We Need to Do More than Talk about the Goddamn Test

Some of us have been waiting a long time for mainstream educators to realize that corporate education reform is not about closing the achievement gap but, rather, closing public schools.  Since 2002, standardized tests have been used to label, demonize teachers, sort and culturally-sterilize students, and shut down schools to benefit the education technology complex and the low-life losers of the charter industry.  I think we are almost there, as you can see from the op-ed below, but there is no amount of talk that will alter the course that CorpEd has chosen.  Bodies will be required.

By the way, where the hell are the hackers when we need them provide copies of the tests that Pearson and Cuomo keep secret?  Where is Anonymous and their commitment to fairness and democracy??

Opt Out, sick out, stop the educational genocide by any non-violent means necessary.

The New York Times
The Opinion Pages|OP-ED CONTRIBUTOR

We Need to Talk About the Test

By ELIZABETH PHILLIPS  APRIL 9, 2014

I’D like to tell you what was wrong with the tests my students took last week, but I can’t. Pearson’s $32 million contract with New York State to design the exams prohibits the state from making the tests public and imposes a gag order on educators who administer them. So teachers watched hundreds of thousands of children in grades 3 to 8 sit for between 70 and 180 minutes per day for three days taking a state English Language Arts exam that does a poor job of testing reading comprehension, and yet we’re not allowed to point out what the problems were.

This lack of transparency was one of the driving forces that led the teachers at my school to call for a protest rally the day after the test, a rally that attracted hundreds of supporters. More than 30 other New York City schools have scheduled their own demonstrations.

I want to be clear: We were not protesting testing; we were not protesting the Common Core standards. We were protesting the fact that we had just witnessed children being asked to answer questions that had little bearing on their reading ability and yet had huge stakes for students, teachers, principals and schools. (Among other things, test scores help determine teacher and principal evaluations, and in New York City they also have an impact on middle and high school admissions to some schools.) We were protesting the fact that it is our word against the state’s, since we cannot reveal the content of the passages or the questions that were asked.

In general terms, the tests were confusing, developmentally inappropriate and not well aligned with the Common Core standards. The questions were focused on small details in the passages, rather than on overall comprehension, and many were ambiguous. Children as young as 8 were asked several questions that required rereading four different paragraphs and then deciding which one of those paragraphs best connected to a fifth paragraph. There was a strong emphasis on questions addressing the structure rather than the meaning of the texts. There was also a striking lack of passages with an urban setting. And the tests were too long; none of us can figure out why we need to test for three days to determine how well a child reads and writes.

Teachers and administrators at my school have spoken out against the overemphasis on testing for years, but our stance is not one of “sour grapes.” Last year we were one of the 25 top-scoring schools in New York State. We have implemented the Common Core standards with enthusiasm, and we have always supported the idea that great teaching is the best test preparation. But this year’s English Language Arts exam has made a mockery of that position.

It is frightening to think what “teaching to the test” would mean, given the nature of the test. We won’t do it, but some schools will, or at least will try, despite a new state law that mandates that schools limit test prep to 2 percent of instructional time. How does one even begin to monitor or enforce such a mandate?

Over the past few years, as higher stakes have been attached to the tests, we have seen schools devote more time to test prep, leaving less time and fewer resources for instruction in music, the arts, social studies and physical education. This is especially true for schools with a high proportion of low-income students, who tend to do worse on the test, and whose teachers and principals have to worry more about the scores.

At Public School 321, we entered this year’s testing period doing everything that we were supposed to do as a school. We limited test prep and kept the focus on great instruction. We reassured families that we would avoid stressing out their children, and we did. But we believed that New York State and Pearson would have listened to the extensive feedback they received last year and revised the tests accordingly. We were not naïve enough to think that the tests would be transformed, but we counted on their being slightly improved. It truly was shocking to look at the exams in third, fourth and fifth grade and to see that they were worse than ever. We felt as if we’d been had.

For two years, I have suggested that the commissioner of education and the members of the Board of Regents actually take the tests — I’d recommend Days 1 and 3 of the third-grade test for starters. Afterward, I would like to hear whether they still believed that these tests gave schools and parents valuable information about a child’s reading or writing ability.

