Archives for category: Standardized Testing
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Jaime Franchi: Why New York’s Opt Out Movement is not Going Away

By dianeravitch
April 5, 2016 //
15

Jaime Franchi of the Long Island Press has established a reputation for in-depth reporting on education. She does it again, with a comprehensive analysis of New York’s opt out movement.

After the historic opt out of 2015, where some 240,000 students did not take the tests, Governor Cuomo made a concerted effort to tamp down parent anger. He appointed a task force to make recommendations about the Common Core standards and tests, which John King had botched. He promised that the tests would have no stakes for students or teachers, at least for a while. The state commissioner took steps to alternately warn and placate parents.

Despite the efforts to court parents, the opt out leaders decided they were being played. They thought the moves by Cuomo were a facade. And they determined to continue their fight in 2016.

No one knows whether there will be more or less or the same number of opt outs. What matters is that parents across the state realize that there is power in numbers. They cannot be ignored.

Categories Common Core, New York, Opt Out, Parent Groups, Parents, Standardized Testing

Steven Singer: The Sordid, Racist History of Standardized Testing

By dianeravitch
April 5, 2016 //
51

This is a story that needs to be told: the sordid history of standardized testing. I wrote about it in chapter four of my book “Left Back” (2000). Many scholarly dissertations have documented the story. Others have tried to alert the public about the assumptions embedded in the fabric of standardized testing. But the policymakers don’t read or don’t care.

 

The very idea that the essential intelligence and worth of a human being can be scientifically measured by multiple choice questions is fraught with flawed and dangerous assumptions. When we then use those measures to judge the worthiness of teachers and schools, the damage the tests do is multiplied.

 

Steven Singer has done excellent research on the history of standardized testing and summarizes it here.

 

The standardized test was created in an era when the new field of psychology was trying to establish itself as a “science.” The psychologists earnestly believed that intelligence was innate, inherited, and could not be changed. They also believed that intelligence varied by race and ethnicity. Tomes were written about the superiority of whites over other races, and among whites, the superiority of Northern Europeans over Southern Europeans. This belief was conventional wisdom among psychologists.

 

One of the men who wrote and believed this was the Princeton psychologist Carl C. Brigham. He joined the College Board as its senior psychologist and created the first Scholastic Aptitude Test.

 

Once you know this story, you will never forget it. It will change the way you view the tests forever. You will ask why federal and state officials are so determined to impose them. You will wonder why anyone takes these biased instruments so seriously. They are social constructions, neither objective nor scientific.

 

Singer writes:

 

“Make no mistake – standardized testing has been a tool of social control for the last century. And it remains one today.

 

“Twisted statistics, made up math, nonexistent or biased research – these are the “scientific” supports for standardized testing. It has never been demonstrated that these kinds of tests can accurately assess either intelligence or knowledge, especially as that knowledge gets more complex. But there is an unspoken agreement in political circles to pretend that testing is rock solid and produces scores that can be relied on to make decisions that will have tremendous effects on the lives of students, teachers, parents and communities.

 

“Our modern assessments are holdovers from the 1910s and ‘20s, an age when psychologists thought they could isolate the racial markers for intelligence and then improve human beings through selective breeding like you might with dogs or cats.

 

“I’m not kidding.

 

“It was called eugenics.

 

“Psychologists like Carl Brigham, Robert Yerkes, and Lewis Terman were trying to find a way to justify the social order. Why is it that certain people are at the top and others at the bottom? What is the best way to decide who belongs where?”

 

Their tests justified the social order. Those at the top deserved their privilege. They had the highest test scores. Those at the bottom had the lowest scores and were where they belonged. At the bottom. A few might rise, just enough to keep the fraud going. They would lecture those they left behind to try harder. And the social order would remain unchanged.

 

 

Categories Education Reform, Race, Standardized Testing

New Jersey: Rally Tomorrow to Protest PARCC as Graduation Test

By dianeravitch
April 5, 2016 //
17

There is an axiom in the field of educational testing that tests should be used only for the purpose for which they were designed. The PARCC test of Common Core was intended to measure the Common Core standards. It was not intended to be a graduation exam. Yet tat is what New Jersey   plans to do. If it follows through, large numbers of students will fail to graduate.

