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Letter from a Pennsylvania Student: Stop the Keystones!

By dianeravitch
July 2, 2013 //
27

A reader sent this letter written by her 14-year-old daughter. She should become active in the opt-out movement. She should contact Tim Slekar and Shaun Johnson “At the Chalkface.”

Mother and daughter: resist. Join with others. Don’t let them destroy your education in the name of “accountability.” Hold the Mindless Testing Fanatics accountable.

She writes:

“Thank you for speaking up about these high stakes graduation exams. My 14 year-old daughter was required to take Algebra 1 this year (in 8th grade) and to take a first attempt at passing the new Pennsylvania, Keystone Exam. We live in the high achieving, suburban Philadelphia school district of Lower Merion, and have been extremely happy with our district until the Common Core Sate Standards and Keystone exams affected her this year. We know other children & families who feel much the same way.

“After day 1 of the exam, she came home a ball of stress. As a way of letting out her feelings, she wrote the essay below. At the end, she writes that she will never take a Keystone again, but unfortunately, that may be impossible. As I am sure you are aware, districts need to create projects for students who opt out or fail repeatedly. We have no idea what these projects entail. She is hoping that her essay will be published as a post. Thank you for considering giving her a voice.”

STOP KEYSTONES ONCE AND FOR ALL

My Story

By Jordyn Schwartz

Today I have experienced one of the most confidence breaking and mind troubling obstacles in my entire life; the Algebra 1 Keystone exam for the State of Pennsylvania. When I sat down to take this standardized test, I did not know what I was getting myself into. My math teacher had been preparing us for this test, but even with all that drill and practice, my mind could not take it all in. The first 14 questions took me over 10 minutes each when I was trying to solve the unfamiliar equations, long word problems, and words I didn’t even know how to pronounce. I was telling myself that I was going to be fine until all of the stress overwhelmed my body. I was frustrated. “I should know this,” I thought. I wasn’t even half way done when they announced that there were only 10 minutes remaining. I only completed my first set of grueling questions, and still had another set of them and 2 short answer sections containing at least 6 more questions each. I wouldn’t get help from a,b,c or d with these.

At that moment, my mind broke down. I was telling myself that I was stupid, and that these kinds of tests make me feel like I don’t know anything. After hours of work, I still had so much more. It is extremely difficult to continue concentrating at the same intense level as you did when you first started. I was sick and tired of looking at those same boring Algebra problems.

I am an A average student all around, and score advanced on PSSA’s. But I couldn’t even read the next problem without all of those discouraging thoughts spiraling in my mind. I tried telling myself to pull through, but I found myself not caring anymore, and just wanting to circle some letter. I did that for two or three questions and stopped. I dropped my pencil on my desk, tried taking some deep breaths, and thought of ripping my booklet into shreds. I poked holes in my booklet with my pencil, and started squeezing my hands tightly as if I was going to explode. I was that angry, outraged, fuming. I felt so incredibly frustrated that these stupid test companies don’t care what they are doing to the students of our country. All they want is the money, and the worst part is, nothing is being done to stop them. Why don’t the politicians making my generation the most over tested in history try the tests for themselves? I bet most of them would fail or do poorly. I mean, if smart, educated people don’t do well on these tests, than what do they show?

These Keystone tests are breaking kids down, making us feel dumb and not want to learn, instead of making us want to enjoy the wonders and greatness of education. I know that when most people in my grade hear the words, standardized testing, no one is jumping up and down with excitement. I am an 8th grade student in the Lower Merion School District: a district known for their excellent education. When kids here are complaining about how difficult it is for us to take these tests, who knows what kids in struggling school districts are experiencing. Why should these tests be a graduation requirement for high school?

After my big meltdown from the frustration of not knowing how in the world to do these problems, I didn’t continue my test. I told the guidance counselor I couldn’t take it any more, and how it made me feel horrible inside. Although I kept calm on the outside, on the inside I was bomb about to explode. I was holding back my tears. I bet many other kids felt this same way, even if it wasn’t as strongly as I felt. I will tell you one thing, I am never taking one of those tests again. No test shall ever make me feel as low and deflated as I did today. I don’t care what alternative project I have to do in exchange for the Keystone test. Let me be exempted. No one should experience what I have experienced today. Standardized testing needs to be stopped.