We do not want to become cynics, but until these flawed exams are released to the public and there is true transparency, it will be difficult for teachers and principals to maintain the optimism that is such an essential element of educating children.

Elizabeth Phillips has been the principal of Public School 321 in Park Slope, Brooklyn, for 15 years.

From the End of the Beginning to the Beginning of the End for High Stakes Testing

Mark Mulville/Buffalo News

Remember: it happened in Buffalo--the night that 2,500 parents, teachers, and administrators showed up.

Now let's keep the hammer down.

From the Buffalo News by Dale Anderson:

Reform of high-stakes testing for schoolchildren, a groundswell movement of lawn signs and small-scale protests, became an earthquake Wednesday evening.

The Summit for Smarter Schools, organized by a group called the Partnership for Smarter Schools and hosted by State Sen. Tim Kennedy, D-Buffalo; Assemblyman Sean Ryan, D-Buffalo; and State Sen. George Maziarz, R-Newfane, filled Kleinhans Music Hall with more than 2,500 parents, teachers and school administrators.

Cheers erupted as Kennedy and Ryan called out the names of districts represented in the audience. It sounded like a school closing list in the middle of a blizzard, encompassing schools from Barker to Allegany-Limestone, with a couple from the Rochester area thrown in for good measure.

“We’ve had a lot of quote-unquote educational reform in the past decades aimed at poor schools in the cities,” Ryan said before the session started, “but now all schools are feeling the pain, regardless of their previous performance. This is why you see a lot of suburban parents here tonight. They’re all being treated poorly. They’re mad about these tests.”

The stage, decorated with a banner that read, “Get Testing Right,” looked like a Western New York State Legislature roll call. In addition to the hosts, there were Assembly Members Ray Walter, R-East Amherst; John Ceretto, R-Lewiston; Michael Kearns, D-Buffalo; and Jane Corwin, R-Clarence. State Sen. Mark Grisanti, R-Buffalo, was in the front row of the audience.

After the introduction by Kennedy, Ryan and Amherst principal Mike Cornell, a succession of speakers laid out the case against standardized testing in a series of 12-minute speeches that were followed by standing ovations.

West Seneca School Superintendent Mark Crawford charged that the tests fail to provide a diagnosis of student strengths and weaknesses.

“They only create a lot of anxiety for students and parents and teachers,” he said. “Why do we want to bunch children into groups of 1, 2, 3 or 4?”

Tonawanda Principal John McKenna argued that testing doesn’t take into account differences among students and communities, a point illustrated by Naomi Cerre, principal of Buffalo’s Lafayette High School, who talked about the difficulties of getting resources to work with and test students from 30 nations who speak 45 different languages.

Jaekyung Lee, dean of the University at Buffalo Graduate School of Education, gave a PowerPoint outline that showed how high-stakes testing does little to improve student performances and how high-achieving nations like Japan and Korea are de-emphasizing testing and encouraging creative thinking.

Mark Garrison, director of doctoral programs at D’Youville College, contended that standardized testing not only didn’t accomplish its goals of measuring student and teacher achievement, but also represented a shift in political power away from localities to state and federal officials.

“Maybe it’s always been a political problem,” he said. “It’s a question of who decides. Who sets the standards for our schools. I think it’s time that we rise to the challenge.”

Preethi Govindaraj, a parent and co-founder of Minerva Professional Development, after noting skill in high-stakes tests does students no good in college, drew loud cheers for proposing that teacher evaluations no longer be tied to test scores.

The most compelling talks, however, were given by a pair of mothers.

Laura, mother of a 12-year-old with attention deficit problems at Starpoint who did not give her last name, told a harrowing and tearful story about how her son became so anxious and upset over the tests that he required medication and psychological help. “I’ve watched it affect his self-esteem bit by bit,” she said. “He calls himself stupid and a loser.”

