Two Florida school districts–Sarasota and Manatee–have warned parents their children will not be promoted if they opt out of state testing.
The only way to opt out of the state test is to take a state test before opting out. Alice in Wonderland?
Even students who have earned high marks all year will be retained in grade.
“Third-grade students in Sarasota and Manatee counties who refused to take the state’s standardized English Language Arts test and a subsequent alternative test will be held back, school officials say.
“District officials have contacted several parents saying that because their students opted out of taking the state test, called the Florida Standards Assessment, they must take an alternative test to progress from third grade to fourth. If students do not take the test, officials said they will have to repeat third grade.
“School districts across the state are wrestling with what to do with third-grade students who refused to take, or opted out of, the Florida Standards Assessments. A state statute mandates that students take the test, but vague language makes it difficult for districts to determine what alternatives can be used to promote a student — namely whether a portfolio can be used in lieu of the tests.
“Counties such as Pasco, Hillsborough and Charlotte have allowed students who took neither the FSA or the Stanford Achievement Test, 10th edition, to progress to fourth grade. But districts including Orange, Sarasota and Manatee require students who did not take the FSA or the SAT-10 to repeat third grade.”
The tests, with all their flaws, are more important in those counties than teachers’ assessments of their students or parental rights.
Parents have the right to choose a new school but not the right to refuse standardized tests.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Bullying blackmail bullshit.
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That’s for sure.
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And officials bullying third graders. Disgusting.
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When the law is unjust the only just thing to do is to break the law!
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There goes freedom of choice, but wait, there never was freedom of choice for parents and children – only for the corporate charter schools to pick and choose the children they’d accept.
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In a state that allows students to attend any district in the state and fails to hold charters accountable for millions of wasted dollars, it seems absurd they would make third graders toe their artificial mark.
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So…what happens if they opt out the next year and then the year after that? Do they stay in 3rd grade forever?
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If they were College ready in kindergarten (TM), they would not have to face this dilemma. In fact, they would have completed grad school after second grade.
College ready in Kindergarten
Bachelor’s in first
PhD in second grade
A life that’s well rehearsed
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Children are being punished because parents are exercising their rights to free speech and to protest. This is a civil rights issue. It cuts to the core of who we are as a nation. I’d like to see the ACLU or a similar organization take this on as we are closer than anyone can imagine to being a corporate fascist state, This is evidence.
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I would not count on relief from the courts. They have had years to pack the courts with sympathizers. The lawsuit against the state for unfair funding practices was lost last week. The lawsuit against VAM was lost even after the judge admitted it was unfair and made no sense. It will take more than lawsuits to fix this horror in Florida.
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YES.
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Sad, but true.
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Sadly this is happening all over Florida. Seminole County parents already have report cards marked as retained.
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I’m surprised this hasn’t turned up in the courts.
So much for “choice” (I guess you can choose as long as you choose the accepted path).
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How horrendous! Just when we are commemorating the lives of all those soldiers who
fought to preserve our Constitution, our way of life, our freedom we have people in
power not only trampling on the rights of our most vulnerable but their self-image.
The standardized test aligned to the CC is invalid and useless except to inflict more pain on a district and individuals.
We have countless studies about the harm of retention and yet people in authority waste
billions on useless tests instead of providing viable programs along with the creative, knowledgeable, enthusiastic, and caring teachers as a support group. At Risk students need extra support from day one. The classroom teachers aren’t magicians. There is just so much time in a day to meet the needs of all students. Many children are behind before they begin for many reasons. They need to be given extra support to reach their potential.
I would love to reiterate Peter Greene’s strong, condemning, colorful words to the legislative body and people in power on the district level. We need more superindents fighting like soldiers – putting their job on the line- like we have on LI:
Dr. Joseph V. Rella the Superintendent of Schools for Comsewogue School District in Port Jefferson Station, NY – first to speak out against CC. 8/2013
Dr. Joesph Giani South Country’s superintendent, Superintendent Hynes of Patchogue-Medford, Superintendent David Gamberg of Greenport-Southold, and Superintendent Steven Cohen of Shoreham-Wading River.
