“Pro-Test” or “Protest”? The dash makes all the difference, making one word into two that, taken together, describe polar opposite worlds. If you are “pro-test,” you favor the Common Core State Standards tests. Remove the dash, and you are aligned with those urging families to opt-out and refuse to take the PAARC and Smarter Balanced Common Core tests, which will be administered in March.
Are you in one of these camps?
Or are there even two camps? It’s hard, maybe impossible, to measure the strength of the “protest” movement, if indeed there really is a ‘movement.’ It could be thousands and thousands of tiny, grass-roots organizations and loose gatherings, or it could be just a few hundred. If it is a national movement, it’s one that lacks a ‘command central,’ although three organizations, Save Our Schools (SOS), United Opt-Out, and Badass Teachers Association, do have modest national profiles. Every week FairTest publishes a report of anti-testing actions, but the list gets repetitive and sometimes includes newspaper stories and blogs that merely ask tough questions–hardly evidence of a full-blown revolt. Is there a genuine bandwagon, or is FairTest trying to create the illusion of a bandwagon where none exists? Hard to say.
In some places, local and state politicians are taking note. Colorado’s legislature is holding hearings, and there’s ferment in Philadelphia, for example. And Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker wants to stop the testing.
We know the protesters have different motivations. Some are upset about what they see as excessive testing in schools, while others are vociferously opposed to the Common Core State Standards, which they have labelled “Obamacore,” his plan to take control over public education.
Protest politics makes for strange bedfellows, with lefties and righties coming together to agree on this issue (and probably on just this one issue).
As for the other side, the “Pro-Test” camp has the appearance of substance. With unofficial “headquarters” in Washington, DC, the Common Core test defenders include the US Chamber of Commerce, the Business Council, the Education Trust, the Leadership Council on Civil and Human Rights, the Council of Chief State School Officers, and Arne Duncan, the US Secretary of Education.
The basic message: “If you don’t take the test, you won’t be counted–and you won’t matter.” The “Pro-Test” group has an impressive roster with money and power, but perhaps it’s mostly Chiefs and very few followers. Impossible to say now, but we will find out before long.
Just last fall, the establishment was agreeing publicly that we might be subjecting our children to too many tests. The President spoke out, and his Secretary of Education noted that testing was sucking the air out of classrooms. Now, they’re saying, “OK, perhaps schools do test too much, but these tests–the Common Core tests–are essential.”
I haven’t found overwhelming evidence that hundreds of thousands of students are going to boycott the Common Core tests, but people in Washington appear worried. How else to explain their going on the offensive to trumpet the importance of these tests?
What do they know that we don’t? Or are they seeing dragons under the bed at night?
In other states, educational leaders have been issuing threats: “Boycott these tests and you will suffer the consequences,” is the tone of these messages. “I know some of you have already received questions from parents who would like their children to be able to opt out of taking the test. Opting out of PARCC is not an option,” Illinois State Superintendent Christopher A. Koch recently wrote to district administrators, a message he expected they would share with their principals. Some schools are going to force kids who come to school but opt-out of the tests to ‘sit and stare’ all day long, instead of offering them alternative learning experiences. “Sit and stare”–Now that’s enlightened leadership, teaching kids what it means to live in a free and democratic society!! Teaching kids how power responds to principled action.
So, the establishment is dropping the hammer. Will that backfire?
We will find out in March, when the PAARC and Smarter Balanced tests are administered over a 2-3 week period.
The great Dinah Washington song I am riffing off, “What a Difference a Day Makes,” ends with the line, “And the difference is you.”
Care to make a prediction as to what will happen?
The Merrow Report 
John,
I’d like to float the idea here that we are dealing with a false dichotomy.
I know people on both sides and I have often approached the issue like this:
Are you in favor of learning?
Are you in favor of knowing what kids learn?
Are you in favor of knowing how changes in education affect systemic progress?
People on both sides answer “Yes” to each of these questions.
So my next question is …
How should we ensure that we always have good ways of answering these questions for individual children, schools, districts, states, and our nation as a whole?
At this point, the discussion is no longer about testing, it’s about learning and how we propose to be responsible about it—especially with reference to historically under-served children and their families.
I think that’s the dialog we need to have.
Steve Peha
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Well framed, Steve….
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Yes, John. I agree!
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Steve you have given readers a great analogy to begin the dialogue. I would like to suggest adding two components to the dialogue. 1) Corporate education reform was started with the goal in mind to privatize public education for profit. (Check Professor Morna McDermott’s research and flow chart on the issue.) 2) Check with Pasi Salhberg, the director for public education in Finland. Their ideas represent the best practices for children . . . not coporations.
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Agreed, Steve! I know that standardized tests do not serve our children well. Especially those ELL and those with special needs. My son is on the spectrum and is mainstreamed into a math class and they are wanting him to take the Keystones next year. I am not happy with this. Children should not have to take a test in order to graduate high school. I know that this will make my son anxious. I am looking into my options to opt out. I am not the only parent who feels this way. There are plenty in Philadelphia and across this great nation who do.We need to take a simpler approach and not teach to the test. Throughout my days in school, we learned, were creative and curious.That made me the multi-faceted, talented person I am today. They are taking arts and music out of our schools and replaced that with these good for nothing tests. I am not against all tests. Children should be tested according to what makes them feel more comfortable. For instance, if they are good at taking a multiple choice test, then they should do that. If they are better at taking an oral test as opposed to a written, then they should do that. If they are a great writer than they could pen the ideas down. The only people that stand to benefit from the high stakes testing are those that made the tests for they profit from them.
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I once thought that some standardized testing made sense as a way to ensure that students were being given equal opportunities and support for learning, but I have changed my mind completely after seeing how the idea has played out in the last 20 years of “accountability” through standardized tests.
I started my teaching career in the late 1980s working with Boston Public School (BPS) dropouts and teen parents in a GED program in Boston. In this program, I worked with students who had progressed all the way to 11th or 12th grade in the BPS but who could not read at a second or third grade level or who didn’t understand basic concepts like cities and states. I also worked with some students who had been in the Metco program that bussed inner city students to the suburbs as part of Massachusetts’ desegregation efforts. I saw a huge discrepancy in what the Metco students knew and could do compared to my BPS dropouts.
So when the first pushes for standardized testing came along, I supported the idea of using tests to help ensure all students had basic reading, writing, and math skills. The assumption I made at the time was that the tests would be used to diagnose problems and identify students who needed extra support and then support would be provided.
But in the end, that is not how the tests have been used at all. Instead, the tests have been used to create high stakes consequences for students, teachers, schools, and districts. At the same time, instruction has been reduced to what is tested in many cases, at least in high poverty districts. Today when people talk about “literacy in reading,” it has often come to mean that students can read short passages and answer multiple choice questions about them. “Literacy in writing” means that students can construct essay responses to questions given on exams. “Math skills” include the ability to pass tests with complex mathematics along with more reading and writing exercises that penalize students who may have more strengths in math but find that once again, literacy in reading and writing for tests is brought into play. Science is reduced to concepts that are easy to memorize along with more literacy in reading and writing for tests.
Students are not spending enough time learning how to research, to experiment, to create, to formulate their own questions and explore them. They are afraid to take intellectual risks and are always looking for the “right answer.” All students are drilled in the same test-taking strategies and skills, whether they need it or not, and many students are gifted but don’t do well on standardized tests, but none of that matters because passing the tests is the main goal for students and bringing up scores is the main goal of schools.
We have had many faculty meetings where we review test score data and talk about the “bubble kids.” Those are the kids who are a few points from passing the tests, or from moving to the proficient/advanced range. Teachers are told to focus on these bubble kids and on strategies to move them to the next level. Think of all that leaves out!
We have a new generation of teachers who have learned under high stakes tests and who are now teaching. They don’t know anything else, and this is concerning because if this doesn’t stop now, in the near future who will be left to remember that schools once nurtured many facets of human development? I had a telling conversation along this vein with a colleague a few months back when I was talking with him about the movement to end all this high stakes testing. He’s a career changer who teaches science classes at my school to 10th grade students who are preparing for our high stakes science exams. The students need to to pass these exams to graduate from high school so almost all of our 10th grade science curriculum and classes are devoted to preparing for this exam. When I mentioned that the tests are a huge problem, this teacher looked confused and then asked, “But what would we do if we didn’t have the tests? What would we teach?”
