MaryEllen Elia Provides A Toolkit To Repaint The Common Core And Put On A Whole New Show

NYSED has put up an "Assessments Toolkit" for superintendents that basically boils down to "Tests are awesome!" and "Here's how to sell them to parents!"

This toolkit is intended to help superintendents communicate with parents and educators in their districts about the value and importance of the annual Grades 3-8 English Language Arts and Math Tests. The toolkit is completely optional and contains customizable materials such as a letter to parents, a PowerPoint presentation about the higher learnings standards and assessments, and sample Twitter and Facebook posts. Superintendents are encouraged to check out these materials and use them if they would be an effective way to reach their parents and educators. Additional resources will be added in the coming weeks and months, so please check back often.

Peter Greene nailed the absurdity of the site in his post on it earlier today, so if you haven't read his piece, you should go over and do so now.

The thing I need to say here is, I always thought new NYSED Commissioner MaryEllen Elia was full of it when she said she was going to listen to parents and educator concerns over Common Core and the Endless Testing regime.

That comment she made early on, that she wanted to"repaint" the Common Core so that parents would see how swell it was always stuck with me and came immediately to mind as I perused her "Tests are awesome!" toolkit.

In the letter she sent to superintendents selling the toolkit, Elia wrote:

My goal is to reduce opt outs by educating parents and teachers about the benefits of implementing higher learning standards and the important information annual testing provides. I will continue to travel the state, meeting and engaging parents and educators while working with you and your districts to help encourage families to fully participate in the New York State educational program.

There you have it - the MaryEllen Elia "I'm Listening" tour actually is a misnomer.

It's really the MaryEllen Elia "Testing is Awesome!" tour and it's coming to a town near you.

If not, Elia has provided superintendents with "tools" to put on a show of their own:

The toolkit is designed to help superintendents communicate with parents and educators about the higher learning standards and the assessments. In my experience, the more information parents and teachers have about the tests, the more likely they are to participate. These tests are not a means of punishment but rather are a diagnostic tool used to make decisions about student instruction and teacher training. They are also the only objective measure we have to know how well all of our students, schools, and districts are doing. I ask you to examine these optional resources, and if you choose to, customize them for your school community and share them with your parents and educators.

Nothing new in the script, that's for sure (we need this data to know how kids are doing!!!) - but at least we can now dispense with the jive that Elia's listening to parent and educator concerns.

This "toolkit" proves she could care less what parents and educators think or feel about Common Core or the Endless Testing regime - she wants them to simply shut up and have the kids take their tests.

This is all about knocking down those opt out numbers in April - as is Cuomo's Common Core task force, which also isn't all that interested in hearing from anybody who doesn't already agree with the governor.

In any case, I'm going to wager that Elia's "Repaint The Core" show doesn't go over so well with either parents or teachers, that it actually has the opposite effect Elia hpes it will have.

Opt Out Poses Serious Threat To Elites

You can hear how threatened the elites are by the Opt Out movement in the shrillness of this NY Times editorial attacking opt out as "an alarming...ill-conceived boycott."

The shriller the elites get in their pushback against ordinary citizens stepping up to protect themselves against the abuses of the state, the more you know how threatening that movement really is

The elites know they are stuck between a rock and a hard place with the Opt Out movement.

They have paid lip service to parent and teacher concerns over the Endless Testing regime but in the end have gone full steam ahead with it anyway.

Numerous complaints have been made about the badly designed Common Core tests based upon the fundamentally flawed Common Core "State" (Sic) Standards tied to the irrationality of the APPR teacher evaluation system, but the response from the elites has been "Shut up and take your tests - we know what is best for you!"

With the opt out numbers hitting the 20% benchmark (reformers love benchmarks) from 5% the year before, the elites know this "Shut up and take your test!" response isn't playing anymore, so they trot out the race card (the Opt Out movement is racist because it deprives children of color their civil right to a standardized test), they trot out the class card (they attack the movement as mostly white and affluent, though the opt out numbers from this year show that many of the districts where opt out was greatest were middle class) - anything to attack the movement and put an end to it.

Again, the elites know they are stuck between a rock and a hard place with the Opt Out movement.

They used to ignore the movement, then mock it, as small and marginal, but that's hard to do now that the opt out rate has hit 20% and threatens to go higher next year.

They can try and hit districts with high opt out rates with sanctions, taking resources away from schools and children, but that doesn't seem like a politically palatable thing to do.

One thing they are loathe to do - actually listen to the criticism of parents and teachers and come to some real and legitimate compromise on education policy (not one of those phony Arne Duncan compromises that work like this - agree with Arne and now we have compromise!)

It will be interesting to see where the elites go now.

The threat is real, the threat is growing and shrillness in response isn't going to put an end to it, that's for sure.

Message To Cuomo, Tisch, And NYSED: You Can Keep Your Common Core Tests

From the Buffalo News:

The cafeteria at an elementary school in West Seneca was as quiet as a library Tuesday morning as dozens of children filled the benches. They read books and worked on school assignments.

What they weren’t doing was taking the first day of state standardized tests.