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As I understand the newspaper article linked to here, it appears that state policy requires students to take the test and that parents have no right to opt out. This is more hypocrisy from the reformy crowd. In Florida you can have all the school choice you want as long as it is the choice we dictate. When it comes to a choice to not take the test, the only choice you have is to be rich enough to send your child to a private school where the test is not given.
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I believe this will jump start the opt-out movement in Florida. Parents have to step up and fight back. Teachers and administrators have to grow a spine and stop cowering. Boy, just let them try this here in New York…
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There needs to be a class action suite against these districts who insist on using tests for promotion. Glad we don’t live in Florida-same state that insisted on a dying special needs student take the test last year. The decision makers in these schools are really uneducated. Idiots!!!!
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A law was passed with regard to that child and there became a medical complexity exemption, but, guess what? The Commissioner will not grant any of the exemption requests! I have a profoundly disabled daughter and she meets the exemption requirements, but it was still denied. I requested a hearing and due process. Again, denied. Last week, we filed suit in the First District Court of Appeals in Florida to exercise our rights to a due process hearing on the matter. Laws mean nothing in Florida.
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Is it not time for a class action lawsuit?
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Reblogged this on Dern's Discourse and commented:
So now depending upon whiz district you live will decide if you’re promoted to fourth grade. There is nothing standardized about any of this
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Sounds to me it is time for the parents to implement what I like to call “Plan B.” Students take the test and answer “B” to every question! They have taken the test; I imagine even Florida cannot enforce a requirement that student’s take the test seriously.
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Ass clowns in Fla
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This could be just an issue of a couple of cowardly supts running a ‘my-way-or-the-highway’ position up the flagpole, hoping all salute so they don’t have to put on their thinking caps. Surely they don’t relish the idea of providing an extra year’s ed to a bunch of 3rd-graders who could spend the yr playing tiddly-winks & still pass (or worse just keep opting out ad infinitum).
Or is FL’s latest muddled mandate just another not-so-subtle ploy to further the total demise of publically-funded schools? I note that in this particular state, neither homeschoolers nor private-school students have to take state std tests [charter schools do].
Of more interest: how will FL’s students do on this new 3rd-gr FSA, predicted by some to be more difficult, w/ perhaps 20-30% scoring “1” & at risk for retention? Does the state really want to re-do 3rd-gr for 25% of its ps/ charter 3rd-graders– or will they beat a hasty retreat by lowering the cut score? It all depends on the political agenda. My guess: they’ll take all the campaign $ for delivering the tests, then lower the cut score to make sure they don’t lose $ on the back end.
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About this testing mess that’s knotting children and parents … and fouling education in the Manatee schools …
There is no virtue in making children so brave that they might withstand the idiocy of adults. Nor is there any virtue in lying to children so as to protect adult ridiculousness. And when adults trip over their own commandments and reason away the subtle wounding of children … then they themselves have committed a great sin.
What has become of us? Why have we arrived at this moment when children become fair game in an adult controversy? Instinct tells us never to place children in the middle of a muddle. But here we are … hearing unbelieving tales of punitive actions against children because parents exercised their right as … as parents!
Where is the wisdom in gluing children to desks for hours as they squirm their way through some asinine educational gauntlet that has no real purpose other than to pay homage to some testing god? Who thought that a good idea?
Moreover, how is that testing has been elevated to the modern Baal … a false educational god? Test are instruments. Informing instruments. They should never have such impact for children of this age.
Year-end promotions are now complex, overly regulated, bureaucratic dilemmas filled with do-or-die drama for?… for children! … little humans who are, perhaps, 100 months old. Does that disturb anyone? Should the fragility of childhood be so manhandled by pseudo-educators who have never spent a full week in a real classroom? Is this healthy stuff?
That state officials and disconnect bureaucrats … who no nothing of classrooms and learning and children … are now pounding out edict after edict … in legalese noless! … is proof-positive that this entire reform has traveled into a special and frightening Twilight Zone.
Regardless of what chest-thumping officials might demand, parents still preside over the decisions of their own children. No state edict, no home-grown prescript has more authority and more potency than the wishes of a parent.
