Carol Burris Urges Civil Disobedience to End High Stakes Testing

from Valerie's place at WaPo:

It has become increasingly clear that Congress does not have the will to move away from annual high-stakes testing. The bizarre notion that subjecting 9-year-olds to hours of high-stakes tests is a “civil right,” is embedded in the thinking of both parties. Conservatives no longer believe in the local, democratic control of our schools. Progressives refuse to address the effects of poverty, segregation and the destruction of the middle class on student learning. The unimaginative strategy to improve achievement is to make standardized tests longer and harder.

And then there are the Common Core State Standards. Legislators talk a good game to appease parents, but for all their bluff and bluster, they are quite content to use code names, like the West Virginia Next Generation Content Standards,  to trick their constituents into believing their state standards are unique, even though most are word for word from the Common Core.

The only remedy left to parents is to refuse to have their children take the tests. Testing is the rock on which the policies that are destroying our local public schools are built. If our politicians do not have the courage to reverse high-stakes testing, then those who care must step in. As professor of Language and Composition, Ira Shor, bluntly stated:

 Because our kids cannot defend themselves, we have to defend them. We parents must step in to stop it. We should put our foot down and say, “Do it to your own kids first before you experiment on ours!”

Read the rest here.

Eighty-Four Percent of Boulder Valley Students Refuse State Tests

From The Daily Camera:

More than 1,500 Boulder Valley high-school students — 84 percent of the district's seniors — refused to take the state's new science and social studies tests Thursday in a widespread protest against how much classroom time is devoted to standardized testing. 

At Boulder's Fairview High, nine out of 530 eligible seniors took the test, while about 200 seniors showed up at the school to wave signs, collect food and school supplies for holiday drives, and write letters to policymakers. 

"That we had so many students out there in the freezing weather really shows how committed we are," Fairview senior Jessica Piper said. "We had a really good turnout."

Seniors, for the first time, are taking state science and social studies tests, with Boulder Valley and many other districts in the state scheduling the test for Thursday and Friday. In previous years, ninth- and 10th-graders took state tests, while juniors took the ACT and seniors were exempt.

Students in other districts also failed to show for the tests, with parents in both Boulder Valley and elsewhere agreeing to opt them out.

Those parental refusals were concentrated in a few of the state's highest-performing and most affluent school districts. 

At nine Douglas County high schools, nearly 1,900 students did not take the tests, or more than half the overall student population at those schools, according to preliminary data provided by the district.

The student protests come as educators and parents are raising concerns that too much time is now spent on testing, with Boulder Valley Superintendent Bruce Messinger agreeing that the state hasn't found "the right balance."

He added that the students did a good job of demonstrating their concern.

"We hope it will generate good discussion around these assessments," he said.

'Protesting in the freezing cold'

A state task force, with a report due to the state Legislature by Jan. 31, is now investigating testing cost, timelines, impact on instruction and opt-out options.

In a statement Thursday, Colorado Education Commissioner Robert Hammond said he hears the concerns about the timing and volume of testing.

"I understand the frustration," Hammond said. "I am fully committed to evaluating how the testing goes and working with districts and policymakers to identify ways to improve. I know that together we will find the best pathway forward that yields the best results for students."

Along with protesting, seniors at Fairview, Broomfield High and Centaurus High wrote an open letter — complete with footnotes — to the community about the reasons behind the protest.

At Fairview on Thursday morning, senior Cody Limber said students wanted to make their displeasure over the standardized tests heard.

"We're not happy with not only the money being spent, but with the time being spent," he said.

Added senior Emma Boelts, "We're all out here protesting in the freezing cold for our educational rights."

The students are planning to continue the protest Friday.

Students 'were very thoughtful'

Fairview Principal Don Stensrud said he was "very proud of the students for exercising their rights."

"They were very thoughtful in their planning," he said. "They wanted to make sure it wouldn't cause any harm to the district."

While this first round of senior science and social studies tests won't count for school accountability measures, districts will be held accountable for reaching a 95 percent participation rate. If Boulder Valley's participation is lower, Messinger said, the district will need to show that it made an effort to get students to test or face a lower state accreditation rating.

Schools gave new state science and social studies tests in elementary and middle school in the spring. New online tests in reading and math will debut in the spring of 2015.

