Rightwing corporate reformers like to go on and on about parental choice. Choice. Choice. Choice. The one choice they will not tolerate is parents who want their children to refuse the state tests. No choice! Governor Nathan Deal of Georgia vetoed a bill that would make it easier to parents to opt their children out of state standardized tests. He also blocked the possibility of students taking the tests using paper and pencil, instead of a computer. Deal was immediately hailed by Jeb Bush, who pushes computerization and digitization whenever possible. Jeb is a big support of school choice if it means vouchers and charters. He opposes parents’ right to opt out of testing. He is also a major supporter of computer-based instruction and computer-based assessment. His “Foundation for Educational Excellence” is largely funded by the software corporations that profit from standardized testing and data mining online. It has long been a goal of the corporate reform industry to use tests to “prove” that public schools are failing, that there is an “achievement gap,” and that parents should pull their children out of public schools and send them to charter schools or demand vouchers. Once that happens, the test scores don’t count anymore, because neither charters nor vouchers raise test scores or close achievement gaps. It is all a massive hoax to promote privatization.
This article appeared in Politico Pro. I am not a s
By Aubree Eliza Weaver
05/09/2017 01:52 PM EDT
Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal today vetoed a bill that would have made it easier for students to opt out of taking standardized tests.
House Bill 425 included provisions discouraging disciplinary action against those students who do not participate in federal, state or locally mandated standardized assessments. Additionally, it would have allowed students to complete the exams using paper and pencil, instead of a computer.
“First, as I stated in my veto of SB 133 last year, local school districts currently have the flexibility to determine opt-out procedures for students who cannot, or choose not to, take these statewide assessments and I see no need to impose an addition layer of state-level procedures for these students,” Deal said in a statement.
He also said that reverting to paper-and-pencil exams would make it harder for the state to return test data to districts quickly and goes against the state’s priority of reducing opportunities for students to cheat.
Deal’s decision was lauded by the Foundation for Excellence in Education, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports.
“The proposal would have harmed students and teachers by denying access to measurements that track progress on standardized assessments,” the advocacy group, founded by former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, said in a statement. “Maintaining a transparent and accountable measurement systems is critical to ensuring students are on track to succeed in college and beyond — and indicates how successful schools are in preparing students for the future.”
To view online:
https://www.politicopro.com/education/whiteboard/2017/05/georgia-governor-vetoes-opt-out-measure-087474
This article appeared in Politico Pro. I am not a subscriber because it costs $3,500 a year, the last time I checked. Too rich for my taste.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
No surprise. Georgia is one of the two state higher ed systems that signed onto Gates’ commercializing Frontier Set.
Exactly so on the matter of choice, choice, choice except for the choice to use paper and pencil for tests and to opt out of these altogether.
Except that no one needs a law saying that they can opt out. Unless there is a law explicitly stating that parents can’t opt out, opt out is a right. We have the right to do whatever is not explicitly prohibited by law. I’m getting very leery of this idea that we need laws granting us permission to do things. That’s not how democracy works.
We in the state of MD have to REFUSE….because of the way policy has been written. Opt-out/refuse…..just a difference in wording, but different results. We are tied to CCRAP and Common Bore curriculum 😦
Testing is literally the only thing ed reform has “contributed” to public schools.
Without testing they wouldn’t have anything at all to offer students and parents in public schools. They say it themselves- “choice and accountability”
Charters and vouchers and tests.
Here in NJ, the residents do not have a vote or any input on whether a charter school is off loaded on their district. No choice, choice, choice in that case. The NJ DOE chooses to place a charter in a district without any feed back from the tax payers. However, in many districts the residents revolt and make their displeasure known to the NJ DOE; sometimes the DOE will back down if enough pressure is applied.
In the state of MD we have no opt-out so parents here have to fight to REFUSE. The counties are left to make their own rules about refusal students often times using the sit and stare tactic, or bullying the child into signing in/out of the test, or having proctors log into the test using student ID#’s. It’s ALL BS! Fact is, they talk about the computer test being so fast with results?…..but the results don’t come back until the late fall (early Dec) after the kids have already started the new school year. So it’s not about learning and growth….it’s about data and free market. GA can live without the legislation and just choose to REFUSE.
Disgusting!