State governments and their bureaucratic mechanics have sabotaged teachers and their classrooms with this race to testing madness … and caught up in this warped competition for control are these small learners.
They are days beyond infancy. In their small universe, teachers are super-heroes and schools are sacred structures that open up the broader world to their small eyes. Now … with this mania … you have handcuffed their teachers, sabotaged their experience, and fouled and frightened their embrace of school and learning.
Their natural childhood pursuit is to conquer the monkey bars … as well as their multiplication tables. That’s the correct recipe for learning … a school dedicated to balance … a balance that has now deserted too many schools for very bad reasons.
Whatever technicalities there may be in this issue of promotions for almost-babies, one thing is certain: adults have again magnificently displayed their talent for over-regulating and over-obsessing about things of extremely small value.
Stop complicating that which needs no complicating … and for God’s sakes, get out of the way of those professionals who live with these young learners week after week after week. Teachers and parents should be the ultimate arbiters of a child’s performance and progress decisions… not some squinty-eyed bureaucrat or some half-informed politician. The state should never cast such a dark shadow.
For children, school is a majestic cathedral. A near shrine where every minute should be crammed with as much wonder as a minute might hold. To disturb that atmosphere is to violate the inviolate,
A school has no place or space for anyone unable to plug into their memory bank for recollections of their own childhood. If one cannot stay linked with the memories of their own past, perhaps they shouldn’t be in the memory-making business at all.
Denis Ian
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“What has become of us? Why have we arrived at this moment when children become fair game in an adult controversy?”
First it is not “us” (I realize the rhetoricalness of the questions). It is the workings mainly of GAGAGG* adminimal supes and their brown-nosing sycophantic priincipals whose abilities to make absolutely insane decisions never cease to amaze me in a very bad way. Their only concern is for themselves as shown by these types of malpractices.
Some thoughts on this behavior from “A Small Treatise on the Great Virtues”:
“Should we therefore forgo our self-interest? Of course not. But it [self-interest] must be subordinate to justice, not the other way around. . . . To take advantage of a child’s naivete. . . in order to extract from them something [test scores, personal information] that is contrary to their interests, or intentions, without their knowledge [or consent of parents] or through coercion [state mandated testing], is always and everywhere unjust even if in some places and under certain circumstances it is not illegal. . . . Justice is superior to and more valuable than well-being or efficiency; it cannot be sacrificed to them, not even for the happiness of the greatest number [quoting Rawls]. To what could justice legitimately be sacrificed, since without justice there would be no legitimacy or illegitimacy? And in the name of what, since without justice even humanity, happiness and love could have no absolute value?. . . Without justice, values would be nothing more than (self) interests or motives; they would cease to be values or would become values without worth.”—Comte-Sponville [my additions]
*GAGAGG = Go Along to Get Along Good Germans
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This is easy. Have little Johnny take the test and answer C on every question. They didn’t say you had to pass or you even have to apply yourself did they?
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Actually, they did. If 3rd graders fail the test (level 1 out of 5), they are retained, so randomly choosing answers would be quite detrimental: http://www.fldoe.org/core/fileparse.php/7539/urlt/readtolearn.pdf
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Hmm, whatever happened to free speech?
According to Citizens United a corporation’s expenditure of money is unrestricted and unlimited because it is deemed “speech”. Civil disobedience is also free speech, i.e., refusal to submit to unconstitutional deprivations of an earned right (i.e., completion of a school year, meeting all standards, no factual impediments to advancing to next grade….).
In 1975 — a mere 41 years ago — the Supreme Court held that a school district’s suspension of high school students for ten days was a sufficient to invoke the Fourteenth Amendment right to due process under the U.S. Constitution. Goss v. Lopez (1975) 419 U. S. 565.
TEN DAYS… not ONE ACADEMIC YEAR!
