Message From Education Reformers: Shut Up And Take Your Test

That's the message from the pro-Common Core, pro-Endless Testing regime shills at Newsday who ran this opinion piece by some deform group called "High Achievement New York":

There is a much larger issue at stake. We should not be teaching our children that if they don't like tests, they can simply refuse them. Opting out is the wrong approach to address what parents don't like about testing.

If there are problems with the tests, then parents and communities should work together to fix them. Shielding our children from the tests sets a bad example and delays the process of making positive changes to improve what is, like so many things in our society, an imperfect system. The way to change the process is through positive ideas, not simply telling kids to refuse an academic responsibility.

When it comes time to find a job, there is no "opting out." There is only unemployment. Let's make sure we are sending the right messages to our children now, so they do not face that reality in the future.

That's right, you must do what you don't want to do because it is good for you.

Sure, try and change what you don't like through "positive ideas," but if you can't (and make no mistake, you can't - education reformers do NOT listen to anybody outside of their own coterie), well, then you just have to tell your kids to suck it up and take their tests.

The message from the pro-Common Core, pro-Endless Testing regime groups these days and their political allies in power boils down to "Shut Up And Take Your Test" - life is hard and you have to do things you don't want to do.

We heard this from the Harvard public policy shill who wrote a Daily News opinion piece about how testing and evaluation are just like looking at yourself in the mirror when you're looking to gauge your health.

We heard this from Lieutenant Governor Kathy Hochul who criticized parents who opt their children out of tests because this won't prepare them for more tests in the future - like the SAT and global competition.

We heard it from editorial boards like the Buffalo News who claimed in an editorial that the opt out movement is made up of "ill-informed" parents who have been "hoodwinked" by the teachers unions (never mind that opt out began years ago and the teachers unions wanted nothing to do with it until earlier this month - that would be NYSUT - and the UFT still wants nothing to do with it.)

We heard it from Regents Chancellor Tisch who threatened parents with "national tests" if they opt their children out of the state tests, as if somehow parents can't opt their children out of the "national tests" too (which, btw, are made by the same company as the state tests anyway, so I don't see what the threat is here.)

Every day we see more and more propaganda from the pro-Common Core, pro-Endless Testing regime people who are TERRIFIED by the prospect of hundreds of thousands of parents opting their children out of the state tests this year leading to hundreds of thousands more opting their children out next year and the entire "Accountability Agenda" starving to death from lack of data.

The shriller they get, the more scared they are.

And from the shrillness we've seen this week from the pro-Common Core, pro-Endless Testing regime groups and individuals, we know they are very scared indeed.