I had to stop and think, too. We looked at each other for a minute, and then I said, “Well, maybe you could do experiments with them, take them outside, and do science projects. Kids would love doing those things!” He said, “I wouldn’t just have to have them taking notes all the time? That’s what I thought I would be doing when I decided to teach.”
Here in Massachusetts, we are looking at moving from our current test, MCAS, to the PARCC exams. Our education commissioner Mitchell Chester, who sits on the board of PARCC and in a clear conflict of interest is promoting it, has famously said that the PARCC is a “test worth teaching to.” In that statement, he admitted that everyone has been teaching to these tests. But when we teach to these tests, we leave out so much. It’s time to stop all of it and return to sane educational policies that develop the whole child. Students in high poverty districts need additional resources and support, not high stress and high stakes tests.
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Holding school boards, district officials and principals accountable for creating successful learning environments for under-served communities would be a good place to start the conversation about accountability. A lone teacher in a room with 32+ students from poverty, the vast majority of whom speak English as a second language, without adequate teaching supplies or engaging materials is not a successful learning environment. And yet it is the norm in many inner-city classrooms. Add refugee status, neglect, and learning disabilities to the mix and the problem is multiplied. These difficulties cannot be overcome by the most talented of teachers.
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From the perspective of someone who spends quite a bit of time informing parents around opting their children out of these harmful assessments, I have seen a huge increase in opt out.
An organization I cofounded hosted a student panel a few weeks ago and the negative impact of this testing was a huge part of the conversation.
As a teacher, the amount of time spent testing, and labeling children has gotten out of hand. We are organizing and no doubt the money and power that has taken over our democracy will fight back BUT two of my favorite quotes from Jim Wallis. .
“It takes the power of movements to change politics. Change never starts in Washington or in our legislatures or houses of government; it almost always begins outside of politics. If public momentum can be built among millions of people, change eventually arrives in the nation’s capital.” Jim Wallis
“It’s time we stated the obvious truth: the last remaining obstacle to democracy is the dominant power of rich people, their money, and their institutions over the political process, a power that absolutely corrupts democracy.” Jim Wallis
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High stakes testing – why should I care? Even though I have no children of my own, I believe the present course of high stakes testing is not just “disruptive” to our public schools, but more on the lines of totally “destructive” to the teaching and learning process. Your article seems to indicate that the backlash against testing is only part of a small group of disgruntled parents and teachers. When adding up all of the groups who are vocal on FaceBook alone, I count well over 100,000 individuals who are expressing their concerns. As these tests continue to proliferate, those numbers will grow exponentially.
I was a public school teacher for over 35 years. I worked with first grade through graduate level students, mostly in an inner-city, urban environment. My K-12 experience was in lower socioeconomic schools that had many successful students go through their doors. I was selected by my peers for several awards including as Teacher of the Year in Florida. I was allowed to write innovative grants that brought in over a million dollars for my schools. These grants used technology so learning was exciting and relevant to what students would use in their future lives. We were able to give students projects that were applicable to the area in which they lived and were developmentally appropriate as well. That is not what I see teachers doing today. I firmly believe the focus on high stakes standardized tests suck the creativity out of most classrooms, and that is a crime against our entire society.
We did fine for over a hundred years without high stakes testing in this country. That’s why we had real innovators like Steve Jobs here and they didn’t in countries like South Korea. The RESULTS of the tests that the states developed and now the tests tied to the Common Core will always correlate to the socioeconomic level of the students in the school. How is that a good measure of anything, but especially how is it a measure of student or teacher success or failure? If you look at information from Finland, they don’t give any high stakes tests until the age of 15, and they do NOT use these tests to evaluate teachers.
The tests are a huge financial drain on school systems both for the required technology to practice and to give these meaningless data gathering ploys. Why not take our money (taxpayer money) which is being wasted on high stakes testing and give that money back to the school sites to do actual authentic assessment with portfolios?
Take away these ridiculous tests and allow teachers to get back to teaching. I want real teachers who were trained in actual 4-6 year education programs, not the 6 week TFA wonders. I want real educators put back in charge of educating our children.
And most of all, I want these tests stopped – period.
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I am so grateful to your effort to save public education. I DO have 3 very tiny kids, 1 that is still a baby. I am sick over the standardized testing.
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John,
I am glad you are shedding some much needed light on the subject of testing. As with any complex issue, there are many variables to consider. Unfortunately, PARCC/Smarte Balance, Common Core are part of something much bigger.The money, profit, and politics pushing the testing agenda have no basis in educational research. The heavy handed response you are seeing from states and the establishment are using is because they have no research to show testing fixes our educational ills.
Years ago you focused one of your shows on the Teenage brain. Within the framework of this research, and legitimately doing something about the poverty our children live in, schools would be so much better served by the billions being spent on testing attacking poverty and developing brain based schools.
Any assistance you could in shedding light on politics/profiteering going on in education would be very enlightening for the general public.
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For the children, it is my hope that everyone will wake up and stop the insidious path to standardized testing that provides little data to help children but much damage to their learning. Soon children will be subjected to unproved, poorly written tests which only benefit large corporations. We know because these “good” people tell us so that the cut scores will have almost 70% of children be unsuccessful. This means that when the tests are completed and the boom hits, those same corporations come in with “new” resources to sell to “fix” the problems with our kids. The thing is our kids are not failing nor are our schools. It’s been an elaborate scheme to help friends of certain politicians to become even richer. Let me close with this that I read somewhere. If there was a medicine that someone wanted to give to children and they told you straight up that it was untested and 70% would get really sick or die, would you give it to the children? I know you would not, so why these standardized tests ?
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As John pointed out so well, on one side we have well heeled and well financed business men and politicians who can’t get enough of testing, destroying the teaching profession (largely a female occupation I might add), and closing our neighborhood public schools. On the other side we have ordinary parents and teachers, you know, the most important stakeholders and educational experts demanding an end to the abuse of our kids. As my dad always says, follow the money. That being said as a parent who has watched the curriculum narrow, the time spent on test prep increase to epic proportions , electives and recess disappear , and the autonomy of teachers taken away, I have had enough of the reform version of education, which is rigid, punitive, and does not take the whole child into account. We have had it for 15 years in Florida because Jeb really hates teachers and public schools and it’s now the status quo. It’s a failure and we don’t like what it’s doing to our kids’ in terms of real learning or what is doing to our teachers, demeaning and demoralizing them. The fact that everything boils down to one single test score for my child is absolutely ridiculous and the fact that he is responsible for anyone’s salary is ludicrous. March to May students are engaged in testing from CCSS to EOCS to PERT to APS. The entire last quarter is lost to testing. Try to find me a tony private school that engages in this madness. If I hear another business man or politician ask how will we know if students are learning, I can tell them easily. I get a report card from the expert in the room. Pearson doesn’t tell me anything as I never see the questions, I don’t know what was missed or why it was missed or if it was even appropriate. The scores never come back before the school year is over so to say this guides instruction is laughable. We may not be well financed or have a shiny office in D.C., but we are connected, we are fiercely invested in kids’ appropriate education and childhood, and we will not be cowed by the naysayers or those who see our kids as data points and nothing more. We believe, unlike the reformers, that all children,regardless of zip code, deserve an equitable, fully funded neighborhood public school with highly degreed teachers, wrap around services, and assessments designed by teachers, the educational experts. We want the curriculum to be developmentally appropriate. We aren’t looking at 5, 8, 12 year olds and thinking about college. They are children.And we aren’t anti-test, we are pro authentic teacher created quizzes, tests, projects, papers, reports, etc., that are graded and handed back with feedback and guidance. And we are so very tired of the condescension that permeates those who don’t have kids experiencing this garbage.
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You hit the nail on the head. You really did.
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If you are looking for evidence of a movement Mr. Merrow, you should be paying closer attention to Philadelphia. Since last fall’s City Council hearings on testing, a movement has started to build, and I expect it will grow mightily over the course of the next few months leading up to the testing season. It will grow even more next year after the new PA Core Aligned PSSA tests stamp failure on the foreheads of children across the state, children at all income levels.