Molly Dana, of West Seneca, whose sons, Gus, 9, and Oliver, 6, led the Pledge of Allegiance at the start of the program, brought them out to read an imaginative illustrated story, “Not a Box,” then professed, “My biggest fear is that the joy of learning is being taken away from our children ... and all the things of value not mandated by the state will be cut. Personally, I want my child’s teacher to see the same creativity that I see when I look into his eyes. Every child must be valued beyond a number.”

Maziarz, who spoke last, summed up what the parents, teachers and administrators should do next. “Join the Partnership for Smarter Schools,” he advised. “Send your postcards to the Regents and the chancellor. Form groups in your districts. And first and foremost, keep prodding us. Hold all of us accountable.”

email: danderson@buffnews.com

PA English Prof Opts Out Son from PSSA Test

We need a hundred more examples like this one, and we will see the house of cards come tumbling down.  From the Pittsburgh Post Gazette:
_________________________

Why I Won't Let My Son Take the PSSA

By Kathy M. Newman

I am an English professor. So you can imagine how my pride was hurt when my 9-year-old son Jacob started bringing home low scores on his practice reading tests for the Pennsylvania System of School Assessment.

My husband and I have been helping Jacob with his test-prep reading homework every weeknight this year, and it has been a grim slog. At times I have found myself getting angry when Jacob has fidgeted, or when he has had trouble focusing. Sometimes I have gotten angry when he simply hasn't been able to answer the questions.

Then one day this March it dawned on me. I am getting angry at my son about a test. A test that I do not like. A "high-stakes" test that will put so much pressure on Jacob that it probably will not reflect his true abilities. I also realized something else: Jacob does not love to read.

After doing some research and talking with other parents, my husband and I decided to "opt out" Jacob from the PSSA tests. We are opting him out because we do not like what high-stakes tests are doing to Jacob, to our family, to his teachers, to his school and, ultimately, to our entire education system.

High-stakes tests like the PSSAs are used to evaluate, close and punish public schools, including my son's school, Pittsburgh Linden, a K-5 magnet school in Point Breeze. Linden's Adequate Yearly Progress score is bound to Linden's PSSA test results. 

According to the federal No Child Left Behind Act, every public school in the United States must be 100 percent proficient in reading and math (based on test scores) by 2014.

Last year, Linden did not make AYP. In fact, only six Pittsburgh Public Schools did. A neighboring school, Colfax, which is one of the best schools in the East End, has been labeled "low-achieving" and is currently under something called "Corrective Action II." Under this label, a school can be reconstituted, chartered or privatized.

High-stakes tests also warp the educational environment. This March, as Linden is gearing up for the PSSAs, the hallways were stripped bare as per state law. Artwork, motivational slogans, student-made posters, the Women's History display my kids helped to make, my daughter's picture of herself as a "writer" when she grows up, the "dream" statements everyone filled out in January with the large cutout of Martin Luther King -- all of it has come down. During testing season, access to Linden's new iPads -- for which I helped to write the grant that allowed us to acquire them -- will also be curtailed.

The curriculum at Linden is narrowing, too. As testing has ratcheted up, and as Gov. Tom Corbett's billion-dollar cut to Pennsylvania's K-12 education budget have kicked in, schools across the state are dropping programs that are not measured by tests.

Last year at Linden the third-grade band program was cut, dozens of hours of music instruction were cut, our science programming was reduced, and we were slated to lose our art teacher (fortunately we were able to save her). We lost dozens of hours of library instruction, and children are allowed access to the library only once every two weeks. Ironically, the loss of our library hours will hurt the students more when it comes to testing. A recent study found that "[w]ith a full-time librarian, students are more likely to score 'Advanced' and less likely to score 'Below Basic' on reading and writing tests."

Also, there is the stress. Jacob, only a third-grader, has cried, gotten dejected and thrown fits over his test-prep requirements, both at home and at school. Sixth graders in our district will take 23 different tests this year -- up from nine the previous year.

During the tests, students are treated like prisoners, with limited bathroom breaks and constant monitoring. These conditions are especially hard for special-needs children and children with Individual Education Plans.

Teachers are also stressed. My son's third-grade teacher has been working so hard this year that he arrives many days as early as 6 a.m. and stays for hours after school, sometimes as late as 9 p.m. From around the district I am hearing stories about teachers crying in the hall -- devastated by the harm they believe the tests are inflicting.

