On another post Anonymous wrote:
New post please:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/bush-obama-focus-on-standardized-testing-leads-to-opt-out-parent-movement/2013/04/14/90b15a44-9d5c-11e2-a941-a19bce7af755_allComments.html?ctab=all_&;
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11 comments:
What are the consequences of opting-out of an 11th grade Keystone? Should we end high stakes testing up to 8th grade and only have an exit exam for high schoolers?
Why? So that only a privileged few would be permitted to graduate or to "exit"?
No 7:46, certainly not the questions I expected when I asked about opting-out consequences. I am backing away from the blog now since, as just a parent, I am ill-equipped to participate in an argument. Maybe it is the tone of questions like your's that keep average parents away from meetings and discussions where they might learn something to help their kids.
Please stay with the blog- we will need to be more vigilant about argumentative nonproductive insinuations.
It is fortunate (for you, ) that you no longer have children in public schools. The CCSS is stressing “argumentation” as a skill needed by all students. It would greatly help contributors (parents primarily) on this blog to learn the criteria for “proficiency” on constructing “arguments” so that, on a daily basis, they could take the opportunity to teach and/or refine those skills with their children.
Of course, if parents are encouraged to “opt out” of CCSS, their children will never learn nor will teachers be held accountable for teaching this skill (as well as many other critical skills.
8:43 did not say no children in school! Constructing a logical and well supported argument is different from being argumentative. And, students can learn even when topics are not tested by the state- there are subjects and whole grades that are not tested and still students learn.
Follow up to 4:25's comments above re student testing:
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/17/education/florida-teachers-sue-over-evaluation-system.html?src=recg&_r=0
3:33
You fail to understand this from a parental point of view. The tests are idiotic, they are not about holding teachers accountable. It is about kids learning to learn and not being read a script everyday while bored to tears.
We have reached an impasse on this topic. On one side are those who believe that the tests and the consequences attached to the tests. ( such as whether a school remains open or a student gets to stay in a magnet program for hs) are distorting teaching and learning. For whatever reason administrators are convinced that scripts, cutting down on arts and foreign languages, etc will result in better performance. On the other side are those who insist that the tests are necessary for accountability and that parents must protest the scripts, etc without addressing what should be done if year after year few parents will actually speak up . As a result this topic should be considered exhausted unless there are comments and suggestions that do more than restate or justify the above positions.
I suggest anyone interested in another point of view in the high stakes test debate to "follow the money trail." On Facebook you can find "The Network for Public Education", "Class Size Matters" and "TEST Troublemakers" to see many revelations on who is profiting from requiring these high stakes tests. It most certainly is not the students. Studies show these tests correlate to parental income and zip code, with teachers having only 10-15% influence. So it is no surprise that schools with high percentages of low income students (most school with a majority of "minority" students) score low. Yet the test results are being used as a means to fire teachers (even those who do not teach classes in subjects that are even tested) and to close entire public schools (mostly ones serving low income students) and reopen them as - wait for it - privately owned charter schools!
What are evidence-based reforms that have track records of success? Reducing class size, full time librarians, etc. Many politicians claim that we don't have the money for that, yet how much money goes to high stakes standardized testing? How much money goes to charters that take over closed public schools, then don't do any better for their low income kids? Look at New Orleans as a case in point. High stakes testing and charter takeover have shown no evidence of success. Stop throwing away good money!
Just one recent example of the most obvious conflicts of interest along the money trail is pointed out today (4/20/13) in the Washington Post - the Common Core State Standard tests contain blatant plugs for commercial products!
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/wp/2013/04/20/new-standardized-tests-feature-plugs-for-commercial-products/
More recommended reading on education reform's money trail:
1) Yinzercation (on Facebook and at http://yinzercation.wordpress.com/) is a extensive primer on regional and Pennsylvania state public education issues - especially insightful facts related to funding (or rather de-funding). Read a blog a day going back through the past few years for a complete view of the money trail in PA.
2) Another missing link is exposed while following the money trail in this short historical perspective on the role of philanthropic foundations influencing state and national public education policy in the US.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/wp/2013/04/24/how-private-money-is-driving-public-education-policy/
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