South Carolina Virtual School sends student packing

On October 8, 2011, South Carolina parent Gretchen Herrera was informed that her son was withdrawn by the virtual public school school officials due to her refusal to allow her son to take further standardized testing. School officials have ignored the complex existing medical condition and doctor's evaluation that the testing exacerbates the condition. The parent received this letter:

Dear Learning Coach,

The South Carolina Virtual Charter School is a virtual public school of choice, whereby students and their learning coaches are required to follow school policies and procedures to remain compliant and in good standing. As you recall, as part of the enrollment process, we requested that all families carefully read the 2011-12 Parent Student Handbook, sign the contract (located on page 27) and return to your homeroom teacher. By your signature and that of your son/daughter, this indicates your commitment to adhere to the schools rules and regulations addressed in the document.

Please understand that as a virtual public school we are obligated to the same state policies and procedures that our sister brick and mortar schools are required to follow. Therefore, we are accountable for student attendance, progress, reading, and answering K mails, submitting work and attendance at state testing and overall, being in good standing with the school.

As a result of your decision of being non-compliant, your student will officially be withdrawn from SCVCS October 10, 2011 and their name and contact information will be forwarded to the public school district in which you reside.
In closing, I am disappointed that SCVCS virtual learning did not meet your expectation and I wish you the best in your future endeavor.

Sincerely,
Director of Elementary and Middle School Education

Recent report on this story:
Shah, Nirvi, "Testing, No Testing, Too Much Testing", Ed Week, October 9, 2011.

States Where Parents Oppose Teaching to the Test

August 2011 research indicates parent opposition and resistance to mandated school assessment continues to grow. Opt Out of Standardized Tests is a new site listing the groups that have organized and a state-by-state run down of regulations, rules, and other related information on opting out. In some states opting out is fairly easy, in others, however, requests to opt out have been denied and met with threats. The gathering of information is on-going.

Find out what is happening in your state by visiting Opt Out of Standardized Tests.

NUT Report: No parent involvement wanted

Gretchen Herrera, a parent of a child with Asperger's Syndrome and Type 1 diabetes asked to opt out of testing on medical grounds. Her requests were received with threats, resistance, and ultimately denied. The professional opinions from his medical team were ignored. Her son liked the virtual charter school and took the first round of tests, not wanting to "disappoint" anyone.

Mom checked his blood sugar level after the test and it was sky high, just as the lead of his medical team indicated the testing would affect blood sugar levels. In a posting on Facebook, Herrera says that she will not infict the rest of the tests on her son.

Why must I be forced to do what my doctors, my son, and I know will harm him? I want my son to have access to the joyful, useful, relevant, real, and interesting learning experience that our tax dollars pay for? I’d happily take my tax dollars elsewhere, but unfortunately, our compulsory system of compliance doesn’t afford parents such options. I am forced to subject my son to that which will make him physically and emotionally ill if he is to get the education he he deserves. The system has failed and my child is being left behind.

Read the full story here.

NUT = No Unnecessary Tests

NUT Report: Parents Taking Their Case to D.C.

States Where Parents Oppose Teaching to the Test

For the last couple of weeks, I have been reading what parents have to say about schools that are no longer centers of learning, but rather centers of test preparation and testing. This map is the third update and reflects locations where parents have organized in opposition to excessive testing. Some parents have successfully opted-out, some have inquired and found it not possible, and others have decided to homeschool. There is no talk of political ideologies, the common unity between parents in these states is concern for their children's education. They are fed up with government at all levels. While parents have complained for years about teaching to the test, there is something new in this current level of dissatisfaction.

UPDATE: Leon County parent advises the middle school principal that her son will not take the FCAT. See the report below.

http://www.wctv.tv/floridanews/headlines/Can_Students_Opt_Out_of_the_FCAT_119520799.html

North Carolina Parents Lead Resistance Against New Tests

Parents with children in the Charlotte-Mecklenburg School (CMS) District are fighting mad over the sudden announcement of 52 new tests to be rolled out next week. The purpose of these tests is to measure teacher effectiveness. Parents want the school district to find other ways to evaluate staff that does not require excessive testing on their children. Parents are requesting to be pulled out of the testing. The school board will not permit opting-out; however, parents are saying they keep their kids home if they have to.

While North Carolina legislators attempt to reduce the level of required testing, the Charlotte-Mecklenburg School District announced it will trial 52 new tests. The school district has paid $1.9 million to design new year-end tests in reading, math, science, and social studies for grades K-8 and end-of-course exams for all high school classes. Kindergarten through second grade students will be tested one-on-one in four subjects - reading, math, science, and social studies. The test lasts one hour; for a class of 22 students, that is 44 hours of time spent on testing. An adult reads the question and the student replies or circles an answer. There must be another adult present during the testing to ensure teachers do not cheat. Schools are asking parents to volunteer to cover classroom instruction while the teacher conducts the testing.

