Many parents and educators are outraged by the over-testing and misuse of testing that has been embedded in federal policy since the enactment of No Child Left Behind in 2002. No high-performing nation in the world tests every child every year in grades 3-8, as we have since the passage of NCLB.
Young children sit for exams that last up to 15 hours over two weeks. The fate of their teachers rests on their performance. Parents remember taking tests in school that lasted no more than one class period for each subject. Their tests were made by their teachers, not by a multinational corporation. Parents can’t understand how testing became an endurance trial and the goal of education.
Politicians claim that the tests are necessary to inform parents and teachers and the public how children in one state are doing as compared to their peers in other states. But this information is already reported by the federal test, the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). Parents have figured out that the tests don’t serve any purpose other than to rank their child. No one is allowed to see the test questions after the test. No child receives a diagnosis of what they know and don’t know. They receive only a score. In every state, the majority of children have been ranked as “failures” because the testmakers adopted a passing mark that was guaranteed to fail close to 70% of children. Parents have learned that the passing mark is not objective; it is arbitrary. It can be set to pass everyone, pass no one, or pass some percentage of children.
In the past 14 years, parents have seen the destruction of neighborhood schools, based on their test scores. They have seen beloved teachers fired unjustly, because of their students’ test scores. They have seen the loss of time for the arts, physical education, and anything else that is not tested. They have seen a change in their local public schools that they don’t like, as well as a loss of control to federal mandates and state authorities.
In the past, testing companies warned that tests should be used only for the purpose for which they were designed. Now, these corporations willingly sell their tests without warning about misuse. A test of fourth grade reading tests fourth grade reading. It should not be used to rank students, to humiliate students, to fire teachers and principals, or to close schools. But it is.
Communities have been devastated by the closing of their neighborhood schools.
Communities have seen their schools labeled “failing,” based on test scores, and taken over by the state or national corporate charter chains.
Based on test scores, punishments abound: for students, teachers, principals, schools, and communities.
This is madness!
What can we as citizens do to stop the destruction of our children, their schools, and our dedicated educators.
Opt out of the tests.
Use the power of the powerless: Say NO. Do not participate. Withdraw your consent from actions that harm your child. Withdrawal of consent in an unjust system. That’s the force that brought down Communist regimes in Eastern Europe. Vaclav Havel and Lech Walensa said no. They were not alone. Hundreds of thousands stood with them, and the regimes with their weapons and tanks and heavy armor folded. Because the people said no.
Opting out of the tests is the only tool available to parents, other than defeating the elected officials of your state (which is also a good idea, but will take a very long time to bear fruit). One person can’t defeat the governor and the local representatives. But one person can refuse to allow their child to take the toxic tests.
The only tool and the most powerful tool that parents have to stop this madness is to refuse to allow their children to take the tests.
Consider New York. A year ago, Governor Andrew Cuomo was in full attack mode against teachers and public schools, while showering praise on privately managed charters. He vowed to “break the monopoly” known as public education. The New York State Board of Regents was controlled by members who were in complete sympathy with Cuomo’s agenda of Common Core, high-stakes testing, and evaluating teachers by test scores.
But in 2015, about a quarter million children refused the state tests. Albany went into panic mode. Governor Cuomo convened a commission to re-evaluate the Common Core, standards, and testing. Almost overnight, his negative declarations about education changed in tone, and he went silent. The legislature appointed new members, who did not share the test-and-punish mentality. The chair of the New York State Board of Regents decided not to seek re-appointment after a 20-year career on that board. The Regents elected Dr. Betty Rosa, a veteran educator who was actively supported by the leaders of the opt out movement.
Again in 2016, the opt out movement showed its power. While official figures have not yet been released, the numbers evidently match those of 2015. More than half the students in Long Island opted out. Federal and state officials have issued warnings about sanctions, but it is impossible to sanction huge numbers of schools in middle-class and affluent communities. The same officials have no problem closing schools in poor urban districts, treating citizens there as chess pawns, but they dare not offend an organized bloc in politically powerful communities.
The opt out movement has been ridiculed by critics, treated by the media as a front for the teachers’ union, belittled by the former Secretary of Education as “white suburban moms” who were disappointed that their child was not so bright after all, stereotyped as privileged white parents with low-performing children, etc. There are indeed black and Hispanic parents who are part of the opt out movement. Their children and their schools suffer the greatest penalties in the current testing madness. In New York City, where opt out numbers were tiny, parents were warned that their children would not be able to enter the middle school or the high school of their choice if they opted out.
Thus far, the opt out movement has not been discouraged or slowed by these tactics of ridicule and intimidation. The conditions have not changed, so the opt out movement will continue.
The reality is that the opt out movement is indeed a powerful weapon. It is the one weapon that makes governors, legislators, and even members of Congress afraid of public opinion and public action. They are afraid because they don’t know how to stop parents from opting out. They can’t control opt out parents, and they know it. They offer compromises, promises for the future, but all of this is sham. They have not let go of the testing hammer. And they will not until opt out becomes the norm, not the exception.
