Parents: Fight Standardized Testing With Civil Disobedience

[Modern School]

The following piece about the Bartleby Project was written by Timothy D. Slekar, Head of the Division of Education, Human Development and Social Sciences, Penn State Altoona. The Bartleby Project is an act of civil disobedience, where students write “I do not want to take this test” on their exams, and then refuse to answer the questions. It is really just one of many possible ways to fight back against the standardized testing mania. Some states, like California, allow parents to opt out of their high stakes exams and they should, on principle. Teachers, too, can refuse to participate, but it is risky as they can be threatened with dismissal for failing to execute their duties as teachers. However, if most teachers refuse to give the tests, then what are they going to do, fire us all

See the entire article at http://www.huffingtonpost.com/timothy-d-slekar/rejecting-standardized-tests_b_822014.html

Modern School
http://modeducation.blogspot.com/

[dkf]

1. Well then why don't they boycott all tests?

Is this really the attitude we want students to have?

[crikkett]

2. that's a false choice.

Boycotting standardized tests is different than boycotting tests on materials presented as part of a class curriculum.

Unless the class is teaching to the test only, in which case the kid needs to be in a different school.

[earthside]

3. I learned the hard way.

In Colorado they started this high stakes standardized testing crap fifteen years ago. Being younger and less wise about the world, we (my wife and I) never even thought about the effects of this testing on our son.

But starting in middle school, his interest and enthusiasm for school declined markedly.

He has recovered his love of learning now that he is in college ... thank goodness.

In the meantime, I found out about this so-called "accountability" and "standardization" educational philosophy that is the law now under 'No Child Left Behind' and Obama's so-called 'Race to the Top'.

So, we opted my daughter out of every Colorado Student Assessment Program test ... her joy of learning and excitement about school has never flagged. While I watch her friends sag and groan as testing time approaches, she looks forward to time with me going to museums, going on hikes, and doing alternative 'educational' activities.

And we're not talking about a day or two of testing time -- this testing goes on for most of three weeks; three or four days of each of those weeks. And that doesn't include the pre-test pep rallies and the time making and putting up "do your best" banners in the halls and the testing reviews, etc.

Do not let your child get sucked into this debilitating testing regimen!

What is best for your child comes far ahead of what the politicians and the administrators and the 'educrats' want for all their 'lofty' data collection schemes (I don't know a single teacher who approves of these tests).

I am not against tests ... teachers should have the ability to test their students as part of their classroom effort to teach and help their students. But these standardized, high stakes tests are not about that at all, they are political schemes and, after all these years, they have proven themselves to be educational failures.

All we have learned from these tests is what we knew before they started: kids in well-funded schools in prosperous neighborhoods do better than kids in under-funded schools in economically challenged or transient neighborhoods.

Finally, there are millions and millions of dollars being wasted every year to keep this high stakes testing scheme going, money that could be better spent on keeping class sizes small and on providing better materials for students -- and, sadly, the Obama/Duncan administration is intent upon keeping this dead-end philosophy going.

[FBaggins]

4. That seems more and more like a losing battle.

Better to fight for better testing. Real professionals designing valid assessments of what those specific kids should have learned in that subject. That means national standardized tests (apart from SATs and the like) are out because making them valid would require national curricula and that too is a mistake.