While the CMS school district faces a shortfall of $100 million, anticipates layoffs of 560 school personnel including 400 teachers, and the closing of 10 schools, it used $1.9 million from its 09-10 budget for test development and projects ongoing costs of $300,000. CMS Superintendent explained that this testing initiative prepared for the new national exams being prepared by the federal government. National exams? That piece of information is creeping out.

Secretary of Education Arne Duncan is a "big fan" of CMS Superintendent Gorman. Duncan said that like CMS, the vast majority of school districts across the nation are being forced to do more with less.

“These are just tough times… There are no easy answers. That’s reality, and it’s not going to change anytime soon. We can either cry about it or we can figure out how to use every single dollar wisely and how we can create innovative partnerships and bring in the philanthropic community, the business community, and how we engage parents in different ways,” he said.

If there are even more new tests coming down the pike, how is this test development and example of using money wisely under such budgetary constriction?


http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2011/03/31/2184241/gorman-defends-cms-testing-as.html
http://www.thecharlottepost.com/index.php?src=news&srctype=detail&category=News&refno=2975

Education Reform: Parent Action Spreads

The highlights indicate the States where parent organizing against teaching to the test are in action. All indications suggest this is a growing grassroots movement. President Obama's recently announced proposals for changing No Child Left Behind (NCLB) are likely to fuel more action. Here are some highlights from the President's education reform plan with regard to testing:

NCLB Status Quo:  Rely on unsophisticated bubble tests to grade students and schools.


The Obama Plan:   Support better tests.  The Obama Administration has invested $350 million to support states in their efforts to create more sophisticated assessment systems that measure problem solving and other 21st century skills and that will provide teachers will timely information to help them improve instruction.

NCLB Status Quo:  A narrow curriculum focused only reading and math.


The Obama Plan:  Invest in state and local efforts to develop a well-rounded curriculum and allow states to include subjects beyond reading and math in their accountability system.


SB736 mirrors the goals the Obama Administration has in mind as educational reform. So, if you are a supporter and proponent of SB736, then you will be cheering. On the other hand, if you were concerned about the lack of details, lack of cost analysis, and continuing an obsession with tests, then things are not looking so good.


Read the President's education plan here.

UPDATE: EDWEEK reports that U.S. Department of Education spokesman Justin Hamilton "clarified" Obama's statement about too much testing, by countering it:

"While we're open to how we can best assess student progress in subject areas like history and science, we believe annual measures in reading and math are needed to assess progress toward college- and career-readiness. More must be done to improve the quality of those assessments, so that they're a more meaningful measure of student learning..."

That certainly clears things up now....clear as mud. The President prefers less, the U.S Office of Education prefers the more.

Parents Opt-Out of Standardized Testing

Arne Duncan heard complaints from parents in 42 states about the conversion of schools into testing mills. This month, President Obama acknowledged testing reform is needed. He announced a $300 million grant aimed at revamping standardized tests.

"There will be testing," he said. "We can have accountability without rigidity -- accountability that still encourages creativity inside the classroom, and empowers teachers and students and administrators."

CNN reports that Pennsylvania parents are registering their displeasure by opting-out of the two-week standardized testing required by NCLB. The parents are using established procedures in that state. Michele Gray is one parent who decided her two sons would not participate in the testing this year because she believes the tests are not accurate measurements of accomplishment, create undue anxiety for the students, and are used to punish schools.

"The more I look at standardized tests, the more I realize that we have, as parents, been kind of sold a bill of goods."

The report included views of testing proponents, who believe that opting-out does a disservice to school children. According to United Negro College Fund President and CEO Michael Lomax:

1) "Testing is a parent's ally" and that in order to compete with countries like China and India U.S. schools need to be held to a higher standard. And testing, he says, is the way to do it."

2)"The testing isn't the reason the schools are failing. The instruction is the reason the schools are failing," Lomax insisted.

Mr. Lomax is misinformed on both counts.

For the last 30 years, the federal government has declared an educational crisis. The current "crisis" stemming from our nation's ability to compete globally is based upon the performance of US students on the Programme of International Student Assessment (PISA).

What is PISA?

A cross section of students at public and private schools, between the ages of 15 years 3 months old and 16 years 2 months, are selected from schools that voluntarily participate. A minimum of 4,500 per country are required to participate in the test. Shanghai placed #1 on test results, but Shanghai is not a country. Approximately 35% of Chinese students do not make it to high school.

Singapore: Few test high achievers are worldbeaters 20 years later

Singapore is in #2 position on PISA results. With a population of 4,424,133, the central government controls and manages the country’s school system, which includes technical and vocational training schools for high school students. The language of instruction in Singapore is English. The United States has a population of 308,400,408 and individual states control educational standards and testing initiatives. The FCAT is an example of a state-centric exam.