The children were among more than 2,000 third- through eighth-graders at West Seneca Central School District campuses – 70 percent of eligible students – who opted out of the hotly debated tests, which were administered for the third year in alignment with the Common Core learning standards.

They weren’t alone.

In the Lake Shore School District, 58 percent of kids opted out.

In North Tonawanda, inside sources said about 56 percent of students didn’t take the test.

At Lackawanna, just shy of 50 percent. Springville-Griffith had 42 percent, with three quarters of fifth-graders at one elementary school opting out.

In Kenmore-Tonawanda, where the School Board had seriously considered opting the entire district out, 37 percent refused.

Last year, by contrast, only about 5½ percent of Western New York students refused to take the tests, according to one survey.

From the Democrat and Chronicle:

There were thousands of empty seats across Monroe County on Tuesday as students refused to take the New York English Language Arts exam, the first of six days of required testing.

The New York State Education Department has repeatedly warned of consequences for districts that have more than 5 percent of their students opt out; it has now become clear that schools across the state will sail past that threshold. Final numbers were not available from most districts, but parents and teachers reported large opt-out numbers at many schools for students in grades 3-8.

The Rochester School District did not release official numbers, but the Rochester Teachers Association reported that about 80 percent of students at World of Inquiry School 58 refused the test. Fairport had 67 percent of its students opt out, according to Interim Superintendent Bill Cala.

About 45 percent of eligible students refused in Webster and about 43 percent in Irondequoit, according to the districts. Pittsford is at about 25 percent and Greece is at about 15 percent.

From Newsday:

Thousands of Long Island elementary and middle school students -- in record numbers in some districts -- refused to take the state's English Language Arts exam Tuesday, the first of three days the test is being given in public schools statewide.

About 16,000 students in grades 3 through 8, in 21 school districts in Nassau and Suffolk counties, opted out of the test, according to responses...

The number of students refusing to take the state tests in New York is much higher than anticipated:

School leaders across New York for weeks have been anticipating a large number of opt-outs by students, said Bob Lowry, deputy director of the New York State Council of School Superintendents.

“But I think the numbers exceeded expectations in many districts,” Lowry said after the first day of English Language Arts tests.

The Daily News estimates the number of opt outs around the state might be as high as 300,000 students - nearly a third of all students who were expected to take the state Common Core exams.

The response from the Cuomo administration?

The Cuomo administration had no comment Tuesday morning on the high refusal rates seen in some Western New York school districts.

Corporate education reformers are panicking:

ALBANY—High Achievement New York, a pro-Common Core coalition that includes business groups, will launch a six-figure radio and digital advertising campaign on Wednesday encouraging parents to “opt in” their children to state exams.

The campaign aims to combat the growing movement of children refusing state tests—tens of thousands of parents are believed to have boycotted the tests that began yesterday—fueled by parent activists and, more recently, teachers’ unions.

The radio spots, which are in English and Spanish and feature New York Urban League president Arva Rice, as well as a public school teacher and two parents, will run in New York City and its suburbs. The digital advertisements will run statewide.

And what's in those ads?

The usual corporate education reform talking points about testing:

“If your son or daughter is in the third through eighth grade, I want you to know this month’s state assessments are crucial for their future,” teacher Pat Sprinkle says in one of the ads. “Almost two-thirds of our students graduate from high school without being ready for college or a career. These tests are designed to fix that—they’re a check-up to make sure all our kids are getting the problem-solving and critical thinking skills needed to succeed.”

Corporate reformers also held a "roundtable" in Albany to discuss a poll they conducted in which they claim the public is overwhelmingly pro-testing:

Coupled with the ad campaign, the group is also releasing a recently conducted poll in which 92 percent of respondents believe tests that measure problem solving and critical thinking skills are very or somewhat valuable. Seven percent said such tests are not that valuable or not valuable at all.

According to the poll, 32 percent of respondents “strongly oppose” teachers’ unions’ encouragement of parents to “opt out.” Another 19 percent “somewhat oppose” the unions’ actions. Alternatively, 26 percent “strongly support” and 16 percent “somewhat support” the unions.

The poll was conducted in late March and early April with 600 respondents and has a 4 percent margin of error.

Along with the Business Council of New York State, High Achievement New York held a roundtable discussion on Tuesday afternoon in Albany on the results of the poll as well as the “opt out” movement. National and local chambers of commerce, education stakeholder groups and public and charter school administrators, teachers and parents were represented.

The panelists attributed some parents’ and teachers’ opposition to the Common Core to misinformation and a flawed implementation statewide. Parents often don’t understand the difference between the standards themselves and the testing and evaluations that have come to be associated with the Common Core, they argued.

Some panelists said educators’ fear about how Common Core-aligned tests will impact their performance evaluations has damaged public perception of the standards.

Corporate education reformers and their supporters can hold "roundtable" discussions and release polls purported to show how much the public loves testing all they want - it's clear from the record numbers of opt-outs coming in from around the state that a large number of parents have turned against the Common Core tests and the state's Endless Testing regime agenda.

