I had planned to roll this information out over the next several weeks. But I really want those who are considering opting out of the Pearson pilot to have this pamphlet written by the high stakes testing committee of Rochester's Community Education Task Force.
My daughter gave this information, along with last week's post, to her teachers as she was opting out of tests this spring. The teachers asked her to bring more copies to school.
Most teachers agree with the idea of opting out. But teachers are powerless.
Only students (your children) can do this.
Skills Needed for 21st Century
The need for 21st century skills is clear. Students must have the ability to think creatively, to work collaboratively, to reason effectively, and to solve complex problems.
High-stake testing fails to focus on any of these skills. Currently only 14% of Black and Latino students who graduate from high school and go on to college, will graduate and only 53% of white students will succeed.
These results indicate most U.S. students are unprepared for the world of work, college, and active participation in our democratic communities.
Student Motivation and Student Drop-Out Rate
High-stakes testing creates environments that do not honor the individual student’s needs and interests, often resulting in boredom and behavioral issues.
These negative school environments create an aura of "winners & losers" and “survival of the fittest,” inadvertently increasing behavior issues, failure to graduate and more "drop-outs".
Research has shown that interest-based, collaborative learning projects deepens students’ learning and increases student motivation.
What Are Alternatives for Schools That Use High-Stakes Standardized Testing?
Ask
your PTA or school organization to invite local testing critics and RCSD
representatives to inform parents and staff about testing issues.
My daughter gave this information, along with last week's post, to her teachers as she was opting out of tests this spring. The teachers asked her to bring more copies to school.
Most teachers agree with the idea of opting out. But teachers are powerless.
Only students (your children) can do this.
"One thing I never want to see happen is schools that are just
teaching to the test. Because then you’re not learning about the world, you’re
not learning about different cultures, … all you are learning about is how to
fill out a little bubble on an exam and the little tricks that you need to do
in order to take a test. And that’s not going to make education interesting to
you."
Barak Obama, March
28, 2011
The Case Against
High-Stakes Standardized Testing
Parent & Community Coalition
for Educational Change
The
U.S and NYS Departments of Education, the Rochester School Board, and the NYS
Board of Regents are obsessed with high-stakes standardized testing partially
because it is cost efficient and easy to score. Among other difficulties, it
discourages higher order thinking, problem solving, collaborating, and other
skills.
Consequences of high stakes testing:
·
Schools Becoming Test Prep Factories: preparing students for tests,
not real-world challenges.
·
Unfairly Evaluating Students, Teachers and Schools only by Test
Scores: Despite
little validity or reliability, these test scores are used to close schools and
to satisfy education policy and lawmakers. Students are treated as numbers,
rather than as individuals.
·
Narrowing the
Curriculum: Standardized tests reduce the emphasis on higher
level thinking skills, citizenship and vocational education.
·
Discouraging
Intrinsic Motivation: By focusing primarily on test preparation and results, many
students become turned off and drop out.
Skills Needed for 21st Century
The need for 21st century skills is clear. Students must have the ability to think creatively, to work collaboratively, to reason effectively, and to solve complex problems.
High-stake testing fails to focus on any of these skills. Currently only 14% of Black and Latino students who graduate from high school and go on to college, will graduate and only 53% of white students will succeed.
These results indicate most U.S. students are unprepared for the world of work, college, and active participation in our democratic communities.
Social
Justice vs. Social Injustice
We have a moral
responsibility to provide all students the tools they need become
compassionate, responsible and successful citizens. Standardized tests cannot
assess these critical skills.
High-stakes testing harms students by inhibiting growth
and development, particularly of English Language Learners and of students
with special needs by:
- Discriminating against children with limited access to books, technology, and health care
- Leading the public to believe that high test scores are the only measure of a good school or a good student
- Decreasing the "joy of learning" and increasing needless stress, which discourages learning
- Encouraging racist beliefs that African-American and Hispanic students are inferior, because they tend to score lower on standardized tests, due to poverty-related issues
- Creating the illusion that most poor students can "catch-up" to middle class students, by scoring higher on these tests, and that teachers of poor students are incompetent
- Diverting funds which would be better spent addressing more critical needs of children.
Student Motivation and Student Drop-Out Rate
High-stakes testing creates environments that do not honor the individual student’s needs and interests, often resulting in boredom and behavioral issues.
These negative school environments create an aura of "winners & losers" and “survival of the fittest,” inadvertently increasing behavior issues, failure to graduate and more "drop-outs".
Research has shown that interest-based, collaborative learning projects deepens students’ learning and increases student motivation.