Categories Pennsylvania, Students, Testing

Fairfax County Teacher: Why I Quit

By dianeravitch
July 2, 2013 //
14

Ron Maggiano taught history and social studies in the Fairfax County (Virginia) public schools for 33 years. Along the way, he picked up many awards for his excellent teaching.

Here he reflects on why he quit a career he loved.

“Now more than three decades later, I have just spent my last day as a teacher. I resigned my teaching position because I can no longer cooperate with the standardized testing regime that is destroying creativity and stifling imagination in the classroom. I am sad, angry, hurt, and dismayed by what has happened to education and to the teaching profession that I so dearly love.

“It was a difficult decision, but I am confident that it was the correct one. For me this was a moral choice. I believe that our current national obsession with high-stakes testing is wrong, because it hurts kids and deprives students of an education that is meaningful, imaginative, and relevant to the demands of the 21st century.”

And more,

“More significantly, critical thinking skills and analytical problem solving have now been replaced with rote memorization and simple recall of facts, figures, names, and dates. Educators have been forced to adopt a “drill and kill” model of teaching to ensure that their students pass the all-important end-of-course test. Teaching to the test, a practice once universally condemned administrators and educators alike, has now become the new normal in classrooms across the country.

“If teaching to the test was wrong 30 some years ago when I first entered the classroom, it is just as wrong today as I leave my classroom for the final time. The fact is that we are not really educating our students. We are merely teaching them how to pass a test.”

Categories Teachers and Teaching, Testing

TeacherKen: BAT Has a Website: Join Us

By dianeravitch
July 1, 2013 //
18

TeacherKen reports that the Badass Teachers Association has enrolled more than 20,000 members in only two weeks.

It has a new website, so you can join without going to Facebook. TeacherKen has the link. That’s great news for those of us who are not on FB.

Keep it going.

You don’t have to be a teacher to join. You have to be mad as hell at the mess the corporations, the foundations, and the federal government have made of education and what they are doing to our kids.

We can take back our schools and our profession.

Yes, we can.

Categories Education Reform, Privatization, Race to the Top, Teachers and Teaching, Testing

Rachel Levy: To Opt Out or Not?

By dianeravitch
June 30, 2013 //
8

I am a few days late posting this good essay by Rachel Levy. Here she debates whether to opt out her children from Virginia’s state testing.

Levy has a terrific blog, and you should read it whenever possible or subscribe. She is one of our best thinkers today writing about education issues.

She knows that everyone is caught up in the same snare, and she doesn’t want to cause problems for her children’s teachers or their school.

She considers the pluses and minuses and ultimately decides not to comply.

She writes:

“The best education is one that involves a rich and diverse curriculum where kids learn lots of stuff and read lots of books. Good leadership or bad, America’s public schools students largely aren’t getting that right now. Test prep and practice does not facilitate a rich and meaning full education and what’s more, it doesn’t even facilitate a meaningful boost in test scores.

“So, by all means let’s protest and work to end poor education policy and end high-stakes standardized testing. In the meantime, I am mostly willing comply with what is required. But I vigorously protest all the rest; it’s not necessary, it doesn’t work, and it’s poor practice.”

Categories Accountability, Parents, Testing

A Teacher’s Plea to Bill and Melinda Gates

By dianeravitch
June 30, 2013 //
47

This teacher hopes that Bill and Melinda read this comment:

Dear Bill and Melinda,

I truly believe you started with good intentions. As mature adults who make mistakes, it is time to recant your initial perspective.

I’ve taught 4th and 5th graders in an inner city school for the past 17 years. What fun we used to have. Back then…. before the NCLB and RTT…. my students flourished in literature groups reading on grade level classics such as Hatchet, Tuck Everlasting, Call it Courage, The Cay, Caddie Woodlawn, The Little Princess, and My Side of the Mountain. We read Jerry Spinelli, Karen Hesse, C.S. Lewis and J.R. Tolkien. Not anymore. Why? The testing.

Since the high stakes tests began in 2001 I have noticed a decline in my student’s thinking skills. Each year they come to me with fewer skills than the group before me. The teachers are the same as before, but something is different. Students were being over tested. They no longer get the pleasure of reading in the “zone” and spending time languishing in the text for the sheer joy of reading. They have to pass these tests. If they don’t the school is punished.

