Archives for category: Testing
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EduShyster: John King’s Gift to the Opt-Out Movement

By dianeravitch
October 16, 2013 //
17

EduShyster has a guest blogger who graduated from the fine public schools of New Jersey, then went on to excel in the nation’s finest universities.

In this post, Sue Altman thinks that John King is the best thing that ever happened to the opt-out movement. The more he talks, the more he angers parents. She thinks he canceled his planned visit to Long Island because the parents and the students are furious about the state’s mandates.

Why would he want to show his face in Garden Cit?

Altman writes:

The testing opt-out movement, a boycott of standardized tests, is 10,000 strong on Long Island. Ten thousand!!! You think that has something to do with King’s avoidance of the place? Maybe he knows he might have trouble explaining himself to a crowd of well-informed, well-organized, angry Long Islanders.

Garden City might well have become an epicenter of controversy for thousands of angry, frustrated parents demanding answers from King. And, if that town hall had taken place, we would have heard stories from the students themselves (very eloquent and well-educated, despite what the make-believe scores say) about the countless hours of new testing, the anxiety starting in third grade, the stressed-out teachers and the crying in the bathroom. Maybe we would have heard about double sessions in reading and math. About lost time for arts and music. About how private school kids get those things in abundance, but students attending New York public schools don’t. The meeting, and King’s appearance, would have given thousands more confused moms and dads who have heard about the testing boycott, a chance to hear both sides before deciding what to do this fall.

Altman adds:

These New Yorkers refuse to believe that test scores, created by the Department of Education, scored by the Department of Education and calibrated by the Department of Education mean anything at all. They refuse to believe that these numbers measure the value of their child, the value of their child’s teacher, or the value of their school. The mantra “Our children are more than test scores” nails it. These parents are boycotting because they love their children, but also because they believe that something terrible, something big-picture, is happening in education. And, as history shows, boycotts are a means to empowerment when democracy has been suspended.

John King and the New York Board of Regents are so totally out of touch that they think that they are champions of education reform. If they actually believe that, they should start a new listening tour and hear what parents and students across the state think about the plans and mandates handed down by the Regents and the State Education Department.

John King’s gift to the people of New York: He has crystallized opposition to his agenda. And now he must deal with it by meeting the people affected by his policies. Why? Because we live in a democracy, not a kingdom or an empire.

Categories Education Reform, Testing

America’s Student Revolutionaries

By dianeravitch
October 16, 2013 //
7

This article was posted today on Huffington Post. They gave it a wonderful title, better than mine: “Our Kids Today: The Greatest Generation?”  

 

The members of the Providence Student Union are the most creative and best informed critics of high-stakes testing in the nation. They can run rings around the public officials in Rhode Island when they explain the damage done by high-stakes testing. They know that a large percentage of students will be denied a high school diploma because they could not pass a standardized test called NECAP.

I had the good fortune to meet some of the leaders of the PSU when I recently spoke at the University of Rhode Island in Kingston. The students drove from Providence, some 45 minutes away. When I spoke, I was introduced by Claudierre McKay, who had distinguished himself as a participant in the student Town Hall on Education Nation. When young McKay introduced me, he presaged everything I was about to say. The students are the consumers of the mandates, why not listen to them?

What I love about the PSU, aside from its determination and style, is that it has mastered the art of political theater. PSU held a zombie march in front of the Rhode Island Department of Education last year to express its contempt for the NECAP as a requirement for graduation.

When officials didn’t listen, the PSU found 60 accomplished professionals to take the test, composed of released items from the actual NECAP exam. 60% of the professionals, distinguished in law, government, architecture, and journalism, failed the high school graduation test.

Most if not all of the members of PSU will easily pass the NECAP; they are very smart young people. They are demonstrating on behalf of their peers–those who are bound to fail because of circumstances beyond their control–because they are new immigrants, because they have a disability that interferes with test-taking, those whose desperate poverty is disabling. PSU understands that a large percentage of students will not earn a high school diploma and their lives will be blighted. With a high school diploma, they have a chance to learn a trade, to be successful in a line of work that doesn’t require algebra. Without one, their lives are ruined.