Teaching
as a Profession
High-stakes, standardized testing also
de-professionalizes the teaching profession by:
- Unwittingly encouraging corruption through cheating, teaching-to-the-test, using "cut-scores," and devaluing the professional judgment of teachers
- De-professionalizing teaching; teachers become technicians vs. professionals who can adjust instruction to meet the needs & interests of students
Current Testing
Grade Test
Kindergarten RCSD Reading Assessment
1-8* RCSD
Reading
NCLB ELA
NCLB Math
NYS
Science (7-8)
9-12 NYS ELA
NYS
Algebra
NYS
American History
NYS
World History
Science
Regents
Competency Tests: Foreign Language,
American History and Government, World History, Mathematics
Other Testing:
Language Assessment Battery Revised (LAB-R)
For Students with Severe Cognitive Disabilities:
New York State Alternate
Assessment
For all English as a Second
Language students for all grades:
English as a Second Language Test (NYSESLAT)
An analysis of the 2000 and 2011 New York State District
Report Cards lead one researcher to conclude about testing in RCSD:
“It is clear that
our district has not advanced in either Math or English Language Arts in the past 10 years. Increasing
standards and more standardized testing
has not improved the scores for our children.”
What Are Alternatives for Schools That Use High-Stakes Standardized Testing?
World-renown
education reformers, including Diane Ravitch, Ron Wolk, Ted Sizer, Deborah
Meier, Marion Brady, and the National Academy of Sciences, advocate using a
multiple-measures of student assessment, including the use of
Performances,
Projects,
Presentations, and
Portfolios.
This highly
valid and reliable assessment method emphasizes the growth and development of
individual students and on many of the 21st Century Learning Skills
that colleges, the work place, and our democracy require.
What You Can Do:
Call
your child’s teacher, the school principal, school board members, School Board
Commissioner and your Board of Regents Representative to demand change!
Ask
your PTA or school organization to invite local testing critics and RCSD
representatives to inform parents and staff about testing issues.
Organizations against Testing
- Alliance for Childhood
- American Association of School Administrators (AASA)
- American Association of University Women (Wisconsin)
- American Civil Liberties Union
- American Educational Research Association (AERA)
- American Society for Ethics in Education
- Association of Childhood Educator's International (ACEI)
- American Psychological Association
- Center for Collaborative Education
- Chicago Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, Inc.
- Center for Law and Education
- Consortium for Equity in Standards and Testing (CTEST)
- Harvard Civil Rights Project
- International Reading Association (IRA)
- National Association for the Education of Young Children
- National Association of Elementary School Principals
- National Association of Secondary School Principals
- National Council for Social Studies
- National Council of La Raza (NCLR)
- National Education Association (NEA)
- National PTA
- National Research Council
- National Women's Law Center
- National Parent Teacher Association (PTA)
- President's Advisory Commission on Educational Excellence for Hispanic Americans
- Students Against Testing
- Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages
Join Parent and Community Groups
Community Education Task Force
(Local)
Coalition for Justice in Education
(Local)
New York State Performance Standards Consortium www.performanceassessment.org
Parent & Community Coalition for Educational Change (Standardized Test Committee Contacts):
Dan Drmacich dandrmacich@yahoo.com
Carolyn Alston carolynalston460@hotmail.org
Elizabeth Laidlaw elaidlaw60@gmail.com
Key Developments in 2012-13:
·
Stakes are even higher with implementation of
“Common Core,” new state and federal accountability frameworks, emphasis on
“test security,” and new statutory teacher/principal evaluation systems built
on state and local test results.
·
Teachers in Seattle and other districts have launched
boycotts of specific standardized tests
·
Parents/students are opting out more and
communicating strategies nationally via social media
·
Rochester School Board joined districts in TX,
FL and thousands of individuals and other organizations by passing a resolution
calling on state and federal governments to end overemphasis on high stakes
tests
Additional Resources / Corrections
Greater Rochester Opt Out (local) -- search on facebook, ask
to be added: http://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/groups/383541531722610/?fref=ts
Flower City Parents Network forum (local): http://www.flowercityparents.org/forum/
Coalition for Justice In Education (local): Dan Drmacich
Dandrmacich123@gmail.com
http://unitedoptout.com/flyers/ (national)
Contact and Express Your Concerns
RCSD School
Board
Malik Evans,
Chair malik@malikevans.org
Melisza Campos meliszacampos@hotmail.com
Cynthia Elliott celliott1225@yahoo.com
Sophie
Gallivan sophie.gallivan@gmail.com
Van White van.white@thelegalbrief.com
131 West Broad Street
Rochester, NY 14614 585.262.8525
The Board of Regents
Merryl Tisch,
Chancellor
89 Washington Avenue
Albany, N.Y. 12234
Albany, N.Y. 12234
518)
474-5889
Milton
Cofield, Vice Chancellor
98 Hickory Ridge Road
Rochester, N.Y. 14625
Rochester, N.Y. 14625
(585) 200-6284
Wade Norwood,
Regent
74
Appleton Street
Rochester, NY 14611
Rochester, NY 14611
2 comments:
Nice job putting all this together! Did your daughter print this out and take it in, or is there a printed copy somewhere? I am particularly interested in giving my son information to respond to those who say he is hurting his school. Thanks!
Thank you Hilary. The High Stakes Testing committee of the CETF put it together. It prints on a 11X14 sheet, 4 columns. I have a word doc of it I can email to you, if you want. Email elaidlaw60@gmail.com .
Post a Comment