There can be no plausible argument that the person most competent to determine whether a student has satisfied a state or school district curriculum requirement is the teacher. Therefore, absent evidence that the teacher’s evaluation of the student’s performance is fraudulent or otherwise unlawful, there are no facts that would support requiring a student to spend another year satisfactory completion of all curriculum requirements for that class becomes a vested property right. Being required to repeat not only a class but an entire year on the ground that the student “opted out” is the epitome of “arbitrary” governmental conduct.
A school board is a governmental entity and immunized from paying monetary damages by the Eleventh Amendment. However, board members and other state actors are individuals acting under color of state law. Therefore, each may be sued individually for monetary damages – including punitive damages – for depriving each student of his or her vested right to be advanced and for all personal injury damages caused.
Last, but not least, although the school districts, counties, and state may not be liable for monetary damages, they are not immune from a civil rights lawsuit seeking an injunction to block these cretins from enforcing this irrational policy: “Plaintiffs seeking to impose §1983 liability on local governments must prove that their injury was caused by ‘action pursuant to official municipal policy,’ which includes the decisions of a government’s lawmakers, the acts of its policymaking officials, and practices so persistent and widespread as to practically have the force of law. Monell v. New York City Dept. of Social Servs., 436 U. S. 658, 691.” Connick v. Thompson, 563 U. S. 2011 (2011).
Even in Florida, it must be recognized that arbitrary interference in a child’s education will result in irreparable harm — the primary test for injunctive relief. Indeed, has anyone even attempted to calculate the monetary value of the loss of a year’s progress and the “cost” to a child who was arbitrarily denied promotion? The loss of future income? Admission to an elite college? What about the emotional consequences? And don’t forget about the value of a parent’s right to make fundamental decisions on behalf of his/her children?
ACLU, where are you?
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Long Post.
A campaign for “reading by grade three” was formally launched in 2011 by the Annie B. Casey Foundation. This campaign is based on a 22 page report, “Double Jeopardy: How Third-Grade Reading Skills and Poverty Influence High School Graduation,” prepared for the foundation by Dr. Donald Hernandez Professor, Department of Sociology Hunter College and the Graduate Center, City University of New York and Senior Advisor, Foundation for Child Development. http://www.hunter.cuny.edu/sociology/faculty/donald-j.-hernandez
The text and the references in “Double Jeopardy” show that the author relied on NAEP test scores at the “proficient” level for grade 3/age 9, with breakouts by subgroups, especially African American and low income students, in various comparisons with other groups. Remember that “proficiency” is the highest rating in NAEP scoring.
Overall, “Double Jeopardy” is less about reading than many other factors associated with proficiency in NAEP tests, including: household poverty, living in communities of “concentrated poverty,” access to affordable and timely health and dental care, absentee rates, and early childhood education (if so, the quality and duration). These conditions, far more than being a proficient reader by the NAEP standard, are firmly associated with higher dropout rates (called an epidemic), failure to graduate “on time,” and juvenile arrests. In “Double Jeopardy,” the only reference citation for grade three is Lloyd, D.N. (1978). Prediction of School Failure from Third-Grade Data. Educational and Psychological Measurement, 38, 1193-2000. This study is about education in Greece!
I am not a reading specialist. I have no doubt that learning to read and reading to learn are important matters. But the fixation on reading by grade three, with the proposed “solution” repeating all of grade three (as in some Florida districts) is ridiculous.
Here is an excellent summary of everything wrong with how this key report has been the enlisted to support “read- by-grade-three” policies. This clear point-by-point criticism comes from Stephen Krashen, a reading expert. http://www.susanohanian.org/show_research.php?id=412
There are even more troubling aspects of the “read-by-grade-three” campaign. Hundreds of organizations have been enticed into pushing this dubious agenda.
Here is what I mean.
First, consider what the Annie E. Casey Foundation initiative is.
“The Campaign is a collaborative effort by foundations, nonprofit partners, business leaders, government agencies, states and communities across the nation to ensure that more children in low-income families succeed in school and graduate prepared for college, a career, and active citizenship. The Campaign focuses on an important predictor of school success and high school graduation—grade-level reading by the end of third grade.” http://gradelevelreading.net/about-us/campaign-overview
The campaign for grade level reading (CGLR) rests on dubious claims, but it is relatively easy to market as an idea. The marketing is evident in the lists of “Investors” and “Partners,” and “Sponsors” who are asked to “leverage their national platforms and extensive reach of their members, affiliates and networks to advance grade-level reading in states and communities.”