Does this bother the bureaucrats? Not at all.

But it bothers the students of the PSU.

Recently, they staged a talent show in front of the Rhode Island Department of Education. The point: Students have many talents, and test-taking is only one of them, probably not the most important. These young people will save American education from the dead, cold hands of the robots who now are in charge of the nation’s schools. They have heart, they have creativity, they have wit, they are innovative, they are alive with spirit. They have the qualities that made America great.

They know this great secret: We are not Singapore; we are not Korea; we are not China. We are America. We should cultivate the wit and wisdom of Ben Franklin, the ingenuity of Thomas Alva Edison, the spirit of the Wright brothers. Were they good test-takers? Who knows? Who cares? I bet the guys at Enron and Madoff had great test scores.

Thanks, Providence Student Union, for reminding us of the greatness of your generation. We will do whatever we can to keep the machine from crushing your heart and spirit.

Categories Education Industry, Students, Testing

A NY Parent Objects to Commissioner King’s Cancellation of Parent Meetings

By dianeravitch
October 16, 2013 //
10

John King, Commissioner of New York’s education system, was booed repeatedly when he held his first parent meeting in upstate New York. The parents expressed their low opinion of his policies, his mandates, the Common Core, the Pearson testing, and the contempt King shows for teachers, principals, and public schools.

He opted out. He canceled all future public meetings with parents.

This Long Island parent recommends that parents write a letter to Governor Cuomo. Good idea. But even better to send a letter or email to the New York Board of Regents; that board approves state policy and appoints the State Commissioner. He works for them.

First I will post the parent’s letter, then a list of the members of the Board of Regents:

“Dear Governor Cuomo, I’m writing to express my incredible displeasure at Commissioner John B. King, Jr.’s decision to cancel the state sponsored PTA town hall meetings. As parents, we have legitimate concerns regarding his educational reform policies that are affecting our children. He must have the decency to listen to our concerns and defend his decisions publicly. This is inexcusable, and he must be held accountable.

On Tuesday night, I was looking forward to asking him what evidence he had that it was educationally beneficial or a valid measure of learning to include reading passages on the 3rd grade ELA exam that the average 3rd grader would only understand 50% of the reading material according to our understanding of lexile levels.

If the State’s education reform agenda is sincere in its efforts to improve teaching and learning for our children and not a thinly veiled effort to privatize public education for profit, it is imperative that corrective measures be taken now as a gesture of good faith. I implore you to immediately decrease the duration and frequency of testing, to ensure that the tests be returned to the schools and families so they can be used to make sound educational decisions that impact learning, and eliminate student test scores from teacher evaluations since VAM has been judged to be too unstable by the same people who developed it.

Many Long Island parents, like myself, moved to this region or chose to remain here because of the quality schools that have existed for decades. The Commissioner’s policies are threatening our children’s learning experiences. The canceling of these important meetings is further evidence of the Commissioner’s arrogance. Though the Commissioner is not an elected official, he is appointed by people that are and as one of my elected officials I am requesting that you listen and respond to our concerns.

Sincerely,
Keith Gamache
(Parent of Everett age 7 Centre Ave. School, East Rockaway and Atticus age 4 future kindergartner)
231 Ocean Ave.
Lynbrook, NY 11563
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Dear ___________________, I’m writing to express my incredible displeasure at Commissioner John B. King, Jr.’s decision to cancel the state sponsored PTA town hall meetings. As parents, we have legitimate concerns regarding his educational reform policies that are affecting our children. He must have the decency to listen to our concerns and defend his decisions publicly. This is inexcusable, and he must be held accountable.

On Tuesday night, I was looking forward to asking him…insert your question here.

Many Long Island parents, like myself, moved to this region or chose to remain here because of the quality schools that have existed for decades. The Commissioner’s policies are threatening our children’s learning experiences. The canceling of these important meetings is further evidence of the Commissioner’s arrogance. Though the Commissioner is not an elected official, he is appointed by people that are and as one of my elected officials I am requesting that you listen and respond to our concerns.

