“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 
the fact that no one has logged on to defend the tests should be revealing and indicative of what the original report itself perhaps should recognize…we are not on the margins, we are large in number, and there is is not “pro testing” voice other than the corporate one. The “substanative” (in your words) pro testers are only “big” in name and money…If this is one sided thus far perhaps there’s a reason why that is…the “other side” exists on paper, shallow talking points, and CEO bank accounts only
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As a retired teacher who spent 37 years in the Philadelphia School District, I can say all the high-stakes testing has done is make it harder for the kids to learn and the teachers to teach. I left right before the Common Core Standards went into effect. When I began teaching in 1975, or children took one standardized test that took up about four hours of my time to give.
When I left teaching, in fifth grade we were giving standardized benchmarks every 6 weeks to see if the kids were getting ready for the test. We spent one day of each week giving short multiple choice and open-ended tests in every subject. I calculated that we missed more than 20 instructional days of reading (a whole month of school) doing these extra tests and the real tests. That 11% of school time taking standardized tests. But there’s more – The kids that didn’t do well were expected to attend after-school reading and math sessions 4 days a week and not allowed to participate in extra-curricular activities on those days. Three times a year, they took a standardized test in the after-school program to see if they were ready for the big test. By the time they took the REAL test in March/April, they were tested out. In 2012, the kids were enduring 44 hours of testing, not counting the day-to-day tests given by the teacher. 4 hours in 1975 versus 11 times that in 2012. As someone above mentioned, testing kids more often does not make them test better, just like measuring a child daily doesn’t make them grow faster.
The tests are but one problem. Because they are so important to the school/district/state. we have had to change the way we teach. For instance, I discovered a great way to teach Social Studies and make it stick was to use historical fiction. We’d read and discuss and argue and get some understanding of how it was back in the day. The understood the reasons for the Revolutionary War and the Civil War, what it was like in the Great Depression, why child work laws were established, how hard women and people of color fought for the right to vote. No more novels. Now we must only read a chapter in the book and go on to the next standard no matter what. Teaching with novels allowed me to hit two subjects at once and not short shrift either one. Otherwise, there was no time for social studies.
These tests have only exacerbated the problems in the high poverty schools by not addressing the real problem – poverty. Our school had a 90% poverty rate. We needed help with social services, mental health and behavior, clothing and medical care. All that had to be taken care of before the kids could concentrate on the tasks at hand rather than worry about how cold the house was going to be, or if there’d be a hot meal at home or a warm place to sleep.
Tests can be useful, high-stakes tests are useful for nothing. Not for kids, not teachers, not parents, schools, or communities. they have only served to make children stressed and weary, kill any drive in the teacher, close schools that the community needs, and take funds away because charter schools supposedly do it better. (Not really)
Read my blog for more – We Didn’t Start the Fire, But We Will Fan the Flames.
http://teacherslessonslearned.blogspot.com/2015/01/we-didnt-start-fire-but-we-will-fan.html
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I am most definitely on the protest side. As a parent, I saw the horrible consequences of mandatory standardized testing on my child’s psyche, his self esteem and his love of school. Our state’s testing, the Michigan Education Achievement Proficiency or MEAP test was not designed with children with learning disabilities in mind. He was reading at grade level, but not comprehending at grade level. Of course this meant his reading proficiency scores were low. It affected his ability to write and to understand math story problems so those scores suffered as well. After the first time I saw his reaction to having scored so low on his test, I never let him see his scores again. In the weeks before testing, he became moody, morose and depressed. Afterword he would worry, worry and worry some more about his scores. The problem became really bad when they would test in the fall and not release scores until spring! Or test in the spring and not release the scores until well into the following school year! They also had to take an Iowa standardized test and one other. These tests affected funding for schools, they affected standing with the state which meant 3 years of not showing Adequate Yearly Progress could land the school on the state’s list of Improvement schools. This means restructuring the school starting with the teaching staff, and working up to administration. This meant teachers were stuck teaching to tests every school year instead of teaching genuine curriculum. Issues like a high number of special ed students who did not have access to alternative tests, a large population of migrant students, 91-99% of students living in poverty and coming to school hungry and unable to concentrate, and other very real factors were not given consideration on the school’s overall achievement scores. Today, we have up to 8 different standardized tests students must take every year. The stakes tied to these tests are so stressful that teachers, who are great teachers, are leaving their profession in droves. Teachers who’s evaluations are tied to test scores are losing their jobs because their poverty stricken students are so stressed by their living conditions they can’t accurately test. Students are fearing school. The stress students feel is heartbreaking and the tension from principals to teachers to classroom aides is so thick in the air that students can feel that as well and are reacting to it. Had I known I could have opted my son out, I would have in a heartbeat, especially following his head injury which caused cognitive impairments. Even with that, he was not allowed to take an alternative test. Now that I’m a teacher and I see the harm caused to students, teachers, schools and districts by standardized testing and the ridiculous number of tests administered each year, I think it’s time to stop, use our heads and look at why countries like Finland, who refuse to subject their students to any type of standardized testing, are number 1 in the world for academic achievement. Lets revise our education system to mirror theirs and get politicians and profiteers out of education. They have no clue how children learn, they’re just in it for the big bucks. There is no such thing as a standard child, why on earth do we insist on administering standardized tests?
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Because student test scores are tied to school grades and teacher evaluations, our high school has become a test factory. The first two weeks of this semester I didn’t teach one lesson. Instead my highly educated colleagues and I (I have a Ph.D) have become highly-paid test proctors of tests that are law, but do not inform our instruction. This will be repeated 3 more times this semester in NM. In order for this multi-billion dollar industry to continue making obscene profits, our children have become unpaid child labor in order to feed the voracious data dinosaurs. Standardized tests are an antiquated practice that never measure true learning. Uneducated policy-makers have been sold snake oil, and the damage to a generation of young people will be greater than ever imagined. Educators have been trying to tell you this for a decade. Now parents are listening and are doing the moral thing…pulling their children out of this debilitating practice and saving us from the complete destruction of public education.
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Dear Mr. Merrow:
It’s simply unfair to make a casual comparison between the power and influence of a billion dollar testing industry versus the grassroots groups who are fighting against it. We parents are fierce advocates for our children but there is also tremendous social pressure for us to comply. Parents in Denver Public Schools are told that if too many students in a class opt-out of the PARCC tests, their teacher will lose upwards of $5,000 in pay.
What would you do, Mr. Merrow? If you believed the tests were harmful, would you maintain your true north and opt-out your child knowing her teacher may lose his house because of your decision?