But that won't stop the corporate education reformers from spending some of the Wall Street/hedge fund money backing them to try and muddy the waters of the issue - thus their dropping six figures on pro-testing ads that will run around the state.

It remains to be seen if those ads do anything other than fill some media outlet ad coffers.

This same group - High Achievement New York, a corporate-backed "non-profit" promoting corporate education reform - ran Common Core ads last year, dropping half a million on the effort starting in May 2014.

The ads did not seem to convince many New Yorkers that Common Core is swell - a Siena poll taken in January 2015 showed that New Yorkers opposed Common Core implementation 49%-33%.

Reformers are losing the battle over testing, no matter how many ads they run, how many roundtables they hold, how many rallies they have.

The record number of opt outs around the state this year shows where many parents stand on Common Core standardized testing and their children's education.

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.

No Wonder Regents Chancellor Tisch Is So Terrified Of The Opt Out Movement

Regents Chancellor Merryl Tisch threatened parents who opt their children out of the 3rd-8th grade state ELA and math tests yesterday:

ALBANY—If too many students "opt out" of Common Core-aligned state exams later this month, New York might be forced to administer national tests instead, Board of Regents chancellor Merryl Tisch said during a public radio interview on Tuesday.

“New York is in a unique position,” Tisch said on WNYC’s “The Brian Lehrer Show.” “Most other states in this country are being forced into two national tests. New York State took the opportunity over these last several years to build our own state tests, and that is exactly why I am particularly interested in curtailing this ‘opt out’ movement. Because in order for us to be able to have viable state test, we need a viable number of students in every district showing up to be tested. We need to have valid, reliable state assessments.

“In the absence of that critical number we will be forced, unfortunately—and I truly believe unfortunately—to adopt a national test,” she said.

Tisch is getting shriller by the day over parent and teacher pushback of her Endless Testing regime and there's a reason for that:

The opt out movement is growing and growing.

Take a look at some of the coverage in today's media from around New York:

From WSYR:  

Oneida (WSYR-TV) - Parents from all over Central New York will host different meetings across the area to inform other parents about opting their children out of New York State testing.

"Opt Out CNY" is a group formed after New York State implemented Common Core standards and has stepped up efforts this year. The renewed movement comes after Governor Andrew Cuomo's state budget plans to tie teacher evaluations to the same testing.

School districts are required to administer the exams, but individual parents have been sending letters to the schools that they're child won't be participating.

New York State is implementing new testing for English language arts and math for grades 3-8.

“Parents are often concerned that their refusal will result in a loss of funding to their school, harm the teacher’s evaluation, or prevent their child from participating in certain academic programs. Once we were armed with the facts that these fears are unfounded, it was easy for us to decide to refuse the tests,” added Dave Lupia, parent of three children who attend Harts Hill Elementary School in Whitesboro. “To me, my refusal is a vote of confidence in my children’s teachers and school, and a concrete way for me to express my concern about the laws recently enacted by our legislators.”

Parents who are unable to attend these forums can ask questions on social media at Opt Out CNY on Facebook, and sample refusal letters along with other information can be found at optoutcny.wordpress.com.

From LoHud:

Parents of children with special needs say the state tests that measure progress in math and English in grades three through eight are setting them up for failure with a one-size-fits-all approach.

They say the tests are developmentally inappropriate and create anxiety and frustration for their children. They worry that test-prep is eating into the time spent working on social and life skills. They also don't like their children's performance on tests being tied to their teacher's evaluations.

Many are considering opting out of the controversial Common Core-aligned exams, according to NYS Allies for Public Education, a parent and educator advocacy group.

...

"We are telling our kids they are failures," said Cheryl Smith, who teaches science at Albert Leonard in a collaborative classroom, in which half the children have special needs. "Tests are supposed to tell you something, but we already know what the outcome will be for these kids..."

Mahopac Middle School English teacher Tom McMahon said he would never consider allowing his son with special needs, now a first grader, to take the exams.

"Michael will have enough struggles in school without being used as a statistic on an exam with no diagnostic value and no value to his education," he said. "The last thing Michael needs is another test where he cannot possibly achieve success."

McMahon, who also lives in Mahopac, said none of his children will be taking the tests.

Rubino, whose son, John, is now a fourth grader in a collaborative classroom, worries that teachers won't want to teach those classes anymore for fear of being rated low. Under the new law, teachers rated ineffective on two rounds of state tests are required to be rated "ineffective" overall. Two consecutive ineffective ratings can get a teacher fired.

"If the class does poorly on the test, the teachers would be rated ineffective," Rubino said. "John's teachers are anything but ineffective — they are phenomenal."

From the Democrat & Chronicle:

Add the Working Families Party to the list of groups urging parents to consider opting their children out of state exams.

The labor-backed political party sent an email to its members and supporters Monday with links to instructions for taking their kids out of the grade 3-8 math and English exams, which will be administered beginning April 14.

Some parent and teacher groups have encouraged opting out of the tests, which helped lead to thousands of opt outs last year. The push got a boost earlier this month from New York State United Teachers union president Karen Magee, who suggested parents should consider keeping their kids from taking the exams.

