Maybe that’s one reason Chris Christie became the most unpopular governor in the state. He constantly bashed teachers and public schools.
As Daniel S. Katz says, good riddance to Christie.
New Jerseys want to support their public schools, not privatize them.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
I will be attending the second meeting of the newly elected school board in my district next week. The three new members (of five) are all former teachers, the first time a former teacher has served on the board since I moved here in 2002. The two holdovers will hopefully be gone in two years. This poll just moved to the top of my speaking agenda; Stephen Dyer’s recent analysis that you posted will be second. Both encapsulate everything we, the members of the community of this blog, already know—we need to be bold and unapologetic about our public schools. I encourage all my friends out there to rouse some rabble at your local school board meetings. Not just to pressure them to act locally, but to be more vocal about public schools in public and especially to state and local government officials.
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If you’re lucky after a few votes when they have no say, then they might just resign!
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Thanks, Greg. That’s my goal too.
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It isn’t surprising that New Jerseyans would rate their own children’s schools positively, particularly in a poll that under-samples black and Latino parents. New Jersey has some of the nation’s most segregated schools (http://ielp.rutgers.edu/docs/IELP%20final%20report%20on%20apartheid%20schools%20101013.pdf). White and Asian parents pay a sky-high premium to live in communities that are mostly inaccessible to blacks and Latinos, and the ongoing value of their investment relies upon that exclusion and the related belief that the district has “great” schools.
Dig deeper into the questions, though, and you’ll find something that IS surprising: a majority of these parents don’t fully trust what the public schools that they love are telling them with respect to their child’s performance. “Should students be required to pass some type of standardized testing in order to graduate, or not?” 55% of public school parents responded that yes, they should. There are standardized GREs and LSATs and professional licensing exams awaiting their children, and NJ parents want to know where they stand.
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I live in Howard Co, MD and we have the same issue. The parents love the testing because it makes them feel good to “know” that their children are at the top of the food chain. Competition for grades, AP, SAT, elite sports. Every child in HoCo is a genius (SMH!!!) or stellar athlete…. so there must be something special in the water that we drink and that special water must be why so many people pay really high taxes to want to live here. It’s awful!
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When we decide to see punitive “standardized” testing for what it IS, the statement “…parents love the testing because it makes them feel good to ‘know’ that their children are at the top of the food chain” captures much of the game.
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“to pass some type of standardized testing in order to graduate”
That is a far leap from the six days of testing and weeks of test prep ,in grades 3-8, that did not exist a generation ago.
I do not think many parents object to a standardized test for HS students to demonstrate subject mastery . Whether these tests show mastery or not is another story . I personally loved the NY Regents , it probably raised my grade point average a full grade in every subject . Teachers were reluctant to give Cs and Ds when you Aced the Regents . Of course I forgot everything by the middle of the summer.
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You are lucky to retain 10%. Good point. The current testing is simply cramming.
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I remember an old adage – you don’t fatten a pig by constantly weighing it.
After many years with NCLB, Race to The Top, Common core and PARCC testing, the damaging effects of over-testing our children in recent decades requires the consideration of the following four points that the public should be made aware of: 1. What tests are being administered. 2. A calendar showing the testing schedule. 3. The financial costs of these tests. 4. Publish — clearly and accessibly — the amount of learning time sacrificed to prep for and take these tests.
I bet students could increase and attain a full year’s worth of solid education when the excess time of prep and testing from kindergarten to graduation is compiled.
Rutgers did a poll of parents regarding testing.
which shows parents believe testing has gone overboard.
http://eagletonpoll.rutgers.edu/state-of-the-garden-state-education-2018/
Parents were divided on need for standardized testing but not on the current amount.
Standardized testing is particularly controversial among the state’s public school parents, who are strongly divided on whether students should be required to pass some sort of standardized test in order to graduate. While 55 percent believe it should be a graduation requirement, 44 percent do not. There is no such division on the
amount of standardized testing being given in the public school
system. The majority of parents – 52 percent – feel there is too
much standardized testing.
“Governor Murphy has repeatedly promised to get rid of PARCC tests,” said Koning. “And while public school parents are somewhat divided on whether or not such testing should be required, they would certainly like to see less of it.”
The adverse effects of frequent testing on young people’s mental health are evident to every teacher.
Jack Scheidell 856-693-5657 Turnersville, NJ
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Standardized tests were supposed to be diagnostic, but federal law turned them into the goal of education.
This is a terrible perversion of education and of testing.
When the measure becomes the goal, both are distorted.
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It is not just the testing itself, it is the results of this testing that also bothers me. With the testing outsourced to businesses, schools have no idea about specific questions asked, specific answers given by pupils and the answer keys for EACH QUESTION given. I am surprised there is no outrage. It seems that most parents care only about the final number that they can brag about, but the number does not say much, it does not indicate a specific mistake made in a specific problem. And the scores usually come half a year late, when the time to fix the problem has gone.
In short, these tests give very little information to schools, pupils and parents to figure out where the problem is, and what intervention each pupil needs. Schools, pupils and parents are duped, while the testing companies get lucrative contracts and tons of data.
And this dovetails to the role of a teacher: in this case the teacher does not grade the test, but simply turns on a computer.
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Now that’s an animate argument, J.D. Nice!
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You gotta wonder about all of these Cory Booker types in ed rephorm? They are all now starting to sing a different tune because they see the writing on the wall (unemployment from politics). They are now starting to do the jobs they were elected to do…serve the people who voted them into office.
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They are pretending that they never knew DeVos.
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A leopard doesn’t change its spots.
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Well, they’re just WRONG, Diane.
the only reason they support public schools is they’re too wedded to the “status quo” and/or card-carrying members of labor unions.
Ask any ed reformer. They’re the experts.
I have it on good authority that the only people who support public schools are nasty, “self interested” Luddites or – oh, the horror!- LABOR UNION members.
Cue Arne Duncan to tell us how dumb these public school supporting “moms” are.
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I wonder if ed reformers will look back and discover that creating a “movement” that provides absolutely no value to public school families was a mistake in a country where 90% of people attend public schools.
The laser-like focus on charters and vouchers (and anti-labor union activism) isn’t just pure ideology, it’s oddly blinkered and insular.
I’ve been a public school parent for 25 years and I live in a very conservative area. I have yet to hear a single public school parent raise labor unions as their major concern, even though every teacher in our district belongs to one.
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Maybe NPE could find positive things public schools are doing and “print” those stories.
It wouldn’t have to be cheerleading- just examples of what’s going on in actual public schools all over the country that people won’t hear from the ed reform juggernaut.
Our schools are never heard from and to listen to ed reformers one would think they’re all decaying hovels filled with drug-addicted, violent bullies and lazy teachers.
That just isn’t true.
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Right, the police officers on premises are just to collect the salary and weed-sniffing dogs are for petting during lunchtime.
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