Sincerely,
Name
Children’s School
Address”

PLEASE WRITE TO THE MEMBERS OF THE NEW YORK BOARD OF REGENTS. THEY MAKE POLICY. THEY HIRE THE STATE COMMISSIONER:

Here are their personal emails.

abottar@bottarleone.com, mhtisch@mhtisch.com; assistant@mhtisch.com, bennrbrt@aol.com, bettyarosa@aol.com, cbendit@tacon.com, christine.cea@opwdd.ny.gov, REGENTCHAPEY@MAIL.NYSED.GOV, harryphil236@gmail.com, james.cottrell@downstate.edu, REGENTDAWSON@MAIL.NYSED.GOV, jinternetjack@earthlink.net, jtallon@uhfnyc.org, lyoung11@nyc.rr.com, maggiemadonna5@aol.com, roger@tillesco.com, abrown@brownhutchinson.com; wadenorwood@flhsa.org

They also have official ones listed here:

http://www.regents.nysed.gov/members/Membersterms0412.html

Categories Common Core, New York, Parents, Testing

Denver: Fight the Testing Madness on Saturday

By dianeravitch
October 16, 2013 //
4

Hi SOS Supporters,

On October 19th, there are two actions against high stakes testing in Denver. Please join or support them in whatever way you can.  If you enjoy dressing as a Zombie, join the Zombie crawl and protest turning our students into testing zombies.  Visit the tumblr to learn more.

http://testingkillsbrains.tumblr.com/

Also, they are specifically looking for volunteers at the following times. Amber writes,

“I need volunteers for our first action on Sat Oct 19th, to dress as test zombies and pass out flyers at the zombie crawl.  I would love to have a large group of people at the costume contest to chant and get media attention.  Times as follows:

  2:00 pm – Kickoff!

  3:00 pm – Widows Bane

  3:55 pm – Thriller!

  4:00 pm – Zombie Crawl Parade down 16th St.

  5:30 pm – Costume Contests @ Skyline Park

The parade and costume contest is what I feel is most important.

Please send out the word and get as many people as you can to help us.  This is the launch of our group and it promises to be big.  Contact me athypnoamber@netscape.net for more deets.

Amber”

If you don’t want to be a zombie on Saturday, how about joining Students for our Schools to find out how you would score on our students’ tests? On Saturday, the 19th, join adults and community leaders as they take a high stakes tests.

Alex writes,

“Hello Education Activists and Supports,

As you know, the education revolution is a continuous fight, and we could use your help.

On October 19th, we are hosting our Take-The-Test event where adults will be taking a standardized test. We have invited over 100 elected officials, and we need you too!

Below is what we have been sending to the press, but we need your help spreading the word, getting people to sign up and making this event great! If you can spread the word, sign up and get one other person to sign up we can make this event great. Feel free to post this anywhere and everywhere! If you have any questions feel free to send me an email or call.

Thank you so much.

Alex”

http://www.students4ourschools.org/takethetest.html

Check out the great press release about this event.

http://www.students4ourschools.org/1/post/2013/10/take-the-test-event-press-release.html

Thank you for all of your help! Together, we can stop this testing madness and let teachers get back to teaching.

-Melody

P.S. Don’t forget to support school board candidates who are committed to fighting the neoliberal or corporate reform movements.  Our teachers and students deserve elected officials who will put students’ interests ahead of political or financial gains. Thank you.

Categories Colorado, Testing

Oregon: Lost in the Quagmire of Pseudo-Accountability

By dianeravitch
October 16, 2013 //
8

Steve Duin is an excellent writer for The Oregonian.

In this column, he tries to wade through the semantics and mathematical formulae of the state accountability system.

He can’t make sense of it. No one can.

Is it fair to compare these two schools on “growth” measures?

Crane Union and Lincoln are considered demographically comparable high schools, even though Crane is a rural, Title 1 boarding school with 69 students, and Lincoln a sprawling urban high school with a student body of 1,471.

State officials twist and turn and do somersaults but the bottom line is the nation’s obsession with “accountability” is insane.

Schools are not in the business of manufacturing widgets or toothbrushes or tennis balls or chewing gum.

Every child is different.

The tests do not define what matters most in school or in life.

Someday, sanity will return to education policy.

