why would schools dedicate an entire period each week over eight months to test prep?

[HiPointDem]

As a parent of a child in a New York City public school, I had no idea my 7-year-old daughter would be subjected to high stakes standardized testing. After Kya came home in a panic after being informed about “The Test,” I immediately confronted her teacher and asked how and why my daughter was even remotely aware of this unreliable test. I was told this was a way to begin to prepare second graders for what they would face in third grade. What they would face? I asked. Why was her education being treated like a sentence with consequences for being a child in public school?

This was the beginning of my activism as a public school parent.

The amount of time and money spent on test prep while average class sizes grow and classroom resources dwindle is scandalous. During third grade parent orientation, there was mention of a “test prep class” on Friday mornings which sent me into a rage. With budget cuts forcing us to lose teachers across the city, limited amounts of the arts, sciences and gym, the loss of the library and the constant PTA fundraising for anything that would enrich the curriculum, why would we dedicate an entire period each week over the next eight months to test prep?

The thought of my dyslexia-diagnosed daughter sitting through an annual battery of tests that lasts for six days made me squirm with unease. I knew how she was doing in school. Every teacher she had was able to assess her strengths and weaknesses and was more than happy to discuss ways to take on the challenges she was facing. So why should I place her in a situation that I felt was not healthy or supportive of her education?

During the second month of third grade, Kya transferred to a more progressive public school —
Kya’s school was still required to administer standardized Math and English Language Arts exams even if they did minimal test prep for them. I refused to have Kya participate in this and instead arranged with the school for her to have a portfolio review and a pair of 45-minute exams which would be used to assess her for promotion...We agreed that if these tests required an “Opt In” rather than an “Opt Out,” a whole lot more children would have been with her during those six days of testing.

The solution to the pervasive misuse of high stakes tests lies not just in individual acts of conscience but in the collective organizing and action of educators, parents and students. That is why there has been an outpouring of support for the Seattle teachers and why parent-led groups like Change the Stakes in New York and United Opt Out nationally have formed in the past few years to provide information and support for parents who wish to withdraw their children from high stakes standardized testing.

The corporate school “reformers” who have stoked the mania for high stakes standardized testing in the past decade have failed (and manipulated) us. In New York, where Mayor Bloomberg has been given dictatorial control over our school system since 2002, only 21 percent of high school graduates are college ready, including only 13 percent of graduates of color, according to the City University of New York. These self-styled reformers still have tremendous resources at their disposal. But now they are up against growing ranks of outraged parents. To turn the tide against high stakes standardized testing would save the millions of dollars handed over annually to test prep companies and reclaim the possibility of a curriculum that meets the needs of the whole child. Instead of being test prep factories, our public schools can be places where we support the love of learning, socialize children and welcome differences as we prepare our children for ever-changing, expanding realities of life in a diverse and interconnected world.

For more, see changethestakes.wordpress.com or unitedoptout.com.

http://normsnotes2.blogspot.com/2013/03/janine-sopp-listen-to-our-voices.html

[Fumesucker]

1. Because the jobs of the teachers and administrators depend on the results of the tests

QED

[Bucky]

13. Thank you. If you measure my performance by a given metric...

I will attempt to perform to that metric. IOW, you get what you pay for.

[TXleigh]

2. Agree and disagree...

While I agree that curriculums shouldn't be based off of the standardized tests, you have to understand that, especially in lower grade levels, there needs to be a way of evaluating the teachers that our children are placed in front of. The most efficient way to do that is by evaluating what the child has learned from that teacher... If a teacher has students who continually fail the standardized tests, would you want your child in their class?

[HiPointDem]

3. what? that doesn't even make sense.

[Bucky]

15. I think there's a certain ceteris paribus problem in your argument.

It's the use of the word "standardized" that creates our problem. The assumption that all the kids in one grade among all the students in a given state are starting at the same performance level doesn't really match up to reality. Among other things, test-taking is an independent skill that can be taught and measured, but doesn't have many real-world practicality. No one will hire you in real life to take tests. But in the end a standardized testing system will reward the teacher who devotes more time to teaching students test-taking strategies and focuses on the limited range of facts that a given test will cover. This system will also punish the teacher who instead devotes more time to training kids in critical thinking, creative analysis, and problem-solving skills--or who makes the process of learning and studying rewarding and engaging. Those aren't things that will be tested on a standardized test.