In some communities in New York, opting out is already the norm. If politicians and bureaucrats continue on their reckless course of valuing test scores more than children, the opt out movement will not be deterred.
Save your child. Save your schools. Stop the corporate takeover of public education. You have the power. Say no. Opt out.
Diane, what do you think about opting out of adaptive technology and the data mining that may replace stand alone tests? I know some parents who are worried about what will come once the stand alone tests are gone…
Danielle,
Definitely opt out of computer adaptive testing!
It is neither personalized nor individualized. It is a mechanical substitute for a real teacher.
Thanks, Diane! What about the day-to-day constant data collection on adaptive technology, such as ALEKS, Achieve 3000, Dreambox, Knewton, etc. My kid’s teachers assign these once parents have signed off and I think we have to sign permission slips because they collect data on how the kids perform and may even sell it.
Danielle,
Do not ever sign a permission slip that allows any of those corporate pirates to mine your child’s personal data.
Wow, thank you, Diane. The parents here trust our district and pretty much sign off on a huge packet of forms that come home together each September. Would you please consider some posts to teach parents about adaptive technology and data mining our kids? I hear that after age 12, COPPA considers children adults and parents no longer get asked permission to data mine their kids. Is that true? What happened to age 18? This is overwhelming and seems unethical…
Danielle,
You should be in touch with Leonie Haimson of Student Privacy Matters, who can guide you through the shoals of data mining and adaptive testing.
leoniehaimson@gmail.com
Reblogged this on Crazy Normal – the Classroom Exposé and commented:
Do you know what a whipping boy was? The purpose of a whipping boy was to receive the punishment that was assigned toa young prince for general misbehavior. That’s what corporations are doing to public schools and teachers when children don’t make an effort to learn what’s taught or the child can’t/doesn’t know the answers to bubble test questions.
Do you know what a whipping boy was? The purpose of a whipping boy was to receive the punishment that was assigned to a young prince for general misbehavior. That’s what corporations are doing to public schools and teachers when children don’t make an effort to learn what’s taught or the child can’t/doesn’t know the answers to bubble test questions.
Put beautifully. This is THE rationale behind opt-out. Just Say NO!!
The process of dismantling democratically governed public education is the civil rights issue of our times, not the establishment of segregated vampire schools that feed off public dollars to enrich a few at the expense of many. The misuse of test scores is the weapon of mass destruction embraced by both parties. It is a tool used by the wealthy that have co-opted policymakers to circumvent legitimate democratic process. This process is emblematic of the disinvestment in the common good embraced by leaders on both side of the aisle. Parents that are concerned about the testing abuse inherent in this corrupt process have no choice but to Opt Out.
Your excellent statement “The process of dismantling democratically governed public education is the civil rights issue of our times” encompasses both the misuse of test scores and the establishment of ‘segregated vampire schools’. The two are entwined. In many if not most areas we see them used as a one-two punch: the first to undermine and eventually close publics, the second made ready as the fallback, their expansion serving to further undermine the former. The establishment of charters in most cases does not remotely resemble a democratic process, and once on the ground they operate with zero democratic input or consequence.
The primary purpose, as I see it, is to break-up the unions. (And the unions seem to be oblivious to
the effort of prior generations of workers.)
Primarily because they have become autocratic structures afraid to take actions. Nobody moves nobody gets hurt . Until you get flattened like Wile E.Coyote.
“http://inthesetimes.com/working/entry/19148/long_live_the_picket_line”
Opt Out! Yes.
AND parents are also getting more and more upset about the data mining and insane amount of time their children now spend in front of computer screens…ugh…blended learning. Insanity.
$illary said at the NEA conference where she was “BOOED” (and rightfully so) that we have to find the BEST practices for kids’ learning. What a typical politician’s IDIOT statement. We know what is good teaching and the conditions for good learning and teaching, and it isn’t what’s going on today.
John King is determined to keep high stakes testing in ESSA, wiping out the “alternative” measure by saying it must do the same job as a statewide test. This is from Politico:
OUT TODAY: NEW REGS ON TESTING: The Education Department today unveiled new proposed regulations for the innovative assessment pilot created by the Every Student Succeeds Act.” This is how the May I please permissions from USDE will work. I am paraphrasing from the announcement with a bit of Irish in that.
1. Up to seven states will be permitted–allowed by King’s USDE–to experiment with new tests in a few school districts, provided the real goal is scaling up statewide so the “tests that can produce results comparable to state standardized tests.” Criteria for the selection of states will be up to the next administration’s education secretary. More: http://bit.ly/1Pm90cf.