I spoke this week to a full house of concerned parents at the Philadelphia Home and School Council monthly meeting-maybe 50-60 people. Afterwards I got many invitations to speak at other school-based parent meetings. Last night members of the Alliance of Philadelphia Public Schools and the Caucus of Working Educators hosted an opt out workshop with another 30 participants. Parents of 90 students at Feltonville School of Arts and Sciences have already opted their children, many of whom speak Spanish as a first language and many of whom have IEPs, out of PSSA testing. I know of several neighborhood forums on opt out that are scheduled for the coming weeks.
Most people simply do not know that parents have a legal right to opt out of testing in Pennsylvania on religious grounds. Once they have that information, many are eager to exercise their legal right to do so. Parents are aware of how much instructional time tests are consuming. We recognize that these tests are used to punish schools and teachers, while providing no actionable information to help their children. We see how many millions of dollars are being spent on test prep, testing, test remediation, and technology purchased to teach to the test. All this, while children in many under-resourced districts like ours go without up to date books, copy paper, even toilet paper for goodness sakes.
Based on your previous program, you seem to be a big fan of Science Leadership Academy. What you may not know is that only 44% of their students passed the Biology Keystone this year-one of the three exams that sophomores and all younger students are required to pass to receive a high school diploma. I’m curious how you square that information with your glowing review of the work they are doing. Perhaps, standardized tests aren’t the accurate measure of “growth” the testing industry makes them out to be?
We won’t allow Pearson, Gates, Broad, Walton, Dell, Bezos, Anschutz or the others to take public education away from our children and grandchildren. We won’t have people, like many of your funders listed on this page, shove unqualified TFA recruits into our classrooms. We won’t allow you to turn our talented, creative, unique students into standardized widgets to suit the needs of the global corporate machine. We won’t have it. You won’t have our children’s data. We are not ceding our power. We are using it and teaching others to #OptOut in PA.
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I hear you, Alison. Parents & teachers are not ceding power. The opt-out movement will only grow. We will not accept the 2 sides argument that some say pro and others say con. The preponderance of research does not support the fraudulent use of standardized tests. None. Nada. Zero.
Tests are tools of the teaching profession. No other profession allows congress & know-nothings to tell it how to use its professional tools. We don’t need any more mansplaining from the 1%ers on how to use the tools of OUR profession.
There are grassroots protests growing all over the country because those of us on the receiving end of the testing abuse don’t believe the corporate reformers’ lies. And we are not afraid.
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Actually, I believe that the discussion IS about testing. I am seeing parents in NY freak out because test scores on CC tests are lower than they previously were – and the lie that this is because they are more rigorous will be found out. They are actually deliberately confusing – adults don’t know which answer is correct – and they are scored and cut so that intentionally most fail. Then the message that our schools are failing is spread – again, intentionally. This would be awful enough if it were just about a few weeks of tests (when school is 40 weeks long) but, no, there are endless tests and instruction has been designed to match the tests. Are students 2s or 3s? Nothing else matters anymore. This is not accountability, it is madness. The lie that resistance to Common Core is from the right is proved whenever I speak with intelligent people who know what’s happening. Too many do not know. We must educate our communities and ask parents to insist that they see the tests. Once parents SEE the tests, understand the ramifications to students’ education – so much less learning – and realize who benefits, we can take back our schools from the corrupt system that is benefitting the rich and hurting our children.
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I find this very curious. Of all the sponsored announcements I hear for private schools on my local NPR affiliate WHYY (and there are many), none of them-zero-ever tout that they give lots of standardized tests. In fact, I find they definitely brand themselves as the opposite of schools that focus on standardized test prep. So are you for creating a two-tier system of education? One for those who can pay $30,000 for a Friends’ School education with a whole-child centered curriculum and lots of arts and music and experiential learning. And other for everyone else that is anchored on rigorous, gritty online test prep? We’re not buying it Mr. Merrow.
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What we have in the corporate reformer bubble is accountability entitlement. They have the right to be taken seriously. Teachers owe them respect. This sensibility is everywhere and it makes me believe there is a strong gender bias in who is believed. Joel Klein, Kevin Huffman, Rahm Emmanuel, Arne Duncan, Jeb Bush, Scott Walker, John White, Andy Cuomo, Mike Bloomberg etc., lie and obfuscate with impunity.
Pay no attention to the schools I choose for my kids. Teachers, girls, union thugs, just be quiet and do as you are told.
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We opt out because the focus on testing has narrowed the curriculum to the point where students no longer have art, music, PE, literature, or history. All day and every day is spent on test prep.
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Opt out is viable movement. It demands an end to the standardized education of our children and the end of the assault on teacher autonomy. School is not a factory line that should produce the same results.
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I am part of stop common core and PA opt out. My children will not take the tests and I am actively encouraging other local parents to do the same! If enough refuse the test then the government can’t use test scores against our teachers and schools. I vote we remove the federal government from our local school districts.
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My prediction? The protesters (no dash) will win.
When you called United Opt Out, Badass Teachers Association, and Save our Schools (SOS) modest movements, you failed to account for the passion behind their pleas.
You also failed to account for the main topic on the tip of every educator’s tied tongue as testing season approaches.
And you failed to account for why so many dedicated teachers are leaving the profession.
All those passions, tied tongues, and retirements speak volumes.
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We will refuse the state standardized tests. I will continue to spread the word to everyone who will listen. The movement will grow dramatically this year when other states like AZ start their new common core aligned test, the AzMERIT. We will not tolerate what is happening in education. We will pull out of public school if needed. We will pull out of private school if it too becomes corrupt. We will hire a lawyer if needed. We will not be silenced with the will of a corrupt government that uses my tax dollars to destroy education.
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There are actually 3 sides to these issues. Those who are pro-test, those who protest, and those who have no idea what is happening, that their kids are just taking the “normal” yearly test, because states and districts have disseminated almost no information about CC$$ and the new PARCC and SBAC tests. I have asked numerous parents these questions and they state they had no idea these tests would make their kids sit infront of a computer for 9-13 hours (practice included), to take a test that is invalid, developmentally inappropriate, and that only 30% of the students will actually pass; because cut scores are decided after. In NY they stated those numbers and behold it came to fruition. Weird-I know. In NY only 11% of ELL and 4% of SPED met the cut score. School districts in poverty the numbers are from 8%-28%. There is a lot of research out there by those in the education and child psychology field; you need to tap those resources to make an informed decision and its quite obvious. Do not experiment with our children.
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A movement is one that has massive legs on the ground. The power of any true movement comes from “thousands and thousands of tiny, grass-roots organizations and loose gatherings.”
What more evidence do you need for the existence of a movement against high stakes testing in this country? Parents, teachers, and students in communities across the country — rural, suburban, and urban — across K-12 and higher education, are reaching across boundaries of race, income, culture, and language to fight back against the the testing beast.
Movements don’t need to be named or anointed by a “command central.” Leaders don’t make movements; legions of people on the ground do. The uprising against high stakes testing in this country in fact satisfies every bit of the definition of a movement.
And if you want to witness the exponential growth of a citywide and regional opt out movement, keep a close eye on Philadelphia. It’s gettin’ real!
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And Kelley would know: http://www.newsworks.org/index.php/local/nw-philly-parents/77822-one-of-the-feltonville-six-speaks-up-about-right-to-opt-out
Please we need more like the Feltonville 6! We know you are out there.
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Mr. Merrow,
One of your reporters contacted me recently. Fact check with her: I am real. The opt out movement is real, and the ideals behind it are real. What popped in your blog was your dragon analogy. This is mine, too. The body of the dragon is “reform” and the head of the dragon is “standardized testing.” Please don’t dismiss us – these tests are neither reliable and valid. Ask any psychometrician. The WAY the data is used is unhuman – it does not recognize weakness in schools and students and provide supports. It recognizes weakenss and goes in for the kill – closing neighborhood schools and discrediting teachers. Not to mention, standardized tests have reduced many schools to test prep factories and teachers to automatons waiting to be replaced my computer programs. Do the work and you will find that our oppositon is rooted in a desire to maintain high standards in education, the on-going fight for equity for all students, and the notion that at the heart of democacy is free, equal access to information. For more on the very real topic of opt out, search the web for Caucus of Working Educators and read our blog..
