Parents are preparing for the teachers’ strike on January 10 by creating a FB page to support their teachers.
Parent Jenna Schwartz started a FB Page called “Parents Supporting Teachers.”
If you live in LA, join them.
Archives for category: Parent Groups
Fred Smith is a genuine Testing Expert. He has the technical expertise to dig deep into the numbers and understand what they mean and what they don’t mean. He spent most of his career at the New York City Board of Education. Now he is a valued consultant to the Opt Out Movement in New York. He knows fraud in testing and he’s not afraid to call it out.
Fred Smith is a hero of American education, and he here joins the honor roll.
Read this article about him, which contains links to his latest work.
John Thompson, retired teacher and historian in Oklahoma, shares his thoughts about the Network for Public Education Conference in Indianapolis. He begins by trying to wrap his brain around my provocative claim that “We are winning.” After I received his post, I explained to him that everything the Reformers have tried has failed. Every promise they have made has been broken. They have run American education for a decade or a generation, depending on when you start counting, and they have nothing to show for it. I contend there is no “reform movement.” There is instead a significant number of incredibly rich men and women playing with the lives of others. The Billionaire Boys Club, plus Alice Walton, Laurene Powell Jobs, and a few other women. This is no social movement. A genuine movement has grassroots. The Reformers have none; they have only paid staff. If the money dried up, the “reform movement” would disappear. It has no troops. None. Genuine movements are built by dedicated, passionate volunteers. That’s what we have.
Thompson writes:
The Network for Public Education’s fifth annual conference was awesome. It will take me awhile to wrestle with the information about the “David versus Goliath” battle which is leading to the defeat of corporate school reform. But I will start by thinking through the lessons learned from retired PBS education reporter John Merrow and Jim Harvey, who was a senior staff member of the National Commission on Excellence in Education and the principle author of “A Nation at Risk.” Harvey is now executive director of the National Superintendents Roundtable.
Merrow explained that charters are producing “a scandal a day.” Using the type of turn of a phrase for which he is well known, Merrow said that charters have had “too much attention but not enough scrutiny.” He says that some mom and pop charters are excellent, but online charters should be outlawed. Then he punched holes in the charter-advocates’ claim that rigorous accountability systems could minimize the downsides of charters.
Merrow says that one reason why it isn’t really possible to scrutinize the costs of charters is that there is no longer a real difference between for-profit and nonprofit charters. Choice has created a system of “buyer beware.”
Harvey added that journalists have been accused of cherry-picking charter scandal reports but “there are so many cherries.” Then he recounted inside stories on the writing of the infamous “A Nation at Risk” and how the report was “hijacked,” as he provided insights into how corporate school reform spun out of control.
As Harvey and Merrow discussed, before the report it was difficult to get the press to focus on the classroom. Conflicts over busing to desegregate schools would get the public’s attention, but Harvey didn’t think that “A Nation at Risk” would attract much of an audience. He thought that the key sentence in the opening paragraph hit a balance. The sentence began with the statement that the American people “can take justifiable pride in what our schools and colleges have historically accomplished and contributed to the United States and the well-being of its people,” and the paragraph concluded with, “What was unimaginable a generation ago has begun to occur–others are matching and surpassing our educational attainments. “
Had it not been for manipulations of the report by those who were driven by a political agenda, the words in the middle could have been read as intended. Harvey wrote, “The educational foundations of our society are presently being eroded by a rising tide of mediocrity that threatens our very future as a Nation and a people.”
Harvey didn’t write the extreme statement that followed. In fact, he had edited out the sentence, “If an unfriendly foreign power had attempted to impose on America the mediocre educational performance that exists today, we might well have viewed it as an act of war.”
Clearly the report became part of an attack on public education. In contrast to the social science which preceded it, and the research that experts like Harvey embraced, the campaign kicked off by “A Nation at Risk” blamed schools, not overall changes in society that resulted in some lowered test scores. NAEP scores were also misrepresented by categories,like “proficiency,” which facilitated falsehoods such as the idea that tests showed that 60 percent of students were below grade level.
