NYS hopes to Undercut the Opt Outs

Governor “Status” Cuomo and Co are holding their collective breaths as they wait for the new round of testing to begin. They are concerned, as they should be, about the parental Opt Out Movement – those parents that do not want their children taking useless tests that tells no professional educator anything useful about a student's abilities.

So Cuomo and Co have decided to modify the tests this year in hopes of co-opting the Opt Out Movement.

The changes are:

1. Fewer Reading Passages: To be exact, One (that's 1) reading passage less. So what? If you want to know how well a student reads, ask them what they read in their free time, if they have any free time with how parents schedule student's lives now, or if they read at all. And how much they read. A student that doesn't read much is potentially not a good reader. (Or doesn't have access to a library or books. Another tragedy to discuss on another day.)

2. Fewer Multiple Choice Questions: That will amount to six (that's 6) fewer questions. Questions that are usually poorly written and can have the answers challenged. I don't get multiple choice questions in life, or at they are not spelled out that way. (I wish they were based on my last disastrous date.)

3. Unlimited Time: Yes, you read that correctly. Unlimited time to take a test that students will blow through in about half an hour. (That's thirty (30) minutes. They will spend the rest of the required seat time staring around, doodling on the test booklet, or taking a nap.) I have had only one (that's 1) student take the full allotted time for an exam. At that he didn't finish it because he struggles with reading and his IEP does not have “Tests Read” as a modification.

4. The company formerly known as Pearson, the UK owned test corporation, is administering its last exam. It is being handled by a US company, Questar ASSessments. (For now. I have not researched to see who owns it. You know, like how Disney owns ABC? That explains their crappy happy go lucky movie style news).

This next part I have problems with and I think that anyone with half a brain will automatically see why:

5. Teachers are helping to select the test questions.

6. Teachers in the future will have a seat at the table writing the tests.

(I will wait a moment for that to sink in before I rip it to pieces like a chainsaw on balsa wood.)

This is a mistake by the teachers.

First: It implies that the tests are worthwhile. They have no value whatsoever. There is no professional research that shows that these types of tests show anything about a student's abilities. Any teacher will tell you that a good student can have a bad day and a bad student can guess lucky. (I went to school with a student that took a Latin quiz by flipping a coin. 10 questions – He scored an 80. Did he know the content?) Do these tests show that students know the content or skills? And can anyone prove that these tests are the best way to assess these skills? Not in professional literature they can't.

Second: Having the teachers help write the tests is like having the death row prisoner sitting at the table and having a choice in how they are going to be executed. Teachers and their unions (the AFT, the UFT, and NYSUT) must remember the purpose of these tests – to show that public schools are failing to teach students. By using the test scores to show that students are failing to learn, the private charter school companies are hoping to take over the schools. This means firing all the teachers (HEY UNIONS – THIS MEANS NO MORE UNION! THINK ABOUT IT.), hiring new teachers (or the old teachers back at lower pay and fewer benefits), and stuffing their pockets with our tax dollars while students get less of an education than they received before.

So, what should teachers and parents do?

Teachers need to tell students that they are nor required to take the tests.

Parents need to opt their children out of all mandated state exams (grades 3-8).

And if the politicians decide to punish the schools for not having the required number of students take the exam, remind the politicians that they serve at our will and they either do as we say or we will give them a one (that's 1) way ticket home and a little boycott of whatever business that they decide to work at. Remember – this is a capitalist society and money talks. The 1% aren't going to bankroll people out of power, so let's put a little fear in them.

And let's put into office politicians that will listen to us.

“Status” Cuomo is only doing this because his next election is two (that's 2) years away and he needs to butter up the voters to vote for him and not the opposition. Remember – he had to fight for the Working Families Party line last time and NYSUT refused to endorse him.

And remember – These exams don't count for teacher evaluations until 2019. The year after the next election.

Want to guess how he wants to get revenge on the teachers and unions if they don't support him next time?

Note: Pardon the sarcasm. I had to read a test mod today and it involved a ton of numbers in words and I had to clarify for the student when I was reading a number versus a word that sounded like a number. (For vs Four. Two vs Too vs To.) That and if a politician happens to read this, I want to make sure they can understand it.