That’s just it. If the tests truly benefitted students, the “education establishment” wouldn’t need to threaten, bribe, coerce and force compliance. What has come of our society if we blithely accept that the establishment is “dropping the hammer” on our children?
Report on the pushback and the courage it takes for students, parents and teachers to stand tall against the power of the testing regime. That’s where you’ll find the real story.
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It sickens me that the people who make these “reforms” have no “skin in the game”. Their children never have to deal with the consequences of their policies because they send their children to schools that are exempt from the Common Core Curriculum and the incessant testing that goes along with it.
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I do hope, Mr. Merrow, that you will read each of these comments and do more research. Much more. What unites those of us (many thousands of us) across the U.S. When it comes to Ths monster we call testing? We’re Democrats and Republicans. Tea Party and Progressive. The children. The children unite us. Are we opposed to high standards? No. Are we opposed to teacher evaluations? No. Are we opposed to assessment? No. Not if it used to truly assess. But when you really dog in; when you really do your homework, as WE have, you will find out that the tests have been designed with failure in mind. You see, without failure, privatization can not occur. The public HAS to be sold a bill of goods that public schools are failing children. I like to say, “Failure must be manipulated fin order for Pearson to sell the cure”. If you want the truth you will dig deep. If you are content to be part of the elite, the corporate group behind the testing machine, then you will play a role in the cover up, much the same as the rest of the media is. If you decide to dig deeper, look at how many refusals happened in NYS alone last year. Find out how many multi thousands of dollars districts are pouring into tests, test prep, and the “cure”. Find out how much PEARSON has donated to Andrew Cuomo’s war chest. Look at agendas. Note that those involved in fighting this test prep education are parents and teachers. Our common unifier is children.
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Standing firmly in the PROTEST camp since 1999! My children were among the first group of experimental units for the high-stakes standards and testing movement…..the pro-test groups you speak of.
Those are the same groups that supported No Child Left Behind – the law cementing the outcome-based theory into the minds of Americans. Well,….?????….the proof of failure is our reality.
Insanity would be to repeat the same mistake again with “higher” standards and “better” tests still believing in the faulty assumptions “their” movement was based on….and trusting the judgement of the SAME people.
Use the scientific method to Evaluate the Theory Behind No Child Left Behind. http://thecrucialvoice.com/Evaluating%20The%20Theory%20Behind%20No%20Child%20Left%20Behind.pdf
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I’m a retired teacher with 34 years experience. I can tell you that these tests and all evil that accompany them are the worst disaster to hit public schools ever. They are totally developmentally inappropriate, harmful, and meaningless. Big business rules in education now and I fear it’s the end of our public education system unless the parents demand their rights to have a say in their children’s education. Teachers are not only ignored but gagged and threatened, too. Enough already. Get rid of the testing, No a Child Left Behind, and a Race to the Top.
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It is exciting to see the opt out and anti-reform movement growing by leaps and bounds every day. More and more parents are waking up to the destruction of our public schools, and stepping up to fight for the future of our children and country. I am a proud opt-out parent and proud to be fighting for what is just.
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Just wanted to make sure you were aware that last year parents of 60,000 students refused the tests in NYS. Our current goal is 250,000.
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I have seen serious problems with the high-stakes test obsession even in Virginia–a non-Common Core State. English language learners, anxious test-takers, students with learning challenges, and impoverished children often do not test well, and they are punished for it. Their schools are intimidated with the threat of losing accreditation, so they are incentivized to “teach to the test,” and Johnny loses. Johnny loses time to learn to love learning and time to run at recess. The first things that underfunded schools cut are art, music, languages, and the humanities. States and localities are mandated to purchase the tests and therefore become slaves to keeping the necessary computers going. Not all third graders are ready to manipulate between long reading passages, so all those technology skills must be drilled in as well. School districts feel pressed to purchase expensive test preparation programs of all sorts. That’s the problem with federally-mandated, punitive “high-stakes” tests. What schools actually need are quick-turnaround diagnostic assessments crafted by professional educators who understand their student’s needs. If the question really is “accountability” and the federal government wants to assess education, why can’t they fund it and use random sampling and shorter grade-span “no-stakes” testing as is done with the NAEP? Many people believe the “High-Stakes” testing game is a sham to create failure. This failure can only lead to more profit-based ideas like Pear$on $remediation and $charter$. I’m morally outraged by the punitive nature of these tests as they are being used in public education. Public education is a non-profit Democratic institution that is meant to instill a love of learning and serve EvErYoNe.
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I am a teacher of over twenty years. This will almost certainly be my last year. Why? Testing, the pressure to teach to the impossible standards tested, the removal of any real freedom to instill a love of learning in my students have sucked the joy from teaching. I don’t want to leave. I love teaching and everything about it, including the long hours of preparation that go into creating meaningful and relevant lessons. But I no longer like the teacher I am. In spite of my efforts to stay clear of the testing madness and to protect my students, it gets to me. And it gets to them.
I know that the standards my students are expected to meet are developmentally inappropriate. Too many concepts are being forced onto children whose brains are simply not yet ready to understand them. Yet I am under constant pressure to do more – push harder, move faster, keep the kids longer – to force those children to achieve those impossible goals. Oh, and the ones who we know have no chance of meeting those goals? Forget them. Just push those who have a chance harder. This is coming from people who should know better. Yet they are under pressure, too. And for some reason, when I point out the insanity and the unfairness of all of this, I am looked at by colleagues and superiors alike with a mix of pity and horror. Don’t speak up. Don’t make waves. We know it’s wrong, but we have to make it happen regardless of the damage to the students. I am just one person. I do my best to fight this in my way. But I fear that I am not making a difference. And my disillusionment is making me a less effective teacher.
I have had children cry about the tests they must take, become so distressed on testing day that they had to leave the classroom and visit the nurse’s office, shut down and do nothing but randomly fill in bubbles on the answer sheet, and vomit on test-prep materials. All of this in spite of my attempts to be low-key about testing, to teach them breathing and stretching exercises to make their four-hour ordeal easier, to tell them it’s just one test that is set up to trick them. In spite of my efforts to encourage them and tell them that I believe in them. They know. No matter what
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Please stop the testing and common core. One child gets sick to her stomach with tests and my other child will not graduate because he can not pass Eng 1 starr test. Every child is different they do not need all the test and common core is worthless.