Amy Roat
Teacher – School District of Philadelphia, PA
Steering Committee, Caucus of Working Educators, PFT
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Thank you Amy,
So succinctly and poetically stated. If only this was the kind of response these tests were encouraging and building towards. Your students are lucky to have you!
Mr. Merrow, I am also real. I assure you this movement will only grow. This is the second day in a row I am responding to an op-ed on the topic. I am a public school parent and in past years my children have scored proficient and advanced on these tests, However after literally years of research and soul-searching I know this tells me nothing about their college or career readiness. Rather it tells me that my children are white, middle class and both of their parents have college educations. This is the only thing that these tests have been show to reliably predict.
I believe what you are seeing is a very real “tip of the iceberg” . In New York State and Washington State, teachers and administrators have been speaking out for years. I have wrung my hands for years, and my NOT opting out (until last year) was the result of fears about hurting my children’s school and their teachers. But now I realize that the only thing these tests are good for is hurting public education. I believe my reasons resonate with thousands, possibly millions of parents. Legions of families are wrestling with this issue, trying to find their way out of the hog-tied situation of knowing it is the only moral thing to do, but fearful of the repercussions it will have for their schools and their beloved teachers. But as we become more educated, we are realizing that not to stand in front of this tide of destructive tests will mean the end of American education as we know it. We are rising.
Like most things worth learning the subject is complicated, which in no small way has contributed to a perception of the movement being small or growing slowly. We may be moving slowly, but our growth is sustainable. In my research I have identified over a dozen compelling reasons to opt-out. When speaking to other parents I sometimes struggle, which is the most important to share? Which will most compel them to dig in and do their own research? Like great teaching this movement is dependent upon building relationships and trust. This takes time. But we are growing group of teachers and parents who are committed to teaching each other and fighting for our children and our communities.
We aren’t going anywhere but up.
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If you are on Facebook and haven’t read it yet, please read children’s author and illustrator Patricia Polacco’s status from February 3, 11:16am: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Patricia-Polacco/89811673029?fref=nf So far it has over 1,000 comments, 9,300 likes, and almost 5,300 shares. It’s about standardized testing. Read the comments.
“I think what needs to be remembered by the politicians who still back Common Core and NCLB, (introduced by the now, speaker of the house, John Boehner) is that children are not quantitative and accumulations of test scores. They have hearts, souls, dreams, and aspirations that can not be measured by a number on a paper.
I call this, “The Numbers Game”. All schools and educators within the system must answer to these scores. It seems it is not taken into consideration that there are multiple intelligences that can not be measured. I believe, with all my heart, that all children are GIFTED. The problem is we don’t open our gifts at the same time. I took forever to open mine and mistook my inability to pass test as stupidity, and being dumb! Of course now I know better but the harm this caused to my basic sense of well being has been with me for a lifetime.” Patricia Polacco
Today’s Mr. Falkers are folks like Peggy and Kelley and Amy and Becca and Susan and Nikki and Ceresta and Beth and others whose names I don’t yet know. You are the movement, we are the movement. The movement is moving. Thank you to all the parents working so hard and to all those educators, and administrators, and superintendents channeling their own internal Mr. Falker. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=abN2aP_Dzd0
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My opinion on teaching to test and common core can go on forever regarding Florida. I have 12 year old twins that have meltdowns, rages, physical sickness, anxiety, depression and are exhausted by these rigorous tests that teach NOTHING. They are scared to death that 1 big test after taking 100’s of other tests will hold them back a grade if they don’t pass it. They both spend hours on homework that has to be Googled because NO ONE UNDERSTANDS the questions or how to get a 2 part answer made into 20 parts. My kids can’t sign their damn names because they don’t teach cursive (ok, 1 week in 3rd grade). The pressure on kids, parents and teachers is INSANE and the education budget keeps getting cut…
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So much focus on learning for the perceived test, instead of just learning. They teach to the standards not to the test. Yes, but if its not tested, they don’t teach it any more. My son has ADHD and suffers from test anxiety.Hours being sick before and after a test to barely pass or fail by one question. Does it measure his intelligence or his ability to do well in the real world? Not at all. He supposed to be allowed to take the test on paper and pen instead of computer, but they won’t allow him. He is very proficient on the computer, but testing on the computer makes him more anxious and prone to more mistakes. What happened to schools being there to teach the students? All this pressure on kids in elementary and middle school is too much.
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Well John, As you know, the numbers are much greater than a few hundred. New York had easily 60,000 refuse the test last year and this fall in Colorado we had 5,000 refuse the senior CMAS test. On our general FB group page for United Opt Out we have been adding hundreds a week. On the Indiana page they added 1,000 this past week.
I appreciate your comment about a democratic society – because that is what we, the opt out movement, are attempting to preserve. There will not be a free and democratic society if the privatization of public schools continues, using high stakes tests, which promote fear-based school environments – an environment which teaches solely to the test and is completely void of practices which create a democratic school or classroom.
At my school, we have testing all year (DRA2, MAPS, CMAS, PARCC, BAS, ACCESS, PALS. TSGOLD). I believe I’ve had perhaps two weeks this year in which I wasn’t somehow involved in administering a high stakes test and/or had my schedule interrupted due to a high stakes test. I have refused to administer the PARCC, but of course there will be someone to take my place. In addition we’ve been instructed to have daily PARCC practice. And we are desperately trying to stay true to the goals of a democratic , inquiry-based public school – can you imagine how exhausting it becomes to try to do the right thing, when everyone is asking you to implement curriculum and tests that truly amount to educational malpractice?
We know how to assess. We’re teachers . We have portfolios, report cards and we actually talk to parents. And if everyone is so terribly concerned about how we are doing we also have the NAEP. All of this testing is a distraction from the true issues that plague our public schools – poverty. And of course the learning is most narrow in our high poverty schools where these mandates are used to shut down our schools. I work in a so-called “failing” school (we prefer the term abandoned school). Our children are smart and creative and there are over 40 languages represented in our school . But our children are also hungry. We attempt to fill 180 food bags weekly in the midst of all this madness of teaching to the test and testing which takes us away from the inquiry-based learning that creates engaged, problem-solving students .
So – how big is the movement? It’s big and it’s picking up speed fast. The only way I can quantify it for you is to state that I help parents opt out before work, on my way home from work, and each evening. United Opt out has approximately 70 opt out leaders who support parents in their respective states. In addition, if you ever visit our FB group page you will see immense numbers of comments, questions, and support offered as parents find out how to refuse the tests. Another facet of opt out that is most frightening to the reformers who wish to privatize our public schools is this – when a parent becomes educated around the issues of high stakes testing they find their voice and they become an advocate for public schools and for their children. It’s empowering, and it is grassroots organizing at its best. We build relationships while the reformers continue to tear them down as they destroy public school communities and create policies which fail children and fire teachers. We’ll keep fighting back and we’ll keep growing in numbers – there is something to be said for speaking with truth and heart, John. I watch those who make policy and those who pontificate about public education speak with such arrogance – arrogance backed up by money – and the truth is they know nothing about education. And in a mainly female profession, it does not go unnoticed that many of those who pontificate and create policy are males. It’s time that public school teachers are respected for what we know, based on our education and our experience in the public schools. We will continue to fight back. And those of us who opt out – well, we have a moral obligation to disobey unjust laws. And this spring, you can watch it firsthand.
Peggy Robertson, United Opt Out National
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Peggy, I referenced the number of GROUPS, not the number of students who may opt out. I appreciate your passion, intelligence and courage.
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John, what you fail to see is although there may be only 3 National groups, this is a grassroots movement that is fueled by the state affiliates of each of these groups as well as other groups not affiliated with these national groups. So in my state, there are groups that are coming together within regions, cities, and school districts. It happens over coffee with a neighbor or at a child’s soccer game. It is happening one parent and student at a time! It will snowball as parents learn that it is their right to guide their child’s education.
