The PARCC test is currently being field-tested in school systems throughout America; in Massachusetts alone, 360 districts are participating.
Social media is abuzz with conversations about “Opting-Out”; organizations that are designed to inform and encourage parents to opt their children out are cropping up everywhere. Slowly, some legislators have finally come to see the light and are supporting parents who choose to take this stand. There are even some school districts notifying parents of the Opt-Out option, and instructing them on how to go about doing so.
Let’s pretend you’re a parent who only understands the goings-on in education via mainstream media (ie, you think these reform efforts and Duncan/Obama policy are actually good for your children). And let’s pretend you live in Worcester, Massachusetts, and your child came home from school last week with the following letter:
March 19, 2014
Dear Parent/Guardian:
As you may have heard, Massachusetts is a participating state in the Partnership for Assessment for Readiness for College and Careers, or PARCC, a multi-state project to develop a next-generation, computer-based testing program. The goal of PARCC is to measure student progress toward the state’s new academic learning standards in English language arts and mathematics.
Over the next two years, Massachusetts is piloting the PARCC test in schools throughout the state to see how well it measures the state’s learning standards and to help determine whether it should replace MCAS, the state’s current testing program. I am writing to inform you that your child’s class has been selected for participation in an English language arts or mathematics field test between March 24 and April 11.
The purpose of the field test is to allow schools and students to experience the new test before it counts and to allow PARCC developers to ensure that the test questions are fair, on grade level, and measure the intended skills. I would like to assure you that your child will not receive a score or grade based on the PARCC test. Should you choose for your child not to participate in the field test, please notify your child’s principal prior to the testing date. Your child’s school will be notifying you of the testing dates soon. There will be no academic or disciplinary penalty for not participating, and appropriate accommodations will be provided during testing time.
If you wish to learn more about PARCC, please visit the web site of the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education at http://www.doe.mass.edu/parcc/. If you have additional questions, you may contact Worcester Public Schools’ Office of Research and Accountability at WPSORA@worc.k12.ma.us or, as always, ask your child’s principal.
Sincerely,
Melinda J. Boone, Ed.D.
Superintendent
What would your reaction to this letter be? Would you think it best to Opt your child Out? Or would you think it was important to help make sure the “test questions are fair, on grade level, and measure the intended skills” before it will actually “count” for him or her? Or maybe you would need a little more information first, and would click on the link to the MA DOE to find out more…
The only parent who likely would Opt-Out his/her child is the parent who takes the initiative to dig deeper – who turns away from mainstream media and instead looks to social media for information. And how many are likely to do that?
I hate to be a pessimist, because the reality is, I do believe the tide is turning. I further believe that Opting-Out of high-stakes tests can, and likely will, be what stops this corporate reform movement in its tracks.
Except I don’t think we can wait for the parents.
I think it’s time for the teachers to step up to the plate.
And this massive field-test of the PARCC could only set them up to hit a grand slam.
All they have to do is refuse to pilot the test.
It’s simple, when you think about it.
Imagine if every teacher – in every one of the schools – within every one of the 360 districts in Massachusetts, alone – simply refused to take part in this PARCC pilot. Would it really not make an impact?
This so-called “field-test” is not really a field test. The feedback from teachers will matter naught. This is nothing more than the final gateway into what will soon become “official policy”.
The teachers need to close the gates.
The teachers need to Just Say No.
The teachers need to Opt-Out of piloting the PARCC on behalf of their own students.
Five Hours of Gates-led Kindergarten Common Core MAP Tests! #TESTHearingsNow
Dear Bill and Melinda,
You are making history, Bill and Melinda. You have now reached a new level of notoriety. You two can now be known in history books as the American billionaire couple — withyour seat on Air Force One and 80 senators in your pockets — who are forcing 5 year olds to sit behind a computer screen taking a Common Core MAP test for 5 hours. As the richest couple in the world, you have the hubris to think you have that right?
You can now be infamous for pushing a testing system of adaptive Common Core MAP tests down to the early childhood level. You are accountable because you have used your power and wealth to force feed the Common Core to the Department of Education, the State School Officers, and the state Governors with what amounts to as a whopping $2.3 BILLION as discovered recently by Jack Hassard, noted here by Diane Ravitch.
