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Providence (RI) Students’ Press Release Against Test Misuse

By dianeravitch
January 30, 2013 //
2

PRESS RELEASE

January 30, 2013 | *FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE*

CONTACT: Aaron Regunberg | Aaron@ProvidenceStudentUnion.org | 847-809-6039 (cell)

STUDENTS CALL ON GOVERNOR TO STOP HIGH-STAKES TESTING POLICY

Providence, Rhode Island – January 30, 2013 – Public high school students, teachers, and other community members staged a press conference today to protest Rhode Island’s new high-stakes testing graduation requirement, calling on Governor Chafee to end a policy they described as unjust and ineffective.

“We are here today to explain why we believe this graduation requirement will do nothing to improve the quality of our schools or our education,” said Priscilla Rivera, a member of the youth organization the Providence Student Union (PSU) and a junior at Hope High School. “Instead, it will cause real harm to the lives of many students like me.”

Starting with the class of 2014, Rhode Island’s new policy requires students to score at least “partially proficient” on the New England Common Assessment Program (NECAP) in order to graduate from high school. Students stressed the widespread implications this policy could have, pointing out that last year, 44 percent of all students across the state did not score high enough on the NECAP to have graduated under the current requirement. Seventy-one percent of black students and 70 percent of Latino students in Rhode Island did not score high enough last year to have graduated, and in Providence, 86 percent of students with disabilities in Individualized Education Programs and 94 percent of students with limited English proficiencies would not have graduated.

“We believe in high expectations,” said Kelvis Hernandez, another PSU member. “We believe that we should graduate with a high-quality education. But this policy is not the right way. Punishing students—particularly those who haven’t had the opportunity to receive the great education we deserve—is neither effective nor just. It is ineffective because we have spent 10, 11, or 12 years in schools that are underfunded, under-resourced, and unable to give us the support we need to do well on the NECAP. And it is unjust because the students who have received this inadequate support are the ones being put on trial.”

Speakers at the press conference also pointed to other harmful effects of high-stakes testing. “Test prep is not what we mean when we say education,” said Dawn Gioello, a family member attending the press conference in support of her niece. “I want my niece to be going to school to learn critical thinking and problem-solving skills, to become a young woman with the confidence and abilities to succeed in college and her career. I don’t want her to go to school to get really good at taking this one test so that she will be able to graduate. I don’t want her whole school experience—her curriculum, her class work, her time after school—to become dedicated to drilling for one exam when she will need so much more than that to achieve her dreams in life.”

“What’s even worse,” added Tamargejae Paris, a junior in high school and a member of PSU, “the NECAP was not designed to be used as a high-stakes test. The makers of the NECAP themselves have said that the test should not be used as a graduation requirement.”

After delivering hundreds of messages to the Governor’s office in opposition to this policy, students called on Governor Chafee to support them. “In just one week, the results of this year’s NECAP test will be released,” said Kelvis Hernandez. “It’s our hope that everyone in Rhode Island passes. But it’s more likely that thousands of students will not score high enough to pass this graduation requirement, particularly among the state’s most vulnerable populations—English Language Learners, students with disabilities, students of color, and low-income students. Will you support this policy that takes away so many of our futures? Or will you join us in calling on the Board of Education—whose members you nominate—to end this discriminatory and misguided graduation requirement? We hope you’ll make the right decision.”

###

Categories Accountability, Students, Testing

Breaking News: Students in Providence Oppose High-Stakes Testing

By dianeravitch
January 30, 2013 //
3

Yesterday it was students in Portland, Oregon, today it’s students in Providence, Rhode Island.

The students in Providence have called on Governor Lincoln Chafee to stop the new high-states tests.

The students warn that huge numbers of students with disabilities, English language learners, and minority youth will not get a diploma. They blame these results on years of underfunded schools that did not provide the support that students need.

Here is an excerpt from the story:

“We are here today to explain why we believe this graduation requirement will do nothing to improve the quality of our schools or our education,” said Priscilla Rivera, a member of the youth organization the Providence Student Union (PSU) and a junior at Hope High School. “Instead, it will cause real harm to the lives of many students like me.”