President Ronald Reagan announced the report along with the false statement that “A Nation at Risk” included a call for prayer in the schools, school vouchers, and the abolition of the Department of Education. Then, as Reagan ran for reelection in 1984, it was clear that the report was being used demonize not just teachers but government itself.
And that leads to the emergence of venture philanthropy in the 1990s. As Merrow recalled, during and before the 1980s, donors such as Ford and Annenberg foundations tinkered around the edges in seeking answers to complex conundrums. They offered money without micromanaging school improvement. Since then, technocratic school reform was driven, in large part, by the Billionaires Boys’ Club. It “weaponized” testing in an assault on public schools.
Harvey attributed that unfortunate transition, in significant part, to the realization that education is a $750 billion industry with profits to be made. It attracted 25-year-olds who knew nothing about education, and soon they were running policy.
Had corporate reformers taken the time to scrutinize the evidence, they would have had to confront the research which existed before and after “A Nation at Risk,” and that its author respected. As Harvey and David Berliner have written, an evidenced-informed investigation would have considered “the 80 percent of their waking hours that students spend outside the school walls.” Had they looked at evidence, edu-philanthropists should have understood the need to “provide adequate health care for children and a living wage for working parents, along with affordable day-care.”
Whether we are talking about the obsession with test and punish micromanaging or the faith in charters, corporate reformers failed to consider the complexities of the school systems they sought to transform. But, they did their homework in terms of public relations. In addition to demonizing teachers, public schools, and other public sectors, corporate reformers stole the language of dedicated educators and civil rights. They’ve presented their teacher-bashing and privatization campaigns as a “civil rights” movement.
Educators must reclaim our language, and craft messages for a new, constructive, holistic campaign to improve schools. One step toward new conversations requires us to learn from the past. John Merrow and Jim Harvey are remarkable sources of institutional history and the wisdom required for the type of discussions that are necessary.
Here is the video of the first session of the just-concluded annual conference of the Network for Public Education in Indianapolis.
You will hear opening remarks by our executive director Carol Burris. She introduces Phyllis Bush, who gives a witty summary of what has happened to Indiana and how she and her friends built one of the nation’s first activist organizations to oppose destructive “reforms.”
Phyllis introduces me, and I describe my new book, which is about the slow but sure collapse of corporate reform. I bring hope.
New York State Allies for Public Education is an organization that represents 50 parent and educator groups across the state. It has led the opt-out movement in the state. This letter was written in response to punish schools where the “participation” rate in mandated testing fell too low. The very best response to the state’s threats and warnings would be to opt out; the more that parents opt out, the less likely it is that the state can “punish” them for exercising their constitutional rights.
Dear Board of Regents, Chancellor Rosa, Commissioner Elia and Dr. Lisa Long,
We find it reprehensible that under the guise of ESSA, NYSED is seeking to punish schools when parents exercise their legal right to opt their child out of the grades 3-8 state tests and is overreaching by requiring the collection of confidential student data. These proposed provisions of the New York State ESSA regulations show a blatant disregard for the amount of public outrage over the last several years regarding the flawed New York State testing system, unproven revised common core standards, and the unnecessary collection of personally identifiable student information.
Strong opposition to the grades 3-8 common core state tests has been evidenced by 20%- 22% of eligible students throughout New York opting out of these state exams over the past three years, despite threats from the state and individual districts and a one-sided state-initiated persuasion campaign (the Commissioner’s “Toolkit”).
Only 8% of school districts in New York met the 95% testing participation rate in 2017, and while the state has not yet released the opt out figures for the 2018 grades 3-8 tests, several news accounts reveal that the opt out number will remain high, and that the majority of school districts will not have met the 95% participation rate as a result.
In addition, it took a legislative act to stop NYSED and then-Commissioner John King from collecting personally identifiable student data in the name of inBloom, a $50 million database that was going to be used for corporate data mining purposes without parental consent.