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Thank you John – just seeing that now. And just got back from a night of canvassing to share opt out info at a high school. Lots of appreciative parents! Glad to see so many amazing comments on your blog post.
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I also believe the reason that there is only three groups getting noticed, UOO, BATs and SOSMarch is due in part to the fact that these groups have become leaders in the organizing process. The fact that all three are on the same page and working together as well, makes this one immense movement in my eyes.
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Take a closer look at the billion dollar testing and curriculum industry. See who the people are behind those companies and you will find an incestuous relationship with the politicians who are pro-test. Funny thing, the test creators are also the ones who release reports about how the students are failing the tests, and therefore need new curriculum created by the same people that make the tests. There is only a facade of people who are pro-test, they are only pro-test because they are pro-greed.
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WHY SHOULD I REFUSE???
(THE STATE EXAMS FOR MY 3RD-8TH GRADER)
It is the only way to tell the “powers that be” that high-stress, high-stakes, high-profit testing is unacceptable.
It is the best way to tell the bureaucrats in charge of education policy that we want year-long “teaching to the tests” to end.
It sends a strong message that we, the parents, DEMAND that meaningful and well-rounded learning be returned to our Public Schools.
The scores don’t come back in time for teachers to use them for ANY educational purposes.
The tests have been shown to be extremely flawed year after year.
The tests are riddled with brand names, and our kids are not to be used for profit.
High stakes tests serve NO purpose in the classroom other than to take time away from real learning by forcing teachers to teach to the test and do test prep ALL YEAR LONG.
It is your legal right to refuse these exams for your child.
REFUSE THE STATE TESTS.
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Myth vs. Fact:
MYTH: My child is required to take the state ELA & Math tests for grades 3-8.
FACT: Under most state laws, any minor child can REFUSE to take these exams.
MYTH: My child might be left back if he/she doesn’t take the tests.
FACT: The only way the test can be held against your child is if he/she fails it.
MYTH: If my child refuses, he/she will be forced to take the harder city/district tests instead.
FACT: If your child refuses, the only legal and common alternative assessment will be a portfolio of his/her classwork & class exams from the year.
MYTH: If my child refuses, he/she will be given a zero grade.
FACT: If a child refuses the tests, it is marked as a “refusal,” and given no grade at all.
MYTH: My child’s teacher will face negative consequences if he/she refuses the tests.
FACT: Legally, test refusals do not impact teachers at all. If your administration uses refusals against teachers, they are choosing to do so and are very wrong to do so.
MYTH: The state exams are required for entry into middle and high school.
FACT: The portfolio assessment is completely acceptable by virtually all public schools.
MYTH: The state exams show how my child is doing in school.
FACT: The state exams are often so convoluted they aren’t accurate indicators of any genuine academic progress.
MYTH: Teachers need the state exam scores to see where my child is and to help him/her with any deficiencies.
FACT: Nobody sees the state tests’ scores until MONTHS later, so teachers cannot use the scores for any instructional purposes.
MYTH: It is very difficult to refuse to allow my child to take the state exams.
FACT: In 2014, over 77,000 students refused to take the New York State ELA & Math Exams for grades 3-8.
(In NYS, all you have to do is fill out this letter, print it, and send or bring it in:
http://www.united2counter.com/refusal-form)
REFUSE THE STATE TESTS. TELL THE EDUCRATS THAT HIGH-STRESS, HIGH-STAKES, HIGH-PROFIT TESTING IS UNACCEPTABLE FOR OUR CHILDREN. TELL YOUR STATE THAT WE WANT YEAR-LONG “TEACHING TO THE TESTS” TO END. SEND A MESSAGE THAT WE DEMAND MEANINGFUL AND WELL-ROUNDED LEARNING BE RETURNED TO OUR PUBLIC SCHOOLS.
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These tests are not based on academic excellence. This is the most enraging aspect of the standardized tests. It’s a shame nobody notices this fact.
There are major differences between training and teaching!
We used to have the best education system in the world.
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Out of all your comments how many are pro-test?…. We are not under any allusions that this will be fixed tomorrow. We are in this for the long haul. We will win. Every parent I speak to wants a full education for their kids not test prep.
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It may be too much information for some people to digest and accept, but if you want to learn about what happened to America’s public school system please read these links:
Thank goodness for whistleblowers!
http://abcsofdumbdown.blogspot.com/
Click to access DDDoA.sml.pdf
http://cherilyneagar.com/2014/09/meet-grand-dame-common-core-revolt/
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There seems to be much ignorance within the body politic responsible for US education policy regarding learning experience and matters of the mind. Then again, perhaps it’s not ignorance at all. Perhaps there is a reason why our schools look like factories, learning is fragmented outside children’s interests and intellectual development is measured like meat on a butcher’s scale.
I just finished a brief discussion with an eleventh grade foreign exchange student from Finland attending a popular suburban high school in the Midwest. During our discussion the Finnish visitor revealed American high schools “treat their students like 10-year olds.” “It’s like being in juvenile detention.” In Finland we emphasize creativity and thinking outside the box.”
Of course the American “bewildered herd” doesn’t know anything else except test scores and testing. Who is responsible for that drum beat? Who owns the mass media? Who is selling this message? No mention that over 20% of children over the age of 18 suffer from mental illness. No mention that testing drives curriculum into a year-long radical behaviorist drill and preparation for standardized high stakes tests with little time for creative or personalized learning experience.
Look at US juvenile incarceration rates ( http://www.aecf.org/resources/youth-incarceration-in-the-united-states/ ), crime rates, poverty rates, drop out rates…highest in the industrialized world.
Our children suffer under structural violence.
Who is responsible for this structure?
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So it looks like my comment is still awaiting moderation, though not sure why. Maybe I’ll try again without the links. If you haven’t read it, please see children’s book author and illustrator Patricia Polacco’s Facebook status regarding the harm done by standardized testing from February 3 at 11:19am. It has been shared nearly 5,300 times and there are over 1,000 comments.
My favorite book of hers is “Thank you Mr. Falker” based on her own experience as an undiagnosed dyslexic child who was taken under wing by a teacher who saw her pain and treated her as an individual with kindness and humanity, and in doing helped bring forth an amazing, creative talent into our midst.
Today’s Mr. Falkers are folks like Peggy and Kelley and Amy and Becca and Susan and Nikki and Ceresta and Beth and others whose names I don’t yet know. You are the movement, we are the movement. The movement is moving. Thank you to all the parents working so hard and to all those educators, and administrators, and superintendents channeling their own internal Mr. Falker. If you haven’t read the book, there is a youtube reading of it by the Screen Actors Guild. Check it out.