Anchor Co-Investor: The Annie E. Casey Foundation
Lead Co-Investors: Ford Foundation, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, Open Society Foundations, The David and Lucile Packard Foundation, Target, Wells Fargo.
Co-Investors: Anonymous, Bezos Family Foundation, Dollar General Literacy Foundation, Irving foundation, The Piton Foundation, David and Laura Merage Foundation, Tremaine Foundation
Sponsors: The Campaign is grateful for the support of sponsors for underwriting GLR products, projects and events. Scholastic is the only sponsor to date.
Following this list of investors and one sponsor (all with logos) is a long list of others who are being enlisted to “leverage their national platforms and extensive reach of their members, affiliates and networks.” Here are the propagators of read-by-grade based on the status of their commitments.
List one: On board in this promotional campaign: Abriendo Puertas; Alliance for Early Success; America’s Promise Alliance; Campaign for Black Male Achievement; CFLeads; Cities of Service; Coaching for Literacy; Coalition for Community Schools; Coalition to End Childhood Lead Poisoning; Collaborative Summer Library Program; Community Wealth Partners ; Corporation for Public Broadcasting; Council for a Strong America/Mission: Readiness; Council of the Great City Schools; Early Childhood Funders Collaborative; Forum of Regional Associations of Grantmakers; Generations United; Grantmakers for Children, Youth, and Families; Grantmakers for Education; Grantmakers In Health; Literacy Funders Network; Literacy Powerline; National Board for Professional Teaching Standards; National Center for Families Learning; National Civic League; National Governors Association, Center for Best Practices ; National Human Services Assembly; National League of Cities/Institute for Youth Education and Families; Philanthropy for Active Civic Engagement; Points of Light; Public Broadcasting Service (PBS); Race Matters Institute; Reading Is Fundamental; Ready by 21; Sesame Street/Sesame Workshop; Strive; TechNet/ConvergeUS; The Finance Project U.S. Conference of Mayors; United Way Worldwide; Volunteers of America.
List two. The campaign expects these groups to join the read-by-grade-three initiative, but a formal announcement has not yet been made. Alliance for Children and Families Early Success; American Federation of Teachers; Association of Educational Service Agencies; BELL (Building Educated Leaders for Life); Big Brothers Big Sisters of America; Boys & Girls Clubs of America; Business Roundtable; Education Commission of the States; City Year; Council of Chief State School Officers; Foundations Inc.; National Association of Elementary School Principals; National School Boards Association; National Youth Leadership Council; Nemours; New America Foundation; Parent-Child Home Program; Raising a Reader; Save the Children; Say Yes to Education; Social Venture Partners International; The Albert Shanker Institute; School Readiness Consulting; Read Aloud 15 Minutes; Parents for Public Schools; National Head Start Association; National Education Association; National Center for Children in Poverty; National Black Child Development Institute; Foundations Inc.; National Association of Elementary School Principals; National School Boards Association; National Youth Leadership Council; Nemours; New America Foundation; Parent-Child Home Program; Raising a Reader; Save the Children; Say Yes to Education; Social Venture Partners International; The Albert Shanker Institute; School Readiness Consulting; Read Aloud 15 Minutes; Parents for Public Schools; National Head Start Association; National Education Association; National Center for Children in Poverty; National Black Child Development Institute.
List three: These groups are included in the Partner on More Hopeful Futures initiative which includes the read-by-grade-three initiative as a component: Age of Learning/ABC; Attendance Works; California Library Association; Early Childhood Caries Resource Center; Children’s Dental Health Project; Children’s Health Fund† Experience Corps: AARP; Families and Work Institute; First Book; Healthy Schools Campaign; Institute of Museum and Library Services; LAUP; LENA Research Foundation; Maricopa Library; Minnesota Reading Corps; myON; National Summer Learning Association; Reading Partners; Rocky Mountain PBS; The Children’s Aid Society; Scholastic; The Council on Large Public Housing Authorities; Too Small to Fail/Next Generation Inc./Clinton Foundation; Urban Libraries Council; YMCA of the USA.
