Matt Barnum reports on a conference sponsored by the Center for Reinventing Public Education, one of the leaders in promoting charters and portfolio districts, where he noted a new consensus against standardized testing. The only dissident voice was Sandy Kress, architect of No Child Left Behind, who may be the last person on earth who still believes in the value of test-and-punish regimes.
Some reformers said that they prefer to put their energy into “personalized learning,” which is a synonym for putting kids in fromt of a computer for hours every day.
Others may be disappointed that their beloved charter schools have failed to produce the test scores they expected, so they are looking for a different measure.
The reformers seem to be in alignment with Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, who turned against test scores when she realized that school choice does not produce higher test scores.
“Such rumblings of discontent with testing are not entirely new among the education reform crowd. Free-market-oriented advocates like Betsy DeVos, for example, have downplayed test scores, suggesting the more important issue is whether parents are satisfied with a given school.”
Diane Ravitch's blog 
If parents’ contentment were a real consideration, why have parent and student protests been ignored in many major cities including, Newark, Philadelphia, Chicago and Los Angeles? Maybe it has something to do with the color of the skin of those protesting. If they want to ensure that children of color are not “forgotten,” why don’t they try hearing them when these young people want to attend their community public school? “Reform” has targeted young people of color by closing their schools based on test scores. Instead of addressing funding disparities built into the system or aspiring to promote more integration, the political hacks in charge have promoted the separate and unequal treatment of minority students. Separate and unequal charter schools are racism masquerading as opportunity. Privatization is another racist scam being falsely presented as the “civil rights issue of our time.”
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Peter Greene had a few thoughts on this issue: http://curmudgucation.blogspot.com/2018/11/anti-test-pro-computer.html
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The main reason “reform,” which promised to deliver gigantic academic gains, is softening their position is because they have failed to deliver on those gains. Now like DeVos it a choice for the sake of choice. Why should taxpayers have to pay for an array of competing schools when the common public schools often deliver a more efficient and effective education?
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Every time they miss their goal, they move the goalposts.
If public schools improve, charter operators claim credit.
The magic of competition.
I’ve always wondered whether families would get better if forced to compete and threatened with the removal of their children.
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YES. Every time they miss their goal, they move the goalposts. When I wrote about my own experience with this I ended up calling it “a recipe for chaos” — I caught on that the goal of “accountability” was never to actually fix anything, but simply to keep things in such endless flux that the lucrative money for pretending to push “accountability” never dried up.
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Maybe the question we should ask is, why are the wants of a few given priority over the needs of many? This is hardly a democratic goal for a country that aspires to equality.
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Exactly. Why should the schools that educate 85-90% of the children lose resources and teachers to underwrite boutique schools for 5% which may fail and close?
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Ours is not to reason why
Our is just to test , then die
And pay taxes (before and after), of course.
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Frankly these days I have less of a problem with standardized testing than I do with the pointless mountains of homework my son and his classmates are assigned each night, which threaten to reduce every day to a routine of nothing but (1) being in school, followed by (2) doing homework all night. My son plays multiple sports, which unfortunately means he gets to bed around 11 each night. Not ideal for an 11-year-old.
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That’s terrible!
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Even the so-called “experts” who believe in homework say no more than 10 minutes per night per grade. I assume your son is in 5th or 6th grade? So no more than an hour max per night (which is still obscene). I guess I’d have a long talk with the teacher(s) and ask him/her/them to justify such mountains. It’s especially inexcusable if he’s in a typical elementary school with one teacher, who should know how much homework s/he is giving. It’s a little more complicated at the middle level where there are multiple classes taught by multiple teachers, but, still, there has to be some way for the teachers to work together to balance it out.
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6th grade. An hour max — ha! I’d say he does between 3 to 4 hours per night. I’ll let you know how the long talk goes, but I imagine it’s not going to be very long, i.e. limited to the ten minute block we get for parent-teacher conferences. Most of which will not be suitable for that kind of discussion, because they structure the conferences so that the student attends and essentially does a “self-evaluation,” which expect to be an Orwellian experience imported from the corporate workplace.
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I see excessive hw has resurfaced. This was a problem when my 3 were in elemsch in ’90’s [eventually quelled by district parent protest, w/much citing of the 10-min/ grade rule]. I had a firm sit-down w/my eldest’s 3rd-gr teacher, giving her a reality-check on time actually expended. And I was giving her an hour for the typical 3 assnts, not just 30 mins. After that, I limited his time & marked ea ppr “20 mins spent [initials].