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First–there is not one single state in the United States of America that requested Common Core nor the associated high stakes tests. A group of education reformers created a need by spreading propaganda that our education system was “broken” and it was producing students that were “behind the international standards.” –This is a situation that was started decades ago and to be honest, as a teacher when we were first told that there were to be national learning standards for the entire United States we were happy. Teachers were never and are still not against standards. We would love to have standards–it helps us tremendously to teach our students to the absolutely best our ability and our students’ abilities. HOWEVER, those standards must be developmentally appropriate and must have vertical progression of knowledge built in–which requires them to be developed by educational specialists. Common Core was not and is not any of these things. It has so many flaws that there is really no way to “fix” the standards–they simply must be tossed out and re-written correctly by early childhood specialists, educational specialists and then closely examined for vertical progression and to ensure that they are not too narrow in focus. IF this is done correctly–there is no need ever for high stakes testing of any kind except for entrance exams into post secondary school programs. WHY? Because teachers go to school for 6+ years and are highly trained professionals who KNOW how to test their students through many different avenues in order to check for not only rote memorization but also for the ability to use the knowledge to solve problems, apply the information and transform it with changing parameters so that innovative solutions can be found and explained to others. That is the test of true learning–the ability to teach others how to use the knowledge. As it stands–true teaching and education no longer exists in our schools. There is only rote memorization and drill practices which we call “teaching to the test.” Our students learn to bubble in the test sheet. What is worse is that even though students memorize information, the test and answers are written in such a way that 70% of the testing population will fail the test. The test questions are filled with detracting information so the student first much figure out what the question actually is and what the parameters are that actually go with the question. There are generally 4 answers for each question: 1 wrong answer, 1 answer that might be right and 2 answers that are right but 1 of those is more correct than the other -however, no one can tell you why that one is more correct–the computer just picks it. The student nor the teacher ever gets back a graded test–you only get a score. Therefore, no learning ever comes from the test as you don’t know what areas you are strong or weak in and so you cannot go back and “re-teach” the weak areas. In addition to the questions being written in an invalid format (in college teachers are taught that good test questions test the subject matter not how well as student can wade through mud to reach the test question–the high stakes tests are all mud–tar pits actually) many are outright incorrect. There is no truly correct answer to the question and yet, it remains in the test. You would think that these questions and answers were written by education professionals –no they were not. Ads were placed in freelance forums like Elance, Odesk and Guru looking for people to write 100 math questions for $25, 100 middle grade science questions for $25 and so forth. Each question had to have up to 8 “detractors” (sic) in it and the answers had to follow the format written above. WHY would the education reformers set our students up to fail and to purposely have tests written like this? Because the education reform was never ever about “making our children college and career ready” or any other form of that propaganda slang you see or hear–it is because far more money is to be made from remediation than there ever will be made from the base of the common core curriculum, texts, workbooks, test prep materials and the tests themselves. The more kids fail–the more kids must take remedial courses =the more money the foundations, etc make off of our students. It is all about the money–follow that money trail and it leads you right back to those who have worked so hard to destroy pubic education: Koch Bros, Walton Foundation, Gates Foundation (yes, Bill and Melinda Gate who profess to want to education really just want to make $$ sorry don’t believe them–Gates even produced a lovely bracelet to put on every child to monitor is they are “engaged”–creepy –and it gets worse), Bush Foundation, Jeb Bush,et al…the Ed. Reform Group. The same group that has reduced the middle class of America to the unclass with no full time jobs with benefits –the same group that has worked so hard to destroy all unions–teachers, police, firefighters, EMTs and more. The haves are trying to destroy the pubic education that gives the step up to the have nots -the 1% is trying to roll back time. I am a protestor–I believe in a free quality education for all–not just those who can afford a private school. EVERY child has a right to a quality education in math, science, social studies, art, music, PE, sports, Ag, Dance, Chorus, Band, Drama, Foreign Languages (please note the “S” there) and more. Test prep, common core and high stakes testing does NOT education any child. I am a teacher and I am a parent of 4 children. I will not stop fighting until we bring back education to the educators. I promised my students that and I don’t break promises to my students–ever. They are counting on it for their children. OPT OUT and stop the money flow. Protest and stop the rest. Period. There is nothing else.
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If you are asking which movement has true depth, try asking yourself what the average parent feels.
Have you ever met a parent who said, “I am so grateful for all of this testing and the heavy weight that is placed on a single test. I feel that using 1/4th of my child’s educational hours to prepare for and conduct these tests are a good use of time and have advanced my child’s learning. I gladly will have my children and their schools do without basic supplies and maintenance in order to purchase test-related supplies and resources. Placing my child in a test-centric environment for months on end has enhanced the overall well-being and development of my child. Thank you for all of these tests!”
Or, instead, are you hearing parents everywhere questioning the cost, time, and impact of this test-centric educational system on their child and on education, in general?
Are parents from around the country questioning why so many of the things that they treasure from their own educational experience have disappeared? Are they questioning what is behind this change and who is profiting from this change?
It is, unfortunately, all too easy to control perceptions as to what is happening in our country. Typically, those with the greatest power and financial resources also control the messages that are shared and the interpretation of news.
If you want to know what is truly happening in schools, ask parents, “What has changed since you were in school and how do you feel about the changes?”
Their answer, and the truth it represents, is chilling.
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John, I am the proud general manager of the Badass Teachers and I will have to respectfully disagree that 3 groups define this movement. You left out the powerful Journey for Justice, the Badass Moms of Chicago, Long Island Opt Out, New York State Allies for Public Education, Network for Public Education, Newark Student Union, Philly Student Union, Providence Student Union, and many many more. PROTEST is not defined by 3 groups it is defined by parents, students, and teachers around the nation who refuse to sell their children’s education to testing companies. I would like to invite you to a conference call with all of the stakeholders involved in this fight. We would love to chat with you about the PROTEST that is happening nationally to end this! Email me and let me know if you are interested! I think it would be important for you to hear the voices of a strong national movement to end the testing craze and to begin talking about funding equity, equality, and poverty.
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what’s your email address? mine is jmerrow@learningmatters.tv
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John, high stakes testing offends the parent-teacher-child relationship. High stakes testing is a market based measurement that slaps a bar-code onto teachers and schools using the number of correct bubbles a child fills in on one day. This type of measurement doesn’t sit well with fair minded people. The fear needed to implement these measurements should on its face lead people of good will to question the motives and goals of advocating for high stakes accountability. I resigned mid-year as a school counselor because I would have to administer the high stakes tests to children and their scores would account for 50% of their teachers evaluation. I watched children in high poverty endure the pain of chronic stress that highjacks their thinking and face the high stakes tests. I’ve witnesses profound growth in students with disabilities, poverty, language barriers and yet they were labeled as failures by those who compare them to their wealthy and white and typically developing peers. The bottom line is that high stakes testing is unfair, is mean, and it wastes money.
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reaching success as s student is best assured when they are taught in a safe and wholesome enviornment,one that is creatively charged by a dynamic, well trained, dedicated , high caliber, caring teacher who engages an holistic approach . A teacher who knows how and when to use assessments and evaluations to diagnose and structure individual approaches based on a cooperative learning program to meet the varied needs of the student and the teams and the class as a whole. Government and big business have done more harm to assuring great teachers remain in our neediest schools. High stakes testing and the rigors of the testing climate often causes our students and teachers, the TWO MOST CRITICAL ELEMENTS IN THE EDUCATION DEBATES, to endure undue stresses and feelings of extreme anxiety and fear. This leads to fatigue and burn out. I fear that is the true mussion of high stake testing advocates, to destroy morale and beat down the motivation of students to maintain a DESIRE TO SUCCEED in many schools today. Once that is accomplished, the take over of the state and federal financial educational allotments for a Free Public Education is obtained easily by those lobbyists and big business carpetbaggers awaiting in the private sector to move right in.
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Thank you John for your coverage of this movement. Your coverage is indeed a vital starting point for a necessary conversation. I’d like to expand upon the report if I might. You write, “As for the other side, the ‘Pro-Test’ camp has the appearance of substance.” Well if by “substance” you mean MONEY, yes they do. Reform policy-makers have money to buy a multimedia campaign advertising their agenda…advertising. Selling. Fruit Loops might say “Part of a nutritious breakfast” on the front of the box but we all know to read the ingredients, and when we are being marketed claims rather than facts.
To that point, the media, placating their corporate sponsors offer little more than “repetitive and stories and blogs that merely ask lame questions”–“hardly evidence of a full-blown” legitimate reform policy. Uttering the phrase “career and college ready” thousands of time in every media outlet money can buy does not make the claim any more true. Especially when there is no research or evidence to show that more or “better” tests can deliver on such an ambiguous promise. But never mind the facts. There’s volumes of research that demonstrates how these policies are failing. But keep calm and ignore the research seems to be their mantra I suppose. Any deep examination of policy “reform” in the name of research journalism cannot evade the profit motive of corporate “sponsorship” and lobbying efforts of testing and curriculum delivery systems that spent millions lobbying for the reforms from which they are profiting handsomely. It’s a shame that information was excluded from the report. That’s kind of ignoring the giant elephant in the room isn’t it? Gates, Pearson and the “billionaire’s boys club” cannot be excluded from this conversation. I appreciate the nod you give the notion of money and power. But this warrants a more detailed examination to fully appreciate why our outrage exists.
Who is pro-test? Let’s take a look. It’s the politicians, non-profits and corporations who have political and monetary motives. Where are the pro-test teachers and parents? Crickets….
