"Schools Expect 'Opt-outs' to Increase" - Newsday

[Chris_Wendt]

Paraphrasing and quoting from Newsday:

"...superintendents across Long Island predict an increase in the number of students refusing to take state tests this spring -- a movement spurred by parents who say their kids are overtested and the exams have little value."

"Some administrators agree...."

"...educators expect an increase in "opt outs" based in part on the number of requests from parents."

"'The only way to stop that monster is through civil disobedience,' said Diane Livingston, a mother of three in the Port Washington school district. 'Standardized test prep has hijacked the classroom.'"

"...administrators in Nassau and Suffolk counties said they have asked the state Department of Education for guidance on how to handle an increase in refusals but have gotten few answers."

"Students who do not take the exams for any reason are reported to the state as "not tested." Lack of a standardized test score does not affect a student's final course grade in the subject or prevent a student from passing to the next grade, superintendents said."

"...there is no uniform response to students' refusals among the Island's 124 school systems.
Some take nonparticipating students to another room during tests. Others ask children to sit quietly without reading material, a practice some parents call "sit-and-stare." Still others ask those refusing to take the tests to stay home."

"Responding to...parents and administrators, (SED Spokesman) Burman said, 'Schools do not have any obligation to provide an alternative location or activities for individual students while the tests are being administered.'"

I could go on. The balance of the article stakes out positions on the Common Core, you know, the good, the bad, and the ugly. The data sharing argument, etc.
Here is the link to the article.

Comments welcome.

Chris Wendt
[e-mail]

[rr]

Fair and balanced reporting from Newsday, as usual...

Well, I'll say this, they certainly know how to drum up some paper sales by running a big headline.

The article is more of the same - nothing new here...more legitimization of a poor concept. Like our BOE, they are empowering people to take this stance, which I feel is wrong for reasons I will not go through again. Of course, none of those reasons or ANY real points are made in the article about the real consequences of this movement.

[lilly]

Here's my comment. I cannot wait until the spring tests are over, which is what, early April?

The number of ridiculous myth and rhetoric anti-CC posts spamming my facebook feed should decrease. The number of contrived "bumps" on those should decrease too. Diane Ravitch has gone mad on twitter, in volume and content of her posts.

Here is something that was all over facebook in the last few days.



Below is a corrected version of it from a math teacher:





Here are some interesting blogs from math teachers on the same math example. Read the comments, they are equally interesting:

christopherdanielson.wordpress.com/
gfbrandenburg.wordpress.com/2014/03/23/jacks-famous-427-316-common-core-math-problem/

Once again, LI'ers are embarrassing themselves once again in the comments section of the Newsday article you posted. Seems like any education article Newsday publishes brings out venom in people, whatever side of the fence they are sitting on.

[rr]

Lilly - I would love to see that on a certain popular local FB page but unfortunately I think we both already know the response from the 3 or 4 vocal eagles, as Chris would refer to them, they'd rather recite the party line and point to biased Newsday articles than hear facts and actual debate. They prefer attending pep rallies and feeling good about themselves because their actions will save education, they'd rather make people think they're bad parents or uninformed than actually listen to facts. They much prefer to read Diane Ravitch and other more local vultures, using my terms, instead of hearing any other points of view.

[lilly]

Don't forget the green shoelaces, rubber bracelets and tshirts that the 'Lace to the Top' group suggests.

[Chris_Wendt]

Thanks for the replies and comments. For Lilly, the CC Math & ELA assessments should be over in May.

It is difficult for me to provide "fair and balanced" derivative reporting about an article that is, itself, not "balanced".
"Fair" is an entirely different matter; Newsday owns their website and their paper, and it is certainly "fair" for them to take any slant they wish in their reportage, especially the headlining and placement, you know, for effect. Their mission is to sell papers and generate clicks on their website.

That math problem is only one trick in the bag of tricks of the anti-CC movement. It does not adequately demonstrate all that is wrong with the various components of the Common Core.

Chris Wendt

[lilly]

Mar 24, 2014 9:53:43 GMT -5 Chris_Wendt said:

It does not adequately demonstrate all that is wrong with the various components of the Common Core.

That is a confusing statement which is the crux of this. I contend that ppl do not fully understand what they are protesting.