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Update re: the “long talk” — I just learned that students’ actual teachers do not attend parent-teacher conferences. Instead, the conferences are with the students’ “advisors,” who will have notes from each teacher and presumably will communicate parent/student comments back to each teacher. I hate this school so much.
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FLERP, I never heard of a parent-teacher conference that did not involve a face-to-face meeting between the parent and the teacher(s)
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Nor had I, until now. Beyond ridiculous. Maybe I’ll tell the “adviser” that not only have I never heard of such a thing, but neither has education historian Diane Ravitch!
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I hope you didn’t miss this article back when it came out 5 years ago — it’s priceless:
https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2013/10/my-daughters-homework-is-killing-me/309514/
All kidding aside, I did think that since this was written, NYC public middle schools had generally been better about loading kids down with useless homework. I’m sorry your kid is suffering.
One caveat — one kid’s 45 minutes of homework is another kid’s 3 hours of homework. I find that parents who have kid #1 first, followed by kid #2 are shocked at how much homework kid #2 has and those who have kid #2 first are pleasantly surprised at how little homework their 2nd kid (the one who efficiently finishes it) has.
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Its all part of the same plan.
School has become all about meeting completely arbitrary performance standards whether that be scores on a standardized test or x hours of homework each night.
It’s as if the people who came up with the requirements had absolutely no imagination so they just took what teachers did in the past and put it on steroids.
If 30 minutes of homework is good for Johnny, surely 4 hours must be 8 times as good. Shirley.
Makes perfect Common Core sense, right?
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Society is being forced and trained to work longer hours for less pay — by people who make trillions assembling their tech products in countries where people work very long hours for very little pay (and whose children are forced to obsess over state tests). Hmm, what a coincidence.
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I guess we should thank Jeff Bezos, Tim Cook and others for leveling the playing field — with a bull dozer.
Some day, thank the Lord Gates we in America will be equal with all of those low paid workers in China,
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Sorta puts the whole anti-union thing in perspective, doesn’t it.
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I’m sorry to say most teachers don’t know what they’re doing. They’ve been miseducated themselves. True, the curriculum is being forced on them, but most of them don’t question it. They don’t have the wherewithal to question it. Once again, I blame the schools of education for this travesty.
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Deformer’s turning inward
To don the secret veil
His body turns to windward
To cover up the trail
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Oops
Wrong spot
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Teacher education has been quietly taken over by corporate deform. Teachers trained in this century have been taught to hold test scores (and online “teaching”) on a pedestal. It’s impossible, in my experience, to get through to them because they were taught to see public education as broken and in need of test and tech fixing. Depressing.
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I don’t know about the schools of ed; I’d tend to put the onus on those who dictate that X amount of curriculum must be “covered” in X # of school days. My observation as a parent was that the less that was “covered” in class, the more was assigned in hw, inevitably leading to new stuff assigned in hw that hadn’t been “covered” in class at all, resulting in head-scratching/ hair-pulling & much wasted time puzzling over hw.
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I disagree. Don’t use one brush to paint ALL teachers in a bad light. Most of the teachers I’ve worked with and those who have taught my children have been more than qualified (some even exceptional).
There’s the other point that personality plays a role so that some teachers were an excellent fit for one child but not so much for the other. I also want to tack on about the homework agreeing with an above comment that my oldest might need fifteen to whip through a worksheet, while my youngest was able to even focus long enough to complete the assignment.
That what’s wrong with the one size fits all strategy – children are unique and I want my school’s to meet the specific needs of each of my children. Cutting the budget and eliminating services does a disservice to all (not the occasional “bad” teacher).
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Oldest did homework quickly, youngest never finished no matter how much time he spent staring at the paper.
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If you live in a test centric, common core aligned school district AND you are in a school with very little Title I, your kids will likely have lots of homework. They will do the test prep, common core crap (in our district it’s called data analysis) during school and gloss over the 3RRR’s because they know the parents will “teach” the children with the homework that is sent home. If your child attends a school with a lot of Title I, all they will get is “data analysis” during school and very little homework because the parents don’t have the time or resources to help the kids. The goal is high test scores for all, but only a real education for the kids with parents who have the time to spend with their children. Sorry….but that’s what I’ve found living in the suburbs outside of DC.
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Lisa, thank you for your reporting. Teachers: listen to Lisa. We’re serving up garbage masquerading as excellence. Common Core is a defective product that is harming the majority of America’s kids. It needs to be taken off the shelf now.