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I teach 8th grade English. Testing calendar in hand, I calculated at the beginning of this school year that my students would be spending a full 10% of all instructional days taking standardized tests this year. That’s not counting test prep, tutorials, test-taking strategies, or anything peripheral. Just the time spent filling in bubbles. Instruction isn’t just affected by the shortened amount of days, but I’m strongly feeling the impact of all the interruptions. We can’t seem to get through anything without some kind of testing-related interruption. It’s miserable.
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The telling point here is that most states and districts are not providing information to parents and students for the “opt-out” choice. They are, in fact, going out of their way- threatening and lying- to keep the information from them. If you are afraid to share information, to be transparent, the question needs to be asked: “Why?” The answer may revolve around money; millions of dollars- taxpayer dollars- are spent on these tests. Or it may involve political power and finance. Or any one of several other issues. The bottom line is testing is not good ed policy; nor is it good ed pedagogy; nor is it a valid measure of teacher effectiveness. It’s out of control and needs to stop.
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Hi, John,
The Delran (NJ) Education Association published this position statement on high-stakes tests in November. The response from the parents, community members, administrators, and our Board of Education has been overwhelmingly positive, and our Superintendent and BOE drafted and passed a resolution that ensures PARCC refusals will be respected and appropriate accommodations will be made for non-testers. In the last couple of months, more than 85 NJ districts have either passed similar resolutions or have vowed to respond humanely to refusals.
Delran EA Position statement:
https://teacherbiz.wordpress.com/2014/11/10/the-delran-education-associations-position-on-high-stakes-standardized-testing/
Delran resolution:
Click to access Refusal-Resolution.pdf
List of NJ districts accommodating refusals (from Save Our Schools NJ):
https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=904838869549274&id=174128812620287&soft=requests
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And In typing that comment on my iPhone, I spelled my own name wrong. Is there a way I can edit it? 🙂
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I’m a 23-year teacher in a school district whose students have historically scored very high on standardized tests. After hundreds of our students opted out of state tests last fall, the opt out forms are flooding our office for the spring PARCC tests. In my state, children entering school in 3rd grade this year can expect to spend the equivalent of a full school year testing by the time they graduate high school. Kids and parents have had enough.
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I am a teacher with 36 years experience. I have watched public education and teachers be attacked for years. A war has been declared against us by politicians, testing corporations, and misinformed and malicious reformers with their own agendas. American public schools are actually doing a great deal for our children who are at risk, not from their schools, but from their home environments, drug-addicted parents, and constant political attacks on them and the very educators who try to enrich their lives with cultural exposure, music, art, and a love of reading. We try to build their esteem and confidence while every reformer screams rigor, accountability, and more tests. Children do NOT need more rigor. They need Vigor. They need politicians and reformers to be held accountable for trying destroy all that is good in our public schools.
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Follow the money, always!
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I am firmly in the “too much testing” and “kids are not standardized” camp. My analogy of the Common Core (both the curriculum and tests:
when a child starts first grade he/she is usually about 6-years old. And it is at about this age when a child starts losing his/her baby teeth, right? What do we do with the children whose baby teeth are not falling out – do we punish them? Do we rate their teacher on this? Do we hold them back a year? Do we dig in their mouths with pliers and yank them out to keep them “on track” with their classmates?
If you would not hurt a child in these ways, do not hurt him/her psychologically. Psychological wounds sometimes heal more slowly than physical ones. The Common Core makes children anxious, makes them cry, and takes the joy out of learning. If another person did that to your child you would be angry. Do we accept the fact that children’s brain develop at different rates and work from there..? Because we should, as Piaget proved so very long ago. The finding of Maslow, Erickson, and Piaget have been discarded for the best money-making opportunity on the backs of our children.
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Good evening,
I write this as a parent and protester! I opened Opt Out Palm Beach County on Facebook in September. As of today we have 232 members and counting. Each day more and more flock to the group for answers for how to opt out of standardized, high stakes tests in this particular county. The movement is strong, we had a very successful conference just last month in Ft Lauderdale with United Opt Out. Parents are seeking answers, and the stories are nation wide. #WhyIrefuse was supposed to be a one day campaign to collectively share stories from across the nation. That night we trended #1 and reached 13 million people world wide by the end of the weekend. It still continues to grow and is shared across many many groups, ages, states, and countries. You can see there that we are not small in numbers. We are parents and educators that will stand up, speak out! We will fight to regain public education and put it back into the hands of qualified educators. We will fight to have the joy of learning and discovery put back into our community schools. We will be heard no matter what!
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No matter what I do or say, they know how important these tests have become. It’s been drilled into them and into their parents. I have had children walk into my classroom, before the first day of school in 3rd grade, worried about a test!
I had the valuable experience of working for one for the big testing companies that is now in the center of the testing controversy. I went there thinking that, because I had teaching experience and because I had experience giving these tests, my insights could be useful. Oh, was I wrong! On my first day, I was disqualified from scoring 4th grade essays (although I have over ten years experience teaching 4th grade and teaching my students who to write essays for state tests) because I was “unable to internalize the rubric” the testing company and State Education Agency had designed for scoring the essays. What? I had taught students how to work to meet the requirements of that essay! When I questioned practices during scoring training, I was attacked by the representative of the State Education Agency. It seems they didn’t want to hear my questions or any views that differed from the company line. Not to worry, though. Along with me in disqualification from scoring that day were an English professor from a local community college and a recent graduate with a degree in English and Journalism. Hmmm. We were hired to score something else.
I worked at the testing company for three years. I worked on projects from several states, including some Common Core projects. I came to realize, during that time, that it really is all about the money. It’s not really about giving the student an “accurate” score, i.e. the score that is deserved. It more about scorers agreeing with one another, and their supervisors, about the score a student receives. If a scorer can’t keep their “agreement rate” high enough, they will ultimately be dismissed. Supervisors, who have so much power over student scores, are almost universally not people with education backgrounds. You see, it is the supervisor who has final say over what is considered acceptable for each student score on a given project. And if someone like me, with a background in education, questions a decision or points out that a question is faulty, woe be it to that lowly scorer. Teachers who score these tests and who argue too much get fired. I remember one day when I was desperately trying to explain to my supervisor and fellow scorers that a math question was developmentally inappropriate for the 3rd graders who had been given the test. That supervisor had no idea what I was talking about and another supervisor who was working as a scorer simply said, “I can do this easily. Why can’t these kids?”
There are multiple retests for the students who fail these tests. So the testing companies get to print out more prep materials, more tests, and do more scoring. And by the way, there are millions of dollars in bonuses on the line for getting the scoring done on schedule or ahead of time. What do you think that does to quality of scoring? I could go on and on, but I believe I have made my point.
