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Great Model for Opting Out
TN State Representative Mike Stuart and his wife Ruth opt their own children out of testing. It will be interesting to see what the response of his school district is. The letter is very respectfully written with options for what their children might do during the testing time and the parents’ willingness to participate in preparing materials for those days. As Mr. Stuart is a lawyer, it also addresses the legal aspects of opting out. This great letter could be a model for parents everywhere and can be found on the blog Momma Bears which addresses overtesting in Tennessee: Stuarts’ Letter on Momma Bears.
Is It Bullying? – A Visual Guide
Great resource as a way to think about bullying.
Wikipedia describes Bullying as;
“the use of force, threat, or coercion to abuse, intimidate, or aggressively dominate others. The behavior is often repeated and habitual.”
If your child (or yourself) are unsure of how best to categorize any difficult interactions you are having with others, the simple guide below, that was found posted to a fence, will be of help.
Please sharethis with your friends and family. Let’s do everything WE can to…
Emily Talmadge Warns that Gates is Infiltrating Opt Out
Gates is joining hands with the Opt-Out movement with the goal of replacing standardized testing dollars with ongoing, daily online assessment dollars? Sounds like science fiction, but…
Emily Talmadge, teacher-blogger in Maine, warns that the long tentacles of Bill Gates are infiltrating the Opt Out movement.
Why would America’s leading test autocrat join arms with test opponents? Well, it turns out that Gates and his buddies see the end game for the Big Standardized Test. What they are now planning is embedded assessment, where students work online and the instruction and assessments are intertwined and embedded. Testing is no longer a single event but a daily, continuous process.
So it makes sense for the technocrats to bury the stand-alone test and usher in the insidious embedded assessment. All-time, nonstop testing, adjusted to every student. Personalized, standardized, individualized, customized, mechanized.
EXCLUSIVE: Senator Alexander’s Staff: ESSA and Teacher Evaluation, Part 2
Teacher evaluations are no longer required to be associated with test scores. Now the question is “What will Skandara’s response be?”
David P. Cleary, chief of staff to Senator Lamar Alexander, responded to my questions about the Every Student Succeeds Act.
This is part 2:
The stakes attached to testing: will teachers be evaluated by test scores, as Duncan demanded and as the American Statistical Association rejected? Will teachers be fired because of ratings based on test scores?
Short Answer:
The federal mandate on teacher evaluation linked to test scores, as created in the waivers, is eliminated in ESSA.
States are allowed to use federal funds to continue these programs, if they choose, or completely change their strategy, but they will no longer be required to include these policies as a condition of receiving federal funds. In fact, the Secretary is explicitly prohibited from mandating any aspect of a teacher evaluation system, or mandating a state conduct the evaluation altogether, in section 1111(e)(1)(B)(iii)(IX) and (X), section 2101(e), and section 8401(d)(3) of…
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Thankful For: Humor
I love this Diane Ravitch post and also the words she quoted in another post from a middle school teacher who said, “I still love teaching but the way it’s structured today, it certainly isn’t as fun as it used to be, and the more creative and passionate one is about learning and teaching truths, the more you are under attack and scrutinized in your profession.”
A time to laugh and celebrate that the dumb policies of No Child Left Behind and Race to the Top are widely recognized as failures and will soon go into the dustbin of history, where they belong. To make a better world for children and educators, the fight goes on, to replace poor leaders and failed policies, to save public education from privatization, and to make real the elusive promise of equality of educational opportunity: for all, not some.
Rich parents demand CCSS and PARCC for their children–NOT!
“Democracy works best when we prepare students to be critical thinkers who are creative problem solvers and question authority–CCSS are preparing students to be obedient worker bees. Ask yourself why students at elite private schools aren’t being subjected to CCSS or PARCC testing? If these standards and tests are so essential to a great education, wealthy parents would be clamoring to have them for their own children. In fact, exactly the opposite is happening. CCSS and unfair, rigged exams like the PARCC are for the unwashed, undeserving poor and middle class.”
–Dr. Terri Reid-Schuster
PhD in developmental literacy
currently works as a reading specialist in Oregon, IL
What did we learn from standardized tests?
“Frankly, it never made any sense to argue that parents everywhere were hungering to compare their own child’s test score to children in other states. Maybe it is just me, but I never met a parent who said, “I’m desperate to know how my child’s test score compares to children in the same grade in Alaska and Maine and Florida. And to insist that having this information would somehow improve education or benefit students made no sense either. What we learn from standardized tests is that family income matters. Having the same test everywhere doesn’t change that fact. What if the same energy had gone into reducing poverty and segregation? We might have made a dent. Instead, our whole country is pointed to the wrong goals.”
—Diane Ravitch
What does an experienced teacher turned politician say about the direction of education?
“I saw education before No Child Left Behind. I also experienced education during No Child Left Behind up until I got elected to Congress. Basically, test and punish did not work. Because of No Child Left Behind, I suddenly had to follow a syllabus and a pacing guide dictated by the district office. There was less trust of the teacher, and that’s a mild way of putting it. We began being treated like we were a transmitter of someone else’s idea of what is good education. Effective education doesn’t work that way. Effective education is building relationships with students. It’s about teachers strategizing on how to engage students. You can’t do the canned lesson or scripted content.”
–Rep. Mark Takano of California, U.S. Congressman, 24 years of classroom experience
Three Day Quote Challenge–Day 3
The message today from school administrators to teachers is “we are always looking over your shoulder and you need to hit the mark every single minute of the day.” The message should be “we are here to support you as you experiment in your classroom. Keep it vital, new, creative and full of growth. Every class you teach will be different. Classes and students will even have different needs from the day before. Keep trying until you find what works for this class. Education is not a one size fits all endeavor.” This message of school being a “no mistakes” zone is passed along to the students. Real learning is messy. Let teachers and students engage in the process!