The Colorado Department of Education estimates that third-graders will spend 490 minutes on tests, fourth- and fifth-graders 800 minutes, sixth graders 570 minutes, seventh- and eighth-graders 840 minutes, ninth- and 10th-graders 600 minutes, juniors — who take the ACT along with state tests — 795 minutes, and seniors 540 minutes.

The Denver Post contributed to this report.

Amy Bounds: 303-473-1341, boundsa@dailycamera.com or twitter.com/boundsa

Peg Robertson Says No to Common Core Testing in CO

Posted here earlier:

Citizens of Colorado, I address this letter to you, because you are my community, my people. You have the power to shift the momentum in our public schools – where our students are increasingly being taught to the test under the intense high stakes conditions created via Race to the Top. Meanwhile, child poverty is ignored. I send this letter to you because I have made attempts to have a dialogue with the decision-makers. I have spoken with Secretary Arne Duncan, I have written to President Obama, and I have spoken in front of the Colorado Legislative Education Committee, all to no avail. So, I address this letter to you, in the hopes that my words and my actions will create momentum across our beautiful state for the children of  Colorado.  Thank you. 

Dear Citizens of Colorado,

I am a teacher in the Aurora Public School District. I am writing to let you know that I will be refusing to administer the PARCC in the 2014-2015 school year. I do not stand alone in my refusal of this high stakes test. I join the ranks of educators across the country who are fighting back against policies and mandates that ultimately harm our children and destroy our children’s opportunities to become confident, active, problem solving citizens.

I have watched the testing increase over my 18 years of teaching in the public schools. I have watched what it has done to my ability to meet children’s needs and to allow children the opportunities to engage in learning that is authentic – learning that furthers the purpose of these children’s lives. This year, in particular, I am watching an onslaught of common core curriculum infiltrate our schools, along with additional tests and test prep to add to the test load which permeates every minute of every school day.  I hear again and again that I should find the “good” in this curriculum and make the best of it. I am a literacy coach, therefore, I work with many teachers and children in our building. I believe our children deserve better than simply, my ability to find the “good” in this common core test prep curriculum. I believe our children deserve what President Obama’s children have at Sidwell, where teachers have autonomy to teach without scripted common core curriculum and common core high stakes testing.  I take objection to the fact that our children are being used as guinea pigs in an experiment to implement standards which were never field tested, are copyrighted,  were not created using a democratic process, and were not created with the input of classroom teachers. Furthermore, the Common Core standards have placed unrealistic expectations on our youngest learners, many who now view themselves as failures, because they are unable to meet the developmentally inappropriate expectations set by the Common Core standards.

I also refuse to administer the PARCC because I believe that participation in such testing gives the test credibility – of which it has none. The PARCC test was designed to assess the Common Core standards which are not grounded in research, nor are they internationally benchmarked.

Furthermore, there is no evidence that the Common Core standards, Common Core curriculum and Common Core testing, will in any way close the achievement gap. It will do the opposite. By funneling all of our tax dollars to corporations for curriculum, tests and technology to implement the test, we have ignored the elephant standing in the middle of the room – the number of homeless school children in Colorado, which has more than tripled in the last decade.  The poverty rate of black children stands at approximately 40% while the poverty rate of  Latino children is approximately 30%. Colorado also has the third fastest growing rate of childhood poverty in the nation. We know quite clearly that children who have quality nutrition, healthcare, as well as access to books via libraries with certified librarians, and all the other resources provided to children in particular zip codes, actually, have done quite well on standardized tests in the past. Yet, we continue to ignore this fact, and we continue to feed our children living in poverty only tests. In order to pay for these tests, technology, and curriculum, we strip our schools of much needed resources such as books, small class size, librarians, nurses, counselors and more. Closing the achievement gap requires closing the resource gap.

As we consider closing the achievement gap, it’s important to recognize that New York has administered the Common Core test two years in a row, both years resulting in approximately a 70% failure rate state-wide. Our achievement gap is increasing. And we continue to funnel our money away from the schools and directly into the pockets of profiteers.

I am responsible for making pedagogical decisions to support the learning of students and adult learners on a daily basis; the state and federal mandates currently in place hamper my ability to do what is best for learners. There are better ways to assess children. Currently, the assessments being used assess only narrow learning, derived through continual test prep in our classrooms. They assess what matters least, and such learning will not create innovative thinkers or citizens who can salvage our democracy.