"Opting out sends a powerful message to the Governor, the legislature, and the Board of Regents: that enough is enough when it comes to overtesting our kids, demonizing teachers, and undermining public education," wrote Bill Lipton, state director of the Working Families Party. "The parent-led movement is bringing pressure on politicians to change the teacher evaluation system to one that works for all of our kids, in high-income districts and low-income districts alike."

The push appears to have caught on among some liberal-leaning groups, including Citizen Action of New York, which has also added step-by-step opt-out instructions to its website. (Karen Scharff, executive director of Citizen Action, is also the co-chair of the Working Families Party.

The latest round of testing comes two weeks after Gov. Andrew Cuomo and lawmakers agreed to change the state's system for evaluating teachers. While the state Education Department will put the final touches on the system by June, the new law requires that a teacher whose students perform poorly on state exams can't get an overall rating better than "developing," the second-lowest score.

 Tisch claimed anybody pushing children to opt out of state tests is "ignoring the needs of children":

"Those who call for 'opting out' really want New York to 'opt out' of information that can help parents and teachers understand how well students are doing," Tisch said. "We cannot go back to ignoring the needs of our children. It's time to stop making noise to protect the adults and start speaking up for the students."

It seems the Regents Chancellor knows what's good for your children and you don't.

Governor Cuomo sends a similar message when he says he cares about students but teachers only care about their jobs and pensions.

It is time to send a message to authoritarian politicians like Andrew Cuomo and the political functionaries like Merryl Tisch and the educrats at NYSED that parents and teachers know what is best for children, particularly when they work with kids all day long and see the damage that the Endless Testing regime is doing to the children and school life.

Tisch is obviously already getting that message, which is why she is growing shriller by the day in her pushback.

Cuomo's probably getting the message too, but as an elected official with already falling approval ratings, he's staying away from criticism of the opt out movement for now.

But make no mistake, he'll jump aboard the "Opt Out Is Harmful Express" if and when he sees the movement is putting a shiv into his beloved new teacher accountability system.

These politicians, political functionaries and educrats are seriously threatened by this parent-led movement to opt out of the state tests and starve the corporate education reform machine of its precious data.

They know they can unfairly smear teachers as self-interested and selfish (as they've been doing for decades now) and win a few PR battles over testing, but that sure does get harder when they have to fight the parents in this state too.

De Blasio, Farina Full of Shit On Test Scores

The lede of this Eliza Shapiro piece at Capital NY:

Mayor Bill de Blasio and schools chancellor Carmen Fariña on Thursday praised the slight improvement in citywide test scores while reiterating their shared ambivalence toward testing in general.

At a press conference at the Brooklyn Brownstone School to announce the scores, de Blasio said, "This is a good day for the whole New York City school system," before adding, "a school is not the sum of its test scores."

Then this:

De Blasio said his administration's ultimate goal is to have "100 percent proficiency for our children."

Added Fariña, "I won't be happy until at the end of this year I can stand before you and say we've doubled or tripled the amount of proficiency. It could be a lot better and will be and I promise you that."

Asked for specific goals for test score performance next year, de Blasio declined to give a precise figure, saying only that he expects performance to increase steadily.

Okay, let me get this straight - de Blasio doesn't think a school is the sum of its test scores but has the ultimate goal of 100% proficiency on the state tests and Farina is ambivalent about testing but won't be happy unless she sees double or triple the proficiency on state tests next year.

Which is is, folks - are you ambivalent about testing and convinced that a school (and thus a school district) is not the sum of its test scores or are you going to push for 100% proficiency on a measure you say you don't care about?

Dunno about you, but my bullshit meter went up here.

De Blasio and Farina don't get to have it both ways - either they have ambivalence about testing and emphasize multiple measures to evaluate schools, students and teachers or they get consumed by the scores and look to double and triple proficiency with the ultimate (and ridiculous) goal of 100% proficiency.

And of course the truth is, de Blasio and Farina care about the test scores a lot, even though they won't tell you they do, because all the really important people in this city, state and country do and if they don't get these test scores up those really important people are going to say mean and nasty things about them and declare them failures and so forth.

I wish they were more honest about this and tell us straight up rather than jive us with their "ambivalence" over the testing and the scores, but as George Carlin said, language gives you away always and you can see that in the language that de Blasio and Farina use that they care very much about the scores.

You're A Winner If You Predicted A Slight Increase In NY Test Scores

As many of us predicted, NYSED and the Board of Regents rigged the state testr scores this year to go up slightly so they could point to "progress":

One year after scores plummeted following the state’s adoption of Common Core-aligned tests, city students collectively outpaced the rest of New York on both the math and English exams. In math, 34.5 percent of city students met or exceeded the state’s proficiency bar, up 4.4 points from last year. In English, 29.4 percent of students met or exceeded proficiency, a two-point gain.

The city’s gains meant it shrank the test-score gap between its scores and the state’s to the slimmest margin since 2006. Statewide, 35.8 percent of students were considered proficient in math this year, and 31.4 percent of students considered proficient in English.