This year, our school is being punished, because we are a “focused” school. As a result, time and time again, I have had to postpone my well planned lessons. These lessons, which are designed to engage students in analyzing and thinking about character motive, theme, setting etc. depend on momentum, continuity and consistency. These lessons are designed to give students time to reflect on their learning. Not this year, sadly. As a focused school, the state is more concerned with DATA. So, I have had to put aside my lessons, midstream, to initiate one edict after another given by the district, which was precipitated by the state mandates of a focused school. (I might add here that the majority of focused schools are located in impoverished districts. It’s not because of bad teaching. It’s because of poverty!)

These edicts range from “administering the district exam on material not yet covered in order to input the data, to implementing another NEW strategy, which we were never trained in to use.” Consequently, my well thought out lessons went down the drain, and I collected and input data instead. Those great books we were reading sat on the shelf. The math games and manipulatives, which help my students grasp the concrete before they explore the abstract, sat on the shelf. Instead, I administered exams and in between did my best to cover the material so that the students would hopefully succeed on these exams. If I didn’t do it, I would get a bad evaluation and my job would be on the line. I felt l was stuck between a rock and a hard place. Against every bone in my body, I had eliminate the reflective time of learning to move quickly to the next “state” agenda.

The sad part is this. I was miserable and my students were miserable. “Ms. P can’t we get in our reading groups today?” Yes. My students begged to read. They begged to read because when I am allowed to teach the way I KNOW is best, they read and love it. And that simple act of reading and loving it is the aspect of learning that will move the students forward.

However, thanks to your well-intentioned push to improve our schools, my students have less time to enjoy learning and more time to create data so that I can prove that I am teaching.

A side note here: Why are we a focused school? Our students with disabilities did not make AYP (Annual Yearly Progress). You got it. Students with special needs did not “meet state standards.” Now, Bill and Melinda, please read the many posts from parents and teachers of students with disabilities to understand the absurdity of this.

…..and reconsider your alignment with Michelle Rhee and the likes.

Please, recant.

Categories Gates Foundation, Bill Gates, Teachers and Teaching, Testing

The BTA Launches New Media Today

By dianeravitch
June 30, 2013 //
25

Having sprouted nearly 20,000 members in barely two weeks, the distinguished Badass Teachers Association prepares for the long haul. Mark NAISON writes:

“Today, with the Official Launch Party for the group Logo, the youtube channel, and the opening of the BAT Store, members of the Badass Teachers Association will see how hard the administrators of this group have worked to create an organizational structure built for the long, hard, struggle to take back our profession and our schools from the profiteers, hustlers and opportunists who have marginalized our voices and deluged our schools with tests and assessments. No one should pretend this struggle will be easy, or that it will not provoke arguments in the group as to best carry it out. But I am confident that with the organization we have all created together, the national group plus the 50 state organizations, teachers now have the opportunity to speak more frankly and honestly, in collective solidarity, than they did two weeks ago. The collective courage and creativity of people on this site inspires me every day. Now let the whole nation learn what Badass Teachers can do.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/140244172840677/

Mark D Naison
Professor of African American Studies and History
Fordham University

“If you Want to Save America’s Public Schools: Replace Secretary of Education Arne Duncan With a Lifetime Educator.” http://dumpduncan.org/

Categories Privatization, Support for public schools, Teachers and Teaching, Testing

Burris: John King’s Absurd Educator Evaluation Plan

By dianeravitch
June 27, 2013 //
26

Carol Corbett Burris, principal of South Side High School in Rockville Center, Long Island, New York, runs a good school. She wants to protect her staff and her students from ill-advised state interference. She wants to keep morale high. She has led the principals’ rebellion against the state evaluation plan. In this post, she reviews the evaluation plan that John King, our state commissioner of education (who has minimal experience as a teacher or a principal) imposed on the New York City public schools:

 

Recently Commissioner John King imposed a high stakes evaluation plan on New York City teachers. When you look at the plan, you see that the scoring bands for the first two categories, (student growth based on test scores and other achievement measures), are dramatically different from those used this year to evaluate all of NYS teachers with APPR evaluation plans. For example, this year’s scoring band range for Ineffective is 0-2 in the first two categories. Yet NYC teachers will have an Ineffective range of 0-12 in the first two. Likewise, this year Effective starts at 9, but for NYC teachers it will start at 15.