It will come when parents get angry, because they boo and hiss and make noise when state officials tell them their child is failing and their school will be closed.

It will come when parents–the sleeping giant–wake up and burst the bubbles of the data-obsessed robots now running  our state education departments and school districts.

Demand that they visit the schools. Demand that they look every child in their eyes and tell them they are failures.

Make the leaders accountable for the damage they are doing to our children and our schools and our society.

Categories Accountability, Administrators, superintendents, Corporate Reformers, Education Industry, Students, Testing

Will the Reformers Kill Common Core?

By dianeravitch
October 16, 2013 //
27

Jeff Bryant at the Education Opportunity Network is not a critic of Common Core. He is a thoughtful observer.

In this brilliant post, he shows that the worst enemies of Common Core are its advocates.

Why are kindergarten children given standardized tests? Why are teachers compelled to follow scripted curricula? Why are teachers and parents’ voices disregarded? Why the rush? Why the gloating over lower test scores?

None of this makes any sense. Friends of Common Core need to step back, calm down, listen to teachers, think of ways to make revisions, stop the testing until there has been adequate professional development, sufficient resources, time for children to learn the skills that will be tested, and a curriculum to go with the testing.

Who will pay for the new technology for the testing? Who will grade the essays? Temps from Craig’s List? Testing companies in India? Counters?

the needed changes and planning and implementation won’t take one year. It will probably take three. Maybe five.

Reformers, cool your jets. Do it right or don’t do it at all.

Categories Common Core, Corporate Reformers, Teachers and Teaching, Testing

Parent: I Was at the Poughkeepsie Meeting

By dianeravitch
October 15, 2013 //
27

This comment came from a mother who attended the infamous meeting where State Commissioner John King announced his intention to have a dialogue with parents, then lectured the audience for over an hour, and interrupted those who disagreed with him. Having announced five such meetings, he canceled the other four, claiming that “special interests” had manipulated the parents.

This parent says she was there.

She writes:

“….I was at the Poughkeepsie Meeting. Sat in the front row, cause I wanted to look directly into the eyes of the man who has stolen the love of school from my 9 year old.

I am a mom, I have two boys (9 and 14) and we reside in the small community of Millbrook NY. No matter if the persons who did speak were teachers, they were most likely parents too….and I trust them to be surrogate parents to my children when they are in their care 6-7 hours a day.

We are a team.

So, I suggest that every parent start attending every BOE meeting and PTA/O meeting (as I have for the last 4 years, and that’s why I was at that meeting in Poughkeepsie) to show the local districts our support and encourage them to break free of the STATES hold on our children’s love of learning and their own love for teaching.

REVOLT…..great history lesson….lets stop talking about how teachers are scared for your Jobs…implementing the CC cause you have to…and lets NOT DO IT ANYMORE.

The claim from King was that local districts have some control…and I agree, so now we should show him!!!! Some of the problem is that not enough parents understand how much power we hold in the accountability dept. But, we are educating ourselves and in turn becoming more involved whether our districts want us there or NOT.

It’s time for WE THE PEOPLE…..Teachers and Parents TOGETHER….No excuses, we are just as much to blame for this mess as anyone else. Let’s listen to each other and lets take back the importance of educating our youth.

I am writing for King’s resignation. His disrespect for anyone to have a voice showed him to be the Dictator of his “Communistic Core” and I will not be silenced….this mama bear will fight for her cubs.”

Categories Administrators, superintendents, Common Core, Education Industry, Education Reform, New York, Parents, Students, Testing

Aaron Pallas Rates NY Commissioner John King: Zero

By dianeravitch
October 14, 2013 //
14

Aaron Pallas, one of our best sociologists of education, looks at the terrible scores of teachers in Syracuse.

“The summary evaluations reported by Superintendent Contreras [of Syracuse] were striking: Just two percent of Syracuse teachers were rated highly effective, and an additional 58 percent were deemed effective. Seven percent were classified as ineffective, and 33 percent as developing, categories that suggest low levels of teaching performance, the need for teacher improvement plans, and the threat of eventual dismissal. Not a single elementary or middle-school teacher in the entire district was rated highly effective.”