[rr]

A very good portion of these people are simply playing follow the leader without the understanding that perhaps the leader has their own agenda. The exact thing that they are railing against. The mob mentality and fear of being perceived as uninformed or a bad parent is what rules certain peoples process. It's old school peer pressure.

The comments below are my opinion and not directed to anyone specific - so please don't read them too personally unless "YOU" are one of the people I am referring to...

The unfortunate part is that the movement has been legitimized - by all means feel free to continue the fight against the Common Core, if you think that's the answer, but the distraction for children taking the tests and potential unintended consequences of opting out a child is not worth it in my opinion. Telling your child they don't have to take a mandated test when they are in 3rd grade sets a very dangerous precedent and really, in the end, what does it accomplish? The test itself is merely a way to understand how to tweak the curriculum and reward a teacher or take action, over the course of years, against educators that are proven to be ineffective. BY skewing the data and distracting other children what is accomplished? You, the parent, get to brag on some silly FB page that you child isn't Common and you're a great parent? Seriously?

The argument about business getting too far involved is perhaps a bit naive, businesses will continue to profit from education, call it Common Core, call it whatever you like, smart and powerful people will find ways to make money on it and/or further their political causes. I love the hypocrisy of some people - they agree with higher standards but disagree with the material because it's not age appropriate...so now they have determined what's appropriate for my child? Um, pot meet kettle...

Facts are bent and molded to fit a pre-constructed argument and an easily posted online meme about how the common core is ridiculous and unfounded.

Is Common Core the cure all? No. Is it a step up from where we were? Yes.

[rr]

By the way, Am I the only one to find it funny that people love to "yell" about the standards not being written by teachers and how professional educators were left out of the process, which is false but that's a separate post, yet will step on each others necks to quote Diane Ravitch or hawk her books, she is known as a "historian of education". What the hell does that even mean?? In reality - she's a writer, a professional writer...someone that is paid to sell books and make paid appearances...the person they rally around just happens to be making herself some nice $ off of this little coup...yet the complaints you hear about are big business profiting.

[lilly]

There are tons of ironies rr.

Isn't criticism of King that he was never really a teacher? I think he has 3-4 years of classroom teaching experience, probably the most of all of the "reformers" and he is just (bungling) poor execution of it. OTOH, similar to Arne Duncan and Randi Weingarten (another big education name), doesn't Diane Ravitch also have ZERO years of teaching experience? Diane Ravitch, with her lack of teaching experience, was a major proponent/advocate of NCLB when working for US Dept of Ed. She has since reversed her position. And now she makes a living by both books and speaking engagements that are paid for by superintendents associations.

Bill Gates has zero years teaching and I think an Ivy drop-out. However, he was lauded, revered and the envy of all MBA product marketers for quite some time. Literally, their 'darling'. He has evolved from one of the greatest philanthropists of all time, to charges from the anti-CC sentiment that he is 'trying to take over the world' through education. OK, right... His philanthropy may have taken him from the richest person in the world to second since he gave away 1/3 of his fortune, to the tune of $25-30bn. His philanthropic interests before CC included world-wide vaccinations and education. I'm just not "feeling" the "evil" diabolical part of him.

And I agree with you about businesses profiting from education. Always has been going on, always will. The number of textbook/curriculum providers scurrying to claim they were "scientifically based" RtI-compliant when that law was passed was done with epic speed and there are a lot on the approved list who are known to have less to optimal results. Same thing with special ed - tons of people making $$$$ by special ed service providers based on trends.

Regarding the math example above that was floating around on the internet, take a look at facebook's WeAreTeachers comments on it by mostly teachers (3/22 post). A few hundred comments and very enlightening to hear the teachers' pov's.

[Chris_Wendt]

Education is not some stand-alone, sacred activity practiced by ordained teachers in consecrated temples of learning. Education is an industry, a huge industry, and as such, thousands of businesses serve that industry around the world. Businesses are generally profit-making, and since the United States is a Capitalist society, businesses thriving by serving the education industry is a good thing, both for those businesses and their shareholders, and for the education establishment, and therefore good for the children served by it. At least in theory.

The P-12 public school segment of the education industry is about to enter a state of rather extreme pressure and flux. I have my own conceptualization of some ways this may turn out, but this is not my time to publish on that.