People who know nothing about education are making policy that states we must test our students excessively. Our students are not learning because they are constantly being prepped with material that is neither appropriate nor interesting. Those in positions of authority are bowing to pressure from above. Dedicated, caring teachers who just want to teach children are leaving in droves because we honestly can’t see a way out of this anymore.
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Standardized testing the way it is today is flawed. My students and who they are and what they know academically wise can be shared in many ways and high stakes testing is not one of those ways.
As a child I was lucky as the testing mania had not started yet, I grew up in the 1980s and recall taking the scantron ITBS or CTBS test a few times. I remember it being just another test we took and it has zero consequences. I was able to move onto the next grade level, my high school diploma was not tied to passing these tests, and my teachers’ did not have their evaluations tied to the outcomes.
Now fast forward to the late 90s when at least in WA they started pushing more standardized testing, from 3rd-12th grade. No longer was it just 4th graders and 8th graders. Shortly after these standardized tests became a graduation requirement in my state.
As we get into the 2000’s these assessments started to come with things tied to them. Money, funding, shutting down of schools, giving students and schools failing grades, as well as saying teachers are not teaching students anything if they are not passing these assessments.
As of now in 2015 we have many states where teachers who do teach a graded subject or who don’t are having their careers ended if their students (or not as if you do not teach a math or ELA subject your name is tied to some random group of students) do not pass these assessments.
If you take the time to actually look at these assessments, who creates them (Pearson), how developmentally inappropriate the Common Core State Standards are, as well as who will profit off of all of these students who do not pass, it is Pearson.
I have spent many years speaking out against standardized testing, even before CCSS, and VAM. These assessments do not give you a realistic picture of what my students know or do not know. It is one snap shot in time of how they did on that day, in that hour (or hours) on that specific assessment. An assessment I do not get to see prior, on an assessment they are not allowed to share what was on it, on an assessment that is set up to fail a certain percentage of students.
Once you add up all of the politics behind it you also have to see it for what it is worth- nothing. How my students do on this test is meaningless to me, that data is not helpful. Sadly, in my sate every third grader who does not pass the ELA assessment will need to have their parents meet with their teacher and principal. Who won’t pass it will be our non readers/struggling readers, ELL students, and students with disabilities. Thankfully, our students with a 504 or IEP will not have to have that meeting.
As an educator I know what is best for my students, I know where they are at academically based on their classwork, assessments I create or give them, and their projects. That is the data I use to base my students’ grades on.
Parents of my students and parents of every student need to know their rights. My hands are tied when it comes to alerting the parents of my students, but not parents of other kids out there. I work alongside SOS and UOO as a leader of BATs, as a team we work together to help end these assessments. In my state we also have other groups that are working with us to help end these assessments.
I am a proud teacher, a proud BAT, and a proud protester!
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The American Statistical Assocition has already stated that test scores and VAM are not a fair or reliable method of evaluating teachers! That is the only reason we would need annual testing. Why do politicians think they know more about mathematics than mathematicians?
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I just finished giving a standardized test to a group of 3rd graders. The test is supposed to mirror PARCC, our new high stakes standardized test. I guess I wouldn’t feel so strongly about testing if it were not for 2 things. 1 – we test way too much. Ask to look at any school system’s testing calendar. It is filled to the brim. 2 – If the testing were developmentally appropriate. The test I just finished giving asked them to read 2 non-fiction passages , answer questions about each one, then, the next day, they were asked to write a newspaper article fusing information from both articles on how ethnic groups have influenced American culture. So, you are asking an 8 year old to write a multi-paragraph piece on a subject that is over their heads and do the entire thing in 1 sitting. That’s read, draft, edit and polish the finished product all in one 60 minute session. Now, factor in that most of the children have never seen or read a newspaper and you have a recipe for disaster.
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John,
In describing the “strange bedfellows” coming together on this issue you stated:
“We know that 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 Standards, which they have labeled “Obamacore,” his plan to take control over public education.”
I would like to see a more comprehensive explanation of the “sides” in this discussion. To paint the “protest” side as simply being against excessive testing or against the common core because of a “states rights” issue is too simple.
Almost every educator with whom I come in contact objects to the testing. They certainly feel there are too many standardized tests, but their main concerns are more substantive. Some of their concerns are: 1) the tests do not reflect the range of children’s learning for which we strive; 2) the results of tests are misused to evaluate teachers, principals, and schools; 3) the concentration on math and language arts reduces or eliminates other areas of the curriculum; and 4) the results of these standardized tests are presented as hard core objective data when, in reality, they are quite subjective (who is to say what is an appropriate level for a ten year old?).
When describing the concerns of the “protest” side of the issue, it is too simple to say that it is only a mater of too many tests. The main objections are rooted in sophisticated knowledge of how children learn.
In the matter of the objection to the Common Core it is extremely limited to describe this as simply an objection to federal government overreach (“Obamacore”). At the March, 2014 Network for Public Education Conference in Austin there was a panel of five sophisticated teachers/educators representing different areas of the country who discussed the Common Core. One person, Randi Weingarten, defended the Common Core on the basis that it was important to establish common standards across the nation. The other four panelists were against these age-level proficiencies for a variety of reasons, none of which included the notion of a federal overreach.
My own objections to this push for specific math/language arts age-level requirements have evolved out of my teaching experiences at both the high school and elementary levels.
Myth:
The information to be learned should be specifically proscribed for each grade level as documented in a national core curriculum.
Research/Experience:
The curriculum should emphasize the development of the broad structural concepts of various content areas.
On April 22nd a few years ago, five of our upper elementary level (9-12 year olds) students came into the room where our team of teachers were eating lunch. They were excited about our discussion of Earth Day. These five were returning to our team for the coming school year and requested that we include a unit of study focused on the environment for the next year. Over the summer, our team of teachers developed a unit that combined science with social studies for one of the most vivid units of curriculum I have ever experienced. We ended the next school year taking our 120 upper elementary students for a weeklong “save the environment” game in the mountains of Southern California. The excitement of students and the products they produced created a moment not to be missed!
As the incident with the five girls demonstrates, schooling must be flexible enough to offer a curriculum that relates to the interests and needs of students. We could develop this unit of interest because we had the flexibility in our curriculum to adjust our program. A prescribed program would have precluded us from even considering this valuable diversion from our previously planned programs.