 

Parents plan to demonstrate tomorrow against this bad idea:

 

 

 

NEW JERSEY PARENTS, STUDENTS SPEAK OUT AGAINST HARMFUL TESTING POLICIES

 

 

Parents and students to rally in Trenton to demand that their voices are heard!

 

 

Dissatisfied with how high stakes standardized testing is eclipsing their children’s education, parents all over New Jersey are insisting upon their right to make decisions that impact their child’s education by demanding that their voices be heard and included in educational decision making practices.

 

 

Recent changes to New Jersey’s high school graduation requirements without the revision of legal statute or regulatory change are characteristic of the exclusionary practice we have seen from the New Jersey Department of Education in recent years. The intentional silencing of parents, students, and teachers in this state is proving to be detrimental towards the quality education that New Jersey has previously been known for.

 

Recently, the Education Law Center of New Jersey presented the facts to the Joint Committee on Public Schools surrounding this issue. The change of the high school graduation requirements has endangered the potential graduation of thousands of students. Districts are expending financial and personnel resources to assist these students. But the fact is that these issues are caused by the Department of Education’s direct refusal to recognize that the PARCC test has been a mistake that is proving to be a financial burden to our schools.

 

Highland Park Board of Education President Darcie Cimarusti said, “I will be there to represent the Highland Park Board of Education, the first board in the state to adopt a resolution urging the NJDOE to provide multiple pathways to a high school diploma, including alternatives not based on standardized tests. Our board also urged the state to respect the right of parents to make decisions about the assessment alternatives that are most appropriate for their children.”

 

Parent Tova Felder states “The State Department of Education has not been acting in the best interests of our children. They have pushed a test on us that has never been proven to be valid or reliable, has cost our districts millions of dollars, comes with seemingly endless amounts of data collection, takes an extraordinary amount of time to prepare for and take, and whose results indicate that approximately half of our students are not meeting standards for proficiency. Then they say, “Hey, let’s make this a requirement for graduating!” It’s almost like they want our children to fail. In fact, it feels an awful lot like that.”

 

On Wednesday, April 6th, parents and concerned citizens will be rallying in front of the State Board of Education at 9:30 am before the public session. After the rally, everyone will be attending the meeting to once again demand that their voices be heard.

 

 

Contact: Liz Mulholland, 908-232-6666

Bill Michaelson, 646-506-9922

Categories Education Reform, New Jersey, Resistance, Standardized Testing

Texas: The State Obsessed with Testing

By dianeravitch
April 5, 2016 //
26

The Texas legislature has a strange obsession. Its members think that the best and only way to improve education is to require standardized tests and to make them harder every few years. Those tests can never be too hard. A few years back, the legislature decided that all students had to pass 15 tests to graduate, and parents across the state rebelled, forcing the test-lovers to scale it back to five tests to graduate. But they still believe that harder tests=better schools.

The legislators of Texas should take the Great Testing Challenge: Take the tests you mandate and publish your scores. Any legislator who can’t pass the eighth grade math test should resign. How many do you think would dare to take the tests?

 

This year, for the first time, ETS wrote the tests, and surprise!, there were computer glitches. Open the link and you will see a picture of little children at an elementary school in Abilene cheering the bigger children who were on their way to take the tests that would determine their worth and put a number on it.

 

Veteran teacher Jennifer Rumsey writes here about the state’s mandates and how they affect her and her students.

 

She writes:

 

 

“It’s that time again. Time for STAAR testing in Texas. STAAR is the legislatively mandated series of high-stakes tests for public school children in Texas, and it is the most recent and most difficult of several testing program iterations that began in the 1980’s.

 

“I’ve seen them all. I have been a Texas public school teacher since 1999. I have experienced TAAS, TAAS prep, TAAS workbooks, TAAS-aligned textbooks, TAAS packets, and even a TAAS pep rally.