I worked for Bill Gates at a company he founded and of which he is the sole shareholder. I was four levels below him on the org chart. I have been to his home for dinner, and recall him showing me a conceptual tablet computer nearly a decade before the first actual tablet came on the market. The constraint, the critical path which delayed the inception of tablet computers was the lack of bandwidth available to the public, back at the turn of the century. That, the slow pace of public bandwidth build-out was a personal frustration for Bill. But that constraint is well behind us now, as we all stand at the threshold of ubiquitous computing, nanotechnology, and massive interconnectivity. There will be no putting this genie back into the bottle from which it has been sprung. To Lilly's point, I do not understand any animosity toward Bill Gates, other than perhaps jealousy.

The big agenda-making item with the Common Core was tying assessment scores to APPR. Right, wrong, no matter, tying APPR evaluations to Common Core Assessment Scores as a matter of federal and states laws was a bone-headed move, one likely to kill the Common Core if nothing else does. Now this is an issue you cannot have both ways. If you support the Common Core AND you are adamant that assessment scores should be tied to teacher evaluations, then you are probably holding a losing hand.

While what I just said may appear to please the teachers unions, my follow-up comment will undo that. In NY, we should drop APPR, and amend Education Law §3020-a to simplify the disciplinary action process for tenured teachers. Tenured professional principals and superintendents should be able to aptly and fairly adjudicate behavioral and performance issues with teachers, subject to the oversight of the elected boards of education. The need for state and third-party involvement in individual employment matters is outdated, unwarranted, and does not work for the good of public education.

The Common Core may eventually prove to be a boon to public education, or, it may prove a disaster. For now, good or bad is not the issue; Common Core is a catalyst for dissention, anger, mistrust, civil disobedience, anarchy, advancing unwholesome agendas, and aggravating the major stakeholders, parents and their children.

Its a catalyst. It is making things happen, fomenting and facilitating reactions which otherwise may not or would not or perhaps could not have happened without it. Good or bad remains to be seen.

Chris Wendt

[rr]

Chris, as we've discussed in the past, I think your solution around disciplinary actions against tenured teachers is far too subjective and open for manipulation, from parents, from those in positions of power and from the teachers themselves. I just don't see how this could or would work, do you have any test cases or scenarios you could elaborate on to help me understand how this process would work?

To me, test scores are a great way to understand teacher progress, if they continually have declining scores over years chances are they are not effective and appropriate actions taken. Granted there are some circumstances that would need to be factored in and yes, the test is not the ONLY factor in an assessment but it should be part of the process. It's very important to me that teachers are nioe, understanding, flexible educators but it's also very important that they are good at teaching my child the material they need to know to progress in school and life.

It's not uncommon for a group with influence in decision making to conspire against a person or small group of people. Your process could potentially put too much power in the hands of a few community members and could take some objectivity out of the process. This could lead to long lasting, expensive legal issues. I've not lived in Wantagh all my life but I have lived here long enough to see several superintendents come and go, some athletic coaching issues, a part time janitor get fired / re-hired under some suspicious moves making the news and been to enough BOE meetings to understand that there are popular cliques of people that hold more power in the community than others - all of these things lead me to the thought that your solution is simply not sustainable.

[lilly]

In an ideal world, I agree with Chris's suggestion in theory, not practice. Recent history in Wantagh could make everyone, including the good ones, targets. If I were a teacher (or admin), I might be screaming bloody heck for my union to protest it.

In watching the Wantagh BOE over time, the more and more I think the whole premise of a BOE can be somewhat ridiculous in its execution. BOE's are for local control, policy setting and to ensure compliance with NYS regs. Well, BOE trustees all over LI have many different levels of intelligence, applicable work experience, perhaps personal agendas and can be unclear on the fact that their responsibilities are policy, not day to day interference.

All of that sounds whiny and complaining but I just don't know a good solution.

[rr]

interesting take from Newsday Opinion and a good number of the comments seem to agree with the author...

www.newsday.com/opinion/columnists/lane-filler/filler-common-core-inspires-the-opposite-of-tiger-parents-1.7502468

[Chris_Wendt]

I started a new thread (link)based on the comments of rr and Lilly concerning APPR vs. §3020-a discipline process for tenure teachers, as I inadvertently took this thread off-topic (Opting-Out).

Regards,

Chris Wendt