By Anthony Cody for Living Dialogue – This week we have seen a renewed attempt to rehabilitate the beleaguered Common Core standards, just as the scores arrive in many states, largely meeting projections that they would yield increased failure rates and a wider “achievement gap.” These results are the most basic problem that the Common Core has. These standards were designed to deliver massive failure, and the tests are delivering as promised. But rather than question these results, some advocates are trying to shift the focus onto a brighter view. The headline from Think Progress is beyond belief. “People Like Common Core Better Once They Know What It Is.” But when you read the article, you discover that support for Common Core is actually continuing to drop.
Few things please parents more than learning that their children are invigorated about and engaged in their education, perhaps deconstructing the representation of womenthrough a media literacy unit or trying Columbus for possible crimes against humanity – activities that represent education at its best. Unfortunately, however, too many students are coming home from school deflated, defeated, and disillusioned. Why? The high-stakes testing season is in full swing. What are high-stakes tests? Tests are considered high-stakes when they are tied to major consequences, such as graduation. But this year’s season is anything but business as usual. Instead, we are experiencing the largest revolt against high-stakes testing ever, as historic numbers of families from New York to Seattle opt their children out, refusing to subject them to what is too often education at its worst.
It was evident that the state would be far below the 95 percent federal participation rate as soon as the 3-8 English Language Arts tests began. When math testing started, the numbers climbed higher still. In the Brentwood School District, a 49 percent opt-out rate for ELA rose to 57 percent during math tests. These rates defy the stereotype that the movement is a rebellion of petulant “white suburban moms.” Ninety-one percent of Brentwood students are black or Latino, and 81 percent are economically disadvantaged. Brentwood is not unique–Amityville (90 percent black or Latino, 77 percent economically disadvantaged) had an opt-out rate of 36.4 percent; Greenport (49 percent black or Latino, 56 percent economically disadvantaged) had an opt-out rate that exceeded 61 percent; and South Country opt outs (50 percent black or Latino and 51 percent economically disadvantaged) exceeded 64 percent. New York’s rejection of the Common Core tests crosses geographical, socio-economic and racial lines.
So the first act of testing is a threat of legal consequences and possible fines. There are no such warnings on my own teacher-created tests. Sure I don’t want students to cheat, but I don’t threaten to take them to court if they do. The school has a plagiarism policy in place – as just almost every public school does – which was created and approved by the local school board and administration. The first infraction merits a warning. The second one results in a zero on the assignment, and so on. Moreover, this is something we go over once at the beginning of the year. We do not reiterate it with every test. It would be counterproductive to remind students of the dire consequences of misbehavior right before you’re asking them to perform at their peak ability.
As students wrapped up this week’s state English exams, advocates said more city parents than ever refused to let their children take the tests at schools with active “opt-out” movements, while other parents brought the boycott to schools that are new to the cause. In District 15, Brooklyn’s opt-out hotspot, P.S. 321 saw its refusal rate rocket from about 4 percent last year to 36 percent this year, and P.S. 58 went from one boycotter to 50, parents and teachers said. Meanwhile, in southeast Brooklyn, an area not usually associated with anti-testing fervor, 10 students for the first time handed in opt-out letters at P.S. 203. “It’s small,” said parent Charmaine Dixon, “but it’s big for us, because it’s never happened before.” Advocates were still gathering city opt-out numbers Thursday, and while some predicted an increase from last year’s total of about 1,900 families that formally refused the exams, they will still represent a tiny fraction of the roughly 420,000 city test-takers.
We are teachers at Barbieri Elementary School who want to make clear what is happening in your children’s classrooms as a result of decisions made in offices far away. This year, 3rd-8th graders in Framingham Public Schools will be taking the test known as PARCC, which will be replacing the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System (MCAS). PARCC was created by the Partnership for the Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers, one of two multi-state consortia given $360 million in federal funds to design new standardized tests to hold students, schools and teachers “accountable.”
When discussing how to improve public education, Governor Andrew Cuomo likes to complain about how difficult it is to fire “bad teachers” and the need to reduce job security for classroom educators. He is not alone in this. The Partnership for Educational Justice, a well-funded nonprofit fronted by former CNN host Campbell Brown, is pursuing a lawsuit in a Staten Island court that seeks to scrap teacher tenure protections. Both New York City tabloids, meanwhile, never miss a chance to promote a lurid teacher sex scandal and then denounce the teachers union for protecting the right of the accused to a fair hearing. But what if the real teaching crisis in New York is not the inability to get rid of bad teachers, but the failure to keep experienced and highly capable teachers and allow them to do their jobs?
Hundreds of students in Albuquerque walked out of school for the second day in a row to protest a controversial new test. About 200 students protesting the PARCC exam walked westbound on Arenal from Rio Grande High School towards Coors Boulevard. The group planned to walk northbound on Coors to meet up with students from West Mesa High School. Rio Grande students said that students from Atrisco Heritage Academy and South Valley Academy were also marching in the group. Albuquerque Public Schools board member Steven Michael Quezada spoke to student protesters after they arrived at West Mesa. Quezada told students he shares their frustration over the PARCC exam, but leaving school was neither safe nor smart. “I basically told them that they had the right to protest. But I can’t condone you leaving campus or storming a school,” Quezada said. Quezada also told students if someone was injured on a trek to another school “that’s the news story and it’s not about your fight.”
A Florida school board rescinded its vote Tuesday to opt out of standardized testing standardized, changing its mind about its unprecedented decision that captured the growing discontent among parents and teachers nationwide over the number of tests children are given. In a first for Florida and possibly the nation, Lee County voted last week not to administer tests tied to the Common Core academic standards or any end-of-course exams. The vote came after parents organized petitions, Facebook groups and meetings in favor of scaling back or getting rid of standardized testing. “People said, ‘Enough is enough,’” said Bob Schaeffer, education director for the National Center for Fair and Open Testing, which endorsed the opt-out vote. “The volume of standardized testing has exploded out of control.” But the decision was met with immediate backlash: Superintendent Nancy Graham warned the opt-out could hurt students and asked the board to change its vote.
“…the Gates Foundation agrees with those who’ve decided that assessment results should not be taken into account in high-stakes decisions on teacher evaluation or student promotion for the next two years, during this transition.” — Vicki Phillips, director of the U.S. education program at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation How do you know the United States is currently experiencing the largest revolt against high-stakes standardized testing in history? Because even the alchemists responsible for concocting the horrific education policies designed to turn teaching and learning into a test score have been shaken hard enough to awaken from the nightmare scenario of fast-tracking high-stakes Common Core testing across the nation. The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation issued a stunning announcement on Tuesday, saying that it supports a two-year moratorium on attaching high-stakes to teacher evaluations or student promotion on tests associated with the new Common Core State Standards. Labor journalist Lee Sustar put it perfectly when he said of the Gates Foundation’s statement, “Dr. Frankenstein thought things got out of hand, too.”
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