Why? Because the score band that is being used for our APPR scores has serious problems that cannot be addressed through negotiations.  For example, if you get the rating of ‘developing’ in all three categories and the scores are on the low end of developing, you will be rated INEFFECTIVE overall. 

Here is the arithmetic:  3 + 3 + 58 = 64

Because word problems are all the rage with the common core, let me turn it into a word problem: Developing + Developing + Developing = Ineffective

The 3s come right off the 3012C score band. So where does the 58 come from? Teacher unions negotiate the final 60 points, known as “other points”. So let’s say they negotiated 60 points for highly effective.  And they negotiated a plan so that all effective teachers get 59 points. That would leave 58 points for developing teachers, and 0-57 points for ineffective. Bizarre, but the best you could do.

Once again…..

3+ 3 + 58 = 64, D+D+ D = IE because 64 means you are Ineffective.

 Now, I wrote about these ridiculous and very unfair bands in February of 2012.  But Mr. Leo Casey, then of the UFT, took me to task. And he took Diane Ravitch to task for supporting me. He said that I did not understand.  From that EdWize blog…

“Is it really necessary to note that teacher union leaders with substantial experience in collective bargaining know how to do simple math, and would not agree in collective bargaining to scoring bands for teacher performance that would produce such an incongruous and unfair result?”

Well, Mr. Casey, take a look at the plans that have been negotiated around New York State, and do the simple math in all of the plans.  Diane and I will be happy to accept your apology.

Despite the fact that this problem is known to SED, they have yet to honestly address it or speak about it. What is the right thing to do? Have this year’s APPR scores not count, and certainly not have them shared with parents. Instead they are hiding their math mistake.

And now we have the Commissioner’s NYC fix.  Yes, it fixes the D+D+D= IE.  But he solved a problem with a problem. Here are the new bands below.

Commissioner Imposed Cut Scores for New York City

  Growth or ComparableMeasures Locally-selected Measures of growth orachievement Other Measures of Effectiveness(60 points)   Overall CompositeScore
Ineffective 0-12 0-12 0-38   0-64
Developing 13-14 13-14 39-44   65-74
Effective 15-17 15-17 45-54   75-90
Highly Effective 18-20 18-20 55-60   91-100

 

Notice how the “points” shift over to the Ineffective rows… So let’s run some scenarios. A teacher gets 12 points in growth, 12 in the locally selected measures and their principal is very impressed with their teaching and professionalism and gives them 60/60 points in other measures. WOW!  84 points! That is an effective teacher.  Umm, not so fast.  Both the NYC plan and the law say that if your scores are in the Ineffective range in the first two columns you must be Ineffective overall.  In this case, 84 = Ineffective.

But suppose you get 12 + 13 + 40 = 65. You are a Developing teacher.

Yes, in this score band, the arithmetic is quite creative….

84 can be < 65 in a world where test scores must trump all.

 

 

 

 

Categories Accountability, Testing

Teacher: Why Is New York Manipulating Passing Mark?

By dianeravitch
June 26, 2013 //
32

Chris Webster, a high school English teacher in New York, wrote an outraged letter to State Commissioner John King. Why is the state manipulating the passing mark? Are they making the scores lower to make public education look bad?

Here is Chris’ letter:

Dear Commissioner King:

You often tell the story of a teacher who had a positive influence on your life. We all remember a teacher who acknowledged who we are; one who valued our talents and dreams. That is why I became a teacher. I wanted to have an influence on the next generation; I wanted to help mold and guide young adults and show them their value. And, of course, I wanted to express and share my love of literature. Therefore, I have enjoyed spending the last 16 years as an English Language Arts teacher. And so it is with a heavy heart that I watch the New York State Education Department blatantly manipulate data for their own agenda, the true victims being the children they purport to represent.

I will not nor can I speak to politics and what goes on behind the scenes. I am, however, right there on the front line, not in educational theory but in the classroom. My students completed the New York State Comprehensive Exam in English (the “Regents Exam”) this past Tuesday, and I am shocked and appalled by what the State is doing. I am not a statistician but I can speak in real terms of what I’ve noticed.