“It’s a story of modest but real progress,” Board of Regents Chancellor Meryl Tisch said.

Uh, huh.

Or it shows this:

Increase of scores within the students will demonstrate to the public and "special interests" that common core is working and common core is the way for college and career. Deception at its best! Parents and teachers need to continue this fight to stop high stakes testing and common core.

And this:

Rigged. Totally Rigged. The scores will be a little bit better. A rigged salve to those who want to dismantle the garbage CCSS. A sickening manipulation, totally scripted with the purpose of ramming the Core down the throats of the public.

I'm going to go with Number 2 and Number 3.

They fool nobody with their jive anymore.

NYSED To Release Common Core Test Scores Today

From WIVB:

BUFFALO, N.Y. (WIVB) - The tests are over, and soon we will know the outcome of round two of Common Core testing. New York will release the results Thursday.

Students took the math and English tests in April. This is the second year of the controversial testing standards. New York students scored lower last year than they typically do on standardized tests.

The results are important because they influence teacher evaluation and student placement.

Predictions?

Buffalo News: Opt-Out Movement Gains Steam, Notice Of State Educrats

On the margins no more:

A boycott movement that has turned state standardized tests into a battleground is dividing school districts across the region and drawing the attention of state education leaders.

Roughly 7 percent of students in third through eighth grade in Erie and Niagara counties refused to take a state English exam earlier this month.

But in some districts, 15 to 28 percent of the students who should have taken the exam did not pick up their No. 2 pencils.

State Education Commissioner John B. King Jr. last week called the students and parents who opted out across the state a “small but meaningful percentage.”

...

Standardized tests have been required by federal No Child Left Behind education law for years. But an overhaul of learning standards and a decision to use the scores for a portion of teacher evaluations have fueled concerns over the way the tests are shaping public education. 

The parents’ message appears to have been heard in Albany. 

King, in a speech at New York University last week, said a “small but meaningful percentage of parents and students” who opted out of the new state assessments had “made their voices heard even if they are now denying themselves and their teachers the opportunity to know how their children are performing against a common benchmark used throughout the state.”

King grouped the test refusals in with a long list of noisy protests over education – from the ouster of New York State United Teachers President Richard Iannuzzi last week to a series of public forums dominated by complaints over state education policy last fall. 

“I try to focus on outcomes for students and to leave ideology and politics aside,” King said. “These days, however, New York politics seems to be all about education, and it’s hard to find any agreements on facts – let alone policy. And it’s also hard to see where everyone stands.”

Love it that King says he's leaving ideology and politics aside in this battle when the truth is, ideology and politics are at the core of the education reform fight.

King and his educrats want to call all of the shots in education, want to ensure that only what they want taught in classrooms all across the state gets taught and they use the tests and the teacher evaluations tied to the tests to accomplish that goal.

Can't get more political than that.

Chris Cerrone, parent and teacher, knows that and offers the Buffalo News a solution for taking King and the educrats on:

The goal of the parents is clear: to scale back the number of state standardized exams that are tied to teacher evaluations and school performance.

“It is making a political statement that we’re not going to let our children be used to evaluate teachers,” said Chris Cerrone, a Springville resident who frequently blogs about anti-testing efforts and who directed his two elementary school children to refuse the state English assessment this month.

Like many of the parents whose children opted out of the exams, Cerrone is also a teacher. But when Cerrone speaks out against testing, he said, he speaks as a parent concerned that his children receive a “well-rounded education.”

“It’s also to throw a monkey wrench into the system,” Cerrone said. “If a statistical number of students do boycott, then the tests are not valid for the purposes to judge a school or teachers, and I think that’s part of what we’re trying to accomplish.”

Starve the system of its precious data and you kill the political and ideological movement behind the system.

King can make believe he's above politics all he wants - he's as political in this fight as anybody else and he's on the wrong side of the politics.

I spent Monday with some family members and the subject of testing and education came up.

These are retired people, none of them teachers, but they had all heard about the opt-out movement and the damage the tests and the Common Core were doing to children.

One aunt said she had heard a story of how the children who used to love to go to school hated to go to school now because of the Common Core and the testing.

I often use family members as canaries in the coalmine to gauge how a particular story is playing out with the general public.

In the case of the Endless Testing regime and the Common Core, the trajectory does not seem to be going John King's way, not if my family members are any indication of what the public perception of the battle is.

The opt-out movement is gaining steam, gaining adherents, and some positive press coverage.

I can't imagine why John King's "Shut Up And Take Your Test!" movement isn't so popular with the public.

Cuomo Plans To Attack "Failing" Schools And School Districts in 2013-2014

He's ratcheting up the "death penalty" rhetoric for schools:

Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo said Thursday that he intends to put an end to the status quo when it comes to New York’s failing schools. Far from backing away from his recent comments calling for a “death penalty” for these schools, the governor said he intends to set benchmarks and consequences for schools – and school districts – when they don’t give students the education the students deserve.

“What I’m saying on education is, failing schools are not acceptable. Period. It has to end, and it has to end now,” he said in a meeting with The Buffalo News Editorial Board. “Our society’s willingness to perpetuate this situation is no longer acceptable. We need dramatic action, and it’s going to come to a head.”