 

“Once students’ statewide overall TAAS scores became pretty high, the legislature made the costly move (paid to Pearson) to TAKS. The public schools adjusted: we adopted TAKS-aligned textbooks (published by Pearson), bought TAKS workbooks, held TAKS bootcamps and tutorials.

 

“And then came STAAR, or State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness, which is the most ambitious testing program yet. The Texas legislature decided to gut public education funding that year, 2011. The cuts amounted to a loss of $5.4 billion, while they voted to create STAAR and pay Pearson $500,000,000. At first adoption, high school students were required to pass 15 end of course exams to graduate. Now, thanks to grassroots efforts to change excessive testing requirements, high school students only take five graduation exams. However, their future life success remains impacted by rules that they must pass these exams to graduate, even with their academic credits earned. [Note: Because of the deep cuts, Texas schools had larger classes and took cuts to librarians, school nurses, the arts, and physical education.]

 

“This week my freshmen students must take the 5-hour English I end of course exam. I will be one of the lucky test administrators. During one of my test administration trainings, I found out that I am now required to write down the name of each student who leaves the testing room to use the bathroom, the time the student leaves, and the time that they return. This information, along with a seating chart, will be turned in to the Texas Education Agency. I am not sure why. Is it an additional measure of control over the students? Is it an additional measure of control over myself and other education professionals? Is it a deliberate attempt at de-professionalization of educators? When I mentioned to my students that I had to keep track of their times in and out from the restroom, they were puzzled and irritated. One savvy freshman girl asked, “Do they want to know the stall I used also?”

 

“What I do know for sure is that these tests have become far too important. They are treated as top secret, national security-level documents. Why is the material in a standardized test treated as more confidential than the information in the former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s emails? I have already signed my oath, and in my test administrator’s manual I am threatened with the loss of my hard-earned professional certification if I share information relating to what is on the test. I am cautioned to in no way purposely view the tests. Ironically, I am allowed to read the writing prompt to a student who requests it.

 

“Tuesday was a big day for my own family. My 10-year-old daughter is one of the unlucky guinea pig fifth graders in the state of Texas. She is one of the unlucky children affected by the State Board of Education decision in 2015 that “pushed down” developmentally inappropriate math objectives. Some of the newly required fifith grade material was, until 2015, not taught until the children were in the seventh grade.

 

“What does this “pushing down” of objectives do? It requires more material to be taught during the school year, stealing valuable time that math teachers need to teach the foundational material for that year. It makes math harder and more rushed for the children. It is wrong. The TEA suspended the math passing requirements for 5th graders last year. But not so this year. Nope. My child and her peers must pass this test or face retention in grade.

 

“And wait, the news just gets better. The outgoing Commissioner of Education announced near his departure that, “STAAR performance standards have been scheduled to move to the more rigorous phase-in 2 passing standard this school year. Each time the performance standard is increased, a student must achieve a higher score in order to pass a STAAR exam.” Thus, my daughter and all her 10- and 11-year old friends are being held accountable for inappropriate math standards and will be judged at a higher performance standard at the same time. Something is not right here. Something is very, very wrong. My child is not a subject to be experimented on.”

 

Categories Standardized Testing, Students, Testing, Texas

Leader of Long Island Opt Out Explains Why She Opts Out: It is About Her Children

By dianeravitch
April 4, 2016 //
34

Jeanette Deutermann, parent leader of Long Island Opt Out, explains here why she will not allow her children to take the state tests. The interesting question she raises is, why are public officials and the media so desperate to compel students to take these tests? The tests provide no useful information to teachers or parents. Teachers are not allowed to see the questions or the answers. They are not allowed to learn what children do and do not know. The tests have no diagnostic value. The tests have a passing mark set so high that the majority of students are expected to “fail.” What is the point? Why the pressure to force children to take these useless tests?