By the same token, it I have faced a required a national math curriculum when I began as a high school math teacher, it would have been difficult to implement a new, more sophisticated approach to my high school math program (a project out of the University of Illinois) that I taught in my classroom. When I was developing the math program at my elementary school, it was valuable to have guidelines such as those from the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) and other professional organizations. The continuums developed by the various textbook publishers helped me develop classroom diagnostic tools. The requirement that I teach specific concepts at specified times would have made it difficult to deal with a wide variety of backgrounds and math sophistication that the 120 nine through twelve-year-olds brought to our classrooms. In order to have the flexibility to deal with the variety of student skills and backgrounds, the classroom teacher must have the freedom to adapt the material to the needs and interests of students.
Myth:
All students must be required to attain (at least) a prescribed proficiency at each level of their schooling.
Research/Experience:
Children are different and these differences need to be part of planning and teaching.
This concept is the crux of what should occur in any classroom. Too often we teach to a group of students as if they are a uniform group of learners who, if they fail to learn the content, we believe lack desire and refuse to work hard, or it is because of an incompetent instructor. This ‘you are a widget and I will apply content you will learn’ factory approach to learning is ineffective, yet we return to it time and again because it seems the easiest to implement (efficiency).
Any reform of schooling must include the concept that children bring their individual differences to school, and for them and us to succeed we must design a system that recognizes these differences and provides instruction appropriate to these differences. Learners can only progress at their own rate and not at a rate that requires them to achieve a specific skill level at a given age.
Well, John, that is a long response to a couple of sentences. However, I hope it serves to indicate that we may be doing a disservice to oversimplify why we are “protesting” the imposition of high stakes standardized testing and national (or any level for that matter) requirements that students of a given age correctly answer certain questions to be considered proficient (or to pass).
Thank you for addressing this topic.
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Your story of the ‘save the environment’ field trip reminds me of a sequence in “Testing Our Schools,” a film we did for Frontline quite a few years ago. A wonderful math teacher in Richmond told me how he used to take his class to the James River and ask them to figure out, working together, how they could determine the distance to the opposite shore. He didn’t give them formulas, but he did answer questions. Eventually, they deduced the formula, and he believed that it was something they never forgot. Alas, he told me, he couldn’t do that any longer because the state tests ruled, and he had to ‘cover’ material so the kids might have a chance at passing the test. And that was about 10 years ago.
Over the years we have reported on the extent to which NCLB ‘narrowed’ the curriculum, but that didn’t slow down the machine that values what it can measure…and cannot be bothered with measuring what it values, if indeed those folks have thought that through.
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As teacher-librarian with 25 years of experience and a reputation for high standards in my b, I cannot abide these tests. I cannot find any reputable empirical data that supports what we are doing to our nation’s school children. When you say that there are people of substance behind the tests and you name business groups and Arne Duncan, you are insulting the nation’s teachers who are the educated professionals. We are the ones who have been working with the children for years. Those of us who have managed to maintain our careers beyond the five years of the average new teacher these days can speak about the issues in relevant ways that a business group cannot. Arne Duncan never taught school. He should never have been placed in his position as a leader of educators. Why not listen to Diane Ravitch instead? She was once in favor of testing and has done a complete 180 degree turn on the subject and she is an educator of great experience and knowledge. If you think that parents are not interested in opting out, you are not listening well. Many parents I hear despise the tests but do not know what to do about it. Students are stressed beyond belief. Teachers are dropping out of the profession regularly. The link between learning and poverty is being ignored by our leaders. Look at some solid research and stop listening to the politicians. Get ye to a library.
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I am most definitely in the protest (no dash) camp. The high stakes testing and teacher-bashing mania in this country are totally out of control and all of it needs to be stopped. Parents are not given any relevant/honest information regarding their children’s education. It’s time, past time, to give the schools back to the teachers, students, and parents. Let our practitioners do their job. The worst things to ever happen to public education are NCLB a and RTTT. Tragic!
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How is it, that a teacher in a wealthy school district can have ratings of “effective” for years and then switch jobs to a poorer school district and get an “ineffective” rating? What does the rating mean when it is largely based on the standardized test scores of the students? Why is funding for the arts, music and world languages being cut and yet, class sizes are increasing, test prep classes are increasing? Why are politicians and the DOE telling the public that public education is failing? Who benefits from the message of “failing public schools”? Newspapers? Media? Pearson Corporation? Politicians? Education reformers selling educational packages? Teach for America? Charter School corporations? Computer companies? Software companies?
Who loses? Students and America’s public education system.
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I have three kids who have missed the common core/high stakes testing movement. My fourth and last child is coming into this government controlled education and mass testing as he is finishing middle school. I have opted him out of testing this year. I believe that PARCC testing is way over the top and ruining his education. My husband and I have put education as high priority. We are both college educated, and I chose to stay home with my children. We sacrificed a lot to do so, but it allowed me to be involved in their upbringing more than if I had a career. We have taught our kids to strive for the best they can do. They have received a well rounded education and two are continuing on to college with success. Our third is looking at colleges and has many options to choose from. Our fourth is thinking of going to culinary school. We have tried to raise our kids to be responsible productive citizens and be happy with what they choose to do with their life. It is because of the pre-high stakes testing type of education they received that allowed my kids to have success and prosper, and to have failures and learn from it. With this high stakes testing, kids are being forced to have every aspect of their learning being taught as it relates to testing. It is like we are manufacturing their education for every student and not taking in their differences. It is almost like we are creating a mold for everyone to think the same. No creativity allowed, no free thinking allowed.
Was I concerned with how I would look by opting out? Yes, but the more I research, and the more I want to stand up for myself and my kids. I consider it a lesson to all four of them: a lesson in passion, civil disobedience, and standing up for what you believe in!
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I am a retired special education teacher, now working as a parent advocate. The high stakes testing that is driving the curricula is doing irreparable damage to students with disabilities and their teachers. The expectation that every child, no matter what their physical, emotional, cognitive, neurological and sensory challenges must achieve at the same pace and test in the same way is ludicrous. The idea that their teachers will be rated on the testing results of students who are functioning years behind their peers will insure that soon we will have no veteran teachers for these students, and that no one will want to risk teaching students who are diverse learners. Race to the Top is trumping the IDEA rights of children to have a free, appropriate public education- it must be abandoned before we lose a generation of children and destroy public education and the teaching profession- that is what is at stake here.
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Like many of you, I wear more than one hat. This blog does not speak for the NewsHour or PBS, and I sometimes venture an opinion, as readers know. As to my own views, below is my ‘rewrite’ of Robert Frost, which I call:
MENDING SCHOOL
Something there is that doesn’t love more bubble tests
And students bubbling and learning how to bubble
When they might be making robots or reading Frost.
