Ralph Ratto is an elementary school teacher in New York and a frequent blogger.
He describes yesterday as “one of the darkest days in education.”
Testing started yesterday. Now that the tests are untied, some children will struggle for six hours a day for six days to satisfy some adult idea that they need to be compared. Their ordeal has nothing to do with education.
“Our children will struggle with questions that have more than 1 plausible answer. They will have to select the best plausible answer. Questions will ask them, for example, to analyze paragraphs 3, 14 , 24 & 26 and then choose the answer that best describes their relationship. They will be forbidden to give their opinion in an essay as they regurgitate details to fulfill the task at hand.
“When we look at past tests, we can almost guarantee some passages will be purposely confusing due to the use of names and customs they are not familiar with. This makes it extremely difficult for them to utilize their own schema to decode the information provided. Some passages are above grade level and there are also field questions that are not counted are part of these tests.
“Teachers must sit by as our students struggle for hours. We will observed children get physically and emotionally ill taking these tests. We are forbidden to assist or even discuss the tests…
“Folks, this is institutional child abuse! I have written about this and about how this is the time of year that I am ashamed to be a teacher. We all should be ashamed, when we make these children take these tests to fulfill a political agenda and provide absolutely no valid data that helps children excel.”
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Then we should defend their rights not to take them.
And in no small degree this anquish is the result of testing policies marketed as if improving test scores was “the civil rights issue of our time.”
Ralph Ratto is right. THIS IS CHILD ABUSE. But then the deformers don’t care; they want their $$$$$ at the expense of other people’s children.
I blame both the DNC and the GOP for this travesty.
I think we have no choice but to add national teacher unions’ leadership as complicit. Even at the local level I have been stunned through the years as I’ve watched union leaders jumping on board with the “testing is necessary” and “we have to get rid of bad teachers” rhetoric.
Union leadership is just trying to save their own overpaid backsides as they do absolutely nothing to defend teachers who are targeted due to age discrimination, defending students’ rights or exposing financial mismanagement.
Amen, brother!!! When administrators defend them by claiming that more “rigor” is needed to prepare our kids for college and careers, I know there is no point in further logical discussion. I know rigor – and these test questions aren’t rigorous, they are dogmatic, sometimes arbitrary, and – at least for the EKA portions – outright capricious.
Amen, we need more “rigor” in the Ed leadership exams to weed out possible administrators that are so stupid to believe that “rigor” is only proven by a test score.
I’d be happy with more rigor mortis among so-called reformers.
The vast majority of administrators, upwards of 99% are of the subspecies ‘adminimal’.
Not too long ago in the world of public education we used to discuss the “rigor” and “relevance” of what was being taught to the Students and what was expected from the Students. Today in the upper most reaches of public education people can’t even proper define what really has “rigorous” importance to the education of a child and have completely forgotten what is “relevant” to the success of all children now and in the future. Teachers know what is “rigorous” and “relevant” but are not allowed teach to the professionally accepted standards of these two “R’s”.
“Our students, some as young as 8 years old”
It seems like testing enthusiasts in government could compromise there, on the youngest test-takers. Why wouldn’t there be some distinction between an 8 year old and an 8th grader as far as length and number of tests?
I know people on this site oppose testing for a number of good reasons but I’m talking about public officials who are pro-test and (supposedly) “student centered”
8 year olds ARE different than 8th graders. Why are the insisting they be treated the same as far as testing?
“indoctrination”
Get ’em when they’re small
Test ’em till they puke
That way, you forestall
A protest or rebuke
The public employees at the US Department of Education are out again today promoting charter and private schools and depicting all public schools as “status quo” failures.
Be clear- this is a political campaign. Public schools kids will be the collateral damage of this political campaign because the “public schools suck!” message in ed reform is unrelenting.
This is how the federal government sees your public school- the assumption is public schools suck and all the people who support public schools are self-interested.
