Pineapplegate, Or The Pineapple That Ate Pearson
By Norm Scott
Choose the best answer: a)Test b)Teach.
It is test mania throughout the land and the natives are
restless over the onslaught of high stakes standardized tests. Eighth-graders
taking the state’s English Language Arts assessment had to answer six questions
based on a bizarre and incomprehensible passage modified from an original
Daniel Pinkwater story featuring a talking pineapple that challenges a hare to
a race. The populace is wondering what the pineapple has up its sleeve. Well,
every 8th grader knows that pineapples can’t run and they should be
expected to know that pineapples have no sleeves, the answer to one of the
questions, by the way. Shhhhh. Don’t tell as this same passage may come up
again, as it did on tests in other states. More irrelevant multiple-choice
questions for which there are no right answers.
Pearson, the company that has become a mega-giant making big
bucks by helping push high stakes testing on all levels was paid $32 million on
this contract. For all that swag they should have included a free pineapple
with every test booklet. I can understand high school kids taking important
tests for college but 3rd graders and below being subjected to this
kind of pressure? This came in from a NYC parent: THIS FALL, KINDERGARTENERS
SITTING FOR STANDARDIZED TESTS? Mine can't sit for breakfast. A friend of mine
is 7 months pregnant and I’ve been begging her to walk around with a sign on
her belly saying, “Quiet please, testing.”
People opposed to the testing dictators, or the
“standardistas” as famed educator Susan Ohanian refers to them, have been
having lots of fun with this while also building a case against the impact of
these tests which do nothing to help teachers teach kids (since the results
come back at the end of the year) but are used instead to punish students,
teachers, schools and entire school systems. Rather than write a full piece
describing the reaction, I’ll just let some headlines from the many blogs that
dealt with this tell the story.
Accountability in the
Age of the Pineapple (NYC Parents who opted their child out of the tests).
Pineapple Rebellion
in full swing: Sometimes it happens that way. A single insipid test
question has sparked a rebellion and shone a light, not only on current
standardized testing practices, but on the whole testing industry and its
leading profiteer, Pearson Publishing (Mike Klonsky).
State Education
Commissioner John King Jr. defended the passage, but said that these questions
wouldn’t count (Gotham Schools).
Yong Zhao, godfather
of the anti-testing movement ---
“absurd, but unavoidable in standardized tests. Here is an item in the
first grade Chinese language test in Shanghai -Bees, birds, rabbits, and pandas
are all animals. Which one is different from the other three? If you don't know
the answer-- it is supposed to be Panda, according to the test maker, because
pandas need be cared in a zoo, while the other three do not.”
NYC principal opting her own children out of testing.
The Pineapple and the
Hare: Pearson's absurd, nonsensical ELA exam, recycled endlessly throughout
country (NYC Parent blog)
Fresh off “pineapple” episode, state identifies math exam errors (Gotham
Schools)
Dear parents: I hate
to tell you, but there’s news today of more mistakes on the NY State’s 4th and
8th grade math exams. Shouldn’t Pearson, who wrote these tests, lose their $32
Million contract over this? Given last
week’s example of Pineapplegate, where ’s the accountability for Pearson and
the NYS Education Department? --- Leonie Haimson
A statement has been adopted by more than 360 school boards
in Texas and a dozen other national education, civil rights, parent and
religious groups launched a National Resolution on High-Stakes Testing. It
calls on federal, state and local policymakers to reduce standardized test
mandates and, instead, base school accountability on multiple forms of
measurement. 1400 NY State principals signed on to it --- http://goo.gl/CyM5K
The National Education Association signed onto the
anti-testing resolution along with 80 other organizations (as of April 24). But
not Randi Weingarten’s AFT/UFT. Ho hum. My union is AWOL, as usual.
I’ve been with the Grassroots Education Movement (GEM) since
its founding in Jan. 2009 and we have been proud to be part of the movement to
not only end high stakes testing but to find better ways to judge students,
teachers and schools. We formed a committee called Change the Stakes and have
an active listserve and blog (changethestakes.wordpress.com) that has attracted
many NYC teachers and parents, including a brave group that have opted their
kids out of the tests despite threats from some principals to hold their kids
back.
Norm’s high stakes blog can be
found at ednotesonline.blogspot.com. Read it or face the stakes.
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