They take test upon test in arid classrooms,
Mixing memory and guesswork, stirring
Dull anger and gnawing fear of failure.
The work of test-makers is another thing:
Teachers come after them and make repair
Where they have ground down creativity.
I let my neighbor know beyond the hill,
And on a day we meet to walk and talk
Of learning, testing and hopes for children
But we keep a wall between us as we go.
To him, this is just another kind of mental game,
One on a side. It comes to little more:
Now is when we do not need more tests, I tell him.
He only says, ‘More testing makes good education.’
Spring is the mischief in me, and I wonder
If I could put a notion in his head:
‘Why do they make good education? Isn’t it
Where they are timely and used to help?
But here the tests punish takers and givers alike.
Before I gave more bubble tests, I’d ask to know
What I was I testing for, and why,
And to whom I was like to do harm.
Something there is that doesn’t love bubble tests,
That wants them stopped.’ I could say ‘Elves’ to him,
But it’s not elves exactly, and I’d rather
He said it for himself. I see him there
Bringing a stone grasped firmly by the top
In each hand, like an old-stone savage armed.
He moves in darkness as it seems to me,
Not of woods only and the shade of trees.
He will not go behind his father’s saying,
And he likes having thought of it so well
He says again, ‘More testing makes good education.’
If you would like the full-size (4’x3′, I think) poster, send a donation to Learning Matters, 127 W 26th Street #1200 NY NY 10001
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Poster is 24″ x 36″ not 36″ x 48″ My bad
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Mr. Merrow, I began my teaching career in the late 1970’s and have seen the rights and autonomy of teachers stripped away, replaced by highly scripted lessons, curricula, and standardized test that have been sold as the quick fix. Regardless of how we try to “teach like champions” teachers can’t solve systemic problems like child poverty by testing our children to death. I don’t think you can find a teacher anywhere who would prefer things to be as they are in education today. Parents are gradually waking up to the insanity of test prep as a stand-in for education. We are hearing from teachers across the country who are refusing to give the tests. Parents in my state of Maine are organizing to opt their children out of the Smarter Balanced Common Core-aligned tests that will be administered this spring. Like Clyde Gaw said, one need only look at the suffering of our young people to realize that we, as a society, can’t test our way to a solution.
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Multi-talented!
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These tests are HUGELY expensive for states, due in part to the devices and broadband necessary to administer them. The tests are another federal mandate with no real funding attached. The necessary millions are just another cause of MORE state tax dollars for education not really reaching the classroom. The feds mandate; the state’s taxpayers have to pony up the cash.
Superintendents these days are banding together in groups large and small and telling their state legislatures that these expensive tests are neither appropriate or necessary. The most recent example I saw today was 18 superintendents telling the Ohio legislature the facts.
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Send me information about that please. jmerrow@learningmatters.tv
Thx
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You must investigate Pearson and its connections. http://www.theguardian.com/education/2012/jul/16/pearson-multinational-influence-education-poliy
and march 2011………
Pearson has frozen the stake held by the Libyan Investment Authority, one of the five biggest shareholders in the Financial Times owner, after taking legal advice that it is subject to a government order.
On Monday Pearson began a legal investigation to determine who the beneficial owner of the stake is in order to ascertain if the investment needed to be frozen in line with a UK government order to block the assets of Muammar Gaddafi and five members of his family.
“Having taken legal advice regarding its obligations under the order, Pearson considers that the ordinary shares in the company which are held by or on behalf of the LIA are subject to the order and are therefore effectively frozen,” the company said in a statement. “As a result, Pearson has today informed the LIA and its nominees that Pearson will not register any transfer or pay any dividend in respect of the shares until further notice.”
Pearson also clarified that LIA, Libya’s sovereign wealth fund, actually controlled a larger stake in the company than the 3.01% it initially acquired in June last year.
The company said that on “further investigation” it had “cause to believe” that LIA may have acquired a further stake taking its holding to 3.27%. This means LIA’s stake is worth about £280m based on Pearson’s current share price and market capitalisation.
On Monday Pearson said it was raising its dividend for 2010 by 9% to 38.7p, Pearson’s 19th consecutive dividend increase and the largest in the past decade.
On Monday Majorie Scardino, the chief executive of Pearson, said she was “uncomfortable” with the LIA holding a stake and that the situation in Libya was “abhorrent”.
The company said on Tuesday it hoped that the £280m investment may be able to be used in a more beneficial way in the future.
“The LIA is a Libyan state asset, and it is to be hoped that in due course these assets can be redeployed to the benefit of Libya and its people,” said a spokesman for Pearson.
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Hi there: I challenge you to really visit schools across the country and see what the effect of these mandated tests really are. I am a special needs teacher. I work with kids who read and do math a year or more below grade level. I have high expectations and work to bridge the gap. But my students are forced to take the end of the year tests on their current grade level that covers material they have not yet been taught. Watch them. I have year after year and I see their souls crushed. These students and their families do not need more failure messages. They need instruction and assessments that inform, build on strengths and shed some information on challenges that is helpful and useful. These kids stare at the material they are not ready for. They watch their peers click away as they take the test. One more piece of evidence that they are somehow defective. This is cruel and serves no purpose. We should be ashamed of ourselves.
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I have never heard a parent saying, “wow, standardized fill-in-the-bubble tests are great for my child’s education! He’s getting such a well-rounded education from preparing for that test all day every day! It makes him really enjoy all the time he spends at school!” Have you? The only people in favor of them are the ones who stand to make money from them directly or indirectly through using the data they generate to close schools and reopen charters. The things that matter in education can’t be tested: joy, wisdom, compassion.
Here’s a great argument for getting rid of all tests: https://gadflyonthewallblog.wordpress.com/2015/01/30/why-we-should-have-zero-standardized-tests-in-public-schools%E2%80%A8%E2%80%A8/
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Your attempt to diminish how many we are and your attempt to put us on the fringe have no basis in the reality of children, parents, teachers, classrooms, schools, etc. You have lost what little belief I had in your integrity. #defendchildren
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Ken, why do you interpret asking questions as diminishing the effort?
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I have been reminded by Anthony Cody, whom I first met when he was still teaching in Oakland many many years ago, of an omission in my report above. He wrote, in part:
“What about the Network for Public Education?
We were founded just two years ago, and have about 5000 members nationwide.
We just turned in more than 2000 letters to the Senate, calling for fewer mandated tests.
Our president, Diane Ravitch, has one of the most widely read blogs on the internet — she just passed the 17 million mark for page views.
We have endorsed dozens of candidates willing to support, many of whom were successful.