I believe that refusing PARCC is the first step in taking down the Common Core boondoggle which streamlines student data (violating the privacy of children) to create more profit for the corporations. I also believe that refusing to administer PARCC is the first step in saving our profession, which is being hijacked in numerous ways by those who know a lot about increasing profit, but who know nothing about teaching children.

Our children are not gaining from the Common Core standards, curriculum, and testing; instead, I see corporations profiting immensely, along with politicians and various other individuals who have jumped on the Common Core train. The link between the Common Core standards, curriculum, and testing, is inextricable. They are linked together intentionally in order to increase profit. Public education is the new cash cow; privatization is the end goal. We must begin to take down this profit machine by beginning with the data the corporations so dearly love. No data. No profit. I will not hand over Colorado’s children (and their data) to the corporations via federal mandates.

I encourage everyone who stands with me to sign in the comment section below. I also encourage everyone to share the letter with national and state leaders.  However, I do not believe that change will come from the top, which is why I have addressed this letter to you, the citizens of Colorado. We must be the change.  Sometimes change requires risk.

I must do right by the children of Colorado and the teachers of Colorado, therefore, I refuse to administer the PARCC.

Peggy Robertson
Public School Teacher
Aurora, Colorado
www.pegwithpen.com
www.corave.org
www.unitedoptout.com

Alabama Makes Clear Parent Rights for Opting Out of State Tests

From AL.com:

. . . .“There’s been a lot of concern about the amount of standardized testing that the school system does,” Cox said. “It’s not just a Baldwin County issue; it’s all over the country. Every time the children turn around, they’re being tested for something, and more and more parents have become concerned about it.”

Cox stressed that it is permissible for parents to opt out of the tests: “There is no Alabama law or federal law that states they cannot opt their children out, which means that it is perfectly legal to do so,” he said. “There seems to be some confusion over that.”

Parents decry standardized tests for several reasons, he said, including concerns about data collection and undue stress on the students.

Some parents fear that the test results will lead to their children being labeled as high or low achievers, Cox said. “They don’t want that standardized test being used as a means to place their children next year in a certain class.” . . .

Prospect Heights T Party Dumps the Tests

Teachers at a New York City high school fired a shot across the bow of the concept of a nationalized education industry Thursday, becoming the first in that state to refuse to administer a standardized test tied to the controversial Common Core national standards.

The boycott by teachers at Prospect Heights International School in Brooklyn comes amid a small but growing “opt out” movement in which thousands of parents across the country have refused to let their children sit for standardized tests tied to Common Core’s data-hungry student assessment industry.

The state assessments are given at least twice a year, and a growing number of parents are choosing to “opt out,” saying the tests cause anxiety and other health problems in young children. Still others have refused the tests because of data mining conducted on students by the companies that write and analyze the tests.

If the movement needed a jolt, it came from the most unlikely of places, a high school that caters mostly to New York City’s immigrant community. About 95 percent of the students at Prospect Heights are learning English as a second language.

The teachers held a press conference Thursday morning to announce their refusal to administer the NYC English Language Arts Performance Assessment. They were photographed by friends and family holding signs that said “Fewer tests, fewer tears” and other slogans. They said they refused to administer a test that is part of the new teacher evaluation system pushed by Mayor Bloomberg and the United Federation of Teachers as part of Common Core.

No fewer than half the parents at Prospect Heights have opted their children out of the test, according to an April 28 letter sent to the school system chancellor by 30 teachers and staff, a copy of which has been obtained by WND.

In accordance with Common Core standards, part of teachers’ annual evaluations is tied to the test scores their students receive on state-sponsored, standardized tests.

“We understand our decision to abstain from administering the test may impact aspects of our evaluations. Despite the potentially negative consequences, our professional judgment dictates that we cannot participate in this assessment,” the letter from the teachers stated. “We are not willing to sacrifice the trust of our students, their feelings of self worth, and our professional duty to do what is best for them.

“In good conscience, as educators dedicated to the learning of our students and the welfare of our school communities, we are not administering this test.”

Fred Klonsky, in a blog picked up by ReclaimReform.com, an education reform website, photographed the teachers, one of which was his daughter, at Thursday’s protest.

“This morning teachers and staff at the International High School at Prospect Heights are rebelling against the wrong that standardized testing has become,” Fred Klonsky wrote. “Each staff member – teachers, psychologists and paraprofessionals – has signed on to a letter to the new New York City Schools Chancellor, Carmen Fariña.