Here’s today’s ed reform campaign slogan:
“Edu as Uber: Just like taxis feel threatened by ride-sharing, education establishment people feel threatened by school choice, DeVos says.”
Someone should tell DeVos that in the real world outside the echo chamber she lives in Uber has a LOT of problems. She might want to drop that ridiculous talking point.
Can someone tell me why we’re paying tens of thousands of people who oppose public schools to work ON public schools when 90% of US kids attend public schools?
I am so, so sick of these people pretending they are “agnostics”. The entire ed reform narrative around public schools is overwhelmingly negative.
Chiara,
The civil servants at the US Department of Education work for whoever is in power. They don’t have a view. Instead of complaining about the thousands who are processing paperwork, complain about DeVos and her cronies who are giving orders. Complain about the Senators who approved her.
Thanks. The fact is though, DeVos is the Department. That’s how this works. I don’t have any beef with the career people who work there but they should know that she’s the face of that Department.
DeVos is anti-public schools, so therefore that Department is too.
Elections have consequences. DeVos IS ed reform. If they don’t want to be perceived as anti-public schools they should stop promoting people who are anti-public schools.
When Duncan was out there misrepresenting charter graduation rates he was speaking on behalf of the United States. I have to assume the people at the US Department of Education are innumerate if they endorse this stuff by not correcting it.
Diane, I can’t agree with your dismissal of the continuing acceptance by those civil service employees, GAGA teachers and adminimals in not only implementing but promoting the educational malpractices which we are attempting to fight.
Arendt gave those who do the dirty work in many small ways as being part of the “banality of evil”. Without the everyday acquiescence of the groups mentioned in the first paragraph, we would not be as far along this insane path as we are now.
Solution: Let’s make all politicians take entrance exams that are deliberately too hard, full of ambivalence and obfuscation, and set too high a raw score for competence. That will keep hypocrites out of government.
We would not even have to make them particularly hard.
Most of these people would have difficulties with the tests they are now giving to 6th graders.
Have you ever listened to Andrew Cuomo?
He once famously said “The [test] grades are meaningless to the students” in order to convince parents that their kids should take the tests.
How that guy ever resulted from half of Mario Cuomo’s genes is a complete mystery.
Of course, that only accounts for half.
“When se look at past tests”….Well, I go back to the 70s and the only tests we had in CA were the ones we took for a teacher and the SAT. We were well prepared and ready for the post-secondary world and I did fine in college. But, I guess today’s “ex-spurts” view me as a failure because in the absence of all the volume of today’s testing, our curriculum of the past was a farce????
Charlie the Tuna said, “the world wants fish that can think well, not just fish that test well”.
I am so glad I grew up in the 50s and 60s! If my worth had been measured by tests, I would have been a basket case. Fortunately, how and what we did on an ongoing basis was more important than what some standardized test proclaimed. I typically did better than what the tests predicted. Educators and parents were mostly smart enough not to share that information with us even if they put more stock in them then was warranted. Somehow, what I did daily usually was more important than what I did on some supposedly predictive test. The system was far from perfect, but there was much less effort into molding us into good little test takers. We were allowed to be kids without some adult telling us how to do it.
That may be because (with the possible exception of Dr. Spock) the experts had not yet figured out how kids were supposed to be kids.
Now that they have figured that out, they have moved on to making it happen
LIKE!
Actually the real world wants graduates that can do both (think AND test well;) plus actually demonstrate their proficiency levels after leaving P/K-12.)
They expect that students can read and write and figure out sales tax with a level literacy and numeracy proficiency for the workforce; most of which now entail some level of post-secondary education.
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.@BetsyDeVosED: I’m in favor of increased choice, but I’m not in favor of any one form of choice over another.”
Pure baloney. She spent this entire speech depicting public schools as taxi companies compared to Uber. You would have to be a moron to miss it.
None of the 4200 public employees at the US Department of Education can find a single successful public school or successful public school student, but they insist they are “agnostics”. It just isn’t true.
I don’t mind that all of DC is pushing private and charter schools over public schools. They do what they do. I insist they tell the public, however.
These speeches that focus exclusively on failing public schools and super duper charters and private schools? That’s a preference. Run on what you stand for. Don’t feed us this “agnostic” BS when it’s so clearly not true. It’s insulting
Today as millions of public school kids sit for hours of Common Core testing the adults who supposedly serve their interests are comparing their schools to a taxi company and lustily cheering cutting funding to the same schools they’re sitting in.
I’m old enough to remember 2 years ago when all of ed reform made a solemn vow to start supporting public schools if only we would go along with these stupid tests.
What happened to that? Anyone know? They’re still conducting their national “public schools suck!” campaign. They’re still cutting funding to public schools. Were they less than honest to public school kids and parents, who, incidentally, comprise 90% of the people they’re supposedly serving?
No sooner did these tests go in than ed reform started this national voucher campaign. The “support” for public school kids never materialized.
You know, these kids are holding up their end of the bargain. When do the adults in ed reform hold up theirs? The lesson public school kids should take from this is these adults can’t be trusted, that their only value is to provide data which this POLITICAL movement will then use to gut their schools. Because that’s what the adults are doing.
IMHO, before we blame on others or external force, we need to examine our own pros and cons and our internal force.
For instance, when I was 5 years old, my brother, who is 15 years older than me, told me where to go and what to do in my own free time. Yes, I took his beat because I told him that it was my free time and I can do whatever I pleased. Of course, I was right, and my mother came to my rescue, So, he stopped hitting me. But, he was upset and harassed me for the rest of my youth. In his eyes, I was a rebel and disrespectful. (However, in my viewpoint, he abused his “seniority” authority to bully me!)
In the same vein, being as an educator, you can tell parents and students in your own free time that they can learn more about opt out from Dr. Ravitch’s website and from many links and many sources… You might face some questions from Superintendent or Principal, so please prepare to articulate or to persuade him/her/them with reasonable excuses.
In short, please do not be anguished over things you must work for a living for your own survival and your family members’ security.
Please note that I was single and I escaped communist regime even though I was sure that I would die 99.9% in ocean. Yes, I trade my death for my own freedom of living my way. = to live, to work and to die in my own way. Back2basic
I can think of only one reason to not opt out of the tests. Is there any evidence that supports the idea that kids who opt out of these tests are less prepared for the standardized tests they have to take, like SATs? I wonder how a kid would perform who has never seen a standardized test vs a kid who’s used to the tests.
Would you, Stray, rather endure the bite of a mechanical shark jaw or just have your innards ripped out by a great white, bull or tiger shark. What the hell, just take your pick of which shark species!
Well, many years ago when I was in public school, the first standardized tests I took were the SAT’s and the SAT specialized tests.
We all managed to do quite well on them.
The only standardized tests my kids took were the PSAT’s, the SAT’s, and several AP exams. They also did well on those.
You don’t have to endlessly practice filling in bubbles to do well on standardized tests. What you do need is teachers who have time
to teach the kids critical thinking skills and academic core content, as opposed to spending endless hours preparing for useless bubble tests.
I don’t know about that, Stray. It’s true, stdzd tests are a different animal, but std-test-taking skills can be learned when & as required. The idea that you have to take annual stdzd tests 3rd-8th plus 11th to ‘practice’ is dubious. Back in the ’50’s-’60’s when there were few if any stdzd tests, we did fine on SAT’s. With no at-school test-prep. And curriculum was not ‘aligned.’ If you were truly motivated, or had trouble w/testing, you could get old test booklets & practice on your own time.
As much as I miss teaching, I am so glad I was “retired” before Common Core and most of the testing abuse got a real hold. The district for which I last worked began to administer MAP testing while I was there. At first, I was fascinated by the progression of learning they laid out. As a special education teacher, I was interested in how their assessment of my students lined up with my own, but I came to abhor the ritual. Even if the district had followed the law and provided the accommodations to which the students were entitled, the results never should have been used to make individual judgements about students. It was demoralizing for my students, and many of them soon learned to affect a purposely apathetic demeanor toward the testing. They were right.
I forwarded this article to my State Representative and State Senator with the following message:
……..
Dear Senator Niemery and Representative Hal Slager,
I believe you are still interested in standardized tests for Hoosier children. Thought this writeup would give some indication of the abuse that children endure under these tests.
The best way to understand a child is to realize that the teacher knows where each child is in comparison to the others. Standardized tests do not give any useful information. It is a waste of taxpayer money.
Please read the article and see the frustration of a teacher when teaching time is wasted on these tests. See the frustration mentioned when students have to sit and take these worthless tests.
Well said!
Ok. Here we go again. If teachers really feel that what they are doing is “child abuse,” how can they continue to do it anyway? Because a boss told you to do it? I really feel like you are shooting yourself in the foot if you call this testing “child abuse” and then continue to participate in it.
What is the alternative?
OK, I took the alternative. Refused as an undergrad to take any BS certif courses– just child dvpt, psych, practical teaching methods for my field, practice-teaching. Knowing I could only teach in privsch– but also knowing myself, that I was not a ‘gaga’. Practical results: could afford only an extremely modest lifestyle. That was OK. Then worked a decade in high-paying biz job, salting away savgs so I could help buy a house w/partner, raise kids, return to priv teaching later (w/partner providing main income). But there are many, many folks who cannot afford that route. Who must work pubsch to put food on table. How do such employees ‘not participate’ in testing child-abuse?
Ok, so you are saying that some people must abuse children to earn a living. “Child abuse” has never been my term but some are using it to describe what is happening to children in this testing mania. That’s fine but then think about what you are saying. You are complicit in this testing abuse to earn money. That doesn’t seem right either. Below, Ralph Ratto says that he, “calms their nerves as they struggle.” And that the kids know that their parents want them to take the test. So, perhaps the parents are complicit in the abuse of their own children if this is what teachers are telling them actually happens. I’m suggesting to be careful about using the words “child abuse” because if you are complicit in it, then you only have yourself to blame as well. Isn’t that so?
I understand better what you meant now. Thought-provoking comment. Perhaps the term ‘child-abuse’ is used too casually in this context… or perhaps not. I think some sort of child-harming is involved at least in hours and days of untimed testing of SpEd students– as well as in subjecting any 8 & 9y.o.’s to 90 mins of stdzd testing. And yet if Ralph Ratto defied orders, refused to admin tests, he would immediately be fired, & another quickly slotted in to do ‘boss’ ‘s bidding. He would gain the empty satisfaction of standing by his morals, while the child-harming continued w/o a blip.
I don’t things are as simple as you paint them. The stdzd-testing animal is huge, w/backing of fed/ state law & colluding ed-industry. Individual job-sacrifice on this particular battle-mount gains nothing. One needs a large group to oppose. So far, the best we have is parents, via Opt-Out orgs. To me, the next obvious large group should be the teachers’ unions.
After that, I would look to a way to organize an expert advisory board to the Dept of Ed, in order to corral the research & bring it to bear on the govt. The EPA has such a board, & there was bipartisan agreement today in Congress to mandate that board’s transparency & flush from its membership those whose ‘scientific’ positions are dictated by monetary gain. Why not Ed?
The tests are intended to:
provide student data that can be monetized in various ways.
be used as a bludgeon against teachers and public schools, and supply “proof” they are “failing.”
be a form of coercion against teachers.
inculcate a culture of unquestioned obedience to authority, on the part of students and teachers.
inculcate a a high tolerance for tedium, irrelevance and mean-spirited absurdity, which they will be forced to endure in the future workplace (if they’re lucky enough to have jobs).
be part of the move to turn education into training.
Sorry, all the bullets for the above comment disappeared when it was posted.
I guess you didn’t hear.