Journalist Fareed Zakaria interviewed Singapore's Minister of Education, Tharman Shanmugaratnam, asking for an explanation of "the fact that even though Singapore's students do so brilliantly on these tests, when you look at these same students 10 or 20 years later, few of them are worldbeaters anymore. Singapore has few truly top-ranked scientists, entrepreneurs, inventors, business executives or academics. American kids, by contrast, test much worse in the fourth and eighth grades but seem to do better later in life and in the real world. Why?"

“We both have meritocracies,” Shanmugaratnam said. “Yours is a talent meritocracy, ours is an exam meritocracy. There are some parts of the intellect that we are not able to test well ─ like creativity, curiosity, a sense of adventure, ambition. Most of all, America has a culture of learning that challenges conventional wisdom, even if it means challenging authority. These are the areas where Singapore must learn from America.”

China changes its system to develop more like Bill Gates

Tom Walkins, a former Michigan state Superintendent of Michigan Schools, is now a consultant and travels frequently to China. He says that the Chinese are changing to be more like the U.S.

He says Chinese educators, historically trained to deliver a top-down education that relied heavily on standardized testing and rote memorization, now focus almost obsessively on two things: creativity and innovation.
In China, "the biggest question is, 'How do we create Bill Gates?' " he says. "Everywhere I go, from meeting with a minister of education to being out in the countryside, that's what they're striving for." Oddly enough, he says, China's transformation has taken place over the past nine years — exactly as long as U.S. schools have been grappling with NCLB. "While we're moving closer to their historical model, they're looking at ways to pull away," he says.

Lomax repeats the narrative from testing proponents that instruction is the problem. This particular argument is not supported with evidence, but used frequently in the last few years.

Conclusion

There is no question that accountability is necessary. Testing has always been a part of the educational experience. The information that is obtained from the international tests has value and the recent results confirm what we have already known for sometime without this test data. There is a widening student achievement gap based on socio-economic factors. This gap is a serious problem and needs a targeted solution; but a meaningful solution does not equal to a testing obsession. Turning our educational system into an "exam meritocracy" is no goal at all and harmful to what has made this nation a global leader.

Parents are not the only ones realizing they've been sold a bag of goods. Taxpayers are asking questions. There are rarely answers and less honesty. Pennsylvania parents who choose to opt-out are doing the right thing.

http://www.cnn.com/2011/US/03/20/pennsylvania.school.testing/index.html?iref=allsearch
http://www.newsweek.com/2006/01/08/we-all-have-a-lot-to-learn.html
http://www.usatoday.com/news/education/2011-03-18-schooltesting18_ST_N.htm

© SandraInBrevard
Avatar: www.clipartheaven.com

Education Reform: Boondoggling along

As SB736/HB7019 heads to Governor Scott's desk for signature, questions continue on costs. The Senate Pre-K12 Appropriations subcommittee peppered Commissioner Smith on costs, even though these committee members are the most knowledgeable on the question of costs. An article in the Tampa Gradebook asked if the questions indicate the bill went through too fast. Race to the Top funds will pay for most of the development of new tests, but no word on funding after federal funds run out. The merit pay portion of the bill receives no new money. Governor Scott indicates that he will sign the bill without answers to basic costs question indicating he is apparently satisfied that there will be no impact on taxpayers.

President Obama has presented his educational reform "Blueprint" modifying portions of No Child Left Behind, a welcome aspect; however, the plan includes additional testing to measure growth before the high-stakes test and pinpoint areas that require more attention. The rationale is that the correct things are not being tested. Congress is in a budget cutting mood and education will not get special attention on the chopping block.

Nationwide, parent unhappiness over the obsession with testing is getting some notice.

Duncan last September said he has visited 42 states and that nearly everywhere he went, teachers, parents, principals and lawmakers complained that what's taught in school is narrowing as more teachers focus on improving scores in standardized tests, especially in schools with large numbers of disadvantaged students.

Pennsylvania allows parents to "opt out" of standardized testing and there is a movement to do just that in order to cause a shift away from schools as testing factories.

Under Pennsylvania Code Title 22 Chapter 4, section 4 (d)(5), parents have the right to opt out of testing for their children. The exemption is “religious,” but the Pennsylvania Department of Education confirmed this includes any moral, psychological, philosophical or even medical objection. The reason cannot be challenged.

A large national "opt-out" movement, will impact the quantity and frequency of tests and the way the results are used. Such a movement would impact the vast amount of dollars spent on test development, scoring, and implementation costs. Apparently, the only "opt-out" provision available in Florida is to homeschool or find a private school, where other accountability rules apply.

Against this backdrop, there are clear supporters of maintaining the status quo on the testing routine.



http://www.centredaily.com/2011/03/11/2575400/pssas-put-burden-on-schools-students.html#ixzz1H75J7RSo
http://www.usatoday.com/news/education/2011-03-18-schooltesting18_ST_N.htm