Let me be clear. I believe in evaluation as a tool -- I use quizzes and other testing techniques in my college classroom. But high-stakes tests, tests used to label schools, teachers and students as failures, are damaging our nation's educational system.

Here in Pittsburgh and across southwestern Pennsylvania, the movement to opt out of standardized testing is taking root. In the Pittsburgh Public Schools there are parents at Colfax, Greenfield, Liberty, Linden, Montessori and Phillips who are opting their children out of the PSSAs. Across the region, some parents in Mt. Lebanon, Somerset County and Westmoreland County are doing so as well. In Mt. Lebanon, a group of parents opted out when their children's school cut back on recess, extended the length of the school day and reduced other school services, such as counseling and nursing -- all to make way for more testing.

The opt-out movement is also swelling nationwide. Earlier this year, teachers in several Seattle high schools refused to administer a high-stakes test called the MAP. In Portland, Ore.; Providence, R.I.; and Denver, Colo., students themselves have been leading the charge against the tests. Just last month in Texas, more than 10,000 parents rallied against an increase in testing and decrease in funding for Texas public schools. Some of these actions are coming under the banner of United Opt Out National (unitedoptout.com).

Next month, while Jacob's classmates are nervously sharpening their pencils and getting hushed by their teachers, Jacob is going to be in the Linden library, reading for pleasure -- a pastime I have encouraged and rewarded since I realized that Jacob isn't keen on reading.

With this act of civil disobedience, our family will contribute to the revolt against the standardized testing that is hurting students, schools and the quality of education. I want my children to learn, but also to love to learn. Don't you?

Kathy M. Newman is an associate professor of English at Carnegie Mellon University (kn4@andrew.cmu.edu).
First Published March 31, 2013 12:00 am

Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/stories/opinion/perspectives/why-i-wont-let-my-son-take-the-pssa-681537/#ixzz2PEaJZfZC

Support Seattle Teachers in Their Campaign of Conscience

From Monty Neill at FairTest:


*Support Seattle Teachers’ Boycott*

Show your support for the teachers’ boycott of the MAP tests.

The teachers have set up a petition, which you can sign at

https://www.change.org/petitions/seattle-public-schools-support-garfield-high-school-teachers-refusing-to-administer-the-map?utm_source=share_petition&utm_medium=url_share&utm_campaign=url_share_before_sign 

Please circulate it widely!

The teachers wrote me:

“We would love for people to write letters to our superintendent and school board showing their support: Email addresses are: superintendent@seattleschools.org <mailto:superintendent@seattleschools.org>, schoolboard@seattleschools.org <mailto:schoolboard@seattleschools.org>.”

Already many groups are passing resolutions in support of the teachers: get your local union, education, parent, student or community group to pass one and send it to the super and the board.

There is also a Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/SolidarityWithGarfieldHighSchoolTestingBoycott. Please like and share it.

All this is important. This is the first schoolwide boycott since Chicago more than a decade ago. That one was the final part of a push that forced the city to drop its awful tests. Alfie Kohn reported that a boycott in Japan compelled that government to drop a set of national tests. And a boycott in Britain caused the government to overhaul though not end its testing, but the battle did not end there. Since then teachers and parents have won a reduction in testing in England and Wales completely opted out of the tests (Scotland had never adopted them).

So, yes, boycotts can be powerful.

We need such actions to roll back the testing juggernaut. When the Seattle teachers win, that will help us all. I expect those who want test-driven schools will also be pushing hard for the district to stand firm and defeat the teachers.

Our voices will be very important, perhaps not as important as parent and community people in Seattle (where the union has voted support for the boycott), but still an important, perhaps critical piece of the battle.

So send your letter to the super and board, sign the petition, like the Facebook page, and spread the word.