People shouldn’t kid themselves- Jeb Bush openly touts “virtual schools” as a cheap replacement for teachers:
.@JebBush: Virtual schools can provide equal educational opportunities, particularly for college-prep classes.
If you think Jeb and the rest of them aren’t going to jam cheap online courses in to replace teachers in lower income schools you are a fool. They’re already doing it.
A decade ago they sold this openly as a cheap alternative to live instruction. They realized that wasn’t great marketing so they adopted “personalized”.
Do not buy what they’re selling based on their advice. Get better advice.
“Replac[ing] teachers in lower income schools….They’re already doing it.” YES. it is looking more and more like a combo Bush/Gates future will be in the hiring of ONLY low-paid no-job-security computer facilitators. And guess who gets to write both the computer curricula AND the never-ending testing modules?
OMG. Guess the deformers are running scared so they change the rules. Typical.
OPT OUT! What can those airheads do? Put the kids and parents in jail?
That’s what I told the school administrators the first time that I REFUSED for my children. I told them to sue me or jail me for protecting my right as a parent to do what is good for my children….they didn’t know what to think, so they just let me REFUSE….and they continue to let me REFUSE with no issues or strings attached.
It’s too bad more parents don’t have your backbone.
I do not understand why parents are opposed to having their children tested. The parents enroll their children in the public school, and pay for the school with their taxes. They should want their children to be tested, to determine if the education that the parents are paying for, is actually being delivered.
Why would parents want to refuse to have their children tested?
Am I missing something?
Charles,
Until 2002, children were tested periodically, like in grades 4,8,12. With a test that lasted one hour or not more than two.
Now every child is tested every year in grades3-8 and the tests last 9-10 hours. No other nation subjects its children to annual testing longer than the bar exam.
Parents rightly object.
When I went to public school in Texas, we didn’t take any standardized tests. Our teachers tested us and graded the tests.
I am trying to understand. If parents object to these tests, then what other methodology would be more appropriate? What do parents want?
I would think that most parents, would want to have some kind of metric, some “bar”, some standard, that would reveal the knowledge that their children have obtained in the public schools, that they are paying for.
In an international economy, USA children can and should be measured against the educational achievements, of the students in the nations against whom they will be competing, when school is concluded.
What method would be appropriate, to determine this important parameter?
Charles,
Other nations do not test their children every year. We should be teaching more and testing less. Please read my book “Reign of Error.” You may not agree with everything but it might educate you.
It appears that Charles loves testing but is against learning. Children learn by being involved with what the teacher is teaching and the work/projects assigned. Children do not learn from taking secretive, flawed tests. The best tests are those teachers create to help them access what the children are learning from the lessons taught, and then teachers take what they learned from the tests they created to improve instruction.
Q It appears that Charles loves testing but is against learning. Children learn by being involved with what the teacher is teaching and the work/projects assigned. Children do not learn from taking secretive, flawed tests.END Q
If you think that I “love” testing, and am against learning, you are wrong. I am in favor of learning, and trying to understand, how an objective and fair means can be engineered, to ascertain the extent of the learning, that citizens are paying for in their government-run public schools.
I am 1000% in agreement, that no child will learn anything from
taking any test. On that point, no argument.
Should there be a standard test, to determine learning? How often should these tests be administered? Diane says USA children should be given the same tests that Finnish children are given. What is so special about these tests?
I accept your statement. Test less, teach more. I agree. I still do not understand, what method is appropriate, to determine if students are learning the material. Should tests be taken bi-annually? Should USA children take similar tests that international students take?
If you could wave a magic wand, what would you do?
I am fascinated.
Yes, Charles. Our children should take the same tests as children in Finland, the highest performing European nation
Are you serious? Should USA students take the same tests as Europeans? or similar tests?
Yes, Charles, exactly the same tests as the students in Finland.
“I [Charles] still do not understand, what method is appropriate, to determine if students are learning the material.”
The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) has been the report card for America’s public schools since the early 1960s.
https://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard/about/naephistory.aspx
If you read Diane’s book “Reign of Error” you would learn that the community-based, democratic, transparent, non-profit, traditional public schools in the United States have had steady improvement annually until after the high-stakes tests that are being used to rank and punish teachers and close those public schools arrived along with NCLB and all the other autocratic, corporate Common Core for-profit crap.