The proposed New York ESSA regulations will allow the Commissioner to mislabel schools with opt out rates over 5% — including highly effective schools — as needing Comprehensive or Targeted Support and Improvement, with the potential of wrongfully identifying schools as needing these interventions. These proposed regulations allow the Commissioner to require schools to misuse Title I funds in an effort to increase test participation rates. Moreover, the proposed regulations allow the Commissioner to close these schools, and/or convert them to charter schools. This is a dangerous path for NYS to take.
The mere suggestion of using Title I funds for ‘marketing’ of these tests is a misuse of authority that results in the revictimization and intimidation of communities that have a long history of being underserved and disempowered. Furthermore, it should be regarded as a civil rights issue as these actions will disproportionately aim to quiet the voices of schools with high populations of students from low-income households which tend to correlate with families of color.
None of these proposed provisions are required by ESSA law, none of them will improve learning conditions or outcomes for our children, and all of them contradict earlier statements from the Board of Regents and NYSED officials that schools with high opt out rates would not be punished or otherwise targeted, and/or wrongfully labeled for interventions, etc. The intention of the 95% participation rate in the ESSA law is to deter institutional/systematic exclusion by schools not to usurp parental rights.
We strongly request that NYSED remove these provisions from the proposed regulations and refrain from punishing schools when parents assert their legal right to opt out of the state tests. Moreover, under no circumstances, should NYSED collect confidential, personally identifiable student data. The ESSA law does not require punishing schools for opt out; rather, it fortifies a parent’s right to opt out. Furthermore, the ESSA law does not require collecting individual student data for the purposes of accountability, nor should the Commissioner and NYSED.
Until NYSED embraces teaching our children through the lens of whole-child education and stop test-driven classrooms, we will continue to squander opportunities to truly help all children reach their full potential. It’s time we give the children of New York a meaningful, well-rounded education, and create a nourishing environment where children flourish because they genuinely love to learn.
Respectfully,
Lisa Rudley, Executive Director
New York State Allies for Public Education, a coalition of 50 parent and educator groups, issued a statement denouncing New York state’s plan to punish schools where participation in testing drops below 95%.
The state ESSA plan says that such schools may be humiliated with low rankings, lose their Title 1 funding, be closed, or turned into charter schools.
This is clearly a harsh, unreasonable, almost fanatical effort to punish opt outs. Since the opt movement is strongest on Long Island, where some of the state’s best schools are located, the state is threatening to punish its best schools, principals, and teachers because of the decisions made by parents.
My view: the New York State Education Department is acting like a bully. Whoever made this decision should back off and remember that they are public servants, not masters. This is a democracy, not a tyranny. This behavior on the part of state officials is outrageous. There is nothing holy or sacrosanct about the state tests. Reasonable people can differ about their value. Parents have the right to withhold their children from state testing if they so choose. Almost 100 years ago, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that children do not belong to the state. (Pierce v. Society of Sisters [1925]). This ruling overturned an Oregon law that required all children to attend public schools.
The NYSAPE statement begins:
“This afternoon, Class Size Matters and NYS Allies for Public Education sent the below letter to Commissioner Elia and the NYS Board of Regents, expressing our strong objections to the draft ESSA regulations that were released last month.
“These regulations violate assurances that were given parents that NYSED would continue to respect their rights to opt their children out of the state exams. Instead the regs would allow the Commissioner to wrongly identify their children’s schools in need of “Comprehensive Support,” withhold Title One funds and even close these schools or turn them into charters if the opt out rates were judged too high. NYSUT, the state teachers union, sent a similar letter of protest on May 29.
“The Regents will be discussing these regs at their meeting on Monday, June 11. Feel free to contact Elia at Commissioner@nysed.gov or your Regents member to make your voices heard. You can also submit comments through July 9 to ESSAREGCOMMENT@nysed.gov”
Please read the full statement here.
https://nycpublicschoolparents.blogspot.com/2018/06/class-size-matters-nysape-protest.html
A statement from the New York State Parent Teachers Association.
The PTA is worried about the breakdown of the online assessments as well as the excessive time required by the “shortened,” two-day exams.