Improvement models for failing schools might include a range of options, including restructuring poor schools as holistic “community schools” or having charter schools take over, he said. If an entire district is failing, the possibility of mayoral takeovers or state takeovers might exist, he said.

Interestingly enough, he seems to actually know that what schools in poor communities do is more than just, you know, function as schools:

Of the many options for changing failing New York schools, Cuomo spent the most time describing a “community school” concept, which would apply to schools serving children in poor neighborhoods.

“A school in a poor community is really not a school,” he said, “and to compare a school in a poor community to a school in a rich community – that analysis is bogus, because the school in a poor community is trying to do many more things than a school in a rich community.”

Society needs to acknowledge that schools filled with poor students serve different functions, Cuomo said, and are more of a cross between an educational institution and a community center that serves both social service and educational needs.

“In a rich community, you have the parents, you have the after-school care, you have a healthy home,” he said. “The school in a poor community is a school, a mentor, a nutritionist, a counselor. ... You have students where it’s not just an education problem. Then don’t call it an education problem, and don’t expect the teacher in a school to be able to wear seven hats with no money and no training and no resources.

“I call that community schools. That’s an alternative.”

Of course, as he adds more and more mandates to districts, as school are forced to spend more and more money on evaluations and testing and the like, they have less money to spend on social services and the wrap around support needed to help students succeed.

Is Cuomo aware of this?

He's many things, but he is not a stupid man.

I am sure he is aware of this.

In fact, I would bet it's part of his privatization plan - overburden districts with mandates, starve them of funding, force them to "fail," declare them "failing," take away democratic control of the district from an elected school board and put all the power into the hands of a mayor (or the state via takeover), shut down the schools, fire the teachers, reopen the schools as charters with a burn and churn teacher employment philosophy, hire non-unionized teachers, and enrich his charter school/hedge fundie buddies.

That's the plan Cuomo's got going.

Will he get away with it?

Perhaps.

Perhaps not.

There is Cuomo fatigue in Albany that has begun to set in.

His "reform agenda" is not a foregone conclusion.

One final thing from this article - Cuomo seems blissfully unaware of the insanity that is APPR.

He thinks it's a good, data-driven teacher evaluation system.

NYSED: You Cannot Opt Out Of The State Assessment System

From DNAinfo:

"There is not an opt out provision from the State assessment system," said Tom Dunn, a spokesman for the New York State Education Department.

Land of the free, home of the brave, but your kid MUST sit for the Pearson field tests.

The arrogance of these people in the Cuomo government and the NYSED and the Regents is just breath-taking.

But it will come back to haunt them.

The more they try and rule as authoritarians, the faster people are going to revolt against the system.

Katrina Vanden Heuvel: Standardized Tests Are High Stakes Weapons

A very good piece in the Kaplan Test Prep/Washington Post:

Let’s face it – nobody likes taking tests. Exams, by nature, elicit a certain amount of anxiety. Tension. Maybe even fear.

But New York’s high-stakes standardized tests, given to all public school students, have rattled way more than a few nerves. Enough students have actually thrown up on their tests that schools are reportedly circulating procedures on how to handle vomit-covered tests.

One Long Island superintendent told the Wall Street Journal that some kids did, indeed, get sick on their tests. One student went to the bathroom and wouldn’t come out. Many dissolved into tears. Others simply refused to take the test.

It’s no wonder that parents, educators and even students are spearheading a small but growing revolution to opt out of standardized tests. From Seattle to Pennsylvania, more and more students across the country are boycotting tests that many say are increasing stress, narrowing curriculum and, at worst, leading to the kind of cheating exposed in the recent Atlanta Public Schools scandal.
 
The opt-out movement is a symptom of a broader problem. At their best, assessments should track whether students have learned the material they’ve been taught — and give students the chance to show off what they know. Test results should provide a clear view of where students are struggling so that teachers can help them improve.

But in today’s high-stakes climate, families have come to dread the endless parade of bubble sheets that now dominate their kids’ lives. Many feel that the emphasis on standardized tests has focused instruction on how to answer multiple-choice questions instead of how to reason and think critically in an open-ended world.

Moreover, it seems that the school accountability movement has put the cart before the horse. In the past couple of years, 45 states and the District of Columbia have adopted the Common Core State Standards for Mathematics and English Language Arts. The standards focus on the knowledge, critical thinking and deeper reasoning skills that students need to thrive in today’s economy and to become lifelong learners.

But in New York, for example, officials have already rolled out tougher tests tied to these new standards. They did this even though teachers haven’t yet been trained in how to teach the standards, nor have they all been given the curriculum and supports to do so.

What’s happening in New York is playing out across the country. The Los Angeles Times recently quoted a teacher who tweeted that within a few years, “we start testing on standards we’re not teaching with curriculum we don’t have on computers that don’t exist.”

Accountability is, of course, important. But how can students be tested on material they haven’t learned?