 

 

 

 

As the debate over common core, high-stakes testing, and privatizing/profiting off our public schools rages on, one thing is clear: reformers, Commissioner Elia, and the Federal Government still do not quite understand why we opt our children out of high-stakes testing. Strip away all of the rhetoric, all the political battles, the union battles, all the money. What do you have left? A child. A child who, as young as 8, is taken into a room stripped of all wall art and colorful learning tools (as per test administration guidelines) by teachers and school administrators whose normally warm, jovial, and friendly behavior has been replaced by solemn looks of concern. Yes, some concern for themselves (how these children do on these assessments will be published in local papers, go on their permanent records, can make or break their careers, and even close their schools) but most of that concern is for that of their students, their children, whom they are charged with protecting, who are about to be thrown to the wolves. As these youngest learners take their seats, they are given stern instructions that are antithetical to a normal elementary school classroom. No speaking, no noise, no looking around, no asking for help on questions. The child begins to get nervous. This nervousness is making them feel like they have to use the bathroom, but they were just told that going to the bathroom was a big deal. The test begins. They believe this test is very important. Their parents and teachers told them not to worry, that it doesn’t matter, but they know it does. They know their teacher has been preparing them for it all year. They desperately want to please their teachers and parents. They begin reading the questions. They don’t understand what they are reading. (The reading passage is three grade levels above their own). They don’t understand the questions either. There seems to be two right answers for every question. Panic creeps in. A classmate begins crying. This causes another to cry. The teacher tries to calm them down, but the teacher herself has tears in her eyes as well. Two hours go by while the child struggles to complete questions that were designed to fail 70% of her and her classmates. She has a special education classmate that will have to endure a grueling 3 hours or more of testing, as he has double time for testing. The test is finally over. Unfortunately this is just one day. This child will have to repeat this event 5 more times over the next two weeks. The teacher doesn’t bother with normal instruction over these two weeks. The children just can’t endure any more.

 

 

Some children experience the stress of the looming tests for weeks and even months leading up to the tests. Parents report lack of sleep, stomach pains, and anxiety symptoms from their usually well-adjusted children. Some just feel the filtered down stress that is all too common in today’s classrooms as teachers are being held under a microscope while under constant attack from those looking to replace them with non-union Teach For America trained temps. Some react during homework, especially those in districts that continue to use confusing, poorly written, purposely convoluted modules. Parents are tired of hearing “I’m stupid”, “I don’t want to go to school anymore”, “I’ll never be able to do this”. Other parents refuse because of the change from a whole child education, in which arts, music, play, science, social studies and creative learning dominate the day, to one in which ELA and math prep have taken over. Most see that as detrimental and harmful to their children’s well being, perhaps with even more long-term damaging effects than the tests themselves.

 

 

You can begin to understand why a parent, ANY parent, might say “enough”. So while opting out has turned into a tool of resistance to fight back against harmful policies, a loss of local control, the corporate takeover of education and politics, a top down approach to education, and a way to force political officials to listen, at its core is the simple primal act to protect our children. The Federal Government, Commissioner Elia, and corporate funded groups like High Achievement believe that clever marketing strategies will fix the problem and get parents to forget all about the harm done to their children each and every day. They believe a few tweaks here and there should cause us to throw our children back into the shark tank of good intentions. When that doesn’t seem to work they switch gears and simply try to threaten. We have heard these threats before. Again, there is a disconnect to the understanding of what we are motivated by. Financial bribes or threats could never convince me to put my children in harm’s way.

