NYC Parents to DOE : No, You Will *NOT* Test Our 4-Year Olds.

[Smarmie Doofus]

First of many, one hopes. One can almost hear the ed. "philanthropists" and their client automatons in the bureaucracy tantruming on the 33rd floor.

>>>A Washington Heights elementary school has canceled the new standardized multiple-choice tests for the youngest public school students — after more than 80% of parents opted to have their kids sit out the exam.

In an apparently unprecedented move, Castle Bridge School parents — representing 83 of the 97 students — rejected the new city requirement that affects 36 schools that serve only K through second grade.

“My feeling about testing kids as young as 4 is it’s inhumane,” said PTA co-chairwoman Dao Tran, mother of first-grader Quyen Lamphere, 5. “I can only see it causing stress.”
The state now requires schools to factor test scores — in one form or another — into their teacher evaluations, which are new this year in the city.
RELATED: KINDERGARTEN GETS AS TOUGH WITH MULTIPLE CHOICE TESTS

Students at the 36 “early education” schools are too young to take the regular state reading and math exams, so the littlest kids are sitting down for different tests.
As the Daily News reported earlier this month, such exams, given to kids as young as 4, require students to fill in bubbles to show their answers.
It’s like the SAT for kids barely older than toddlers. And parents resent it.>>> more at link


Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/uptown/parents-opt-city-test-article-1.1492127#ixzz2kRH6QHpv

[ejpoeta]

1. I'm glad people are standing up to these 'educators'.

We need to get rid of all this damned testing and get back to the business of TEACHING the kids. I want educated kids, not kids who can just take tests.

[Jefferson23]

2. Well said, right here, from the comments:

Samuel Noel
As a teacher, I have no problem with being evaluated for the work I do. But the MOSL test is garbage. We lost a week of instruction at my school to administer, proctor, and grade these exams and that was only week 2 of the school year.

The only winners in the proliferation of standardized testing are the testing companies like Pearson.

If the DOE really wants to measure student learning, we would go back to portfolios in which we examine student work (essays, tests, presentations, projects, classwork, etc.) and see what progress was made during the school year. I would have no problem being evaluated in this manner. Unfortunately, there is no profit to be made by looking at actual student work!

As it stands now, we tested my children before we even knew their names for material we didn't yet cover. I doubt that they even took the tests seriously because they "don't count"; it's sole purpose is for teachers ratings.

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/uptown/parents-opt-city-test-article-1.1492127#ixzz2kSnSyKA8


K&R

[Smarmie Doofus]

3. It'll be interesting to see if the "Empire Strikes Back." As you noted in the Darien case ....

Last edited Wed Nov 13, 2013, 09:04 AM - Edit history (1)

... retaliation is the currency of the realm in these gigantic, brain-dead education bureaucracies; a way of life. Teachers are all too aware of this, but there's no reason why these parents... and even their kids.... won't be singled out for "special treatment".

They've done the unforgivable: they not only bucked the system, they DREW PUBLIC ATTENTION to it.

[Jefferson23]

4. I think so, how else are we to see any decline on the war waged on teachers and as a result

of that war, how it has negatively impacted America's children.