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Education reporters: this is a story –parents hate Common Core and teachers have no solid evidence, just empty claims, to back it up. Dan Willingham, E.D. Hirsch, Nell Duke and Marilyn Adams can explain why it’s bankrupt and harming kids.
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Why should education reporters talk about Common Core? That’s so yesterday. Common Core isn’t even in the schools anymore. Don’t you even know that, Ponderosa?
Come on, get with the program.
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No student should have to work hard in their classrooms for six hours
and then go home and be required to work for hard again. Most homework is busy work and should be sent back to the teacher labeled as such! Use your right as a parent to refuse excessive HW.
The sleep deficits your son is experiencing is much more harmful to the learning process than the hours of homework is beneficial. Numerous studies have shown the essential benefits that 8+ hours of sleep will provide.
A fantastic read for every parent, teacher, and human:
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OOps. Meant for FLERP “above”
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Tell me about it! Unfortunately if we just “return to sender” with his homework, his grades will plummet. I’m bracing to be told that he needs to curtail his athletic activities, at which point I will lunge across the table and commence strangulation.
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Check to see if there is a BOE approved HW policy. Ask about the grading policy; why should grades plummet? Or do what I did, do the HW for your kid, ease his burden, and get a feel for the validity. Busy work, baby work, and redundancy should be discussed with the teacher and administrator. If you are a strong and vocal advocate for your child (and common sense), the system will listen.
Read this book and it will help you with an evidence based argument for SLEEP and against excessive HW,
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Thanks.
His assignments are all graded and will factor into his semester grade.
The grading policy makes no sense whatsoever — assignments are graded “EE” (exceeds expectations), “ME” (meets expectations), and “BE” (I think it’s “BE”–in any event, it means below expectations), with no corresponding percentage number. We’re told that EE equals 95-100, ME equals 90-95, and BE (or whatever the lowest category is) equals 75-90. We asked the teachers (they are all using the same grading system) why a specific number wasn’t assigned, and they said that they would be translated into specific numbers at the end of the semester. Based on all my experience in life, that’s completely backwards — the normal practice is to assign specific numbers (or at least letters that correspond to specific numbers), and then translate the average of those numbers (however weighted) into a final number, which can in turn be translated into a letter grade (if the school system is so inclined) based on where the final number falls within the ranges that are assigned to each letter grade.
We asked how they were going to translate number ranges into specific numbers, and we were told this was a new system and they’ll work that out later. It took about 20 questions to get them to that point. I have no confidence that they know what they’re doing.
As luck would have it, the grading and the homework load are not even our biggest concerns. Our biggest concerns are (1) there are a small group of extremely disruptive students who are completely out of control, and (2) there is a very surprising amount of actual physical violence in hallways, at lunch, and at recess. I hear stories about this daily. The stories are serious enough to merit emails to all parents about once a week, explaining what the latest incident is. Some of those emails state that a student was taken to the hospital. This is a massive transition from the “zero tolerance” days of his elementary school. A few years ago, I never would have imagined I would say these words, but I think I am going to have to teach my son how to fight.
As bad as all this has been, it was actually worse at the start of the school year. Unfortunately, that sense of improvement may be lulling me into inaction. My wife and I are tired.
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@Flerp. The acting out of these kids is because of the test centric, common core curriculum. The children are not engaged in meaningful learning and they are creating their own form of entertainment. Kids don’t do well when they sit idle and disinterested for too long. This was the same scenario in my son’s grade(starting at Kindergarten) and MS looked like the movie One FLew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. He goes to private HS now ….no CC, no testing madness, lots of clubs and electives, limited online learning, PE…..no behavior problems.
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The obsession with CC math and ELA scores has accomplished the exact opposite of the parent that spawned this disaster:
“No Child Left Behind” has sadly left the majority of students very far behind what used to be a well rounded, holistic approach to education.
The obsession with Chromebooks and laptops and Google docs has not helped either.
All of this is creating a generation of bored kids who truly DK – and really DC either. Many are becoming Silicon Zombies and others choose to act out from frustration, boredom, and an approach to teaching that most kids instinctively understand to be wrong (on many levels).
Grading systems that even teachers can’t explain.
Third grade math that stumps parents and frustrates kids
Test items that even the authors of the selected passages get wrong
The most interesting, content filled subjects (SS and science) sacrificed on the altar of test scores
The professional judgement of veteran teachers routinely ignored – even mocked.
Debunked and failed methodologies raised back up on a pedestal
The school experience hollowed out by professionals who know better but fail to act
Diane, when is your new book due? It is a message that desperately needs to heard.
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I hope a year from now. Finishing up now.