Well, except for the mention of Leadership Council on Civil and Human Rights, and the statement, “If you don’t take the test, you won’t be counted–and you won’t matter” which compels some such advocates representing marginalized groups, ie. special needs children, or children of color in underserved communities to buy the testing- our- way- into- mattering or proving ourselves narrative. What does it say about our democratic society and the promise of equitable education that we are basically telling these same groups and these same children (and their communities) that in order to “matter” or to receive programs and services on par with their White middle class peers they must subject themselves to costly and time-consuming tests (tests born of a testing history designed with the intention to sort and track people by their social class and race or ethnicity-yet we ask them to play the testing to prove yourself game when the rules of the game are rigged against them). We rob their schools of monies for greatly needed resources and meaningful curriculum in the name of “accountability” and avoid confronting the sad reality that without standardized tests these children will go underserved. Nice way to avoid dealing with the undercurrent of racism, classism, and bias all of which are reinforced by the same system which claims to be serving them: test driven policies.
Who are the protestors? The people (from across all political, geographical socioeconomic and racial spectrums) who live this stuff every day and see the implications of its effects of corporate driven test- based reforms. They don’t make a dime for their efforts either. No one gets paid. No one is making millions of dollars by refusing. I think that says a lot about the validity of the movement. There is no power or profit motive. A deeper investigation would reveal copious studies spanning decades that show how high stakes testing, and standardized testing in general has been harmful to children, teachers, and schools. You write “I haven’t found overwhelming evidence that hundreds of thousands of students are going to boycott the Common Core tests.” We don’t receive millions of dollars to create a centralized data bank of opt outers across fifty states. You won’t find “evidence” by looking in any one place or event. Scores of parents refusing the tests and teachers supporting this movement go unknown (sometimes by choice to protect their jobs or their kids). Or, thanks to our corporate sponsored media, when protesters DO come out in large numbers, the public does not hear about it because well, then people might really know that push back and that real solutions/alternatives do exist. Are we as protestors marginalized because really we are so small in numbers? Or is it because the media manufactures the movement as such?
One thing is for sure about test driven reform: It certainly does an excellent job of blending and bending the lines between fact and fiction.
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Which side is astro-turfed and which side is grassroots?
How many hours of standardized testing will a third grader in Indiana take this coming year?
I can’t help but recall the words of a retiring principal, who stated “I’m sure there’s a place for data in education, but I have yet to find it.”
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John, Wall Street investors and Billionaires were caught on video strategizing on their next profit making venture and they concluded that public education dollars was a well of profit waiting to be tapped. They wasted little time to concoct the most clever scheme to hijack public schools. With the help of some unscroupokous politicians they have been able to take over the curriculum, design lesson plans and deny students promtion and high school diplomas, and how teachers and schools are measured all based on a single test. They used their money and influence to invest in the testing industry and the lesson plans accompanying the test, (both highly profitable), along with the for-profit charter schools, and the non-union TFA interns. But, before they could carry out this scam, they had to convince the public that our public schools were broken, and teachers were the cause of the problem. With the help of Oprah and other celebreties and the propaganda film, “Waiting for Superman” and “The Parent Trigger”, they were able to convince many that indeed are schools were broken and thus positioned themselves as the saviors of our broken schools. Pivotal to their profit-making scheme is the “Test”, which without they cannot satisfy their greed. The testing industry has become a multi billion enterprise thanks to the corporate education reform. It appears that many, prrhaps you included have been sold into the idea that our schools are failing, and only the test driven measures, with its call for rigor is what is needed to save the schools of the poor and the politically disinfranchised. But just like the mama bear who will protect her cubs, families across the country have cone to realize the abuse that is taken place, and have said enough and will do whatever it takes to protrct their children; and while these abusive measures have hit harder the poorest coomunities, families in suburbia America have joined in protest, and what you are seeing is an uprising that will galvanize into one of the biggest resistance movement in defense of all our children.
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There are more that 2 or 3 sides. Among the viewpoints are:
1. End standardized tests. They are worthless and narrow the curriculum (Opt Out and BA teachers.(
2. End use of standardized tests to judge teacher’s effectiveness, but retain use of some of them.
3. Retain use of standardized tests but cut back on the number that students are given
4. Retain use of standardized tests; they are vital to help assess what’s happening with students. However, other things need to be done to help improve education (this is essentially the view of a number of civil rights
As a long time educator and parent of 3 graduates of urban public schools, I do not agree with the statement above that ‘I’m sure there’s a place for data in education, but I have yet to find it.”
We ought to be examining things like graduation rates, students’ views on whether they are being treated fairly, faculty views on whether they are being encouraged or discouraged by leaders (or whether they would like to work in a teacher led school, some standardized measures that help assess student work, some portfolio approaches such as developed by Central Park East and Open School.
To reject data entirely seems unwise. To suggest that there are only 2 viewpoints seems overly simplistic.
I do appreciate your efforts to sort through what does and does not make sense, John.
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Joe, I agree that it’s complicated. Is the issue assessing the progress of students so we can address their weaknesses and strengthen their strengths? If so, then we might not using the approach now used by school systems. I am in favor of healthy debate, but I fear that’s naive of me.
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John, I have worked with special needs students since President G.W. Bush started experimenting with testing strategies in the 80s. These students have been the most harmed by testing regimes. Now, with the expectation that every child will perform at the same level at the same time, second language learners, students with special needs, students who are chronically absent or transient, and even students with serious illnesses who miss months of school while in treatment are burdened with hours of preparation and testing for which they are unprepared.
Educators of these students are passionate about helping them reach their full potential. We have students who grow one to three grade levels in a single year but who are still performing significantly below grade level. They are beginning to feel good about themselves and their potential again until they are forced to perform on high-stakes, high-stress tests.
Every year, students cry, become physically ill, and demonstrate every possible sign of stress during and after these assessments.
Teachers are NOT asking to avoid accountability. What we would like are fair measures of student growth based on the student, not the curriculum.
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The opt out movement isn’t a “whim.” It’s an outcry from parents who are tired of their children being excessively tested with standardized testing beginning in kindergarten. Five year olds shouldn’t be given the message they are failures. Children all develop at different rates, and the expectations are developmentally inappropriate.
Schools are cutting arts programs and essential school positions, such as school librarians and nurses, in order to fund these tests.
The company who produces the majority of these tests, Pearson, refuses to sign the honor pledge in President Obama’s Student Digital Privacy Rights Act. By signing the pledge, companies who collect personal information about our students, such as grades and test scores, pledge to not misuse student data by selling the information to third parties and allowing parental access to their child’s information. The fact that the largest company who creates standardized tests refuses to not misuse our students’ personal information and the data they collect should concern us all.
The pressure these high stakes tests place on children and teachers are substantial. My second grade daughter, who is a high achiever, could not sleep the night before one of these standardized tests. She was so anxious about not knowing the answers and the possibility there would be questions on material she hadn’t been taught yet.
An eight year old child should not be experiencing level of pressure and anxiety.
This madness MUST stop. The joy of learning has been taken away. The only way we can reclaim our schools, allow time for authentic teaching and learning, is by REFUSING the tests.
My daughter and I are refusing and opting out! We will no longer participate in a system that isn’t about learning or improving student achievement.
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Parents are finally saying no to a reform agenda that benefits testing companies at the expense of children. And it’s about time! If the tests are rejected, the whole phony accountability system will fall apart, and then maybe teachers can get back to doing their job: developing and nurturing creativity and a love of learning in our children.
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I respectfully submit that this issue is not about the strength of the movement on either side, but what is right for children and who/what is behind the anti-public ed, anti-teacher, pro-testing, pro-common core, pro-charter “movement.” From what I’ve observed in New York State, these tests are designed for one purpose – to make students fail and to give a reason for attacking public ed and teachers. Evidence for my opinion? The cut-scores are set by some mysterious method that guarantees 70% of the students in NY fail the test. 70%! Before the common core test, 80% of NY students passed our own state-standard tests. How all of a sudden did so many successful students become failures? Cuomo himself admitted the test was bad when he agreed student test scores could not be used for judging – the children. But now, he wants to judge 50% of teacher evaluations by the same criteria! In the meantime, it is the students who are suffering with loss of creative and critical thinking experiences, loss of learning time in the classroom due to test prep and test time, and loss of self-confidence due to being forced to sit for many, many hours (more than a law student) to take tests that are geared at a grade level years beyond their ability…that loss of self-confidence is going to affect their learning for years to come. I’ve seen students put their head down and cry during a test, students having to run to the bathroom because they are nauseous with a full-blown panic attack, etc. Talk about that.