Starting with the class of 2014, Rhode Island’s new policy requires students to score at least “partially proficient” on the New England Common Assessment Program (NECAP) in order to graduate from high school. Students stressed the widespread implications this policy could have, pointing out that last year, 44 percent of all students across the state did not score high enough on the NECAP to have graduated under the current requirement. Seventy-one percent of black students and 70 percent of Latino students in Rhode Island did not score high enough last year to have graduated, and in Providence, 86 percent of students with disabilities in Individualized Education Programs and 94 percent of students with limited English proficiencies would not have graduated.

“We believe in high expectations,” said Kelvis Hernandez, another PSU member. “We believe that we should graduate with a high-quality education. But this policy is not the right way. Punishing students—particularly those who haven’t had the opportunity to receive the great education we deserve—is neither effective nor just. It is ineffective because we have spent 10, 11, or 12 years in schools that are underfunded, under-resourced, and unable to give us the support we need to do well on the NECAP. And it is unjust because the students who have received this inadequate support are the ones being put on trial.”

“Speakers at the press conference also pointed to other harmful effects of high-stakes testing. “Test prep is not what we mean when we say education,” said Dawn Gioello, a family member attending the press conference in support of her niece. “I want my niece to be going to school to learn critical thinking and problem-solving skills, to become a young woman with the confidence and abilities to succeed in college and her career. I don’t want her to go to school to get really good at taking this one test so that she will be able to graduate. I don’t want her whole school experience—her curriculum, her class work, her time after school—to become dedicated to drilling for one exam when she will need so much more than that to achieve her dreams in life.”

“What’s even worse,” added Tamargejae Paris, a junior in high school and a member of PSU, “the NECAP was not designed to be used as a high-stakes test. The makers of the NECAP themselves have said that the test should not be used as a graduation requirement.”

Why do students make more sense than policymakers in Washington and the state capitals?

Students in Providence: Take a tip from students in Portland: Boycott the tests.

Categories Accountability, Students, Testing

Good News! Students in Portland, Oregon, Are Speaking Out

By dianeravitch
January 30, 2013 //
11

High school students in Portland, Oregon, are organizing to fight high-stakes testing.

From their statement:

“The PPS and Portland Student Unions will be teaming up in organizing an Opt-Out Campaign in which students are encouraged to opt-out of taking their standardized OAKS tests. The Student Unions want to send a strong message against to the standardized testing system as we believe that standardized tests scores are an inaccurate depiction of a student’s knowledge, have an extremely high correlation to a student’s family’s income, have a high correlation with race, are expensive, and in all are taking up class time that we could use learning things that are more applicable to our lives, as well as be developing better relationships with our teachers and peers.”

How come they know more than Congress, the U.S. Department of Education, and their own state legislature?

When you add the teachers’ protest at Garfield High and the school boards’ protest in Texas and the demands by civil rights groups to stop closing their schools and the rising number of students who are sick of being force-fed standardized tests, you have the makings of a movement.

Stand tall, Portland students! Students, parents, teachers, and yes, administrators are counting on you. Tell the truth. Don’t be afraid. Demand a real education, not training in test-taking.

Categories Corporate Reformers, Students, Support for public schools, Testing

Has School Become a Treadmill?

By dianeravitch
January 27, 2013 //
50

There was a time in my life when I would have been opposed on principle to the sentiments expressed in this article. The author talks about how schooling has become a way of destroying childhood. I used to scoff at articles like this.

But no more. I see my grandson come home with the results of his spelling test. He has math homework. He is only in first grade. He goes to a wonderful public school in Brooklyn. He seems too young for the pressure. What’s the rush? He’s now doing what children in second or third grade used to do. Is this necessary? I wonder if the pressure will get stronger every year. I wonder. I wonder if schooling has changed or I have changed. Or maybe both.

Categories Childhood, Pre-K, K, Students, Testing

When Students Awaken, Everything Will Change

By dianeravitch
January 25, 2013 //
13

It is beginning. Teachers, superintendents, local school boards, parent groups, and now students: all are saying the same things. Stop destroying education with high-stakes testing. Stop the chaos and disruption of school closings. Support and encourage, don’t humiliate and destroy.