On the English Regents Exam, a student can score a maximum of 25 points on the multiple choice questions, and a maximum of 10 points on the three written components. These “raw scores” are then converted into a score out of 100. When one looks at the score conversion chart, one looks at the multiple choice responses along the y-axis, and the essay score along the x-axis, finds the convergence point, and within that box there is a converted score on a 100 point scale. With 25 points along the y-axis and 10 points along the x-axis, there are a total of 250 “boxes” within the chart, each with a score out of 100.

The June 2013 scores introduced a disturbing change. In the last three administrations of this exam, June 2012, August 2012, and January 2013, a passing score of 65 or higher was available in 70 of the boxes. This represented 28% of the possible scores. In the most recent administration, June, 2013, this number was reduced. The 70 boxes with passing scores were reduced to 57 boxes. This represents 23% of the possible scores. Looking at it in this manner – the state is using the same chart with the same raw data, but reduced the passing score possibilities by 5%. Another way of looking at the same data is to look at the passing score numbers. The State went from 70 boxes of passing scores to 57. This is a reduction by almost 20%.

These same numbers work when one looks at Mastery (score 85 or higher) rates on the exam. Again, using the June 2012, August 2012, and January 2013, Mastery scores were available in 15 of the boxes, representing 6% of the scores. In the most recent administration, June 2013, this number was reduced. The 15 boxes with Mastery scores were reduced to 12. This represents approximately 5% of the possible scores. Again, the State reduced this by 1%. Nevertheless, look at the same data in another light. The State went from 15 boxes of Mastery scores to 12. This is a reduction of 20%.

There are yet other concerns. Across the board, with all scores, the scores in the corresponding boxes have been reduced. For example, in the June 2012 administration, a student who scored a 17 on the multiple choice and a 7 on the essays earned a grade of 66. In August 2012 the score was 67. In January 2013 the score was 67. In June 2013 the score was 63, a failing grade, despite the raw scores being exactly the same as the 3 previous administrations. A second example: using the last 3 administrations of the test once again, if a student’s raw score was 24 on the multiple choice and an 8 on the written responses, the grade earned was an 85 (considered Mastery level). However, in the June 2013 administration, these same raw scores converted to an 83, a drop of two points, and, more importantly, failure to achieve Mastery.

It is only a matter of time before we see the newspaper headlines saying “Regents Scores Drop Across the State.” The test has NOT become more difficult or easier; it is similar to recent exams. The State has simply made it more difficult to pass. In my opinion, this feels like one more attempt to prove that public education is not working.

In an effort to push your reform agenda, the students are the victims. New York State’s high school students deserve better. If an 11th grade student took the exam last year, statistically speaking, he or she had a 20% higher chance of meeting with success. The “high stakes” testing agenda is shameful.

Sincerely,

Christopher A. Webster

English Department

South Side High School

Rockville Centre, NY

Categories Accountability, New York, Students, Testing

Louisiana: Why Business Supports the Common Core

By dianeravitch
June 26, 2013 //
4

The business leaders of Louisiana are strong supporters of the Common Core.

They believe it will prepare students to be competitors in the global marketplace.

They expect it will strengthen their knowledge of STEM subjects.

They believe it will have a dramatic power to transform every part of the education system.

They see it as the key to future prosperity.

I am not sure they really know anything about the Common Core, but they feel very strongly that it will work, even though it has never been tried anywhere.

Categories Common Core, Corporate Reformers, Education Reform, Testing

David Greene: Repeal Race to the Top

By dianeravitch
June 26, 2013 //
17

David C. Greene says it is time
to restore common sense and sanity to education. Remember common sense and sanity?

He writes the following on his blog (http://t.co/WSUIlWARVk):

Support State Bills to repeal acceptance of Race to The Top in your state.

I am almost 64 years old. I have spent all but 4 of those in NYS public schools either as a student, teacher for 38 years, coach, or teacher mentor.

This was on the front page of my local newspaper…. I bet it is not unlike yours. STATE FAULTS GRAD PREP. According to the state, and what they have given the ridiculous name of The Aspirational Performance measure… to be college and career ready, a high school graduate must score at least a 75 on their English Regents and at least an 80 on an Algebra Regents.