-- 
Monty Neill, Ed.D.; Executive Director, FairTest; P.O. Box 300204, Jamaica Plain, MA 02130; 617-477-9792; http://www.fairtest.org; Donate to FairTest: https://secure.entango.com/donate/MnrXjT8MQqk

Is the Testing Fever Breaking? When Teachers Let Their Conscience Speak

This is not the first time our nation's schools have been mired in an "orgy of tabulation" (Harold Rugg phrase).  During the heyday of eugenics, schoolmen were obsessed with measuring and sorting, just as they are today in the neo-eugenic era of KIPP's psychological and cultural sterilization programs.

The last time we went down this road, it took an economic depression and a World War to break the grip of the testing mania.   What, this time?  An economic depression and an ecological catastrophe??  Might we reconsider our priorities as a species before our future on the planet is doomed by myopic fixations on short-term economic domination by a handful of the pornographically wealthy?

News from Seattle makes it clear what teachers have the power to do if they let their conscience speak.  From KUOW.org:

By ANN DORNFELD

Teachers at Garfield High School in Seattle say they have voted overwhelmingly to refuse to administer a district-wide standardized test. A statement from Garfield teachers called the test a waste of time and money.

Students in Seattle Public Schools take the standardized Measures of Academic Progress (MAP) test up to three times a year, from kindergarten through ninth grade or beyond. Along with many standardized tests required by the state, the school district requires the MAP test as a measure of students’ progress in reading and math.

But Garfield history teacher Jesse Hagopian says the MAP test doesn’t work. He said when freshmen take the MAP test in the fall, they usually put some effort into it. "But then the next couple times the kids don’t really take the test seriously because there’s no graduation requirements tied to it," Hagopian said. "So kids often blow off the next couple tests." That’s a problem, Hagopian said, because the test doesn’t help teachers understand how well kids are learning. And the district uses kids’ MAP scores to evaluate how well teachers are doing their jobs.

Hagopian said teachers at Garfield are now supposed to begin the winter quarter MAP testing. But he said they’ve now voted unanimously to boycott the MAP test, minus four abstentions.

Academic Dean Kris McBride is in charge of administering the test. She says there are a lot of things wrong with the MAP, including that it doesn’t seem to align with district or state curricula. For instance, when Algebra 1 students at Garfield take the math test, "it’s filled with geometry, it's filled with probability and statistics, and other things that aren’t part of the curriculum at all," McBride said.

English teacher Kit McCormick says she was supposed to take her students for MAP testing Wednesday, but she refused. McCormick says she’s not allowed to see what's on the test, and the margin of error is so wide that the scores are meaningless. 

"I just see no use for it at all. And so I'm not going to do it." - Teacher Kit McCormick

But I’d be happy to have my students evaluated in a way that would be meaningful for both them and me."

Hagopian said this is not an effort by Garfield teachers to avoid accountability. "It's not just that we’re against the MAP test," Hagopian said. "We want to replace it with a far better measure of academic learning, which we think is portfolios and performance-based assessment."

Hagopian said even though the MAP tests are only given for reading and math, teachers and students in all subjects are affected because the computerized test ties up Garfield's computer labs for weeks every year. He said teachers at the school calculated that the MAP test consumes 800 hours of instructional time.

Sixteen-year-old Garfield junior Alicia Butler says she and her peers understand the importance of some standardized tests, like those required to graduate or apply to college. But the MAP is an exception. "I feel like it’s kind of a waste of time to take it. It takes up class time. Some things are on there that we don’t learn," Butler said. "Since [students] are aware that we don’t need it to graduate, they’ll just start clicking on things. 

"This is the first time, to my knowledge, that the entire staff of a school has said 'no, we will not do this.'" - Diane Ravitch

New York University Research Professor of Education Diane Ravitch is a vocal critic of high-stakes standardized testing such as the MAP. Ravitch says teachers around the country have had enough of high-stakes tests, but that this move by Garfield teachers is unusually gutsy. "This is the first time, to my knowledge, that the entire staff of a school has said ‘no, we will not do this. It’s not good for the students, and it’s a waste of time and money,’" Ravitch said.

University of Washington Assistant Professor of Education Wayne Au, who supports the boycott, says that while individual teachers or parents have boycotted standardized tests in the past, it's unusual to see an entire school of teachers vote to boycott a test. "Relative to the kind of resistance we’re seeing to high-stakes standardized testing around the country, it really looks like what’s happening at Garfield is actually a unique situation," Au said.

