“I want my school to use tests to help instruction, to help find out if kids don’t know fractions,” she said. “I don’t want my child to feel like her score will decide if her teacher has a job or not. -- NY Times articleExcellent NYT article on growing opt-out movement here in NYC where two groups, Change the Stakes (an outgrowth of GEM's testing committee that has taken on a life of its own) and Parent Voices are featured.
UPDATE FROM LEONIE:
A few minor comments: NYSED claims we need field tests because they "saved money" by printing out only a few copies of the test? Ridiculous! Developing, giving and scoring separate field tests are much more expensive that printing out different versions of a test.Also, it’s startling to see Adina Lopatin quoted as the deputy chief academic officer at DOE. When she started at DoE a few years back, as chief of staff in Liebman’s Accountability office, she was just one year out of graduating from college (BA in History from Yale in 2005). She has no experience teaching (not even in TFA!) or in ed policy. I remember asking her why test scores were such an overwhelming part of the school grading system, and suggesting that survey results be given a larger portion, and she intimated that she agreed. Sad. Now she is high up in the DOE publicity/anti-teacher policymaking machine. See her [short] employment history here:http://www.linkedin.com/pub/adina-lopatin/2/a67/534?_ mSplash=1
I work with CTS which began as a mostly teacher group as part of GEM but has morphed into a parent dominated group with many teacher voices included and the great statistician Fred Smith. Really one of the most enjoyable groups of people to work with I've met. (We meet once a month for those interested and have both a local and national listserve -- next meeting Weds. Oct. 17 at CUNY, rm 5409 at 5:30PM).
Note Diana Zavala (center in black) from MORE and Change the Stakes and Andrea Mata and Janine Sopp (far left) from CTS with their kids. MORE is committed to working with parents and accepts parents as members.
Dear Teacher, Johnny Is Skipping the Test
Benjamin Norman for The New York TimesBy SONI SANGHA
Published: October 12, 2012
LATER this month, children at 169 New York City elementary and middle schools will, for the second time in a calendar year, take a 40-minute “field test” in math and English language arts to determine which questions will go on future state standardized exams.Diana Zavala