I went to the Bronx High School of Science, one of the most prestigious high schools in the nation because I passed a test in the 9th grade. I received a BA (cum Laude) from Fordham University, an MA from CCNY, and have earned an additional 90 graduate credits….

However, according to the State’s APM, I was neither college nor career ready because I never got higher than an 80 on ANY math Regents…. even at the Bx HS of Science.

How many of you are HS graduates? How many, like me would not have been “C&C ready”?

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I met 16 year-old Tyree 2 years ago while mentoring his TFA semi trained teacher in the Bronx. He was still in the 8th grade. He was on the verge of being tossed out of his Bronx middle school even though everyone knew he was one of the brightest kids there.

He and I connected. When I asked him why he was failing, he said… “I can’t stand this. Why should I be doing the same “frckn” thing since I was in 3rd grade?

He is typical. They took his passion, his curiosity, and his humanity and replaced it with boredom.

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When did we lose our way? The founding fathers knew that in a democracy public schools were necessary to have an informed citizenry.

Public schools are not just to develop reading and math scores. Public schools are meant for the development of well-rounded adults able to contribute to their communities in whatever way they can, as college professors and auto mechanics, computer scientists and sanitation engineers.

Public schools are meant to teach not just academics, but citizenship, and humanity.

Public schools, next to family, are the most important institution in the socialization process of developing mature capable adults in our society.

When did they turn into factories creating test scores, not adults?

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Many of you see your boys and girls, little and big, hating and getting stressed in school precisely because of what schools are increasingly forced to do in this DOE controlled prescribed manner.

But why is there a prescribed manner?

I taught American History for years. One extremely important era was the post Civil War Gilded Age when US Congress was owned lock, stock, and barrel by the powerful Trusts of that era.

A very famous political cartoon of the time depicted a legislative chamber watched over by HUGE figures of trusts represented by the FAT INDUSTRIALISTS of the era, like Rockefeller, Vanderbilt, and Carnegie.

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Similarly, education bills all over the country today are being guided by our version of these Fat Cats: Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg, the Koch brothers, Eli Broad, and the Walton Family….

Today they are profiting from the education of our children by buying politicians from DC to Albany and indoctrinated them with their pseudo-science and their INADEQUATE $700 million BIG BUCKS!!!

George W. Bush, Barack Obama, Arne Duncan, Wendy Kopp, Michelle Rhee and countless other so-called educational reformers have hijacked our education system. They provide corporations like Pearson profit at the cost of our children!

They “embrace science whenever it supports their sacred values, but they’ll ditch it or distort it as soon as it threatens a sacred value.”

…Like the Common Core and Standardized testing.

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NYS, for better and worse, has had K-12 syllabi and curricula for decades that other states hoped to emulate. It wasn’t perfect, but it was not prescribed. It wasn’t forced down the throats of schools, teachers, and children. They replaced it with Race to The Top formulas and The Common Core.

We have to make our political leaders regret that decision to be bought off, bribed, and blackmailed by Arne Duncan’s and the Federal DOE.

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I went to elementary school in a poor working class integrated South Bronx neighborhood. I learned to love school in 2nd grade because I was encouraged to learn by Ms. Rita Stafford, a teacher who thoroughly engaged all of us… We learned astronomy by hanging a solar system from the ceiling. We learned how to help our parents in neighborhood stores by learning long division. We learned how to fight for civil rights and for what is right by writing letters to President Eisenhower during the Little Rock crisis. We were published in the NYT.

SHE is why I am here today.

I am the SEED she planted!

Because we love our children we must fight for their right to have a teacher like my Ms. Stafford, and perhaps many of yours who planted the seed of who you are today.

Because we love our children, we must fight for the education they and the future of this country deserve.

We must be sure we allow our children to flower as we have.

Fight to repeal RTTT in NYS.

Fight to get Assembly Bill A7994 passed.

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With apologies to Quentin Taratino, and the movie Inglourious Basterds..

“Ed deformers ain’t got no humanity. They’re the foot soldiers of a teacher hating, kid smothering maniac and they need to be dee-stroyed.

“…But I got a word of warning for all you would-be warriors. When we joined this command, we took on a debit. A debit we owe our children personally. “

Categories Privatization, Race to the Top, Students, Teachers and Teaching, Testing
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