“We have long known on this site that Bill Gates’ foundation underwrote every aspect of the Common Core standards. Mercedes Schneider has documented nearly $200 million in grants specifically for the writing, evaluation, review, implementation, and advocacy for the Common Core standards.
Jack Hassard, a retired professor of science education, has scoured the Gates search engine and concluded that the investment of the Gates Foundation in the Common Core is actually $2.3 billion.”
You are pushing the inhumane and unnecessary NWEA Common Core MAP tests with major financial backing. Sara Littman wrote about your $5 million grant to the NWEA MAP tests in Connecticut here. Seattle Education Blog wrote about the Gates Foundation grants for MAP tests also.
Because of you — despite being in tears, these innocent 5 and 6 year old children — children who used to be finger painting, learning nursery rhymes, engaging in dramatic play with miniature kitchens, role playing with costumes and puppets, and building forts with large wooden blocks — endured FIVE hours of standardized testing. FIVE hours of standardized testing of 5 and 6 year olds? Do you really think American parents and teachers are going to allow this testing abuse?
As a kindergarten teacher and special education teacher with 20 years experience in early childhood education, I am outraged!
Every early childhood expert I know will be as well, but I want more than that! I want parents to be outraged! I want teachers and administrators to be outraged! I want them all to call Congress and demand #TESTHearingsNow!
And then I want Congress to be outraged enough to put a gate up between corporations and public education to preserve public education for our children, our parents, our teachers, our communities, and our very democracy.
So is this test really that bad? Here is a demo of the MAP test for primary grades. Just imagine being 5 or 6 years old, sitting behind a screen taking this test for 5 hours, then read the details below as written by the Badass Teacher who is sending out the alarm call to stop this madness!
The day my kindergarten took a test called the Common Core MAP
“We had been told to set up each child with their own account on their numbered Chromebook. The Teacher on Special Assignment came around and spent about an hour in each class doing this in the previous weeks.
We didn’t know exactly when the test would be given, just that some time on Thursday or Friday, the proctors would come and test. I set out morning work for my kids today but before the bell rang, the proctor arrived. I quickly swept off the tables and she said we’d begin right away. I went out to pick up my class.
While the proctor set up the computers (disregarding what we had done — that hour the TOSA spent in each class was unnecessary), I went through the usual morning routine.
Parents who happened to be in the room scrambled to unpack the headphones, which had arrived in the office that morning, and distribute the computers. We started a half hour later. The kids were excited to be using the computers. That didn’t last for long.
The test is adaptive. When a child answers a question, the next batch of questions is slightly harder or easier depending on the correctness of their answer. The math and language arts sections each had 57 questions.
The kids didn’t understand that to hear the directions, you needed to click the speaker icon. We slipped around the room explaining.
Answers were selected by drop and drag with a trackpad, no mouse was available. A proctor in one room said that if a child indicated their answer, an adult could help. Other proctors didn’t allow this. I had trouble dragging and dropping myself on the little trackpads.
Kids in one class took five hours to finish. Kids were crying in 4 of 5 classes.
There were multiple computer crashes (“okay, you just sit right there while we fix it! Don’t talk to anyone!”). There were kids sitting for half hour with volume off on headsets but not saying anything. Kids accidentally swapped tangled headsets and didn’t seem to notice that what they heard had nothing to do with what they saw on the screen.
Kids had to solve 8+6 when the answer choices were 0-9 and had to DRAG AND DROP first a 1 then a 4 to form a 14. There were questions where it was only necessary to click an answer but the objects were movable (for no reason). There were kids tapping on their neighbor’s computers in frustration. To go to the next question, one clicks “next” in lower right-hand corner…..which is also where the pop-up menu comes up to take you to other programs or shut down, so there were many instances of shut-downs and kids winding up in a completely different program.
Is this what we want for our youngest children?” ~ Anonymous Badass Teacher
“Answering NPE’s call, Arizona Representative Raúl Grijalva (D-AZ-3), a member of the House Committee on Education and the Workforce, responded with a sentiment that has been echoed by parents and educators throughout the United States. The six-term Representative said, “The need for an impartial and transparent hearing on mandatory testing and privatization efforts directed at public education, is critical. We need to have an open discussion about the dismantling of public education. I hope the leadership of the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives will hold hearings that allow our public schools and the families they serve the opportunity to have an open and honest hearing.”
We trended #1 for several hours, showing evidence of wide support for these Congressional hearings investigating testing abuse. The many horrific examples of the misuse and abuse of standardized testing — like the one above that I read about today on the Badass Teachers Association blog – become one more important reason we need to support these hearings.Bill and Melinda, it is time to stop this insanity!
We need a firewall between corporate education reform and public schools. We need a firewall between privatizers and public schools. We need a firewall between predatory philanthropists and public education!
Readers, it is time to take action! Join us in calling your Congressmen on Monday, March 24th and demand formal Congressional hearings on standardized testing! Use thisCommon Cause link to find your congressmen/women. And use the Network for Public Education Toolkit to assist you with this campaign.
Readers, it is time to demand #TESTHearingsNow!
Susan DuFresne – Full Day Integrated Kindergarten Teacher and Co-Author of Teachers’ Letters to Bill Gates
This Teacher Can No Longer Tolerate Bill Gates’ Ignorance and Apathy
Dear Bill Gates,
This is now the third letter I am publishing on teachersletterstobillgates.com, a website that, by now, you surely must be well aware exists. There have been over 150 heartfelt and emotional posts published in the nine or so months since its inception, yet you have chosen, thus far, to ignore them all.
And that is the reason for my third letter to you today. I don’t know how I can tolerate your ignorance – your apathy – for much longer. Especially when I read “news” that quotes you as saying, “Maybe we can’t answer every tweet or post, but the authoritative voice on this is teachers.” Do you REALLY believe this, Bill? I doubt it.
Because if you had, you certainly would have at least taken a moment to address its existence. But you can’t. Why? Because you’re too busy touting your claims of all-knowing excellence to the world and selling your products to fix the public education system in America.
I try to see the good in others; I TRY to believe that you really do think you are doing what is right for America’s public schools. Yet I can’t help but ask myself – after all this time – HOW COULD YOU? How could you think what you are doing is RIGHT? How could you really believe that you – a non-educator with a non-education degree and non-education experience – have all the “answers” to the inequality issues within American schools?
Let me help; you DON’T. The bottom line is, you are making a fortune from these reforms, and people are catching on, but not soon enough. Shame on you.
The reality is, Bill (sorry, but I no longer have enough respect to call you “Mister”), you are sacrificing our next generation for your own personal gain. And why do you even need it? Don’t you have enough?
You want to fix the public schools in America? Talk to Diane Ravitch. If anyone has the answers, she does. And I’m often afraid she’s killing herself trying to spread the word. Talk to people like me, to Katie, to Susan – people who have dedicated their lives to educating children. Yes, we might not have all the answers, but, frankly, we know a hell of a lot more than you do.
I’m tired, Bill. I’m tired of reading the BS that you sell to the media. I’m tired of the fact that, because of this all, I have moved myself and my three little boys to Dubai to escape what’s happening at home. It’s not so easy here, and I am homesick. But their lives, and especially their educations, far surpass what I know what they could get from the Boston Public Schools at this point, and so, for them, I persist in my struggle as angry as it makes me.
It’s time you acknowledge your many, many mistakes in education. You want to fix it? You certainly have more than enough money to do so, but for the love of God, let the TEACHERS direct you in how best to do that (like you pretend so very well that you have been).
And remember – we, the teachers – are involved in education because we have chosen to dedicate our lives to teaching children, a job which has little to no extrinsic rewards.
Why are you in it? Can I ask when you will decide to face the fire? It’s only a matter of time before it turns and burns you in the face, so you might as well do the right – the humane – thing, once and for all, before you ruin this country for good.
Yours Truly,
Jill O’Malley Conroy
P.S. In the future, can you please get the quotes you use to support your efforts directly from the teachers who (supposedly) stated them, and not from your “staffers”? Because, frankly, I don’t believe these people (teachers) exist. Thanks.
These quotes appeared in Bill Gates Comes to the Defense of the Common Core, which appeared on Huff Post Politics on 3/14/14.
“One teacher told a foundation staffer, Gates said, that under the current system, even top-performing kids aren’t prepared for college.”
“Everybody in my school is complaining about the lack of curriculum,” another teacher told a foundation staffer, according to Gates. “Now we have to jump all over the place and find extra materials to make things deeper and richer.”
Dear Young Teacher Down the Hall,
I saw you as you rushed passed me in the lunch room. Urgent. In a hurry to catch a bite before the final bell would ring calling all the students back inside. I noticed that your eyes showed tension. There were faint creases in your forehead. And I asked you how your day was going and you sighed.
“Oh, fine,” you replied.
But I knew it was anything but fine. I noticed that the stress was getting to you. I could tell that the pressure was rising. And I looked at you and made an intentional decision to stop you right then and there. To ask you how things were really going. Was it that I saw in you a glimpse of myself that made me take the moment?
You told me how busy you were, how much there was to do…
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There are lots of reasons why I love Diane Ravitch. During the past 9 months, since The Indignant Teacher was born, I have had the pleasure of getting to know her through email and video conferencing. She amazes me. I hope to meet her in real life this summer when I am back in the States, but even if I don’t, I am blessed to have come to know her at all. Like I assume many edu-bloggers likely feel, Dr Ravitch is a mentor – she is an inspiration and a leader in every sense of the word. As someone who has had an extensive (and some may say, impressive) educational history, I can say with certainty that the very best was the one she unknowingly provided me.
Last week, I posted a horrifying story about the boy in Florida who was dying, and with controversy about his inability to take the FCAT. Two days later, I learned, he died. My condolences to his family…as a mother myself, I cannot fathom having to deal with the loss of one of my sons. It is tragic, unspeakable, and unthinkable, and I pray his parents can somehow find the strength to go on.
Diane Ravitch used this case to call on Arne Duncan and Jeb Bush, asking where their priorities are, and challenging them to answer one question. Will they? Unlikely. No one in the Obama Administration is likely to accept any of her offers to have a conversation…why? Because they will lose. They will be torn apart. And they know it.
The Indignant Teacher hopes that one of these days, someone decides to answer Dr Ravitch. Maybe when that day comes, the tide will finally turn. Until then, kudos to Diane Ravitch, for being the amazingly inspirational woman that she is, and having the (you-know-whats) to fight the good fight, at any and all costs.
Thank you, Valerie Strauss, for this one…utterly horrifying as it may be…
Parent of dying boy has to prove her son can’t take standardized test
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BY VALERIE STRAUSS
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February 4 at 3:53 pm
Andrea Rediske’s 11-year-old son Ethan, is dying. Last year, Ethan, who was born with brain damage, has cerebral palsy and is blind, was forced to take a version of the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test over the space of two weeks last year because the state of Florida required that every student take one. Now his mom has to prove that Ethan, now in a morphine coma, is in no condition to take another test this year.
Ethan wasn’t the only brain-damaged child in Florida to be forced to take a standardized test; I have written in the past about Michael, another Florida boy who was born with only a brain stem — not a brain — and can’t tell the difference between an apple and an orange, but was also forced to take a version of the FCAT last year. (See here, here and here.) There are many others in Florida and across the country as well.
Why does Florida — and other states, as well as the U.S. Department of Education — force kids with impaired cognitive ability to take standardized tests? Because, they say, nearly every child can learn something and be assessed in some fashion. Even, apparently, a boy born without a brain.
Publicity last year in Florida about some of these cases sparked interest among some state lawmakers to pass legislation to make it easier for severely disabled students to get waivers from taking these tests. The U.S. Department of Education sent a letter warning lawmakers to keep assessing all children, and one Florida Education Department spokesman told me that “waivers do not apply to students with a chronic situation.” Legislation did get passed but it wasn’t what some had hoped. It allows parents to request a waiver (Michael’s parents abandoned him shortly after he was born, and he lives in an Orlando care facility for children called the Russell House), and the state has set out a long series of actions that have to be taken — including approval by the education commission — to get a waiver.
Ethan got a waiver, but now there is a new obscenity transpiring. His mother sent an e-mail Tuesday to Orange County School Board member Rick Roach and to Scott Maxwell, who has movingly written about Ethan and similar cases for the Orlando Sentinel, that the state is requiring her to prove that her son still can’t take another standardized test and can therefore keep his waiver. The e-mail says:
Rick and Scott,
I’m writing to appeal for your advocacy on our behalf. Ethan is dying. He has been in hospice care for the past month. We are in the last days of his life. His loving and dedicated teacher, Jennifer Rose has been visiting him every day, bringing some love, peace, and light into these last days. How do we know that he knows that she is there? Because he opens his eyes and gives her a little smile. He is content and comforted after she leaves.
Jennifer is the greatest example of what a dedicated teacher should be. About a week ago, Jennifer hesitantly told me that the district required a medical update for continuation of the med waiver for the adapted FCAT. Apparently, my communication through her that he was in hospice wasn’t enough: they required a letter from the hospice company to say that he was dying. Every day that she comes to visit, she is required to do paperwork to document his “progress.” Seriously? Why is Ethan Rediske not meeting his 6th-grade hospital homebound curriculum requirements? BECAUSE HE IS IN A MORPHINE COMA. We expect him to go any day. He is tenaciously clinging to life.
This madness has got to stop. Please help us.
Thank you,
Andrea Rediske
Last month, Boston voters elected a new Mayor, arguably with a little help from a mysterious political action committee that dumped $480,000 into the campaign during its final days. One Boston confirmed to the Boston Globe this week that the American Federation of Teachers funded the group’s efforts to swing the race in favor of Mayor-elect Marty Walsh. Walsh denies knowing a thing about it.
- “Marty’s plan is to immediately build on current strengths within Boston Public Schools, and simultaneously develop and implement a long-term strategy based on equity, access, accountability, transparency and collaboration to provide a top-notch education for all of Boston’s children. Success will require taking a hard look at current practice, the political will to make tough, necessary changes, and the collaboration of families, educators, and partners across the city to realize a shared vision.”
- In addition, Marty recognizes the achievement of students with disabilities can be accelerated by participation in inclusion classes with their differently abled peers. The Walsh Administration will continue support for current plans to expand the number of inclusion schools, and will increase support for principals and teachers to learn about co-teaching models, Common Core Standards and differentiating instruction.
- Embrace and Support the Implementation of the Common Core State Standards – The Walsh Administration will ensure each and every school has a plan to integrate the Common Core State Standards into daily instruction, prepare teachers to teach the standards, and help students demonstrate their knowledge and skills.
- Selecting the next superintendent is one of the most important decisions facing the new administration. It is critical that the superintendent fully embraces the Mayor’s vision and is committed to its success.
- Maintain a Mayoral-Appointed School Committee – Marty supports an appointed school committee. This is the best way to ensure a body that fully reflects all the stakeholders in quality public education, including those with direct experience providing education, and those who understand the importance of prioritizing the needs of the whole child in an urban school setting.
- Central office departments will be redesigned into streamlined cross-functional units and held accountable for how well they provide support and service to schools. School supervisors will closely monitor schools in order to know which school leaders to support, which to push, and which to grant autonomy so that each and every Boston Public School is among the very best schools in Massachusetts.
- The Walsh Administration will focus on “deepening the bench” of potential school leaders who know how to work with teachers to improve instructional practices tied to the Common Core State Standards.
- Strong partnerships with local colleges and universities, and support for accelerated programs that prepare teachers for urban schools, such as those offered at the University of Massachusetts Boston, will be developed to supply qualified candidates. Systems and incentive will be implemented to retain strong principal and teacher leaders with appropriate compensation.
- The Walsh Administration will be aggressive in working with federal elected officials and agencies, the Massachusetts State House, and corporate and non-profit partners to increase revenues for targeted programs.
He also used the corporate reformers’ favorite catch-phrase “college and career ready” a whopping fourteen times.
Massachusetts Halts Common Core Implementation
Thank God they’ve taken a step in the right direction…
Rita Pierson describes and explains the human connection necessary for the best learning to take place in schools…corporate reform is effectively eliminating that from every classroom in America. It’s time to end this nightmare before it really is too late.
The Indignant Teacher 