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We now have a network of 25 opt out groups across the State of Florida. This awareness and growth comes from teachers, students and parents having reached the end of all traditional efforts for change.
We have appealed to our local school boards, our department of education and our legislators. Everyone of them pointing fingers at the other. Until we have valid assessment without punitive consequences we will opt out. We will not be sidetracked by threats from our local districts or by our Commissioner of Education, Pam Stewart.
With the damage being done on a daily basis to our students and teachers, we have nothing to lose.
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I find it interesting that you pointed out the poignant difference in “substance” of the 2 “camps.” I would like to highlight the difference in the location, financial, and power of the 2 camps. Location comparison: “Pro-test” is based in the homes of children and “Protest” is based in Washington. Financial comparison: “Pro-test” ranges from lower to upper class finances whereas “Protest” ranges from federal finances to gargantuan finances like Bill Gates. Power comparison: “Pro-test” has only the power of 1 at most 2 votes, yet “Protest” has the ability to not follow any Constitutional guidelines OR laws.
So I will be happy to point out that it is time for the revolt to begin and encourage every parent out there to SCREAM at the top of our lungs because that is the ONLY way we can kill this Goliath called “Protest.” We have this one stone to throw so let’s throw it together! OPT OUT!!!!
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We have opted out of PARCC – or whatever it’s going to be in Louisiana..
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These are my children. It is my responsibility to protect them. The state doesn’t know them, nor do they care how detrimental their mandates are. I am to care for my WHOLE child. Not simply the academic or profitable parts. In the end, I have to answer for the decisions that I made and the parent that I was. I need to teach my children to not simply comply, but to make a stand for what is right. I do not believe that our government is for the people and by the people. It is for the corporation and by the corporation. Education should not be run on a business model where children are acquisitions and the bottom line is profit. There is no shame.
Allow me to share with you my stance on testing.
I used to only think in terms of my daughter. She was my oldest, and the only one of my children old enough to be subject to testing. She always tested well, or well enough for a child who was always told to just get in there and do it, and then it’s done, and it doesn’t at all reflect where you’re at or who you are. It only determines how well you test under duress. That had always been my feeling regarding testing.
I then had 3 more beautiful children, and they were all growing into unique and incredible individuals. As they grew, I began to see beauty in their strengths and weakness. My world was no longer one-child dimensional, and my eyes began to open. Then Ohio passed the 3rd Grade Reading Guarantee, common core hit, and testing increased 2 and 3 fold. Data became a priority, and big corporate money began to funnel into public education. That sent up too many red flags to even list. Recess was being taken away for test prep, because there aren’t enough days in a school year to prep for tests and have recess. I began to hear more and more about numbers, scores, data, and less and less about humanity in schools. The test scores are being used to determine a teacher’s value, which is ridiculous and crazy. It no longer matters that he/she gives hugs willingly, will buy a cold child a coat, sees that a child is never without lunch or snack, holds their hand, sings with them, calls them her “darlings”, keeps every single special note they are given, proclaims them all artist extraordinaires, or gives them each a little piece of himself every single day. If your child doesn’t test well, their teacher’s value declines.
If your child doesn’t test well, their value declines. It no longer matters that they stand up to bullies, take care of their younger sisters after school, offer a friend their gloves, tell them they look pretty, hold their hand, or color special pictures for them.
The 3rd Grade Guarantee…It no longer matters that you started out the year struggling, but have made such unbelievable progress. It doesn’t matter that your teacher has built up your confidence, and that you once again have dreams-she tells you that you can be anything that you want to. It doesn’t matter that you can read at a 4th grade level, but don’t test well. Your grades, your teacher’s thoughts and opinions, your effort, your progress, your hopes, dreams, and aspirations…none of it matters. The test is all that matters, and children with special needs are no exception. Children from affluent zip codes score better than those from poverty stricken zip codes.
We have gone truly insane if we think it is ok to put the same pressure on an 8 or 9 year old, as we put on a 16 or 17 year old. These are babies, and when they are no longer babies, I want them to remember that they were children once. I want them to recall fondly a childhood of laughter and abandon, and devoid of labels, high stakes testing, and scores that define them.
While my oldest son and my oldest daughter, will likely always test proficient, I no longer fight for just them. I fight for every child. Every child is mine, is ours, and it is no longer alright for me to see the world as one-child dimensional.
While it may not seem like we are immediately gaining back the instructional time that would have been lost to testing, we are not feeding the machine. As long as I choose to let one of my children test, based on them testing well, I am doing a disservice to all children who cannot. When enough of us put our pencils (or mice) down, we can stop this for ALL children. I don’t just fight for my child; I fight for yours, as well.
When we win this fight, when we speak loud enough for them to hear, when we stand together, when we are the voice of the voiceless, when we accept nothing less…things will change. Then we will gain our instructional time back. We will regain the value of humanity, and our children will be able to remember fondly that they once had a childhood.
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A standardized test, by any name given, is deemed high stakes when a great deal of money is riding on the results. Let’s step back for a moment, and let’s follow the money. You are moving to a new town. You ask your real estate agent about local schools. The savvy agent whips out a list of schools along with the grade they received based on one standardized test. You choose your home near an A rated school.
Within the schools rated B, teachers worked just as hard, and are now looking to abandon ship because they did not get the same monetary reward as the teachers at the A rated school, AND the principal is beginning to get nervous about losing a job if his/her grade slips one more level. What happens is everybody gets tense, there may be some micro management, some negativity, and what good can come from that?
There will be those teachers; those long timers who keep their eye on the goal of skill mastery, but there are those who probationary teachers who know they are could be gone without explanation, and they have to be looking around for another position,too. THAT is what folks do not understand about high stakes testing.
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Testing should be developmentally appropriate and used to provide teachers and schools with information that will help them lift students to a better place.
Tests today are used to destroy student morale, fire teachers, and shutdown schools.
Tests are being used, Mr. Merrow, to privatize our public schools.
Thank you for featuring testing. I’d like to suggest your next program address why wealthy philanthropists are given so much power to influence public schools.
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We are growing in numbers everyday. Most of us spend every waking moment fighting, educating and spreading the truth about testing. Students are leaving schools. Teachers are leaving schools. We are leaving the PARCC like test Louisiana children are being forced to take. #OptOutLouisiana!
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It’s time to get this right and stop over testing our children. Our children are not points on a data line. What happened to grades being a good indicator of a students success. I’ve opted my children out and I’m encouraging EVERY parent to do the same! #OptOutLouisiana
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In some states, most parents are just beginning to really learn about Common Core and the high stakes test that go with it. Many teachers themselves have not researched the politics and background of the present situation. Even with that, there is nationwide resistance to the new reforms that were basically forced onto states and which NO ONE voted on. Resistance runs the gamut from the most liberal of educators to ultra-conservative groups. Politics sometimes makes strange bedfellows. Another way of stating this is that the testing resistance is broad-based. The federal Dept. of Education and ed policy has been commandeered by 1% and corporate money for privatization and profit-motive interests, like Wall Street and like Bill Gates, who basically funded Common Core and whose former employees are now numerous in the Arne Duncan federal DOE.
Why is that, by the way? Another way of characterizing the present situation is as a 1% take-over of public policy. Entire states themselves are fighting back and opting out of Common Core, PARCC, and S-BACC. The testing resistance is the 99%’s fight to deny the data that the whole shebang erroneously runs on. The testing data is being misused, with NO scientific basis, to grade and close schools, evaluate teachers, mine and store data on students and their families, and drive a greatly-narrowed curriculum in schools. The resistance to both Common Core and the testing will continue to grow, for many reasons, as more parents and teachers gain increased levels of awareness. Anyone who truly believes that a child is more than a single test score will probably not support the new tests and the changes they will engender in their local public schools, especially loss of local control.
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