Teacher assessment is the best method to determine if students are learning the material.
If you read that piece in Smithosianian Magazine about Finland’s public schools you would LEARN that teachers are the ones who assess their students. In fact, every time I corrected student work during the 30 years I was teaching, I was assessing the child’s learning, and it was easy to discover who wasn’t learning because those students were not doing any work and in the grade book there was a row of zeroes behind their names.
For the students who were doing the work and not getting it, there are many things teachers can do to help those students learn material that is difficult for them as long as they are cooperating. For instance, the school district where I taught offered after school tutoring in the library and every teacher was req
Q Teacher assessment is the best method to determine if students are learning the material. ENDQ
I find myself in agreement, that the individual teacher, will know best, if the students are getting the instruction.
This being said, and I am in agreement, then what kind of metric should teachers use? And how can uniformity be maintained? How can a teacher in New Hampshire, be compared to a teacher in California?
How can uniformity be maintained? Sounds like you want everyone to be cloned minions.
Should all surgeons be uniform in their methods? Children are individuals. Teachers are individuals. Highly educated and trained teachers should be treated with the respect professionals deserve and then trusted to do their job just like in China and Finland and most countries that haven’t been subverted by the Gates, ALEC, Pearson cabal of crap education.
@ Lloyd: You are not getting my context. I am not interested in cloned minions. By “uniformity”,I mean a uniform, objective standard, which can be applied “horizontally”. Testing procedures, and tests must meet some kind of standard, to have any meaning at all. A math test in New Hampshire must be equivalent to a math test in Nevada or South Dakota, else the results derived are meaningless. (I used to work for the US Commerce Department in statistical data collection and analysis).
Test results are meaningless when they weren’t created by the same teachers that use those results to improve instruction and curriculum in their classrooms.
Test results are meaningless when the racial and socioeconomic demographics of children in New York are not the same as children in Hawaii.
Test results are meaningless when they don’t test what the teachers taught.
Test results are meaningless when they don’t take into account that every child is not an engaged learner.
Test results are meaningless when the tests were written by noneducators working for corporations that are only out to make a profit.
Test results are meaningless when the money behind the legislation promoting the tests have one goal: to destroy the teaching profession, close community-based, democratic, transparent, non-profit public schools and get rid of labor unions.
Test results are meaningless when the tests and the detailed results are kept secret.
The international PISA test is standardized and one result of that test revealed “There is an achievement gap between more and less disadvantaged students in every country; surprisingly, that gap is smaller in the United States than in similar post-industrial countries, and not much larger than in the very highest scoring countries. Achievement of U.S. disadvantaged students has been rising rapidly over time, while achievement of disadvantaged students in countries to which the United States is frequently unfavorably compared – Canada, Finland and Korea, for example – has been falling reapidly.”
http://news.stanford.edu/news/2013/january/test-scores-ranking-011513.html
Another fact that the PISA results revealed “The United Kingdom and the United States find themselves in the bottom third of the rankings for five of the six dimensions reviewed.”
The study’s title was “Child poverty in perspective: An overview of child well-being in rich countries.” … “the lack of educational and cultural resources should rank alongside lack of income, and that the educational resources of the home, in particular, play a critical role in children’s education achievement.”
Click to access ChildPovertyReport.pdf
Charles, no standardized, normed test is going to be the fantasy magic bullet that solves the problems and challenges caused by poverty.
As an educator I am against state testing. I teach each child in my class individually and am required to differentiate my instruction to meet all learning needs and styles each year. Then I have to let my students take a state mandated test, that offers no differentiation, is extremely rigorous, and gives me no valuable information in return. By the time the state test is administered in April I can tell you exactly what each of my students needs to continue on a successful education pathway. I teach 3rd grade and that is the first grade that state testing is mandated in Georgia. My students are scared to death every year because the state test is held over their head as a means to determine whether or not they are promoted to 4th grade. It is unfair and unreasonable to put that much pressure on 3rd grade students in any state. The school that I teach in has a high-poverty/low income population. The students have little, to no parental support at home so the majority of their learning is done in my classroom. I test that learning EVERY week and I know my students’ strengths and weaknesses. I do not need someone else, who does not know my students, to create a test for me to determine that!