 

 

So what can the Federal Government or State Education Department do to prevent opt outs? Not much. Parents are not their employees, and our children are not their property. They can force school officials to offer the test to every single student. Oh wait! They already do that. Every single student in New York State was offered the NYS assessments in 2015. 240,000 of them said “no thank you”, and declined to pick up a pencil. As much as it befuddles and confuses the State and Federal Education Departments, the simple reality is there is NOTHING they can do about a student who refuses to pick up a pencil and a parent who encourages, directs, and supports that action. Actually, I’m incorrect. There is something they can do. They can restore testing times to pre-reform assessments times. Two 70 minute assessments, administered in fourth grade and eighth grade. They can reverse course on common core, instead allowing educators in each state to create challenging, appropriate, and research based standards. They can allow educators to create tests so we can test what is taught rather than teach what is tested. They can remove student performance assessment measures from the evaluation system. VAM (value added measures) have been thoroughly researched and found to have no impact on improving student learning or reducing the achievement gap. They can provide alternate pathways to graduation for our special education students. Finally, they can bring equity to our schools. The achievement gap is a result of one single factor: poverty. Funding, not testing, is the only way to improve learning outcomes for our most vulnerable and highest needs children. Smaller class sizes, materials, support staff, and community school models will do what no test ever could.

 

 

My advice to Commissioner Elia and the United States Department of Education? Don’t try to stand in the way of parents protecting their children. It won’t end well. Our children are our number one priority. What’s yours?

Categories Education Industry, Opt Out, Parents, Resistance, Standardized Testing

Network for Public Education Calls For National Opt Out!

By dianeravitch
April 3, 2016 //
15

The Network for Public Education, with members in every state, has issued a call for a national opt out from standardized testing.

 

The tests have no diagnostic value. They are used to rank and grade students, teachers, and schools, but they provide no information to help teachers or students. They are useless.

 

They consume an absurd amount of time. Little children spend more time to take tests than law exams.

 

The tests have an absurdly high passing mark, which guarantees that the majority of students will fail.

 

The tests do not help children. They hurt children. We don’t know how to measure what matters most.

 

Join us. Opt out.

 

Categories Education Reform, Network for Public Education, Opt Out, Standardized Testing

A Letter from a Florida Teacher and Parent

By dianeravitch
April 2, 2016 //
12

Bonnie Cunard Margolin wrote this letter to other parents and teachers in Lee County, Florida. If you recall, the school board of Lee County briefly tried to opt out of testing last year but one member switched her vote and the testing proceeded. Florida may be the most over-tested state in the nation.

 

 

She writes:

 

 

Being an 8th grade teacher in a K-8 arts school here in town, I love the excitement of the end of the year. Because my students are leaving for high school, this particular last quarter of the year is a huge one. Also, since some of our students have been with us since kindergarten, fourth quarter is a bitter sweet end to a wonderful arts program for them. Our students not only look forward to summer and high school, they are also excited to begin their final ARTS ALIVE week, showcasing all they have learned at our academy. No doubt, fourth quarter is an amazing time for my students.

 
Except …

 
Except…

 
It is Testing Season.

 
Testing season changes everything. Testing season fills our halls with a sense of gloom. Doors are locked down and instruments fall quiet. Testing season empties our auditoriums, deadens our playgrounds, and silences our stage. Testing literally shuts down our arts program for months.

 
Testing season forces compliance, instills a feeling of dread, and frustrates most. Testing season involves signing agreements full of threats to our teaching certificates … threats of law enforcement. Testing season involves scripts and scores. Testing season overwhelms our teachers and testing season overwhelms our children.

 
Lee County Board Member, Mary Fischer, called it child abuse.

 
I agree.

 
So, even though I am a teacher in this county, who loves my school and admin, who loves my daughter’s teachers, who loves our district and town … I still choose to opt my own daughter out of the FSA.

 
More specifically, when state tests are administered to my daughter, she minimally participates by sitting through the test, but she refuses to answer any questions. As per statute, she receives a NR2, did not test, score. Portfolio assessment is used to determine her promotion. When she gets to high school, she will use concordant scores on the SAT to graduate. She OPTS OUT.

 
This is my choice as a parent. I have opted her out of state testing for years and I will continue always. Opt out is my way to boycott the state assessment laws while protecting my daughter from the abuse. Opt out is my way, as a parent, to express civil disobedience to an unjust law.
Opt out is my right as a parent.

 
But, as a teacher, my rights are limited. I can not express my opinions about the test to my own students. I can not reach out and inform their parents of their rights. I can not use my platform in my classroom in any way. So, I don’t.