“We are extremely concerned about technological failures by Questar Assessments, Inc., the vendor who was awarded the NYS testing contract. We are glad that the State Education Department has announced that they will be holding Questar Assessments, Inc. fully accountable for this error. Reports indicate more than 30,000 students had work lost, or had total system failures when trying to take the assessments on computers. Further, we are aware that bandwidth and other technical issues plagued some school districts who were trying to administer computer based assessments.
“It was also disappointing that the state budget was passed without addressing the backlog of Smart Schools Bond Act Plans that have yet to be reviewed or approved.
“Students who were unable to finish should not have to re-take these assessments.
“Further, we are alarmed at the many reports that some students were testing for multiple hours, some into and past lunch periods.
“For ALL children, the duration must be short, and content must be appropriate for these mandated tests,” offered President Gracemarie Rozea. “While we appreciate the reduction of tests from the previous three days to two days, we must ensure that the remaining testing days are short, and that students are not sitting for multiple hours in testing conditions – especially our earliest learners.”
“As a parent of a 3rd grader, I fully understand the concern families have on this issue – and know that we will continue to advocate that standardized assessments be limited in quantity, in duration, and developmentally appropriate,” added Executive Director Kyle Belokopitsky.
“We will continue to communicate our concerns and possible solutions with the Education Department and other stakeholders, and will be asking for a review of the length of tests, and of the content again to ensure tests are developmentally appropriate for all children.”
Deborah Abramson Brooks, a parent activist and lawyer in Port Washington, New York, wrote this excellent overview of the testing movement and the backlash to it. She originally wrote it in 2014, but updated it to the present.
Brooks is a co-founder of Port Washington Advocates for Public Education; and a member of the board of New York State Allies for Public Education and the National Parent Coalition for Student Privacy.
You will find this interesting and informative.
Read the entire document here.
The New York State Allies for Public Education–the state’s leaders of the opt out movement–blasted the new standards adopted by the Board of Regents as nothing more than a rebranding of the hated Common Core standards.
A few changes were made in hopes of mollifying critics, but the standards are the same old test-based accountability system. A failed system survives.
“Parents are no longer content with crumbs, baby steps, and the lesser of evils. These are our children and they are running out of time. For many it is already too late. This was a huge opportunity to put New York on the right educational path and once again we chose the path of test-based accountability and standards written without grade-level practitioner expertise. We intend to hold the Regents to their promise that they will continue to revise the Next Generation Learning Standards and add more Opportunity to Learn factors to our accountability system. And we will continue to ensure that schools pay attention to these issues and focus on providing students with what matters: a quality education and a real chance to thrive.”
Go, NYSAPE!
The latest test results show the continuing strength of the Opt Out Movement in New York state. Every year, the numbers must be renewed, as eighth graders move on to a non-tested grade and new students arrive in third grade. Despite efforts by state officials to placate the movement, it still hovers at about 20% of all students in the state.
http://www.nysape.org/nysape-pr-2017-opt-out-results.html
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: August 24, 2017
More information contact:
Lisa Rudley (917) 414-9190; nys.allies@gmail.com
Jeanette Deutermann (516) 902-9228; nys.allies@gmail.com
NYS Allies for Public Education (NYSAPE)
2017 Test Boycott Numbers Remain High; Parents from all Demographics Continue to Reject Test & Punish System
Over 225,000 parents across the state, including tens of thousands of first-time refusers, rejected the state’s test-and-punish system, as evidenced by a third consecutive year of opt out numbers hovering near 20%. This is remarkable given that NYSED and local districts continue their attempts to squelch opt out by distributing misleading information and threatening dire consequences that create an environment of confusion and fear for families.
