High-stakes standardized tests and CCSS, they're a great way to measure… profits

High-stakes standardized tests & #CCSS, they're a great way to measure… profits. #LAUSD #edreform @skrashen @susanoha pic.twitter.com/Gn4LXB9KHi
— Robert D. Skeels (@rdsathene) February 4, 2014

High-stakes standardized tests and CCSS, they're a great way to measure… profits

An event with both FairTest's Monty Neill, and MAP boycott organizer Jesse Hagopian? Yes!

An event with both @FairTestOffice's Monty Neill, and MAP boycott organizer @JessedHagopian? Yes! #LAUSD pic.twitter.com/c2JyAu0UDC
— Robert D. Skeels (@rdsathene) October 2, 2013

A recent fact sheet from FairTest challenges some of the myths about the coming Common Core tests:
http://fairtest.org/common-core-assessments-factsheet

Myth: Common Core tests will be much better than current exams, with many items measuring higher-order skills.
Reality: New tests will largely consist of the same old, multiple-choice questions.
Proponents initially hyped new assessments that they said would measure – and help teachers promote – critical thinking. In fact, the exams will remain predominantly multiple choice. Heavy reliance on such items continues to promote rote teaching and learning. Assessments will generally include just one session of short performance tasks per subject. Some short-answer and “essay” questions will appear, just as on many current state tests... The prominent Gordon Commission of measurement and education experts concluded Common Core tests are currently “far from what is ultimately needed for either accountability or classroom instructional improvement purposes” (Gordon Commission, 2013).

Jesse Hagopian, a teacher at Garfield High School in Seattle, will describe how he and his colleagues decided to embark on a risky boycott of a mandated standardized test that was to be used as part of their evaluations, how they gained national support, and how they won.  Here's an interview with Jesse from Democracy Now!http://www.democracynow.org/2013/5/20/seattle_teachers_students_win_historic_victory.  As the Garfield teachers wrote in their boycott statement:

"We are not troublemakers nor do we want to impede the high functioning of our school. We are professionals who care deeply about our students and cannot continue to participate in a practice that harms our school and our students. We want to be able to identify student growth and determine if our practice supports student learning. We wish to be evaluated in a way so that we can continue to improve our practice. The MAP test is not the way to do any of these things. We feel strongly that we must decline to give the MAP test even one more time."

Hope you can join us to hear from Monty, Jesse, and our other amazing panelists tomorrow night!

Teaching for Liberation or Teaching to the Test?
Thursday, October 3rd from 6-8pm. 
UTLA auditorium at 3303 Wilshire Blvd. 
Refreshments and childcare will be provided.

Featured speakers include:

• Jesse Hagopian, a leader of the Seattle testing boycott
• Maday Martinez-Molina, student activist from the Schools LA Students Deserve Campaign
• Martha Ramirez and Stephany Ortiz, student activists with the Politics and Pedagogy Collective
• Cathy Garcia, formerly of Crenshaw High, activist in Progressive Educators for Action
• and Monty Neil from FairTest, a national organization that fights against unfair high-stakes testing

Here are some links with more information on each of the panelists and a flyer to invite others to this event:

Politics and Pedagogy Collective: https://www.facebook.com/politics.pedagogy

Jesse Hagopian, a leader of the successful Seattle teachers' boycott against the MAP test: 
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/wp/2013/05/16/seattle-teachers-boycotting-test-score-a-victory/

Monty Neil of FairTest - an organization that fights against unfair high-stakes testing: http://fairtest.org/

Cathy Garcia formerly of Crenshaw High School: http://rethinkingschoolsblog.wordpress.com/2012/11/13/crenshaw-high-and-the-battle-over-school-reform/  and PEAC: http://www.progressiveeducatorsforaction.com/

Schools LA Students Deserve Campaign: http://www.schoolslastudentsdeserve.com/

Sponsored by Progressive Educators for Action, Coalition for Educational Justice, The Schools LA Students Deserve Coalition, Politics and Pedagogy Collective, and the Union Power Coalition. 

An event with both FairTest's Monty Neill, and MAP boycott organizer Jesse Hagopian? Yes!

SKrashen: The cost of the new standards

Sent to the Hartford Courant, September 21, 2013

The estimate of $1.19 billion to implement the Common Core Standards is a tiny percentage of the real cost ("Common Core Standards To Change State's Education Landscape," Sept. 21).
The new tests must be administered online. Many districts lack enough up-to-date or even working computers, and even if computers are in place, there will be continual upgrades and replacements as well as major changes as new technology is developed.
Taxpayers will have to pay for all of them. Because no evidence has been provided showing that online testing will benefit students in any way, this adventure is a boondoggle.
Whether or not the tests help students, computer and testing companies will make a lot of money taking no risk. If student achievement declines, we will be told that we need even higher-tech tests, and we will be presented with National Test 2.0.

Stephen Krashen

SKrashen: The cost of the new standards

UCLA IDEA: Standardized Tests Don't Measure Education Quality

UCLA IDEA is often quite good on issues, even though they represent an only slightly left-of-center viewpoint. UCLA as a whole sometimes does excellent work, like their study on how so-called school choice and the charter school industry have brought back Jim Crow with a vengeance. They (namely IDEA) also sometimes work with right-wing groups funded by the Broad Foundation, like ICS. Now that I've returned to UCLA, I know it's my responsibility to praise them when they get it right, and call them out when they get it wrong.

This essay, for the most part, is excellent. That is until it calls corporate core a "promising education reform." The corporate garbage that is CCSS must be resisted at every turn. That said, this piece bears reprinting precisely because it shows that even progressive liberals agree with the principled left that standardized tests are considered harmfull.