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And the kind of homework does not justify the amount of effort required to complete each assignment. I had children because I like to spend time with them, not watch them sit at their desks or at a computer/tablet answering questions.
And they wonder why families become dysfunctional!
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You speak the truth.
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Been there
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I think the so-called reformers are not really de-emphizing tests unless they are also leading opt-out movements. ESSA means that state plans cannot escape tests and the plans may actually add “alternative” assessments, if they are evidence based and especially function like tests for ranking performances. The so-called reformers are also pushing online instructional delivery and management systems as if these “personalize learning.” These delivery systems are designed to provide mastery of thinklets and little chunks of information and “competencies” all of these used to rate and rank students just as group-administered standardized tests.
Per-pupil funding, tied to outcomes at each school–required by ESSA for 2019-2020 will be the new great cause for supporters of charter schools, online charter programs, and voucher- like schemes for DYI cafeteria fare. All will be marketed as offering more bang for the buck.
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Pearsonalized learning means never having to say you were wrong or sorry while at the same time achieving all your major goals and then some.
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While I have not read “The Language Police”, I can imagine a revised version is due. The mere fact that the destroyers of public education have coopted the term “reform” is too obvious. Diane and many of you have taught me that that “disruption” (and “churn”), when applied to children, is never good…much like those who wrongly equate the business of business with the business of governing.
The term “personalized” is the next frontier. As you both understand, “personalized” when applied to “learning” is anything but. Yet in the world of medicine, it is the current Holy Grail, the new quest for magic bullets of cures. It means applying the knowledge about one’s personal genetics and using their own immune systems to battle disease. It is mostly theory, but clinicians see a future of its widespread use for a number of diseases. This is the imagery the proponents for personalized learning want to convey. It is up to us to correct the record.
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“I think the so-called reformers are not really de-emphizing tests unless they are also leading opt-out movements.”
Right on, Laura! DofEd is still micromanaging curriculum & pedagogy– narrowing the former & constraing the latter– w/its obsolete, proven-wrong-by-results reqts for 3rd-8th + 1 hisch yr testing reqts.
OPT OUT.
It’s the only way to pressure an end to this overweening bureaucratic exec-agency’s unfunded & never-voted-for mandate imposed on state citizens.
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There go the deformers again…still can’t find the door. They’re totally on one tract … “BLINDED by greed.”
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So maybe standardized tests aren’t going out of style: https://grumpyoldteacher.com/2018/11/10/threat-assessment-teams/
Florida (of course it’s Florida) has mandated “Threat Assessment Teams” for each school. “Threats” are to be assessed by computerized tests taken by ninth graders. What could possibly go wrong?
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Test Sheets
Not going out of style
Just going undercover
With quite beguiling smile
Like greeting of a lover
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If charter hustlers and thieves cut down on lobbying senators and state legislators to mandate testing, that’s a very good thing. District officials in my neck of the (ablaze) woods are far too gullible and easily convinced the scores mean something. It makes teaching so difficult. To be honest, if I could choose between a ban on charters and a ban on annual testing left over from the NCLB, I would take the ban on testing. Welcome onto the OptOut train, charter train robbers. All aboard!
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I’m still catching up with yesterday….today….this morning. Ha, ha, Reading this particular blog entry, what can I say? You guys said it all, and so well.
If only some of those so-called “in-service days” at school included time for teachers to just sit down and read this blog. It’d be more productive than a lot of the stuff I’ve seen done -based on 31 years of sitting through “staff development”. (No Consultant Left Behind, that’s what I called NCLB.)
And, this blog is free! Have a great day, everyone.
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“staff development” is what I call “being professionally developed”. . .
of course by someone else’s design.
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To answer the question posed:
Because now they see the $$ in “personalized” computer training.
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Pearsonalized learning is Deform Nirvana.
It has all the Deformer’s goals wrapped up in a neat little salable package: common core, testing (that can’t be opted out of), data collection at the minutest level, software, hardware, giant classrooms, teacher deprofessionalization and demotion to onsite software and hardware tech support.
And best of all: once it gets in the schools, it will be virtually impossible to eliminate because the whole thing has a built in positive feedback mechanism. Once you start selfpacing students, it become difficult if not I possible to bring them back together. And once you start deprofessionalizing and laying off teachers (cuz you can handle much bigger classes with computer aided instruction), you lose the core of what makes a school a school.
But make no mistake: this is all part of the plan.
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And we KNOW it is part of a master plan simply by the name: personalized learning.