Homeland Security outlawed bullets on blogs on account of the terrorist threat.
You’ve summarized all the key useless uses of standardized testing. Let’s hope more parents have caught on to the nefarious goals of testing and have decided to opt out this year.
Mamie, Why do I do it at all?
Let me explain what I do. I work hard informing parents that they have a right to opt out. I lead a movement in my home district and support other districts as they educate parents.
Approximately 40% of the students in my district did opt out!
I still have the resonsibility to help those children that must sit through the tests. I make sure they see me, a friendly face, as I calm their nerves as they struggle. Typically my students also do well on the test, because I teach, not to the test, but just teach.
My fifth grade students know where I stand and they know their parents want them to take the test. I encourage them to honor their parents wishes and do their best. I hate it, but they are still “my “kids. That’s why I do it.
I feel about this in the same way that I feel about sports in schools. Schools are for education, not for competition or ranking (yes, I don’t even like grades).
Athletics would be great in clubs, as they are in Europe. Communities could get just as involved there. And testing (if parents are interested) as well as “test prep” could be done at a commercial testing center outside the school. Don’t make school districts pay for tests that don’t give them any useful information for their goals of educating children. If the state wants to require tests, let them pay for them and for their implementation.
Hear, hear! I suspect if state budgets had to bear the brunt of costs for tests they thought they needed, they might get an earful from state taxpayers & decide they didn’t ‘need’ many.
At the local level, my district tried to get waivers for the influx of new stdzd tests in the 2000’s. Initial assay & appeal were simply ‘denied’– despite being a hi-performing district whose kids could ace the tests [we just didn’t want to sacrifice curriculum-time & test-admin expense]. And this is a district that taxes itself extra on property-assessment, so as to maintain excellence despite sending a large chunk to state for poor school districts.
It all smacks of taxation w/o representation.
The tests are designed to make the students fail the first time around so that “remedial” work is required. After the “remedial” work is completed, the children take different tests and magically pass.
The entire testing industry is designed to make money for the shareholders. It has nothing to do with educating children.
Here’s the part of the linked post that got to me most:
“With these ‘new” untimed tests, some children could potentially sit for 6 hours on each of the 6 testing dates. Their only break will be a sequestered supervised lunch break where they will be monitored to ensure they do not discuss the test with their fellow students.”
Two of my three boys had IEP’s. This reminded me of their untimed-testing experiences. Well before CCSS & PARCC. At first, as a newbie parent of SpEd kids, I welcomed [demanded!] untimed testing. Both showed large gaps between IQ & ‘processing time’. They needed a way to show their mastery of the material. But testing– just regular, on-the-ground teacher-designed tests– took such a toll on them, delivered ‘untimed’. It ate away at their energy for school over K-12 yrs. As did unending written hw assnts for which they were given more time to complete than available, but never forgiven a single one. Underlying it all was an institutional attitude: “your kid is smart: he can explain quadrilateral equations to a layman but can’t complete one. He can hack a computer but can’t write a 10-pp paper. He can compose & perform his way out of a bag but can barely read music– what the heck is WRONG with him?”
This experience informed me that SpEd, for my kids at least, was just an exercise reqd due to stdzd conformance w/some fictional norm, where anybody who doesn’t fit the norm is pigeonholed as ‘disabled’ & given accommodations so as to be measured on the same basis as the norm.
No question SpEd has advanced opportunities: I have 2 dyslexic siblings separated by 7 yrs, both above-normal IQ. The elder could not get a hs diploma. The younger, thanks to IDEA & advances in teaching methodology, is an asst-hisch principal. But we have a long way to go. My own kids 30 yrs later were simply wired differently from the norm, as musicians w/tech ability, & had to fight thro the drudgery of untimed hw assnts & testing simply to prove they were peer to the ‘norm’– to get into OK colleges (where they excelled). How much greater their K-12 experience would have been in project-based learning sans stdzd tests & busywork assnts, & how much greater their drive, confidence, self-esteem would have been.