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Standardized Tests Don't Measure Education Quality

By UCLA IDEA

Over 14 years ago, testing expert W. James Popham summarized what was, even then, “old news” about American policymakers’ love of standardized testing:

Educators are experiencing almost relentless pressure to show their effectiveness. Unfortunately, the chief indicator by which most communities judge a school staff's success is student performance on standardized achievement tests.

It’s a bitter irony that the same testing policies that have distracted the nation from fixing what’s wrong with our education systems are still being promoted. The medicine prescribed for ailing schools has helped make 21st century schools sicker, so we double the dose. In his piece for the 140,000-member ASCD, Popham went on to say,

Employing standardized achievement tests to ascertain educational quality is like measuring temperature with a tablespoon. Tablespoons have a different measurement mission than indicating how hot or cold something is. Standardized achievement tests have a different measurement mission than indicating how good or bad a school is.

We have years of evidence about what educators and policymakers can and cannot honestly do with test results; but this evidence, typically, is not decisive in determining school testing policy. Those who advocate expanding the use and power of standardized tests continue to capture the attention of policy leaders.

In the face of severe, indisputable, and embarrassing criticism, some high-profile testing advocates have backtracked on their unqualified support for tests; however, they appear willing to sustain what many experts and education professionals say are inevitable inequalities, wrong judgments, and other harms.

For example, promising education reforms such as the Common Core State Standards are likely to carry the burden of test misuse. The purpose of the new standards, which have been adopted by 45 states, the District of Columbia, and four territories, is to “provide a consistent, clear understanding of what students are expected to learn, so teachers and parents know what they need to do to help.” AFT President Randi Weingarten does not want testing to overwhelm Common Core before teachers have time and professional development to change curricula and adjust instruction (Education Week). Weingarten said, “These standards, which hold such potential to create deeper learning, are instead creating a serious backlash—as officials seek to make them count before they make them work.”

Even as some test advocates concede the serious shortcomings of the prevailing testing regime, they want schools to press on with the tests—just iron out the rough spots in order to preserve all the good that testing does or will do as soon as they get it right. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan appears to be in this category. Last week, Duncan’s audience at the annual American Educational Research Association conference appreciated his strong criticism of how some schools were misusing standardized tests. For example, he alluded to a Florida case where some k-2 teachers have sued because they were evaluated based on grades of students they never taught and are already years ahead. However, Duncan lost the favor of many attendees when he said, “The solution to mediocre tests is not to abandon assessment” (EdSource Today).

That sleight of hand mischaracterized testing critics who strongly favor better, proven, and responsible assessments such as formative assessments that help students and teachers identify individual strengths and needs as well as inequities within the system (EdSource Today, Education Week). Rather, Duncan’s critics take issue with policies that require schools to use tests irresponsibly. Further, many of these tests and their uses are not just mediocre, they are actively harmful. 

Duncan’s position echoed that which has followed recent testing scandals. For example, cheating at all levels of Atlanta Public Schools and an emerging Washington, D.C. scandal are widely interpreted as the acts of a few bad apples or weak oversight and regulation. However, these incidents expose a much deeper core problem. Attaching test scores to high-stakes decisions, including judgments of individual teachers’ competence, affects careers for teachers and learning opportunities for students. The temptation is powerful to falsify or cheat or teach to the test (EdSource Today). High-level administrators and high-profile politicians such as Duncan rarely dwell on the structural flaws that are inherent in fiercely competitive, score-driven American schooling—flaws that work in concert with unfairly distributed resources.

UCLA IDEA: Standardized Tests Don't Measure Education Quality

Teaching Beyond the Bubble: Take a Stand for Meaningful Teaching and Learning in LAUSD!

Teaching Beyond the Bubble: Take a Stand for Meaningful Teaching and Learning in LAUSD!

Thursday, March 21, 2013, 4:00—6:00 PM
LAUSD Headquarters
333 S. Beaudry Ave.
Los Angeles, CA 90017

Teaching Beyond the Bubble: Take a Stand for Meaningful Teaching and Learning in LAUSD! by Robert D. Skeels

Our students are sick of mindless worksheets, decontextualized readings, and multiple-choice tests. They deserve access to a robust and meaningful curriculum that challenges them to think outside of the box, not just fill in bubbles!   John Deasy's unilateral directive to use student test scores for 30% of a teacher's evaluation will further intensify the destructive testing culture in our schools. Come out to rally for the schools L.A. students deserve!  

This fun action will include music performances, theater, and a Scantron art contest as well as student, parent, and teacher speakers. Bring signs that show how the testing mania is affecting YOUR school!

Sponsored by Progressive Educators for ACtion (PEAC). For more information, contact Jess at 213-572-8499 or j.kochick@gmail.com, or check out www.progressiveeducatorsforaction.com!

Teaching Beyond the Bubble: Take a Stand for Meaningful Teaching and Learning in LAUSD!

Schools Matter: Obscuring history and human agency through NCLB, RTTT and CCSS

"Prior research, then, strongly suggests that charter programs have not lived up to their initial promise of transcending the segregating effects of traditional district boundary lines. In fact, these studies indicate charters exacerbate already rampant school segregation, particularly for Black students." — Erica Frankenberg, Genevieve Siegel-Hawley, Jia Wang

The Smith and Carlos Statue
at San José State University

I was reading Dave Zirin's latest piece, Fists of Freedom: An Olympic Story Not Taught in School, this morning and several things stood out and had me thinking in terms of how Common Core State Standards (CCSS) and its related high-stakes testing regimes not only distort curriculum, but how they are intended to distort students' consciousness of their reality.

See my Schools Matter post, Obscuring history and human agency through NCLB, RTTT and CCSS, for the rest of this essay.

Published 2012-07-25 on Schools Matter, please read it there and share widely.

Schools Matter: Obscuring history and human agency through NCLB, RTTT and CCSS