“Among the dedicated teachers whose name is on the letter printed below is my daughter Jessica Klonsky. She is a teacher at this wonderful Brooklyn high school serving the community’s immigrant students. She is a veteran of more than a dozen years.”

This latest salvo in the battle against Common Core testing in New York is likely to echo loudly in states like Georgia, Alabama, California, New Jersey and Colorado, all of which have their own nascent “opt out” movements.

But this is the first time a group of teachers have taken such a bold move against Common Core in New York, which is considered a national leader in the opt-out movement. The NYC teachers sent the letter to Schools Chancellor Carmen Fariña urging her to drop the test for the city’s immigrant students still learning English.

The letter said the New York ELA Performance Exam was made “without any thought to the 14 percent of New York City students for whom English is not their first language.” 

Read more at http://www.wnd.com/2014/05/teachers-refuse-to-do-standardized-tests/#2tyMJ6oFdlYgP4rf.99

Teachers at International HS at Prospect Heights Refuse to Give NYC ELA Test

From Monty Neill:

 **Media Advisory**
  26 Teachers and Staff of International High School at Prospect
  Heights refuse to give NYC ELA Performance Assessment Test
  WHEN: Thursday, May 1, 2014, 7:45-8:20am,

  WHERE: International High School at Prospect Heights, 883 Classon
  Ave, Brooklyn, NY 11225

  WHAT: Teachers will hold a press conference to announce their
  refusal to administer the NYC ELA Performance Assessment. 26
  teachers and staff at Prospect Heights International High School are
  refusing to administer a new assessment that is part of the new
  teacher evaluation system pushed by Bloomberg’s DOE and the UFT last
  spring.  50% of parents have opted their children out of the test.
  The high school serves almost exclusively recently arrived English
  Language Learners.

  WHY: The test was constructed and formatted without any thought for
  the 14% of New York City students for whom English is not their
  first language. The level of English used in the pre-test
  administered in the Fall was so far above the level of our beginner
  ELLs that it provided little to no information about our students’
  language proficiency or the level of their academic skills.

  Furthermore, the test was a traumatic and demoralizing experience
  for students. Many students, after asking for help that teachers
  were not allowed to give, simply put their heads down for the
  duration.  Some students even cried.

  Teachers at Prospect Heights are drawing a line with this test.
    Standardized, high stakes test dominate our schools, distort our
  curriculum and make our students feel like failures.  This test
  serves no purpose for the students,  and ultimately only hurts them.

  26 Teachers have signed a letter to Chancellor Farina declaring that
  they will not give the exam.  The letter expresses gratitude for
  Farina’s immediate turn around of the DOE’s attitude toward
  teachers, and asks that the Chancellor reconsider the use of the NYC
  ELA Performance Assessment with English Language Learners.

  WHO:  Teachers and support staff from the International High School
  at Prospect Heights.

  RSVP: This event is open to press and coverage is welcome.

  The International High School at Prospect Heights is a public high
  school located in Brooklyn, NY. Read their letter to Chancellor
  Farina at www.standupoptout.wordpress.com
  <http://www.standupoptout.wordpress.com/>

  ###

Some of the International High Schools in NYC are part of the Performance Standards Consortium and are not required to give the Math Regents exam; instead, students graduate by performance tasks -see http://www.performance assessment.org.

Norm Scott from NY added: MOREista and Change the Staker Jia Lee and 2 teachers from her elementary school also refused to give the tests. The Nation reported about their -->"open letter from a group of “Teachers of Conscience” at the Earth School <http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/wp/2014/04/04/teachers-refuse-to-administer-standardized-tests/>, an elementary school in Manhattan. Accompanied by a philosophical position paper detailing principles of a progressive education <http://teachersofconscience.wordpress.com/position-paper/>, the teachers declared their opposition to English language exams for third-to-eight graders." As did Valerie Strauss in the Washington Post. <http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/wp/2014/04/04/teachers-refuse-to-administer-standardized-tests/>

Rosie and Emily Giles are active MOREistas. See video <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1a9Gg37nC3A&feature=share&list=UU9iVb99ewF1omA6LbPUWEOg&index=1> of Rosie at the Change the Stakes rally last week where in an off the cuff interview she elucidates the thinking of more and more teachers. Much of the test flux has come from elementary schools so it is important that this is coming from high school - there is a chain of international schools here in NYC that are linked and at some point this may spread.

Great Test Refusal Information Video for Parents

Much to learn here for New York parents as well as parents from other states: