The Treasure Hunter

Even if you read Diane Ravitch’s blog today, read what she said one more time, and if possible, pass it on.  As I wrote here recently, I believe that a strong opt-out movement all over the country is the only way to put an end to the testing mania and its negative effects on children and their schools.

 Many parents and educators are outraged by the over-testing and misuse of testing that has been embedded in federal policy since the enactment of No Child Left Behind in 2002. No high-performing nation in the world tests every child every year in grades 3-8, as we have since the passage of NCLB.

Young children sit for exams that last up to 15 hours over two weeks. The fate of their teachers rests on their performance. Parents remember taking tests in school that lasted no more than one class period for each subject. Their tests were made by their teachers, not by a multinational corporation. Parents can’t understand how testing became an endurance trial and the goal of education.

Politicians claim that the tests are necessary to inform parents and teachers and the public how children in one state are doing as compared to their peers in other states. But this information is already reported by the federal test, the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). Parents have figured out that the tests don’t serve any purpose other than to rank their child. No one is allowed to see the test questions after the test. No child receives a diagnosis of what they know and don’t know. They receive only a score. In every state, the majority of children have been ranked as “failures” because the testmakers adopted a passing mark that was guaranteed to fail close to 70% of children. Parents have learned that the passing mark is not objective; it is arbitrary. It can be set to pass everyone, pass no one, or pass some percentage of children.

In the past 14 years, parents have seen the destruction of neighborhood schools, based on their test scores. They have seen beloved teachers fired unjustly, because of their students’ test scores. They have seen the loss of time for the arts, physical education, and anything else that is not tested. They have seen a change in their local public schools that they don’t like, as well as a loss of control to federal mandates and state authorities.

In the past, testing companies warned that tests should be used only for the purpose for which they were designed. Now, these corporations willingly sell their tests without warning about misuse. A test of fourth grade reading tests fourth grade reading. It should not be used to rank students, to humiliate students, to fire teachers and principals, or to close schools. But it is.

Communities have been devastated by the closing of their neighborhood schools.

Communities have seen their schools labeled “failing,” based on test scores, and taken over by the state or national corporate charter chains.

Based on test scores, punishments abound: for students, teachers, principals, schools, and communities.

This is madness!

What can we as citizens do to stop the destruction of our children, their schools, and our dedicated educators.

Opt out of the tests.

Use the power of the powerless: Say NO. Do not participate. Withdraw your consent from actions that harm your child. Withdrawal of consent in an unjust system. That’s the force that brought down Communist regimes in Eastern Europe. Vaclav Havel and Lech Walensa said no. They were not alone. Hundreds of thousands stood with them, and the regimes with their weapons and tanks and heavy armor folded. Because the people said no.

Opting out of the tests is the only tool available to parents, other than defeating the elected officials of your state (which is also a good idea, but will take a very long time to bear fruit). One person can’t defeat the governor and the local representatives. But one person can refuse to allow their child to take the toxic tests.

The only tool and the most powerful tool that parents have to stop this madness is to refuse to allow their children to take the tests.

Consider New York. A year ago, Governor Andrew Cuomo was in full attack mode against teachers and public schools, while showering praise on privately managed charters. He vowed to “break the monopoly” known as public education. The New York State Board of Regents was controlled by members who were in complete sympathy with Cuomo’s agenda of Common Core, high-stakes testing, and evaluating teachers by test scores.

But in 2015, about a quarter million children refused the state tests. Albany went into panic mode. Governor Cuomo convened a commission to re-evaluate the Common Core, standards, and testing. Almost overnight, his negative declarations about education changed in tone, and he went silent. The legislature appointed new members, who did not share the test-and-punish mentality. The chair of the New York State Board of Regents decided not to seek re-appointment after a 20-year career on that board. The Regents elected Dr. Betty Rosa, a veteran educator who was actively supported by the leaders of the opt out movement.

Again in 2016, the opt out movement showed its power. While official figures have not yet been released, the numbers evidently match those of 2015. More than half the students in Long Island opted out. Federal and state officials have issued warnings about sanctions, but it is impossible to sanction huge numbers of schools in middle-class and affluent communities. The same officials have no problem closing schools in poor urban districts, treating citizens there as chess pawns, but they dare not offend an organized bloc in politically powerful communities.

The opt out movement has been ridiculed by critics, treated by the media as a front for the teachers’ union, belittled by the former Secretary of Education as “white suburban moms” who were disappointed that their child was not so bright after all, stereotyped as privileged white parents with low-performing children, etc. There are indeed black and Hispanic parents who are part of the opt out movement. Their children and their schools suffer the greatest penalties in the current testing madness. In New York City, where opt out numbers were tiny, parents were warned that their children would not be able to enter the middle school or the high school of their choice if they opted out.

Thus far, the opt out movement has not been discouraged or slowed by these tactics of ridicule and intimidation. The conditions have not changed, so the opt out movement will continue.

The reality is that the opt out movement is indeed a powerful weapon. It is the one weapon that makes governors, legislators, and even members of Congress afraid of public opinion and public action. They are afraid because they don’t know how to stop parents from opting out. They can’t control opt out parents, and they know it. They offer compromises, promises for the future, but all of this is sham. They have not let go of the testing hammer. And they will not until opt out becomes the norm, not the exception.

In some communities in New York, opting out is already the norm. If politicians and bureaucrats continue on their reckless course of valuing test scores more than children, the opt out movement will not be deterred.

Save your child. Save your schools. Stop the corporate takeover of public education. You have the power. Say no. Opt out.

Today’s piece was sent to me by the author and faithful reader, Lynn Stoddard.  It was originally published in “The Salt  Lake Tribune on July 3rd. Stoddard has also authored many articles and the book, “Educating for Human Greatness.”

I applaud the efforts of teachers and parents in working together on many different levels.  It is not enough to have parents help their children with homework.  Although parents may not take over official teaching responsibilities, they can do a great deal to assist teachers and students with school projects and activities.

Do Utah citizens care if we are last in per-pupil funding and below average in student achievement? This year could be the one we do something about it. Numerous studies show that parental involvement in each child’s education is the best way to help students achieve.

In the summer of 1975 a group of teachers met for two days at an elementary school in Northern Utah to make plans around this question, “How can we make our school better?”

Near the end of the second day, after many ideas were explored, a fourth grade teacher raised this question, “What if we held a different kind of Back to School Night? Instead of meeting with parents as a group, and us telling them what they can do to help us, why don’t we meet with each child’s parents to find out what they want for their children?”

Another teacher said, “It sounds good, but how could we do that? It would take time to meet with all the parents individually. At the end of each school day I am exhausted.”

Another, “If we had only 20 students and met with parents only a half hour each, it would take 10 hours to meet with all the parents — with 30 students it would take 15 hours! Why don’t we ask the school district to give us a couple of days without students to do this?”

“Fat chance! The district is too interested in us covering the state curriculum and the state requires 180 days of schooling!”

“How about asking the parents to take turns covering our classes while we meet with each child’s parents in the hall near our classrooms? We could provide lesson plans for them to follow.”

“I would like a few days, maybe a week, to get to know each child before we do this. Then I could keep the child in mind while we talk and make plans.”

“Yeah! Let’s do it, and let’s ask the parents to come prepared to answer some questions like these: What would you like the school to help you do for your child this year? What are this child’s special talents, interests and needs that we should keep in mind? How can we work together to help your child?”

The teachers and parents at Hill Elementary School did carry out this partnership plan. It was the Big Idea that answered the question, “How can we make our school better?” Did it make a difference?

It made an enormous difference. Student’s achievement soared when they were given a chance to become “specialists,” “experts,” “masterminds,” or “geniuses” in self-selected topics. They experienced the joy of asking powerful questions and learning how to find their own answers. They found excitement in preparing for talent shows as they “tried on” talents from a shopping list of 82 different kinds of talents. Parents became meaningfully involved as they helped their children prepare “Great Brain” and talent show presentations. Self-chosen home study replaced home “work” and the school library afforded everyone an opportunity to read at their own higher levels.

Parent-teacher partnerships not only increased student achievement, but they offered much hope for increased funding as parents began to realize the benefit of smaller class sizes, the need for better supplies and more support from parents. With a united focus on the strengths and needs of individual students the school improved dramatically.

If you can sense the advantages of building partnerships, we suggest you use this summer to get ready and do it this fall.