While Commissioner Elia would like to portray students who boycott the state ELA and math tests as ‘white students in rich or average wealth districts’, the data says differently. Only 8% of public school districts even met the required 95% testing participation rate, demonstrating how parents from all districts and demographics are boycotting the testing regime.*
The Board of Regents approved a reduction in state testing from 6 to 4 days (combined ELA and math) at their May meeting. While this is a step in the right direction, significant problems remain. Due to Commissioner Elia’s untimed testing mandate, many students continue to sit for up to 6 hours of testing per day; the Common Core standards, now rebranded the Next Generation Learning Standards, are still far from developmentally appropriate; and student data privacy is still at significant risk. Rather than focusing on the work that needs to be done, including truly overhauling the standards and creating meaningful and developmentally appropriate assessments, Commissioner Elia continues to be divisive, undermining the direction the Board of Regents and the trust of New Yorkers.
Jeanette Deutermann, Long Island public school parent, Long Island Opt Out founder and founding member of NYSAPE said, “While State education officials and corporate-reform lobbyist interests debate and interpret the assessment results and opt out numbers using the usual rhetoric, we see parents from all school districts including first-time refusers, overwhelmingly rejecting this test and punish system. Not only have they chosen to protect their children, but they have also joined our community of parents committed to advocating for whole-child policies in our classrooms. This network of hundreds of thousands of advocates will continue to grow and develop strategies to fight against those who wish to profit from our children.”
“NYSED continues to ignore best practices for children and New York State Schools. The test score results only shine a light on the fact that NYSED continues to try and mislead parents and teachers. NYSED has a long way to go to regain the trust of parents and educators in New York State. Opt Out is remaining steady and is adding thousands of new parents each year,” said Marla Kilfoyle, Long Island public school parent, educator and Executive Director of BATs.
Eileen Graham, Rochester public school parent and founder of the Black Student Leadership organization, expressed, “I would like to see more realistic efforts towards meeting the needs of children and not making our children testing ‘lab rats.’ I’m extremely angry that we keep obsessing over testing; instead of partnering with teachers and parents to ensure our children discover their greatness and learn the brilliance they bring to their schools and the world.”
Bianca Tanis, Ulster County public school parent, educator and founding member of NYSAPE, said, “We are five years into the State’s implementation of these clearly flawed standards and assessments and we are still labeling 60% of our students as failures. The Next Generation Learning Standards are nothing more than a rebranded version of the Common Core, adhering to the same invalid back-mapping methodology and lacking any basis in research or evidence. It is time to scrap these shoddy standards and assessments and start over.”
“These tests aren’t serving any purpose other than to keep the testing treadmill turning, preventing meaningful assessment alternatives from emerging and perpetuating unworkable teacher evaluation models. This testing system stifles children’s thirst for learning and is being used to usher in pervasive computer-based testing activity,” said Fred Smith, testing specialist and former administrative analyst for New York City public schools.
Kemala Karmen, Brooklyn public school parent and founding member of NYC Opt Out said, “The Commissioner, and others, including NYC’s mayor and chancellor, disingenuously use the test scores to boast that students are making “progress.” Progress on standardized tests can only be measured if the testing instrument, conditions, and manner of scoring remain consistent from year to year. This is not the case. Changes this year include some students taking the tests on computers rather than paper and some students having questions read aloud (meaning that they are no longer being tested on decoding, as in previous years). As ever, the determination of what raw score equals “proficient” changes every year and the untimed policy (and failure to track how long students are actually spending) makes direct comparison even less tenable.”
Johanna Garcia, NYC public school parent and President of the District 6 Community Education Council said, “There were many reports of intentional misinformation that bordered on students’ and parents’ civil rights being violated. If NYSED and NYCDOE had confidence in the testing regime, they wouldn’t have to heavily invest in policies that condoned internal threats and scare tactics. Because of their fear mongering, we see classrooms with students learning in fear. We need to finally have a public education system that’s accountable to the students’ learning instead of false numbers that further political agendas.”
New York parents remain steadfast in their advocacy for stronger child-centered policies and will continue to boycott state tests that are a waste of precious resources that would be better served addressing the opportunity gap.
* Participation rate calculated by counting NYC as one district (as NYSED itself often does). Public schools only (not charter schools).
NYSAPE is a grassroots coalition with over 50 parent and educator groups across the state.
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