Our first annual conference in Austin last year drew more than 400 teacher, student and parent activists together, and we are planning an even bigger gathering in Chicago at the end of April. (details here: http://www.networkforpubliceducation.org/)”
I am happy to correct my error here, with my apology
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You’re right, the dash makes all the difference, but my question is, what has this testing movement done to help students? Since this has begun, the curricula for many children has been stripped, their self esteems eroded and many of their teachers driven out. Let me be clear, I’m open to conversation about how to improve and measure learning in our schools, but we are terribly off course. We need a dialogue with those who are truly experts, teachers, researchers, not politicians coming in to play “hero” role.
The problem we face today is that in education, there is no dialogue with teachers. People, with little experience or none at all declare war on failing schools blaming their teachers, neglecting to look at the realities of the impact of poverty on our students. We do nothing to address the issues at the core of the problem. When we, as educators bring it up, they tell us to stop whining and work harder or leave. Let me tell you, many of us are leaving the districts that need highly qualified teachers the most, we’re leaving in droves. It’s not because we don’t want to be there, we do, but the pressures of testing being coupled with our evaluation, make the risk of staying in any high needs district very high for the educator. It’s simply not sustainable work. The whole high stakes standardized testing system sets our children up for failure and widens the achievement gap. Everything we learn in education is about mulitiple assessment types, different ways of demonstrating knowledge. This practice of using high stakes testing is against every thing we know as educators about the best ways to assess learning.
As a 9 yr veteran teacher, I have seen children reduced to tears mulitple times over the stress they feel because of these tests. I have seen districts devote untold amounts of money to private testing improvement services, curriclula stripped to rote memorization and countless hours devoted to practice test taking, so children could practice getting ready for the “real tests”. In my own career, I’ve found myself doing the unthinkable, directly preparing my students for such testing because my evaluation depended on it. I watched as the enthusiasm drained from my student’s eyes when they saw the practice test questions.
Not only do these tests hurt the very children the claim to serve by eroding their self esteem and stripping their curricula, they send away the teachers these children need the most. In all my years of teaching, I’ve never had a student thank me for preparing them well to take a test. My students thank me for teaching them how to think critically, creating engaging lessons, helping think about how to use their knowledge to approach real life problems and become confident in their ablities to succeed and learn independently. Our current testing system could never measure those gains, and in my humble opinion, the gains that really matter.
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Yes, it is a powerful movement. Know that the numbers would be even higher if opting out of the high school exams was a possibility. This issue has done the improbable: united parents, teachers, students, administrators, and school board members … as well as Democrats and Republicans.
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Others have done an eloquent job of explaining the agenda behind what is happening in education in comments before mine. I have to wonder whether anything we are sharing will be taken to heart and will make a difference when the media is so totally working on the side of the ed reformers. The “protesters” are not some fringe group engaging in small acts of resistance. Our numbers are extremely large and growing as the ed reformers double down on policies that are harming children. We are teachers, parents, grandparents, and concerned citizens who understand that a free, equitable public education for all children is a right, and cannot be sold off to the highest bidder because it can generate profits and campaign donations. our children are not for sale and are not just data points or numbers for discussion around a corporate table. Children matter, not because they take tests and provide data – they matter because they are children, because they our only hope for a better future.
We “protesters” outnumber the reformers, but we also know that they can outspend us. They own the media. Reports about education are biased against teachers, against public education, and are based on half-truths and blatant lies. Journalists KNOW how to dig for the truth, so when the truth is distorted, it can be nothing less than a deliberate act. Our children deserve to have their stories shared. Those in the media owe it to children to put a human face on what reform policies are doing to our children, to speak to educators, and to hear our stories. When will this side of the story be told and who will tell it? Will you be that person who steps up and lets the truth be heard?
Here are a few examples for you to consider. I have seen nine and ten year old children vomit, urinate in class, break down and sob and shake uncontrollably, and have nosebleeds during these tests. I have heard children call themselves stupid, give up and hang their heads in shame because they can’t make sense of questions which in some cases, don’t make sense. None of these were students who had any previous history of these behaviors outside of the testing situation. I have seen teachers break down and cry at the end of testing because they are heartbroken watching their students, the children they love, devastated because it is impossible to finish tests that include inappropriate embedded field test questions that are included so Pearson can see where they should place them on future tests. THIS is what happens to children when they are forced to sit for hours taking developmentally inappropriate, poorly written, high-stakes tests. Pro-test? I defy ANYONE who is pro-testing to come witness what these children go through and say this child abuse is justified. This is why we protest!
A couple of years ago a young boy in my school became so stressed during a state test that he experienced a nosebleed during the test, which splattered his test booklet. He had no prior history of nosebleeds in school, and was an excellent student. The directive from the state was to have the boy return to class when he could, give him the amount of time he had already used to copy his test into a new booklet, and then proceed with the remaining time he would have had to complete the test. Pictures had to be taken of the blood splattered test and sent to the state education department to justify the “missing” test booklet. The blood stained booklet was to be “medically disposed of.” This is the “procedure” when children compromise a test booklet due to illness.
Are you aware that in the interest of protecting Pearson’s ability to reuse test questions in other states, these books are kept so secure that they must be counted and sent back to the state for destruction? Are you aware that teachers are told, under threat of disciplinary action which includes dismissal, that we cannot discuss the contents of the tests with each other, with our students, or with anyone else? Think about that. WE CANNOT DISCUSS THE TESTS WITH OUR STUDENTS. How is there ANY value in a test that cannot be discussed with the very population it was supposedly written to assess? How are these tests of any value when we can’t see them after they are administered? In fact, we are cautioned not to look at them while the children are testing. If this does not make the agenda clear, what will? This is supposed to improve education? This is supposed to help students or make teachers more effective? Obviously not.
Millions of children are being harmed. We speak out for them every day when we protest. We will continue to protest because we are NOT “Pro-test”. We are pro children. We are pro public education. We are pro teacher. This huge corporate funded “gotcha game” needs to be reported for what it is. Someone has to start telling the truth about this story. So I will repeat my question.
When will this side of the story be told and who will tell it? Will you be that person who steps up and lets the truth be heard?
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As a former kindergarten and first grade teacher, I can tell you that standardized testing is destroying education. The only answer is for parents to opt out of these tests.
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I agree, Meghan Vaziri. I am a current K-6 art teacher. My students are suffering. Our profession is being destroyed. Parents must take action and opt out their children.