Butler said that makes her proud of her teachers. "It helps make Garfield different from other schools, because we aren't afraid to fight for what's right," Butler said.

"We aren't afraid to fight for what's right." - Student Alicia Butler

Meanwhile, district officials released a statement saying that the administration expects teachers to give all required tests, but added that the district is reviewing the effectiveness of the MAP test and plans a report to the school board by this spring.

Sanity Comes to Charlotte-Mecklenburg

When Charlotte's former superintendent, Peter Gorman, was run out of town, he found work as another edu-henchman for Rupert Murdoch.  Since then, Charlotte has hired someone who is willing to challenge the status quo of more high stakes testing. From the Charlotte Observer:

Posted: Friday, Dec. 21, 2012

By Ann Doss Helms
ahelms@charlotteobserver.com 

The barrage of new state tests being rolled out this year is “an egregious waste of taxpayer dollars” that won’t help kids, Charlotte-Mecklenburg Superintendent Heath Morrison said Thursday.

He joins a band of superintendents across the country fighting the push to use student testing to rate teachers and schools. Earlier this month, the superintendent in Montgomery County, Md., called for a three-year moratorium on standardized testing and an end to “the insanity” of evaluating teachers on test scores, according to The Washington Post.

Morrison said he’s working with Montgomery County Superintendent Joshua Starr, as well as a network of district leaders inside and outside North Carolina, to try to counteract the national testing craze.

“I am very troubled by the amount of testing we are being asked to do,” Morrison told The Charlotte Observer editorial board. “We can teach our way to the top, but we cannot test our way to the top. We’re getting ready in the state of North Carolina to put out 177 new exams.”

Those tests will take too much time from teaching, won’t be effective for improving student or teacher performance, and will soon be replaced by new exams tied to national Common Core standards, Morrison said.

It’s a sharp change of direction for the leader of Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools. Just two years ago, then-Superintendent Peter Gorman spent county money to create dozens of new exams to be used for teacher ratings, only to have them scrapped after he resigned in 2011.

Morrison took office in July and has been meeting with citizens and teachers, including some who opposed Gorman’s testing program. In recent weeks, Morrison has raised questions about the new state tests, but has mostly focused on the problems created by unknown new tests and delayed scores for students.

In a wide-ranging discussion with the Observer’s editorial staff and a reporter, he was emphatic about his opposition to the current plan.

“Why are we in a rush to do all of this testing, then use it for accountability for schools and use it for accountability for teachers?” he said.

Starr got national attention for his testing remarks at a Washington Post Live education panel earlier this month. According to a Post education blog, Starr said national education leaders are trying to do too much too fast, and concluded “We need a three-year moratorium on all standardized tests.”

Morrison said he’s part of a consortium with Starr in suburban D.C., along with leaders of districts in Fairfax County, Va., and Gwinett and Fulton counties in suburban Atlanta. He said he and other North Carolina superintendents have met with state Superintendent June Atkinson to raise their concerns that the new exams will do more harm than good.

Morrison said CMS has little power to stop the testing on its own. North Carolina has received a $400 million federal Race to the Top grant that includes the use of testing for teacher evaluations, he said, and “we couldn’t decide to pull out – there would be some pretty intense consequences for that.”

Morrison said he supports valid tests that measure how well students have mastered material and how well teachers have presented it, but he said the state needs more time to develop tests that deserve public confidence. He also called for more emphasis on improving teacher quality, rather than identifying those with low test-score ratings.

“We’re in this idea that we’re going to find all these bad teachers and we’re going to test them and we’re going to get them out of the field,” he said. “Well, where is the quality influx to get into the field?

In 2013, Morrison and the school board will refine a long-term plan for CMS. Morrison has created 22 task forces to study key issues, including one on an accountability system, which could include how to move ahead with testing and ratings.

Helms: 704-358-5033

Read more here: http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2012/12/21/3739031/morrison-177-state-tests-waste.html#storylink=cpy