– Education Secretary John B. King Jr. offered the usual song and dance about “support for states and districts to develop and use better, less burdensome assessments that give a more well-rounded picture of how students and schools are doing, while providing parents, teachers, and communities with critical information about students’ learning.”
But, the bottom line is stack rating schools and districts along with conspicuous steering on the innovative assessments that USDE might approve: “performance tasks – which require students to demonstrate their knowledge of a subject – competency-based tests or something else entirely” (e.g., inserting some “innovative items in and an existing state test like the PARCC) as long as the innovative assessments “produce comparable results.”
It is an attempt to keep the federal government as a gatekeeper. If no such limits were put in the original law, does King have the authority to override the intent of the law?
Diane,
You have explained and justified the Opt-Out movement beautifully. Although I wrote a piece on the same topic recently for my blog, yours has much more information that should persuade parents to take this action. So,I wiil re-post it on “The Treasure Hunter” today not only for those who didn’t read it here,but also those who did read it, but need a second dose of truth and logic.
I look forward to reading it. Be sure and spell “Walesa” correctly.
Thank you, Joanne.
Thank you Diane. Parents have spoken and some administrators and boards of education are listening. More need to get in line. We must stop the people who create laws and mandates in NY and across this great nation from making it worse. Your latest summation of what’s happening is perfect.
Let’s not let the uft leadership off the hook when it comes to ridiculing the opt out movement as it did when it attacked the MORE caucus in a recent leaflet for supporting opt out. Nysape sent a letter of rebuke to uft president mulgrew.
Why My Wife and I Are Opting Out Our Daughter From Third-Grade High-Stakes Testing
Transcript of the original text:
Good evening. My name is Andy Goldstein. I’m a teacher at Omni Middle School and the proud parent of an eight-year-old daughter who attends one of our public elementary schools.
It seems like it was just yesterday when my daughter entered kindergarten. At that time, I talked about her at our August School Board meeting in 2013.
I said that my hopes and dreams for my daughter were that she would develop a lifelong love for learning that would serve her well as she learned to construct a life that would serve her and serve others as well.
I told this board that my wife and I were not particularly interested in having her be seen as a data point for others to make money from.
Now, three short years later, which seem to have gone by in the blink of an eye, she is entering third grade.
Tonight, I’m speaking as a parent, who also is a teacher.
In Florida, third grade is the beginning of high-stakes, standardized testing for our children.
What are the high-stakes?
• Our children, on the basis of one test, will receive a number, a 1, 2, 3, 4, or 5, which, will serve to define them.
Some students, may do well learning throughout the year, but do not test well and may receive a 1, a one being the lowest possible score.
Some may come from disadvantaged backgrounds and will receive a 1.
Some may be special needs students, who receive a 1.
These numbers work to define our students as to whom they are. “I’m a one. I’m a Failure.”
This high-stakes testing policy, mandated by state law, works to stigmatize our students and they grow up with a limiting self-concept of who they are and what they are capable of doing and becoming.
• On the basis of this one high-stakes test, some schools—those comprised of the poorest students, who need the most help—are labeled with an “F.” Failures. This stigmatizes these schools, whose faculty and staff may be working hard to meet the high needs of the surrounding neighborhood they serve. It also serves to increase the segregation at these already segregated schools. What parents, given the means to choose what community they will move into, will choose a neighborhood with a school labeled “F.”
• There is a lot of money being made on the part of testing companies, publishers, and vendors, based on this annual imposition of this high-stakes testing.
• This high-stakes testing is part of a corporate agenda, an agenda by the rich and powerful to demonize our public schools and privatize them through the rise of publicly funded, privately managed schools called charters. Our state legislature, bought and paid for by corporate interests, is cheating our children by defunding our public schools.
• “That’s the standard technique of privatization: defund, make sure things don’t work, people get angry, you hand it over to private capital,” says Noam Chomsky, an MIT professor.
• Our third graders are still babies, really. Do they really need the pressures of this high-stakes testing? Recently, I read one account from a parent recounting the experience of her son when he was a third grader taking the FCAT. He was a good kid. He worked all year to learn. But he missed passing the FCAT by one point. He went to summer school to do more work and took it again. And again, he missed passing the test by one point. His mother was afraid to tell him, but he could tell by her reaction that he had not passed. He was crushed by the sense of failure. His mother, working on making dinner in the kitchen, called him to come down to eat. He did not respond. She had a premonition that something was the matter. She rushed up to his bedroom and found him hanging by a bedsheet. She got him down.
• Is there anyone who thinks this high-stakes testing is worth such a price?
• As a parent, I can answer with a resounding NO!
• My wife and I believe that our public schools should work to develop the whole, creative child in all of our schools, and in all of our communities of all colors and all socio-economic backgrounds.
• For these reasons, I’m announcing to you, our school board, that my wife and I do not support high-stakes testing in Florida, and will be opting out our daughter. Evidence for her learning will be through a portfolio.
• Thank you.