Ironically, your final pronoun choice gives us a different perspective. The word teacher is a singular noun and thus should rename pronouns like him, his, hers, or her. The noun students is a plural noun and thus renames the plural pronouns like they, them, and their. So when we come to your final question: "If a teacher has students who continually fail the standardized tests, would you want your child in their class?" I have to wince a little. One of the biggest problems in public education is that far too many accomplisheds parents have moved their motivated and advantaged students away from the classes that "they" are in.

Of course parents are free to make responsible choices for getting their kids the best education they can find. But that's the individual rights of parents. Public policy, however, should not be about dividing up students or creating a range of quality levels for parents to choose among. It should be about getting as high a quality of educational experience into every student's classroom--a task that standardized tests simply don't achieve. Instead, they encourage a lowest common denominator approach by teachers. What do I have to get the kids to bubble in on a scantron in order to get the best bonus possible. It's creating short term patch ups for long term problems.

[Victor_c3]

4. I don't even have to read the whole article to get what they are talking about

One of the music teachers at my local school was telling all the kids that if they don't do good on the test that she could lose her job. If the school performs poorly on the test, they'll cut the "specials" - that isn't a treat, that is the truth.

Apparently, you can opt your kids out of the tests. I haven't gotten that far yet as my daughter is only in pre-school (and is 4 years old), but if the test are still around when she gets to them, I'm sure that I will.

[HiPointDem]

5. changethestakes.wordpress.com or unitedoptout.com.

[Victor_c3]

6. Thanks for the links n/t

[reformist2]

7. It used to be a no-no, to teach to the test.

[LWolf]

12. And these days, it's a no-no NOT to.

[oberliner]

8. Preach on

Those tests are ridiculous.

[AngryOldDem]

9. Because they've become the tail that wags the dog.

Everything from teachers' salaries and jobs to schools' performance ratings depend on these tests. Meanwhile, kids learn what will be on the test, and hardly anything more.

[HiPointDem]

10. that's why people should opt out. can't fire teachers, close & privatize schools, sort children

without the tests.

[AngryOldDem]

17. Here's what proves your point.

http://www.indystar.com/article/20130501/NEWS/305010051/ISTEP-wraps-up-without-problems-Day-3

This week is statewide testing in Indiana. The state has paid McGraw Hill some $95 million to administer these tests online. For two days in a row, in the middle of these tests, McGraw Hill's server crashed, which delayed, and the cancelled the testing altogether. The angst this has caused -- parents and teachers upset, kids upset, because the stress levels associated with these things is through the roof. To start, then stop, and then cancel -- two whole wasted days when the kids could have actually been learning something that maybe wasn't tied to the damn test.

What could that $95 million been used for, other than mandatory testing? The mind reels.

Apparently, things went better today.

[HiPointDem]

19. it's becoming a huge business. capital thinks that rentier money from the gov't is going to save

their bacon.

[hobbit709]

11. Because teaching the test is more important than teaching the subjects

[bike man]

14. How did this happen? Seems like only yesterday the teachers were allowed to teach, and

then we took tests. I graduated HS in 1960, and that was my experience. We took the senior placement test and the SAT, and had a briefing prior to the test about filling in the oval and making no stray marks. That was it.

It must have worked reasonably well. A man went to the moon, with rudimentary computers and lots of slide rules, and those were operated by products of that old (teach the subject) environment.

Did we just lose it, or was it taken away?

BTW, even though I was never a part of the moon stuff, I still have two slide rules.

[vinny9698]

16. Those test results are so important the even property values are effected

One of the most important criteria in selecting the location of your house is the quality of school. Those test results are used to sell homes within school district. Also it depends on where a teacher is assigned. I have seen schools get exemplary just because the student body is upper middle class and most parents are professionals with college degrees. You get assigned to a minority school, you have a challenge and even then you won't make it because the students are so disadvantaged.

[madfloridian]

18. Most schools are devoting more than that to test prep.

I know some elementary schools that dedicate periods throughout the day.