I really didn’t plan to post anything today, but one of the posts on Diane Ravitch’s blog caught my eye this morning and I couldn’t remain silent.  Below I will quote some words from Ravitch and the contributor and then more from a respondent.  I will conclude with my own comments.

Why One Beloved  First Grade Teacher is Leaving by Diane Ravitch

It is outrageous to see beloved, dedicated teachers leave the classroom. Yet when you think of the steady barrage of hostile propaganda directed at them by the Gates Foundation, the Broad Foundation, the Walton Family Foundation, D.C. think tanks, and others, you can understand why they find it impossible to stay. I hope there is a new wave of articles about teachers who said: No matter what, I will not leave! I love my kids! I love my work! I will not let the reformers drive me away!

David Weinstein is throwing in the towel. He is in his early 50s. He shouldn’t be leaving so soon. He explains how teaching has changed, how much pressure is on the children, how much time is wasted collecting data that doesn’t help him as a teacher or his students.

He sums up:

I guess the big-picture problem is that all this stuff we’re talking about here is coming from on top, from above, be it the federal government, the commonwealth of Massachusetts, the school administration. But the voices of teachers are lost. I mean, nobody talks to teachers. Or, if they do talk to teachers, they’re not listening to teachers.

• Chris in Florida says: 
 The days of closed door teaching are long gone.
Every single day someone is doing a drive-by data collection/observation/walk through/classroom visit with a clipboard of Danielson gobbledegook, an iPad with a ridiculously impossible rubric, or a Surface with a multi-page checklist and often it is morning and afternoon. 
The exponential growth of out-of-classroom ‘experts’ (often TFA or other young folks with less experience than my little finger) is hard to fathom to people who used to teach even 5 or 10 years ago and haven’t experienced this firsthand. 
We are constantly checked for ‘fidelity’ to mandated lesson plan formats, program implementation, questioning techniques, what every single child is doing in that odd moment, how our classroom is set up, what we have displayed in the room, and a host of other things. 
Yes, there is a Danielson rubric that judges you on whether your furniture is moved around by children to accommodate their needs and if it is not witnessed during a drive-by, you get marked down. At first our administrators were reluctant to implement the harsh system but now that their bosses are relentlessly dogging them to improve things, they are embracing the ruthlessness and using it to attack teachers and blame them.
People come from the state, the district, the administration, and some I have no idea where they come from. 
They don’t sit down and discuss anything. They never smile or speak. You get a generalized report in an email later on, often flawed, criticizing you for something they didn’t have time or make the effort to see even though you know it is there or that you did it or do it frequently and then you lose all respect for their opinions and you resent the intrusions more and more. 
But you suck it up and put up with it because otherwise you can be dismissed at will, here at least, and then possibly lose your home, causing your children to leave college and go to work, become dependent on an elderly parent, or become bankrupted by a medical issue, all things that have happened to me or my colleagues.
I was able to game the system for a long time but it is no longer possible. The level of scrutiny is akin to the Panopticon. Deviation from approved scripts, formats, approaches, questions, lessons, standards, etc. brings swift and merciless criticism and accompanying threats of downrating which, in FL, leads to permanent and irrevocable loss of your teaching license after 2 bad yearly ratings. Nothing will get you by anymore; Jeb Bush’s ‘blame the teacher for poverty and racism’ meme has overtaken everyone and everything and no one with power or authority will gainsay it or challenge it anymore.
It’s easy to tell other people how they should react to this madness, especially if you yourself are not under the same level of scrutiny. 
I salute this teacher and I will join him soon. The point of no return is very, very close for me also.
  

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  Several years ago I wrote an essay titled Let More teachers “Re-invent the Wheel” that was published in Education Week, which I chose to post on this blog on 2015/09/17  (without the word “more” in the title.) Although I wrote that essay before the time of high-stakes testing, the CCSS, and the restrictions on teachers described above, it exemplifies what I have learned from my own experiences as a school principal and believe even more strongly today. In short, a good teacher designs teaching units, lessons, student assignments, and classroom organization to fit the needs of his or her current group of students, and makes changes based on their responses. Despite impressive titles or qualifications, outside observers cannot make sweeping judgments based on isolated observations or rubrics.

   Right now I can think of only three actions that might end the madness in Florida and other places where it exists: schoolwide teacher walk-outs, having independent school districts country-wide, or a national ending of the CCSS and high-stakes testing.