Email correction for Councilman Jackson

The correct email is rjackson@council.nyc.gov

Yesterday,  New York City Councilman Robert Jackson entered Resolution 1394-2012 in the 
City Council.  This Resolution calls upon the New York State Education 
Department, the New York State Legislature, and the Governor to re-examine 
public school accountability systems and to develop a system based on 
multiple forms of assessment which do not require extensive standardized 
testing.

If the City Council passes Resolution 1394, it will be an important moment 
for all of our children, teachers, and school communities.

The folks at Time Out from Testing have been working closely with Jackson's office. Right now 
we would like to ask you to write the Councilman and thank him for his 
leadership on this and ask that he push the bill  forward quickly by 
holding a hearing in July and a vote. Below is his email address and you 
can copy Speaker' Quinn's office. 

Councilman Jackson: rjack@council.nyc.gov

Speaker Quinn's Office: MSubraman@council.nyc.gov

Wonderful song about why every child is more than a number---

http://www.schoolleadership20.com/group/more-than-a-number/forum/topic/show?id=1990010%3ATopic%3A111962

click on song link

Growing National Movement Against "High Stakes" Public School Testing.

Fantastic video--a must see about the parent-driven movement against high stakes testing, Pearson, and coporatization

Apple introduced a feature to assist with high stakes testing. Not surprisingly, Pearson has already signed on.

http://thejournal.com/articles/2012/06/12/apple-ios-6-guided-access-boon-for-high-stakes-testing-with-ipads.aspx

Post #3 for the day---they're coming fast and furious!

Pop Quiz on Testing
By Lisa Guisbond

Ed Week


You can practically hear the collective relief as school testing season winds down across America. It's not just the sighs of millions of overtested and stressed-out children. Joining them are state officials, school administrators, teachers, and parents. All, for varying reasons, are no doubt happy to close the door on a particularly disastrous season that included public uproar over a confusing reading test question and a scoring fiasco on the Florida writing exam.
Before we put away the No. 2 pencils, though, how about sharpening them for one last exam? Why should our kids be the only ones to suffer the acute anxiety that comes from opening the test booklet to Page 1? Let's share their pain and take a test to see how well we've been paying attention and learning from our obsession with tests.
1. Why did Florida's state board of education call an emergency meeting to lower the passing score on its writing exam?
A) The percentage of 4th grade students with passing scores plunged (http://www.fldoe.org/board/meetings/2012_05_15/writing.pdf) (http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep2.html) from 81 percent last year to 27 percent this year, making it look as if most students went from good to horrible writers in one year.
B) The board realized student writing wasn't really any worse, but the new test-scoring guide was too harsh and penalized students for minor mistakes.
C) The sudden drop in scores called the state's entire testing system into question.
D) All of the above.
2. Why did New York eliminate the "Hare and the Pineapple" (http://usny.nysed.gov/docs/the-hare-and-the-pineapple.pdf) (http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep2.html) item when scoring the 8th grade reading test?
A) A student came home and told his mother about extremely confusing and incomprehensible questions regarding an absurd reading passage.
B) The author of the story adapted for the test item expressed his contempt for the way his writing was used to confuse and distress young test-takers. "This was done by somebody who was barely literate," Daniel Pinkwater said (http://www.newyorker.com/talk/2012/05/07/120507ta_talk_mcgrath) of the adapter.
C) Media attention to the item embarrassed both test-maker Pearson and state education officials.
D) The "Pineapple" item was only one of more than 20 mistakes on the tests.
E) All of the above.
3. Why have 525 Texas school boards (http://www.tasanet.org/adopted-board-resolutions), more than 1,400 New York principals (http://www.newyorkprincipals.org/waiver-request/updatedapprpaperposted), and more than 8,000 individuals (http://timeoutfromtesting.org/nationalresolution/inds) across the nation endorsed anti-high-stakes-testing resolutions and statements?
A) The Texas board members believe "the overreliance on standardized, high-stakes testing ... is strangling our public schools."
B) The New York principals said: "Our students are more than the sum of their test scores. ... According to a nine-year study (http://www.nap.edu/openbook.php?record_id=12521&page=R1) by the National Research Council, the past decade's emphasis on testing has yielded little learning progress, especially considering the cost to taxpayers."
C) School board members, principals, and many parents across the country recognize that testing mandates compel them to do things that undermine teaching and learning.
D) All of the above.
4. Who pays for and who profits from the testing explosion resulting from the No Child Left Behind Act and similar misguided education policies?
A) Taxpayers spend billions of dollars for ever more testing, money that could be used to improve school facilities, hire and train teachers, and staff school libraries.
B) Pearson, the company behind the twin fiascos in Florida and New York as well as years of other costly testing errors, saw its profits increase by 72 percent in 2011.
C) Veteran teachers with years of positive reviews by knowledgeable evaluators are being labeled ineffective and denied tenure or fired based on inaccurate and incomprehensible formulas using student test scores.
D) All of the above.
5. What can parents, teachers, administrators, and school board members do to change the costly and destructive path we are on?
A) Sign the National Resolution on High Stakes Testing (http://timeoutfromtesting.org/nationalresolution/) and tell all your friends and relatives to do the same.
B) Get engaged with your local school system to review and reconsider the amount and uses of testing.
C) Write your members of Congress and tell them federal education policy needs to fundamentally change course and regain a sane and reasonable approach to assessment and accountability.
D) All of the above.
[The correct answer to all of the questions is "All of the above."]
Lisa Guisbond is a policy analyst with FairTest, the National Center for Fair & Open Testing, in Jamaica Plain, Mass.
------------

Two posts in one day---
Because people have to know how ridiculous "education reform" has become.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/post/11-million-plus-gates-grants-galvanic-bracelets-that-measure-student-engagement/2012/06/10/gJQAgAUbTV_blog.html#pagebreak

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OFzXaFbxDcM&feature=youtu.be

This link will take you to an amazing video about curiosity. It's Mr. Rogers, remixed, with an important message. It seemed appropriate for my blog.

#9 of the 10 Things You Can Do to End High Stakes Testing:

1.     If you are a parent or guardian of a student, ask your school administration about the possible consequences for “opting out” of the standardized tests. This will help dispel the idea that you don’t have the right to make decisions about your student. YOU HAVE THE RIGHT TO MAKE DECISIONS ABOUT YOUR STUDENT.

iiImagine if they gave a test and nobody came?

 Without high stakes tests, there is no time wasted on test prep, no children marginalized because they had a bad day or a learning difference or spoke a different language, no teachers called "unsatisfactory" because they take the challenge every day to work with ALL students who enter their classrooms, no schools closed and called "failing" because they care for the students with the biggest challenges.

High Stakes Tests are the basis of everything that is undermining public education.

I

Brandishing pineapples, parents and students target Pearson

Brandishing pineapples, parents and students target Pearson

Pearson Demo

Amazing! 300 + parents, kids, activists in front of Pearson Publishing raising their voices against bubble sheets. One kid's sign said "I could have been playing my violin." The momentum is building!

#8 of the 10 Things You Can Do to Oppose High Stakes Testing:

1.     Contact and support an organization that opposes high stakes testing: GEMNYC.ORG, Unitedoptout.org, Changethestakes.wordpress.com. This will help dispel the idea that you are alone in your opposition to high stakes testing. YOU ARE NOT ALONE.

Protest Pearson Thursday, June 7, 11 a.m.

SE Corner of 53rd and 6th

Stop profiting on the backs of our schools! 

file://localhost/Users/ruthsilverberg/Desktop/pearson+poster+final-1.jpg