Are you listening, Secretary Duncan?

Here is a new student group in New Orleans demanding quality education and equity.

Dear Friends,

United Students of New Orleans (USNO) is a coalition of students organizing
and advocating for fairness and justice in public schools across New Orleans. Starting with students from four schools: Walter L. Cohen, L. B. Landry, G.W.Carver, and Sarah T. Reed, it has grown to include students from seven schools across New Orleans, including both public and charter. Schools came together, and they united under the understanding that they were being denied their civil rights and an access to a real education.

Our purpose, as USNO, is to elevate the voices of public school students and push for equity, justice and resources in public education. We demand quality teachers, adequate study materials, and a safe environment free of discrimination and mental stress. We work to ensure that high school students, like us, get the resources needed to succeed in school, so that they can compete in the global market or enroll in higher learning institutions. Since our organization gathers and supports the student leaders of each school as separate entities and as a collective whole, we have learned what it means to give every student a fair and equal education with adequate resources. We also train other students to use their voices to inform the community about the issues in public schools that directly impact our daily lives.

Next week, USNO will travel to Washington DC to testify at the US Department of Education Hearing: The Impact of School Closings, Turnarounds, Phase-outs and Co-locations. To help these students attend the JOURNEY FOR JUSTICE or to help them with their campaign or to just help them to make it easier to get through and navigate the current school system, we need a little more help from our friends and supporters. $10, $25, $50, $100, or whatever you currently can give will be truly appreciated. We can go to FFLIC’s website http://www.FFLIC.org to the WEPAY, but make a note in contact organizer that this donation is for USNO or you can make to wepay or check payable to FFLIC for United Students of New Orleans at 1600 O.C.Haley blvd, New Orleans, La 70113 or cash. If you can’t donate money, can you support us with our fight for an adequate education? All you have to do is have a video, phone, or Youtube statement in which you give support such as “My name is (your name) and I’m an (occupation) and I support United Students of New Orleans.” Such support will be greatly appreciated.

Thank you,
Terrell Major Student Co-Founder of USNO Meagan McKinnon Student Co- Founder

18 CITIES CONVERGE IN WASHINGTON D.C ON “JOURNEY FOR JUSTICE,” CALLING ON DEPT. OF EDUCATION TO END TOP-DOWN, DISCRIMINATORY CLOSINGS OF PUBLIC SCHOOLS
National Movement Forms In Wake Of Mass School Closings & Turnarounds That
Violate Civil Rights & Promote Divestment In Low Income, Students Of Color

WHAT: Students, parents and advocacy representatives from 18 major United States cities will testify at a hearing before the U.S. Department of Education in Washington, D.C. on the devastating impact and civil rights violations resulting from the unchecked closing and turnaround of schools serving predominantly low-income, minority students across the country.

More than 10 cities have filed, or are in the process of filing, Title VI Civil Rights complaints with the U.S. Department of Education Office of Civil Rights, citing the closing of schools and the criteria and methods for administering those actions as discriminatory toward low-income, minority communities. Representatives from 11cities will testify at the hearing on the impact of school closings including the civil rights violations and the destabilization of their children and their communities resulting from the criteria used for school closings and the current accepted movement to privatize schools.

Demands of the Department of Education include a moratorium on school closings until a new process can be implemented nationally, the implementation of a sustainable, community-driven school improvement process as national policy, and a meeting with President Obama so that he may hear directly from his constituents about the devastating impact and civil rights violations the current policy is perpetuating.

The hearing will be followed by a procession and candlelight vigil at the Martin Luther King Memorial to continue to raise the voices of those impacted by the destabilization and sabotage of education in working and low-income, communities of color.

In the wake of the hearing, the 18 participating cities, along with additional cities in the process of organizing, are forming a national movement to unite students and advocacy organizations across the country to spread awareness of mass school closings and their impact on targeted communities.

WHO: Approximately 500 students, parents and community representatives impacted or at risk of impact by school closings representing 18 cities across the country will attend the hearing including: Atlanta; Baltimore; Boston; Chicago; Cleveland; Detroit; District of Columbia; Eupora, Miss.; Hartford, Conn.; Kansas City, Mo.; Los Angeles; Newark; New Orleans; New York; Oakland, Calif.; Philadelphia; Wichita, Kan.; Wilmington, Del.

