual state tests were developed for 3-8 & 11th, aligned w/our teacher-developed state stds (called NJASK). No sooner than these were implemented, Gov Christie w/o preamble (w/o consulting parents or teachers) replaced our stds w/CCSS & contracted w/PARCC to replace NJASK w/ PARCC– & simultaneously brought onboard the Marziano AYP method of evaluating teachers (a pprwk-heavy method that requires teachers to complete a 37-pp form & institute short yr-beginning & yr-end assessments in every subject– which w/in one year were combined w/the PARCC tests, meaning w/n a two-year pd, we doubled the assessment time for our students… small wonder that teachers continued to administer their time-tested midterms & finals, thus w/n a short period tripling student time sitting for tests..
Since then our NJ hisch exit exam, HSPA– an exam which did very well by my kids in terms of college entrance– was, again by gov christie fiat, suddenly eliminated, replaced by the non-field-tested PARCC, which was not preceded by a ‘practice PARCC jr yr [in my day, if your kid didn’t do well on the practice HSPA, you might have to take take back-to-back math classes sr yr.].
I hope what you’re getting from all this detail is that in NJ we had a full complement of teacher -designed midterms & finals aligned to teacher-designed state stds, complemented by a few grade-span stdzd tests & a hisch exit exam, which resulted in consistently hi & competitive ed achievement for many decades.
From my perspective as a taxpayer whose kids graduated before this ed-reform fracas, the only reason my district continues to excel is (a)due to their efforts to carry on despite the time lost to frivolous fed-& state-imposed additional assessments, & (b)because we are a wealthy district whose PTC long ago funded the bandwidth & computer-devices needed to implement a program such ad PARCC, & (c)we are a privileged group, as evidenced by our hi prop-taxes; our kids are among the smartest in the state, & thus can excel at whatever stdzd test the state throws our way.
But that doesn’t mean I am OK w/the outrageous intrusions on local ed fomented by the fed & state DOEDs via CCSS & PARCC. In fact a large chunk of my RE taxes go to poor NJ districts. What I see happening there is that ‘poor’ PARCC scores are used as an excuse to close nbhd pubschs, regardless of how much they may have improved in recent yrs– regardless of the support & involvement they may have from local families: — these PARCC scores are used as an excuse to close pubschs & open any number of unmonitored charter schools in the name of ‘school choice’.
Those schools may provide some improvement to their students briefly (in the form of smaller classes– despite lo-paid unqualified teachers)– but their gain is at the cost of all those kids who are suspended or counseled out of charters & end up back at the pubsch which– if still existing — has become the ‘reject’ center for educating all those sho are most expensive to educate.
M, I know you are coming from a different place & a different state. I commend you on your thorough grasp of what it takes to teach reading– & for grabbing the initiative & teaching your kids at home with the help of internet resources far better than they were learning in the apparently-subpar pubsch school for which you are paying.
But you know what? Bottom-line: I don’t really care about you & your kids ‘ ed issues on your state . I am already paying bundles up here in NJ tto see thst my chi-chi district excels, & also keeping an eye on the poor districts my taxes support.
If in your state, the folks you have elected have seen fit to slash ed budgets to the point where your local ps budget cannot support teaching a good reading/ writing program, & youhave to takeover w/homesxhoolong– despite payinf school taxes– y ou have reason to PROTEST!
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Bethree,
New Jersey regularly ranks among the top three (not five) on NAEP.
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: )
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I had a similar situation with my daughter and North Star High School. My daughter attended North Star from 5th to 11th grade. Last year for the parcc I sent in the opt out letter and yet refused it. Called me constantly and had me go in for a meeting. I stood firm that my daughter would not take that test. They told me she would not get a high school diploma at graduation if she didn’t take it. So I went online printed NJ state graduation requirements and took it to them. My daughter was meeting all the requirements and did not need the parcc. She has SAT scores which are acceptable test scores for graduation. They still told me she may not receive a diploma so I told them I was stern on not taking the exam, if they pressured my daughter they would be contacted by my lawyer. It all ended there. She did not take the test. I then decided to take my daughter out of North Star for her senior year, because I was sure they would make her senior year miserable and would come up with whatever to exclude her from activities and possibly as they were promising a way not to give diploma. I can proudly say my daughter is happier than the past years at this school. She is getting ready for graduation. North Star was a bad decision for my family. Others may have a good experience but mine was bad. My younger daughter suffered a trauma at the middle school that has impacted my family. So I say, it was the worst decision in my life.
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