List four: These groups are included in the Partner on More Hopeful Futures intiative. Specific support for Read-by-grade-three action is anticipated, but a formal announcement has not yet been made: Dollywood Foundation/ Imagination Library; Dentaquest Foundation; Early Learning Ventures; Jumpstart; National Association of Housing and Redevelopment Officials; The Joan Gantz Cooney Center at Sesame Workshop; Green and Healthy Homes Initiative; Parents as Teachers; Reach Out and Read.
Now we need to ask, what is the “More Hopeful Futures Initiative”?
The More Hopeful Initiative is an expansive program of social services to be launched in 2017 by the Clinton Global Initiative America. The Campaign for Grade-Level Reading’s (CGLR) and its partners will be offering a three-year “road test” of the Clinton Foundation’s “More Hopeful Initiative.” In addition to its grade-level initiatives, CGLR plans to reach “at least 50,000 children with an enhanced package of screenings and supports designed to accelerate ongoing efforts to improve school readiness, school attendance and summer learning,” See more at http://gradelevelreading.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/MoreHopefulFutures-overview.pdf
The Clinton Foundation convenes groups by invitation only. The foundation enlists these “members” to commit to an agenda, with outcomes stated in advance along with financial investments. You can see how the Clinton Foundation addresses problems by looking at the 2016 “working groups” and participants for the topics of “college and career readiness,” and “outcomes-based financing.” Then, take a look at the pay-to-play arrangements for the invited members and sponsorships for “meetings” of the working groups.
The Annie E. Casey Foundation knows how to gather support and spread ideas that appeal to people and groups who are not required to think about the consequences of that simplistic prescription of read-by-grade-three.
If Hillary Clinton is elected and Bill Clinton looks for projects, then I’d guess the interests and methods of operation at the Clinton Foundation will also matter to a lot more people. It strikes me as razzle dazzle, let’s feel good first, over serious deliberation about the consequences of initatives.
Annie E. Casey Foundation. (2011). Double Jeopardy: How Third-Grade Reading Skills and Poverty Influence High School Graduation. Baltimore, MD: Author. Retrieved from http://www.aecf.org/m/resourcedoc/AECF-DoubleJeopardy-2012-Full.pdf
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Krashen can always be relied on to bring common sense and legitimate research skills to any argument. These are the two things that “reform” lacks. Instead, they rely on baseless assertions and public relations.
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Unfortunately the establishment thinks he’s a crackpot.
The Buffalo Publuc Schools refused to allow the librarians to bring Krashen to our district for an in-service, but the regional library organization (SLAWNY – School Library Association of Western New York) Invited him as guest speaker at one of their events so we got to see him anyway.
An amazing man!
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They could just sit in a room for three hours.
J. H. Underhill
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Harlan – they call that sit and stare.
They tried that in my school district one year, but the superintendent caved the following year when the opt out numbers increased and the parents loudly cried foul.
My grand daughter just brings a book to read. She forgot to bring in the note her mother wrote so she opted herself out.
We don’t want our daughters growing up without a voice. We want woman to get out of abusive relationships not stay and take it for the sake of harmony. These dictates goes beyond the classroom – they are a chance for women to say “I’m not going to be pushed around anymore”.
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Here is a brave little guy speaking about this very thing in Sarasota County:https://youtu.be/hf-vrS6ujtw
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To be fair, it is not just these two counties. 55 other counties in FL are doing the same. 10 counties are, in the view of the some Superintendents, out of compliance with state law. It’s, of course, a matter of interpretation and the state will have to step in soon to deliver relief for districts, by hopefully allowing us all to treat 3rd grade retention as the 10 “portfolio counties” are doing.