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John,
I want to write about a time when teaching with “no child left behind” meant teaching every child at his or her own level. It was the exact opposite of teaching to the Common Core, or teaching to pass high stakes state tests. Here’s what dawned on me today: the toughest assignment of my career was at a time when I was meeting diverse children’s needs in a manner totally antithetical to the way teachers are required to teach today. It was also one of my most successful assignments. I have no tests to prove my success, just my own memory, and the words of the following years’ teachers.
During most of the 70s, I taught in inner-city London, in a mixed first and second grade class, in a “progressive” school. I team taught in an open classroom building, and integrated most subjects with each other, teaching to children’s interests and strengths, while addressing their “skills” in small groups. Most years, we had about 25 first and second grade students assigned to each teacher, with about 100 children in the first and second grade team altogether. We taught in two sets of “twins,” each twin containing about 50 first and second grade children and taught by two teachers. Every afternoon, we four teachers would meet, to plan and share. Every morning, each twin would begin by gathering for attendance and explanation of the day’s activities, after which time the children would chose where they’d work that day, and the teachers and students would split up. Mostly, one of the teachers in each twin would offer a more mature version of the theme, the other a younger one. The groups didn’t exactly split by age – more by interest and maturity.
That year, when we four teachers got together after the first day of school, we expressed combined educational shock. That year, the presence of a great many children “not ready” for first grade seemed daunting. Many appeared unusually immature, slow, unable to follow a story, or were extremely limited in experience or language. This was an impoverished area of London, and we were well – accustomed to a wide ability and maturity range, but this situation was quite extreme. In England at that time, there was no special education. We’d always been told to “teach what you get.” With the head mistress’ support, we decided to try something “new.” We chose one of us (four) teachers to teach the group that didn’t seem ready – about 17 children in all. The other three teachers would share the remaining 83 children between them. The principal arranged for a few doors to be installed, so the single classroom could be isolated, for privacy and concentration.
I became the teacher of that group. I ran it like a kindergarten at first, with a house corner, blocks, paints, games, stories, poems, and music. I taught reading with experience charts based on the kids’ own words. We used flash cards, and sounding out. I taught number concepts with toys, shapes, and grids. The themes we studied were varied, but mostly designed for younger children. Some of the children in the group – the ones who just hadn’t been “ready” the year before – whizzed ahead with their learning. Others took more time, but each proceeded forward at his or her own pace. I ran multiple topics, multiple study groups, aimed at multiple levels and interests. As was usual for my school: there was no set “curriculum,” but teaching with creativity, exploration, and responsibility was the norm, for both children and teachers.
We worried about how these babies would fare the following year, rejoining their peers – some moving into second grade (their age determining that they’d remain in the team), some into third grade. I took them as far as was comfortable for them to move along confidently. I never pushed them to learn material they weren’t ready for, more concerned with giving them a solid grounding in literacy, numeracy, and thinking. I tried to discover what they were understanding, and did my best to move them to the next step. I was lucky: I’d been trained (in London) to understand the sequence of skills that needed to be learned, and how to match students with teaching.
It is with great pride that I tell you that these children were reported by the following years’ teachers to be the best REMEDIAL group they’d ever taught. Best attitudes, best confidence, best grounding in math and reading, best ability to explore and learn from their own investigations.
You can’t change who’s in your class. You can only do the best you can within their abilities and experiences, and your own willingness to be responsive and creative. In England, I was trained to match students’ needs with my own teaching, and was trusted to connect the two. TRUSTING THAT TEACHERS COULD ASSESS and TREAT their own students was a necessary assumption. How else could children learn without punishing them for not meeting a pre-determined standard? Similarly, how else could the gifted learn without dooming them to “only” achieve at a scripted level?
To imagine not trusting teachers, and to pre-determine what you expect ALL children to learn in each grade, is either foolish or ill considered or mean spirited. It’s certainly not in the best interests of the child, and represents a terrible waste of a hugely valuable resource – the American Teacher.
As a country, if we want to do what’s best for our children – all children – we should continue to recruit bright and creative teachers, and train them to understand how children learn, and what to do about it. We should arm them with books and poetry and art and music, and teach them to help children develop exponentially, not limit them to the understanding of one small group of Standard Writers (who may never have taught). We should spend our money NOT on programs or equipment, but on people.
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By the time the state test comes I know all there is to know about my students academically. I administer a state test in April that I can be fired for looking at it and I will never see my students corrected tests nor how they answer. I only see scores. Who benefits from this test? Not me or the students. The test is for grading districts, administrators and teachers. Oh, yes, earning someone a lot of money. I despise the test because it has narrow what I teach down to just a fraction of any one concept. Teach this word but not that one because it isn’t tested. Our future leaders will only know what was tested.
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ELizabeth don’t hold your breath. I have yet to see a mainstream media fair report on what is happening to education with interviews with teachers and kids. Also, doesn’t the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation underwrite his network? No sympathy in this quarter.
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The testing of our public school students are wrong on so many levels, I have no idea where to even begin.
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Most teachers are not against the Common Core Standards….aside from the early childhood standards, which had no input from early childhood researchers or educators, and are grossly developmentally inappropriate. What we teachers challenge is the obsession with testing. Testing mandated by the government and politicians. Pockets of those politicians being stuffed by Pearson, the billion dollar company making the PARCC tests. Tests our kids used to pass, but in the past 4 years are suddenly failing at disproportional rates…So we need more tests and more test prep and more standardized curriculum. We know that differentiating is what is right and best for our kids, but are the tests we will be judged on be differentiated? No. So our districts hammer down on us and strangle our kids with standardized curriculum. Developmentally inappropriate and rote in nature, we are being forced to teach in ways that go against everything we are and everything we know is right when it comes to reaching and teaching our kids. As a teacher, I cannot speak my mind, and when parents ask, I must give a canned response myself, or face disciplinary action. “I cannot tell you if I think you should opt your child out. BUT, ask me what I am doing with my own children, and that I can tell you.” They always ask. My own children will be opted out. Every time.
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As a public school social studies teacher at a low income, D graded school and parent of a child who attends a 100% free and reduced lunch (Title I)public school that is graded a D I can honestly say:
– the LOSS of instruction time to testing
– the DIVERSION of money, SOOO much money, to testing
– and the erosion of self-esteem and belief in their own value and abilities that I have seen in my
students over the past 14 years as we shift from teaching to testing is truly criminal.
The OUTSOURCING OF OUR PUBLIC ED SYSTEMS is leading us down a path that will erode our democracy and strengthen the stratification that is already present.
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WHAT’S MORE IMPORTANT? TEST DATA OR LIFE DATA ? http://lucidwitness.com/
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