That name did not arrive organically. It was the result of careful consideration and probably testing by a team of advertising people (most likely hired by Bill Gates, who has had a part in development if virtually every aspect of what goes into personalized learning)
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SDP, I imagine that the Waltons, Broad, and Gates hired a marketing/branding team to design their labels, jargon, and slogans. The team started by renaming “privatization” and calling it “reform.” This put their critics on the defensive, not knowing what to call themselves. Suddenly, if you valued the public schools, you were “anti-reform.” If you wanted to turn them over to private management, you were a “reformer.”
Similarly, if you want to privatize as many public schools as possible, announce you are opposed to a “school system.” You want “a system of schools,” each of which will be “great” in its own way. The system will wither away as privately managed schools proliferate.
If you want to put every student on a computer and teach them remotely using algorithms and big Data, call it “personalized learning.”
You can continue this exercise in branding endlessly, naming every thing its opposite.
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Time to re-brand it: Fake Teaching!
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That personalized learning crap used to be called programmed learning back in the day before computers. It didn’t catch on for a reason.
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How are students supposed to integrate into the business world where they have to interact with their colleagues or customers if they have limited social action with their peers?
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Rager,
That is why I used the term “training”.
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Exactly, Duane. It’s the new testing all day, all the time.
“Personalized” learning~ a euphemism for NO learning* (all that SDP lists in his 2nd paragraph below).
&, also, to add to RAtT comments below, *FAKE learning.
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Whoops, I meant Rage’s comments above.
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As an educator, I agree that there is too much emphasis on test scores. However, as of now and if done correctly, this is still the best way to see if the children are learning and progressing in school. A new approach is the portfolios but that doesn’t mean students are spending hours in front of the computer to do so. In today’s classroom, most assignments, tests, and papers are done online and shared with the teachers. The portfolios are an accumulation of that work and knowledge the students have completed. These are used to evaluate the students progress instead of exclusively tests. This new approach has a great deal of merit and I am looking into it further to use in my classroom. This was a very interesting topic, I appreciate reading everyone’s viewpoints and look forward to reading future comments.
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Agreed. A well written test can fairly evaluate factual knowledge, technical understanding, content vocabulary, and objective skills.
We have legions of doctors, engineers, scientists, historians, technicians, EMTs, police, tradespeople, teachers, accountants, graduate students and others who demonstrated their knowledge and skill based qualifications through (mostly) objective testing.
The problem with CC testing (PARCC, SBAC, Pearson, Questar) was that the tests were poorly written, tried to assess too many subjective ideas (bad standards), and the arbitrary scores were misused in ways that were nearly criminal (teacher/administrator/school/district evaluations).
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Gary,
What kind of “educator” are you?
Gracias.
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Duane,
I have a few teaching degrees. I am currently teaching Physical Education and Health education to grades 6-12. I have also been a elementary classroom teacher as well.
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“I agree that there is too much emphasis on test scores. However, as of now and if done correctly, this is still the best way to see if the children are learning and progressing in school. A new approach is the portfolios but . . . .”
Ay ay ay ay ay.
There is no K-12 standardized testing and/or computer training that is “done correctly”. When the onto-epistemological foundations of the practices (both mentioned) are full of falsehoods, errors and psychometric fudgings that render the usage of any of the results for anything completely invalid (see Wilson), how can you state that “if done correctly”. Hint: There is NO correctly done with invalidities. By definition they are wrong, incorrect, false, chimerical, in other more common crude terms bullshit and horse manure.
And the “new approach is the portfolios”? Well I saw those in place for my children back in the 90s.
Can I guess your age Gary? 28?
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Gary, portfolios of student work are not new. Where I worked it was required and each grade level teacher added on specific pieces of student work into the folder (although I suppose now it could all be digitalized). It also was labor intensive.
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Yes, thank you. I know they have been around awhile. I am referring to the portfolios that are digital. They still require work, but quicker to organize and easier for all the teachers to contribute to and add. With these, the students also have access to them so materials can be used by them in different classes year to year. I know I am implying them and what is old is new again with some modern changes. I am entering my 30th year of teaching and there are many reforms that have come around again with a new twist. In response to your comment about social interaction, our school emphasizes cooperative learning and group work. This is also not a new concept, but having the students working together and solving problems, not on their devices is a priority for us.
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The goal should be to tie best practices from the past (those which truly worked) and tweak them so they fit into the everchanging society. The trouble is when concepts such as Common Core and mandatory, but flawed, assessments tie teachers down and keep them from moving forward and being innovative (the exact opposite of what they claim to do). It sounds like your school has found a way to walk the line.
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