Don’t get me wrong. I’m not defending the system. The FL legislature is a playground of special interest connected lawmakers who would love to see the public education system completely eradicated. FL education policy is intentionally designed to achieve this goal. Sow chaos, obfuscate, anger parents, stress out children, whatever it takes. Whatever sends more kids to private and charters, they’ll do it. These politicos talk a great game about “local control” but when it comes to education, they turn into the big government policy makers they claim to abhor. The hypocrisy is stunning.
Charlie Kennedy
School Board of Manatee County
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“The hypocrisy is stunning.”
Yes, it is! Especially from the school boards who ultimately okay this sort of educational malpractice. Those school boards who choose legality over justice, those boards who have given free rein to those adminimals to run rough shod over small children. How effin appalling that the school boards wouldn’t censure adminimals for such mind and spirit crushing malpractices.
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This is a perfect example of why a presidential race with two undesirable choices is exactly what we do not need.
Without an even stronger, united, and forceful front-the powers that be will press for laws, limitations and consequences that weigh down on students, parents and the profession that make up the lower classes. The marginally middle class-and-politically aware/active pose a particular threat, and so union leaders are vital in wrangling the sheep and their dollars wherever possible to fund “endorsements”, tshirts, posters, ad campaigns…has revealed itself. Social and economic ab
Their interest is in keeping education cheap and sustainable for the masses, even profitable if education can be replaced with market training and consumption-minded compliance. Think a presidential candidate that will builds walls and promises to pay legal fees for the beating of protesters is the change model? How about one who continually shifts with the popularity wind, denies that she ever does, refuses to validate a “progressive” claim by revealing what fabulous words were paid for in speeches to big investors and campaign contributors (the very same people interested in education as a product vs an obligation)? It is time to oppose deals with the devil that get us cut instead of killed, with minimal truth and only marginal protection. Education needs to protect our future, not sell it out to the people selling us lies in return for compliance.
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What would they do if 200,000+ parents opted out in Florida like they did in NY? What if over 50% of a particular third grade opted out? 1 or 2 kids maybe, even 5, but two classrooms full? What if the parents went on “strike” and refused to send their kids to school if they were retained? Or decided to “home school” until the superintendent stopped his nonsense – maybe picket his home or walk with signs in front of the school or district office.
This passive aggressive stuff should be met with civil disobedience.
And where is the school board?
Does Jeb Bush want his name bandied about by angry parents?
This sort of tactic could blow up in their faces unless the parents cave to the demands and fall into line like the “establishment” dictates.
All I can say is that there is safety in numbers. And they can always get together and open their own charter school if the district follows through on their threat. I hear that’s pretty easy to do in Florida.
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Diane, it’s far more than those two districts! Please add SEMINOLE to the large list of those retaining kids.
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About a year ago the topic of retention came up on Dr. Ravitch’s blog.
” Iowa: Kindergarten is the New First Grade” A woman name Penny stated the following:
“In my county in FL, they tried this over 10 years ago. The results were that we had special classes for 3rd and 4th graders who had failed and were in 3rd or 4th grade for the 3rd or 4th time. The practice finally ended when the superintendent discovered there were over 200 sixteen year olds in 8th grade, and there were 18,19, and 20 year olds in 10th, 11th and 12th grades. They decided they could no longer hold students back for failing FCAT.”
When will they ever learn? When will they ever learn?
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MILLIONS of dollars are being spent on testing each year. Do you know who is creating those tests that make such BIG decisions such as pass fail, not educators or child developement experts. Guess who is grading those tests with the written response portion heavily weighted? Not teachers. Someone hired on Craigslist is grading the tests making $11 an hour with no teaching degree or experience. http://www.wsmv.com/…/parents-question-craigslist-ad…
and
http://www.cleveland.com/…/whos_grading_your_childs…
As a taxpayer, I am already paying a high quality teacher to teach and assess my child. WHY IN THE WORLD would I want to double pay a corporation to create additional tests that are going to graded by a NON TEACHER hired for $11 dollars an hour? That person hired from Craigslist with no teaching experience or degree definately shouldn’t have the power to pass or fail my child. Taxpayers should be outraged by this! Parents need to continue to put teachers back in charge of the classroom and stop BIG greedy corportations from ruining our schools.