WHEN/WHERE: Tuesday, January 29th, 2013 Tuesday, January 29th, 2013
2:00 p.m.– 3:55 p.m. 5:00 p.m. EST
U.S. Department of Education [Room XXX] Martin Luther King Memorial
Washington, DC Washington, DC

WHY: Cities across the country are experiencing the results of neglectful actions by the closing of schools serving predominantly low-income students of color including displacement and destabilization of children, increased violence and threats of physical harm as a result of re-assignment, and destabilization at schools receiving the displaced students.

Despite current research showing that closing these public schools does not improve test scores or graduation rates, closings have continued primarily because current federal Race To The Top policy has incentivized the closing and turnaround of schools by supporting privatization. However, the privatization of schools has resulted in unchecked actions and processes where the primary fallout is on those in low-income, minority communities. The devastating impact of these actions has only been tolerated because of the race and class of the communities affected.

Categories Closing schools, Education Reform, New Orleans, Students, Testing

Parents, Beware! Is Your Child for Sale?

By dianeravitch
January 19, 2013 //
41

This appeared on the New York City parent blog:

NYC Public School Parents
Independent voices of New York City public school parents
FRIDAY, JANUARY 18, 2013

Parents beware! NY and eight other states plan to share your child’s confidential school records with private corporations without your consent!

New York is one of five states that have agreed to share confidential NYC student and teacher data in Phase I with the “Shared Learning Collaborative” or SLC, a project of the Gates Foundation.

The other states and districts in Phase I include North Carolina (Guilford Co.), Colorado (Jefferson Co.), Illinois (Unit 5 Normal and District 87 Bloomington) and Massachusetts (Everett). Delaware, Georgia, Kentucky, and Louisiana are in Phase II, according to the Gates Foundation, intend to start piloting the system in 2013.

The data to be shared will include the names of students, their grades, test scores, disciplinary and attendance records, and likely race, ethnicity, free lunch and special education status as well.

These records are to be stored in a massive electronic data bank, being built by Wireless Generation, a subsidiary of News Corporation. News Corporation is owned by Rupert Murdoch and has been found to illegally violate the privacy of individuals in Great Britain and in the United States.

Over the next few months, the Gates Foundation plans to turn over all this personal data to another, as yet unnamed corporation, headed by Iwan Streichenberger, the former marketing director of a company called Promethean that sells whiteboards, based in Atlanta GA.

This new corporation intends to make this confidential student information available in turn to commercial enterprises to help them develop and market their “learning products.” This new corporation is supposed to be financially sustainable by 2016, which means either states, districts or vendors will have to pay for its upkeep and maintenance. All this is happening without parental knowledge or consent.

There are serious questions as to whether this plan complies with the federal law protecting student privacy, called FERPA (the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act), which allows states or districts to disclose students’ personally identifiable education records without parental consent only in very limited circumstances and under stringent conditions, none of which apply in this case.
Moreover, we have learned that this confidential information is to be put on a cloud managed by Amazon.com, with few if any protections against data leakage.

After our press conference with our attorney, Norman Siegel in October, the NY State Education Department finally released its contract with the Gates Foundation. As we feared, it only reaffirmed our concerns about the lack of privacy for children, the weak protections against data leakage, and the denial of the parental right to consent. Here is a letter from our attorneys expressing our concerns.

We believe that any state that enters into an agreement with the Shared Learning Collaborative, or its successor corporation, should at the very least be obligated to:

Release its contract with the Gates Foundation, notify all parents of the impending disclosure of their children’s confidential records, and provide them with the right to consent;

Hold public hearings for parents to be able to express their concerns about the plan’s potential to risk their children’s privacy, security and safety;

Explain how families can obtain relief if their children are harmed by improper use or accidental release of this information, including who will be held financially responsible;

Affirm that they will respect the privacy rights of public schoolchildren more than the interests of the Gates Foundation, News Corporation, or any other company or vendor with whom this confidential information may be shared.