Pallas writes:

“I wonder how State Commissioner John King, Jr. would like it if his performance evaluation were based on the same criteria applied to teachers in Syracuse. The percentage-point increase in students statewide scoring at level 3 and 4 in ELA from 2012 to 2013? Well, that actually fell from 55 percent to 31 percent. The Commissioner gets a zero. The percentage-point increase in students scoring at level 3 and 4 in math? That fell from 65 percent to 31 percent. The Commissioner gets a zero. The percentage-point decrease in students statewide scoring at level 1 in ELA from 2012 to 2013? That actually increased from 10 percent to 32 percent. The Commissioner gets a zero. And the percentage-point decrease in students scoring at level 1 in math? That rose from eight percent to 33 percent. The Commissioner gets a zero.

Just for the heck of it, let’s also allow the Commissioner to score some points if the average teacher growth percentile across the state increased from 2012 to 2013. But because that’s constrained by definition to be 50 each year, there’s no growth there, either. Sorry, Commish! Another zero.”

Judged by the same metric, the leaders of New York State have failed.

Who will hold them accountable for imposing tests and standards for which no one was prepared?

Categories Administrators, superintendents, Common Core, New York, Testing

NAISON: Time for Commissioner King to Resign

By dianeravitch
October 14, 2013 //
21

When John King was booed at his first parent meeting, he got angry. He expected parents to listen to his wisdom, gleaned from his three years in a no-excuses charter school that is known for kicking out non-conforming students.

Most state superintendents understand that they are public servants, meaning they serve the public. John King thinks he was chosen to give orders to schools, teachers, principals, and superintendents. He confuses leading the State Education Department with leading a no-excuses charter school, where he can suspend or expel anyone who doesn’t follow his orders.

But the parents did not get the message. when he sternly lectured them about the glories of the Common Core and Common Core testing, the parents booed and jeered him.

He canceled all future meetings with parents so he can stay in Fortress Albany. There, his employees know how to take orders.

Mark NAISON, co-founder of the BATs, says King should resign. Now. He has made it clear that he doesn’t like children other than his own, and that he knows nothing about education, only testing.

Categories Common Core, New York, Testing

Bruce Baker: Should Economists Be Paid by Their Hair Color?

By dianeravitch
October 14, 2013 //
28

Bruce Baker continues to be one of our most valuable academic scholars of educational madness.

In this post, he explores and explodes the claim by certain economists that teachers should not get a pay increase for anything except higher test scores. This is the only value that they ever add to a school.

On the basis of this absurd claim, states are now passing laws to deny teachers any salary increment for masters’ degrees. The theory, based on the work of aforesaid economists, is that additional education does not increase test scores (except in mathematics).

So, the teacher who wants to deepen their knowledge of science or history or obtain a degree in special education will see no salary increment. The not-so-subtle message from the state legislators is: Getting extra education is worth nothing to this state! Forget education, just produce higher test scores! At some point, maybe the legislators will just turn the schools over to test prep companies and forget about teachers altogether. If they find that high school students can produce higher test scores, they may stop requiring a college degree for future teachers.

Baker writes:

It may be entirely reasonable for local public school districts to provide additional compensation for teachers seeking graduate credentials that expand their possible involvement in district or school activities, such as achieving additional training to work with special needs populations, or additional content certifications, or for that matter additional training to engage in all of the new teacher observations [Tom] Kane and others now seem to think are necessary for getting rid of bad teachers (even though his own work on MET did not support his own conclusion in this regard). That is, you might want to have the salary differential available for the utility player.

It may also be an entirely reasonable approach for school districts to view providing additional compensation for furthering one’s education as a useful tool for retaining teachers – especially those who themselves show interest in expanding their own knowledge/learning.

In both this, and the previous case, the additional degrees or credentials obtained may actually have no direct relationship to the current primary responsibilities of the teacher. Does that mean they are entirely useless? That they should not be in any way associated with differentiated compensation not only until they are used, but until they are used in such a way that we can estimate that the additional credential has led to test score gains?

That’s just freakin’ asinine.

And this reductionist thinking really needs to stop.

Categories Teachers and Teaching, Testing
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