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Flos56 , you stated, “ We don’t want our daughters growing up without a voice. We want woman to get out of abusive relationships not stay and take it for the sake of harmony. These dictates goes beyond the classroom – they are a chance for women to say “I’m not going to be pushed around anymore”.
It goes beyond just women not wanting to be abused but no one should be abused. Everyone should be free to voice their beliefs without being punished. We want no Gestapo tactics to resurface. We want our children to be independent thinkers and feel free to challenge a statement of one in authority or in a textbook. However, children and parents have to be ready for repercussions. Children lack tact and wisdom. How do you develop that fine line of discernment?
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Parents teach by example.
We are in a tough situation. Government is currently dictating so much of our lives that it threatens the very concept of Liberty. Micromanaging education is just one example (the one many of us on this blog have an expertise), I’m sure there are other aspects of our lives where interference is occurring which we would also find offensive.
I bring up the woman’s issue because so many teachers are woman and I have seen them unnecessarily put in their place by administrators who want to control the environment. At times the job can become abusive and it seems this scenario is getting worse with the CCSS and “sainted” assessments. Often the male teachers don’t get treated as harshly (and this occurs whether the boss is a man or a woman).
Browbeating children is a new low and, as if that isn’t enough, they are using tactics to hold parents hostage as well.
Florida already has a bad reputation as far as education is concerned, but if these measures are successful and duplicated in other states, parents all over the country will have to make some hard choices on the future of their children. (And I’m wondering how all this downgrading of schools is affecting property values when families with school age children choose where to buy their homes.)
That’s why we are being so vocal.
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Their are far more districts in Florida who also say they will be failing students for opting out. This applies to a fewer number of students than it did a month ago. Why? Because schools pulled these kids out of instruction to have them test, against parents expressed wishes & no notice. Sometimes having them take several high stakes tests. Some kids who opted out and were forced into these alternative high stakes tests failed and are now being retained based on those results. You just can’t make this stuff up ..and you just can’t keep dinner down after talking to these third grade families. If you’re in Florida, contact your superintendent. They may well be doing or deciding on this.
This proves it isn’t about reading gains or the student in anyway. It’s about compliance and data mining.
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This is a school system, not a prison system.
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I can’t believe I am saying this but let’s take a page from rheeformers: school choice. Parents can withdraw their kids and home school them during the test period and reenroll them sometime later. They want to administer an alternate test, fine, a press conference listing as many questions kids remember as possible to invalidate the test so they have to create new ones every year. You could tell your kid to go to the bathroom say he has diarrhea and a stomach ache and then you pick your child up from school.
Dr. ‘s note- gets diarrhea from high stakes test. Of course the best choice is enrolling your child in a district that does’t retain kids for opting out. The commuting is a problem but webcasting actual lessons in real classrooms that kids are in can ( as opposed to online crap) might be an alternative. Since this is a real class ,teacher asks all sudents questions and monitors attendance. All that money from all these additional students could allow the new schools to hire more tachers to lower class size in the combined webcast and and traditional class so class size is capped at reasonable numbers. I don’t think the school districts would allow the new school district to rent space and have satellite schools near people’s. Teachers who work in schools in the “mean “districts could take advantage of opportunities in the other district. It could be fun watching the administrators realize that they don’t control the kids and with the money drain, they could lose their jobs. They can’t do anything about it, this is home schooling. You could make arrangements with any state: ones that don’t have exit exams, ones that don’t overpay charters to starve the public school, states like NY where the Board of Regents is now anti testing and kids can opt out without fear of retention. If your kid has spevial needs how about registering in a state that honors due provess hearings and gives kids services. Florida pays. Just an idea. Maybe it’s not legal but I had a lot of fun thinking about the potential explosion if this worked. My local representatives are good but we should be like evangelicals single issue voters that vote as a block, You don’t support education, environmental reform etc , you’re out.(it would have to be very small list that everyone agrees to) . Politicians cater to people who vote as blocks.
Those are my thoughts for whtever they’re worth and it may not be much. Don’t know if I said helpful or even doable, but if someone gets something out of this, I will be happy
Happy Memorial Day!.
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