 
I use other platforms. I use social media. I wrote a book. I write newspapers and magazines. I write representatives and senators. I podcast, blog, vlog, tweet, insta it all.

 
I scream from the rooftops from the minute I get off work until the minute I return.

 
I scream because I love my schools, I love my teachers, I love my district, I love my state, and most importantly, I love my children.

 
I scream for better.

 
Our schools are ours and we must scream our hearts out when we can. We must fight for better for our students and children. We must take a stand for our kids.

 
We must.

 
I will.

 
Will you?

 

 

 

 

Categories Education Reform, Florida, Opt Out, Standardized Testing

NYC Public Advocate Letitia James Advises Parents that They Have a Right to Opt Out of the Tests

By dianeravitch
April 2, 2016 //
1

New York City’s second-highest ranking official is the Public Advocate. Our Public Advocate is Letitia James, known to her constituents as Tish James. She is a lawyer and a fighter for equity.

 

For consistently supporting parents and public schools, I add her to the honor roll of this blog.

 

She released the following advisory to parents and the public:

 

 

Friends,

 

Next week, children across our state will be asked to take the New York State English Language Arts exam and the following week they will be asked to take the New York State Math exam.

 

There has been a lot of confusion about whether these tests are required. I want to remind you that, as parents, you have the right to opt your child out of this exam with no consequences to you, your child, or your child’s school.

 

If you do choose to make this decision, you must write a letter to your child’s principal. More information on how to opt out is available here.

 

The decision whether to opt out or not is a personal one for each family. As your Public Advocate, I want to ensure that parents know their rights. And that we continue working together to build a school system that offers a holistic education, including arts and physical education, and equips our children for success.

 

If you have questions or concerns, I urge you to contact my office at 212-669-7250 or gethelp@pubadvocate.nyc.gov.

 

Sincerely,

 

 

Letitia James
New York City Public Advocate

Categories Honor Roll, New York City, Opt Out, Parents, Standardized Testing

NYSAPE: The New York Budget is a Bad April Fool’s Joke on Students, Teachers and Parents

By dianeravitch
April 1, 2016 //
8

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: April 1, 2016

 
More information contact:
Lisa Rudley (917) 414-9190; nys.allies@gmail.com
NYS Allies for Public Education (NYSAPE) http://www.nysape.org

 

 

School Districts Will Lose State Aid if Higher Stakes Tests are Not in Place –
Andrew Cuomo Refuses to Fix His Own Mistake

 

Despite the backlash and outcry of hundreds of thousands of parents across the state against the fatally flawed test and punish law forced into last year’s budget by the Governor, Cuomo and the Senate Majority refused to delink the financial consequences for this harsher plan in today’s budget bills. After the current State Education Department waiver expires, tests this upcoming Fall will increase to 50% of teacher and principal’s evaluations.

 

Albany had an opportunity through Assembly legislation (A09461) to remove the financial consequences to schools not going to a harsher evaluation plan that was already deemed problematic by the Governor’s own Common Core taskforce. Parents know this entire bad law must go including the financial penalties and Andrew Cuomo refuses to permanently fix the mistake he created.

 

While the Board of Regents put a “temporary” emergency moratorium to delink just the ‘state’ tests scores from teacher and principal evaluations, it remains that teachers and principals will be STILL be evaluated based on student test scores which will increase to 50% this Fall. This essentially is a “no moratorium” moratorium.

 

Students will continue to be caught in the middle of a politically motivated test and punish culture built on testing reforms already rejected by research as “junk science” that is squeezing out authentic learning time from their children’s classrooms. Parents will not be complacent and the lies of funding threats and that the Common Core state tests have been “revamped” will not be tolerated. The testing law already on the books capping testing and test prep at more than 1% of instruction time is currently being violated in NYS and parents are not fooled. Parents will continue to refuse the Common Core state tests and any tests that are inappropriate and used for donor-driven purposes of punishing.