Even Bill Gates, whose foundation has given millions of dollars to school districts to implement evaluation systems that use student test scores to reward and punish teachers, has evolved in his thinking. As he recently wrote, putting such a disproportionate emphasis on test scores doesn’t make sense for teachers or students. “If we aren’t careful to build a system that provides feedback and that teachers trust,” Gates wrote, “this opportunity to dramatically improve the U.S. education system will be wasted.” Gates is engaging with a former adversary, the American Federation of Teachers, to promote a less test-driven approach to teacher evaluation.

The opportunity is one we cannot afford to waste. Too many students — most of them poor and minority — are being denied an education that will prepare them to succeed in life. This is an unconscionable moral failure. But the well-intentioned efforts to address the problem consistently miss the mark when it comes to implementation.

In no other field is this acceptable. We would never tell a physician to simply try out a new medical technique or technology without any training. Telling teachers to “just do it” is not a strategy. We should instead invest in helping them succeed. That means working with them to develop the curriculum they need to teach the standards and providing them with ongoing support, professional development and feedback so that they can continually improve.

It also means acknowledging that the common core standards are one way to level the playing field for low-income students — but they’re not a silver bullet. We must address the socioeconomic barriers and systemic poverty that leave so many young people behind.

In short, to lead with testing is an abomination. That’s why American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten is calling today for a moratorium on the high-stakes part of high-stakes testing. In other words, she argues, we should first focus on properly implementing the common core standards before holding students and teachers hostage to them.

The high-stakes regime has come at a high price. It’s time to pay attention to the parents who are standing up for their kids by walking out of testing centers. And it’s time to invest our efforts and resources into what really matters – teachers teaching and students learning. 

There was much pushback from the high stakes standardized test crowd this morning.

But Vanden Heuvel gets this right:

In no other profession would they put the accountability measures in place before the skills and tools necessary to succeed were widely available.

Except in teaching, of course.

What do you mean they haven't developed the curriculum for the new standards and you had to try and cobble it together on your own on the Internets so that your students would be ready for it when it showed up on the new Common Core tests?

So what?

Clearly you just don't want to be held accountable for performance!

That's the message from the Common Core proponents in power in Albany and Tweed and in the media as well.

NY Daily News: Release The NY State Common Core Exam Questions

Even the Daily News editors, in another attack on children, teachers and schools today in their latest "Common Core Reveals How Stupid Children Are And How Clueless Teachers Are!" editorial, say the test questions should be released:

Opponents will do what they can to undermine the exams’ credibility, no doubt pointing out that Pearson, the test preparation company, has an unenviable record of glitches. Those include the nonsensical pineapple question on last year’s English exam and a scoring botch this year that shut thousands of kids out of gifted-and-talented programs.

Transparency will be key to maintaining trust.

When releasing the scores, the department should publish as many of the actual test questions as can be given out without compromising future exam integrity. It should also include data on how many kids got each question right or wrong.

The more parents know about what’s expected of their children, the better. As for fears that releasing the questions would encourage teaching to the test: They’re so demanding, there’s little chance of that. In fact, if instructors did teach to these tests, they’d wind up teaching an awful lot, particularly in how to master reading comprehension.

One line in the editorial is absolutely true:

"Transparency will be key to maintaining trust."

Pearson has a documented track record of problems that Alan Singer does a great job of laying out here.

Yes, there was the infamous Hare and the Pineapple episode from last year and the infamous Gifted and Talented test grading screw-ups from this year.

But there are also rumors that Pearson pulled whole chunks of this year's tests from their own Pearson Common Core practice books.

And then there is that little problem about the children not having enough time to finish the tests and somebody at Pearson deciding that the NY State Common Core tests would serve as advertising vehicles for Mugs Root Beer ("Mugs Root Beer is the leading line of root beer!" the children were told in a testing footnote) and other corporate products.

All of this is on top of the fact the tests contained material children had never seen because the Common Core curriculum has not been fully developed and given to teachers - a stubborn fact of reality which the Daily News and other corporate media outlets refuse to admit to in their pro-Common Core propaganda pieces.

There is much to disagree with in this DN editorial, but one thing I can agree on with the DN shysters posing as informed education editorialists - "Transparency will be key to maintaining trust" around these tests.

So release the tests to the public. 

Let's see the material, let's see the questions, let's see how much time was given for each section.

And stop threatening teachers with losing their licenses if they talk about the test material or worse, sending out Common Core KGB agents to infiltrate the Internets and the Twitterverse to find and root out alleged crimes against the Common Core regime.

Otherwise parents, teachers and the general public will just have to assume that Pearson, the Regents and the NYSED are hiding something.

Like the tests were not ready for prime time and they should not be used to make high stakes decisions for students, teachers or schools.

Daily News Editorial Writers Blame Everybody But The Politicians And Education Leaders

In their shrill, bullying editorial attacking parents who opt their children out of the state exams or parents who question the validity of implementing the Common Core tests before the Common Core standards are fully in place, the Daily News editorial writers say the following:

Yes, they were set up to fail, but not by the test. What these moms and dads need to recognize is that the school system at large has set children up to fail in this increasingly competitive world.