Please see below; video of Khem Irby, parent activist in North Carolina, speaking before the Guilford school board about this issue last week.

Here is a fact sheet with this information you can download and distribute. You can also leave a comment on the Gates website here, if you think parents should have the right to consent.

For more information, please email us at info@classsizematters.org or call us at 212-674-7320.

Leonie Haimson at 1/18/2013

Categories For-Profit, Gates Foundation, Bill Gates, Parents, Students

How StudentsFirst Puts Students Last

By dianeravitch
January 18, 2013 //
10

The National Opportunity to Learn Campaign has one of the very best critiques of Michelle Rhee’s report card for the states. The states doing the least for children get the highest scores. The states enacting policies that ignore the needs of children do best by her logic.

In the 990 form for StudentsFirst, it says the organization defends the interests of children.

The National Opportunity to Learn Campaign says it does not.

Categories Rhee, Michelle, Students, StudentsFirst

EduShyster Commends Prep School Grads Who Want to Reform Public Schools

By dianeravitch
January 17, 2013 //
7

Elitism may be a dirty word in some circles, but not to EduShyster.

She here commends the graduates of tony private schools who work so hard to see that their lesser brethren can go to “no excuses” schools where they will learn to sit up straight and keep their eyes on the teacher.

Categories Charter Schools, Closing schools, Corporate Reformers, Students

Oprah: Don’t Participate in This Fraud!

By dianeravitch
January 15, 2013 //
42

A teacher in New Orleans sent this letter to me. My promise to him or her: we will all use whatever tools are at our command to stop the destruction of public education and the exploitation of students to benefit corporate interests. We will not give up.

I wanted to bring to your attention the trailer for the upcoming Oprah network series about John McDonogh high school here in New Orleans.

http://www.oprah.com/common/omplayer_embed.html?article_id=41375.

It is a vicious misrepresentation of what is going on at the school- merely propaganda for the brand new charter management organization that makes our students out to be thug primitives who need taming by clean cut out of towners.

Last night, a meeting was held by a coalition of concerned citizens and organizations to discuss the stripping away of the public from our public schools and some important action steps to re-frame the narrative of New Orleans schools. Parents mentioned this very video and will be protesting a screening at the school tonight.

Meanwhile, this series plans to do exactly what the corporate reformers here have been doing all along and what those folks last night are contending with- an extreme narrative that is completely out of touch with the truth, and has troubling privatization and profit motives.

In the wake of these reforms, our schools have shut out holistic learning, critical pedagogies, whole child concerns, etc. and have become militaristic nightmares- the opposite of the safe spaces schools should provide, especially for students in the impoverished situations many of the students depicted in this program come from.

Our students feel the walls closing in on them as young white teachers (I am one of them) stand in front of their classroom telling them all they need to do to get to college is work harder so the students can be successful just like them! To put them on camera in that experience is the grossest form of exploitation I can think of.

The propaganda this show is prepared to deliver across the country is both predictable and terrifying. Narratives are powerful and the allies of privatization are winning.

We need to start an information campaign to discredit this work, as happened with “Won’t Back Down.” Your voice in that movement is of course key, and I look forward to your input and feedback.

Sincerely,

A concerned young educator in New Orleans

Categories Charter Schools, Corporate Reformers, Education Industry, Louisiana, New Orleans, Students

Who Is SFER?

By dianeravitch
January 13, 2013 //
9

An organization called Students for Education Reform is popping up on various campuses to advocate for corporate reforms.

This article by George Joseph in The Nation explores who they are and who funds them.

It is hard to understand why students would demand more standardized testing and why they would support a movement that attacks teachers and wants teachers to be held accountable for what students do. Shouldn’t students be held accountable for what students do?

All around the nation, brave students are saying “no” to the corporate reform movement that wants to turn them into standardized data points.

But not SFER, which is an offshoot of the Wall Street hedge fund managers’ group called DFER. They want to be standardized. They want to be data points. They want more tests. Please, won’t someone test them and publish their scores?

Categories Charter Schools, Corporate Reformers, Democrats for Education Reform, Education Industry, Students
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