 

Cuomo and the Senate Majority should waste no more time and join willing partners to unravel this law and restore authority for education policy with the Board of Regents before the end of the school year. The days of punishing children and schools with politics will come to an end with or without them.

 

Jeanette Deutermann, Long Island public school parent and founder of Long Island Opt Out said, “until this test and punish culture ends, parents will continue to distrust the motives of our legislature. What exactly will it take for Albany to realize this is not what we want for our children? Elections are only months away. Legislators have a decision to make; stand with donor-driven Albany politics, or stand with voters. Sign on to legislation, such as the Kaminsky bills, that will offer permanent relief to our children, or play the partisan political game that gets us nowhere.”

 

Jamaal Bowman, Bronx educator and father of three said, “Continuing to drive education on these failed reforms is “educational malpractice”. Educational gaps by race are widening in this test and punish culture as it continues to strip teachers of the ability to meet the holistic needs of their students.”

 

“As an elected school board member, Governor Cuomo’s teacher evaluation law takes away our local control to evaluate our educators and replaces it with a costly numbers game that does not truly help our district improve instruction,” stated Chris Cerrone, public school parent, educator and school board member from Erie County.

 

Lisa Rudley, Hudson Valley public school parent and founding member of NYSAPE said, “as experience and common sense demonstrates, educational policies on critical issues such as teacher and principal evaluations and receivership should be decided by educational professionals or at least through separate bills, debated and discussed during public hearings, and not crammed into budget bills without expert input.”

 

“As an educator on Long Island, and as a parent of a public school child, the continued ignorance to the fact that test scores are not correlated with teacher quality is simply disgraceful! When will the Governor wake up and realize this hurts our children and our education system in New York,” said Marla Kilfoyle, Long Island public school parent, Executive Director of BATs.

 

NYSAPE, a grassroots coalition with over 50 parent and educator groups across the state, is calling on parents to continue to opt out by refusing high-stakes, inappropriate testing for the 2015-16 school year. Go to http://www.nysape.org for more details.

###

Categories Accountability, Cuomo, Andrew, Funding, Opt Out, Standardized Testing, Teacher Evaluations

NY Opt Out: How the Tests Will Harm Children

By dianeravitch
March 31, 2016 //
17

Bianca Tanis, who is a parent, a teacher, and a leader of the opt out movement, warns of the dangers of the tests that start next week.

 

 

She writes:

 

 

The New York State Common Core tests are almost upon us and promises of sweeping changes to NYS tests and standards are rampant. The NYS Education Department is urging parents to opt back in and the media has reported that education officials are “bending over backwards” to address the concerns of parents and educators.

 

While the State has made some minor changes to this year’s tests (and promises more in the future), the fact remains that young children will still be subjected to reading passages years above grade level, test questions with more than one plausible answer, tests that are too long, waste valuable resources, and worst of all, tests that engender feelings of frustration, failure, angst, and confusion in our youngest learners.

 

Manufactured Crisis

 

Claims that untimed tests will alleviate stress on children are unfounded and misleading to parents. Giving a child more time to struggle with an inappropriate test rather than just fixing the flawed system is misguided and will create a logistical nightmare for the schools forced to accommodate this band-aid solution. Teachers will be pulled from classrooms to monitor student conversations during lunch breaks to ensure that 8-, 9-, and 10-year old students are not talking about the tests. At a time when our schools are being starved of funding, this is a gross and needless misallocation of resources.

 

In fact, very little has changed for children, and these damaging tests continue to threaten our children now and into the future. How much damage? A quarter million students are being labeled, annually, as failures. The transition to “college-ready” graduation requirements in 2022 will result in the loss of more than 100,000 graduates per year. Use this calculator to assess the impact on your school district: http://tiny.cc/DistrictCCR.

 

Unless we demand an immediate paradigm shift, many students will not only be labeled failures at 8-, 9-, and 10-years old, they will not graduate. We are not just talking about struggling students and students with special needs facing a graduation crisis.

 

 

 

Categories Education Reform, New York, Opt Out, Standardized Testing
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