Set up to fail by a curriculum far less rigorous than it needs to be.

Set up to fail by teachers and principals who were clueless as to what it took to prepare a young person for college or a career.

Set up to fail by passing grades on previous tests that required students to show far too little mastery of reading, writing and math.

So according to the DN editorial writers, the children have been set up to fail by "clueless teachers and principals" and by a "curriculum that is less rigorous than it needs to be" and by the "school system at large."

Do you notice who they don't blame for setting the children up to fail?

You got it - the politicians and education leaders who put that "system at large" into place in the first place.

Those education leaders include Merryl Tisch, current Regents chancellor, the one lecturing us all about "rigor" and "authentic assessments" who has sat on the Regents board since 1995 and kept her mouth shut when former Regents Chancellor Mills was inflating grades on the state tests like balloons at the circus.

In fact, Tisch defended the old tests and the inflated scores, telling the press when asked if city and state officials had hyped the state test results that “They have never, ever, ever exaggerated" when stuidents showed record gains.

Tisch's defense of the system came in 2005.  Finally in 2010, after years of NAEP and SAT scores showed littie-to-no growth in NY State, Tisch admitted the state test scores had been inflated, and called for reforms to the system that helped bring about the reforms of the current Common Core tests.

 

Apparently the previous standards that weren't as rigorous as they needed to be were the fault of the "clueless teachers and prinicpals" rather than the Regents who created them and defended them - including Merryl Tisch - or the NYSED that implemented them or the politicians who appointed many of these people to their positions.

It is so interesting that the power-worshipping DN editorial writers somehow miss that it was the powers-that-be in Albany who developed the past standards, put them into place, created the old state tests and the grading rubrics for those tests and instead blame the teachers and principals who just carried out the policies that were put into place in Albany.

It's a fine example of scapegoating, which is what so many in the education reform world do so well.

PSMOM Nails The Obnoxious Daily News Editorial Board

The Daily News editorial page is a shrill place.

Yesterday they hammered parents who are opting their children out of the NY State Common Core tests as crybabies who are harming their children by not submitting them to the testing,

The tone of disdain in the editorial is high -it's the kind of disdain and contempt and patronizing scorn that the Daily News editorial writers usually reserve for public school teachers.

This time, they aim it at parents and children.

Here is the editorial in full:

All over New York, parents — some of them — are up in arms over the new state English exam students took last week. The most outraged of the lot had their children boycott the test.

They wailed: It’s too hard. It’s too long. The kids were never properly prepared. The kids were set up to fail.

Yes, they were set up to fail, but not by the test. What these moms and dads need to recognize is that the school system at large has set children up to fail in this increasingly competitive world.

Set up to fail by a curriculum far less rigorous than it needs to be.

Set up to fail by teachers and principals who were clueless as to what it took to prepare a young person for college or a career.

Set up to fail by passing grades on previous tests that required students to show far too little mastery of reading, writing and math.

The English exam was the first geared to new courses that challenge students to read and write more analytically. This week, the students take a math test aligned with material requiring more sophisticated computations.

Rather than attacking the tests, parents should look forward to the grades as the first honest assessment of their kids’ achievement level. And then tell the darlings to suck it up, and help them do better, because they very well can.

A commenter on the piece named PSMOM wrote a fine rebuttal:

How can you call a test an "honest assessment" when the kids being tested have never been taught what is on that test? Why attack teachers and principals as "clueless" when they have simply been doing their best to meet current standards and who often go well beyond that in ways that aren't simply teaching to the test? Why be a bully and call the children of NYC "little darlings"? Let's face it: The state was willing to throw our kids under the bus in order to snap up Race to the Top dollars. They agreed to new standards without bothering to get the kids up to speed. And you say the kids haven't mastered reading and writing? What about the company hired for millions to test them that has made gaffe after gaffe, including the latest G&T embarrassment? Maybe someone should test Pearson on their math skills. Because they seem to be worse than those of the students taking the test this year.

The shrillness we're seeing from the editorial boards over the op-out movement and the pushback to the Common Core standards in general shows how the education reformy types are feeling nervous that their whole reform house of cards is going to come tumbling down before they get it built.

That the DN editorial writers feel just fine about insulting and bullying both the parents and the students in this state who choose to op-out of the tests or question the validity of them ("suck it up...little darlings") also shows you how these reformers don't actually care about either students or parents - they care about getting their reforms through no matter the cost.

Critics of these tests have said again and again, we understand you think that the Common Core is so wonderful and the tests are so great, but since they standards and the tests have never been tested anywhere, why not pilot these changes in over time to make sure they work?

But the politicians and education leaders in this state - along with the media outlets that carry their water - have refused to pilot any of the reforms.

Not Common Core, not Common Core tests, not APPR.

Instead they have pushed everything through as quickly as they could and bludgeoned anybody who questioned the wisdom of these changes with criticism and insults.

That the shrillness level is increasing from the reformy side these days is a positive indication that they really are worried that they won a whole bunch of education reform battles over the last few years only to lose the whole war when parents starting opting their kids out of the system.