Standardized

If you missed the showing of the film Standardized last night at the South Orange Public Library, which is most of you, since there were only a few of us there, then you have another chance to see it at the Maplewood Memorial Library on Wednesday April 8, at 6:30pm.

It's well worth your time to understand what standardized testing is doing to our schools, teachers, and kids, and deserves a much bigger audience than it had at the first showing. People are not widgets and cannot be standardized. Do you want to live in a Stepford world?

Here are some other resources:
http://www.saveourschoolsnj.org/
http://njkidsandfamilies.org/

While I understand that most people feel it's "just another test" and are not concerned about their kid taking it, I would challenge you to come to the next screening and see for yourself what all the hubbub is about. It could be that you will change your mind. It could be that you won't. But isn't it worth getting another perspective on the situation? This is not just about this test. And it's not just about a handful of people in M/SO who are choosing to refuse the test. This is about a movement that is growing across the country. This is about closed schools--in Philly and Chicago. This is about a steadily narrowing curriculum that's stifling creativity. This is about putting our children in little tiny, narrow boxes and expecting that they all learn the same thing at the same time. This is about the continued increase in unproven standardized tests that were designed by no one who knows anything about education. It's about providing data, where the data is the be-all and the end-all for the government in evaluating our schools. This isn't about education. It's about big money, an "untapped market."

It's about so much more. And it's important. It makes me sad to see the direction education is going day by day. And I wish more parents understood the impact.

Please see for yourself on April 8.

Sounds like it will be a longer version of the commercial I saw this morning on the TV, where a dad laments that his first grader doesn't want to go to karate class because of how upset he is about standardized testing.

It's not. Good news is no one is holding a gun to your head forcing you to go. So no worries.

.

meandtheboys said:

It's not. Good news is no one is holding a gun to your head forcing you to go. So no worries.

That's being pleasant, isn't it?

meandtheboys said:

Einstein Quote

I don't think the Einstein quote was talking about educational standardization.

I doubt he would have considered knowing how to read, write and do math, together with understanding some science as equating to horrific “standardization”.

That's kinda the point of public education.

Is this film a balanced view that looks at both sides of the issue, or is it out to sell one point of view? The first I would be interested in. I am for testing but willing to listen. The second, not so much.

Don't you already know what one side of the story is? Why would you dismiss out-of-hand something that shows you the other side? It's a well-done documentary that talks to actual educational professionals about the actual real-live effects that the increased reliance on for-profit standardized testing is having on education in this country. If that's not something you're interested in learning, the perspective from the other side, then don't go see it. It's not a propaganda piece. It's something that I think is very important for anyone who has kids in school in this country right now.

rukidding said:

meandtheboys said:

Einstein Quote

I don't think the Einstein quote was talking about educational standardization.

I doubt he would have considered knowing how to read, write and do math, together with understanding some science as equating to horrific “standardization”.

That's kinda the point of public education.

I'm sorry you think that's the point of public education, to pigeon hole our children and suck the life out of learning. Standardized testing doesn't tell you anything worthwhile about your child or your child's teacher. Unless you consider a snapshot of one day in a child's life, factoring in all extenuating circumstances like poverty, hunger, testing anxiety, to be expressive of the whole child and the range and nuances of what they've learned. Which is supposedly ascertained by a bunch of random questions designed by people with no background in education, a for-profit company who stands to make more money selling books and teacher training materials to schools considered to be failing. All because of some random standard created by the same for-profit company, who can't even be bothered to establish cut scores until after the test has been taken. Effectively using our children as guinea pigs and designing tests where material is age inappropriate and is often two or three levels beyond where the child is. All of which amounts to a good amount of instructional time lost to prepare for the test, and ten days lost to the testing itself. On a platform with numerous technical glitches, many instances of unreliable wifi. If you take a practice test there's a good chance you'll get a feel for what I'm talking about. http://parcc.pearson.com/practice-tests/

@ meandtheboys

I can see from your post that in addition to putting words in my mouth, you're a little hysterical about these tests, so there really isn't a lot for us to discuss.

Best to you.

rukidding said:

@ meandtheboys

I can see from your post that in addition to putting words in my mouth, you're a little hysterical about these tests, so there really isn't a lot for us to discuss.

Best to you.

I've been on this board for a very long time. Anyone that knows me will tell you I'm not hysterical. And, frankly, the characterization is insulting. If being dismissive of viewpoints that differ from yours is your MO, then so be it. This is something I'm fairly passionate about. And the passion goes far beyond "these tests," "These tests" are merely a symptom. Further, passion does not equal hysteria. But I imagine, if I were a man, the label would not even have been applied.

Best to you.

@meandtheboys

OK

Wait a minute.. I disagree with you so now I'm a sexist?

No, I dismissed her mischaracterization of my comment, so apparently I'm the sexist.

I wasn't addressing you Filmcarp. And you didn't label me "hysterical." The word "hysterical" has some sexist connotations. It's fairly well-documented. But I guess I need to thank both for completely derailing the conversation in 20 posts or less.

rukidding said:

No, I dismissed her mischaracterization of my comment, so apparently I'm the sexist.

No, calling a woman "hysterical" for her passionate opinion is a sexist comment. You may not have noticed that the term is rarely applied to men, but is too commonly used to shame women.

@mjh

Bullsh+t

“They are defending a test that has no accountability."

When an adult takes a standardized test:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/post/when-an-adult-took-standardized-tests-forced-on-kids/2011/12/05/gIQApTDuUO_blog.html

mjh said:

rukidding said:

No, I dismissed her mischaracterization of my comment, so apparently I'm the sexist.

No, calling a woman "hysterical" for her passionate opinion is a sexist comment. You may not have noticed that the term is rarely applied to men, but is too commonly used to shame women.

+1

mjh said:

rukidding said:

No, I dismissed her mischaracterization of my comment, so apparently I'm the sexist.

No, calling a woman "hysterical" for her passionate opinion is a sexist comment. You may not have noticed that the term is rarely applied to men, but is too commonly used to shame women.

+2

Aww, the MOL pile-on.

I do love it so.

I'm glad this issue is finally getting attention in the mainstream. I've known things were headed this way for at least 10 years and I wish I had a dollar for every time I was called "hysterical" when I spoke up, especially on MOL. I'd be rich, although I'd rather not be right. Maybe enough of you will get involved now and save public education from excessive standardized testing and the many other benighted "reforms."

I don't know if I'd say it's in the mainstream just yet. But momentum seems to be building.

Does the movie present any alternative methods/suggestions for examining school/district accountability to their students?

rukidding said:

Aww, the MOL pile-on.

+2 is a pile-on? Hysterical.

@jasper: I missed it, but April 8 is marked on the calendar. Thanks.

Great, @DaveSchmidt, I plan to see it again, so hopefully I'll see you there.

@sprout, the film focused more on the multiple negative impacts of standardized testing than on providing other means of holding schools accountable, though I'm hoping to get a better handle on everything it presented by seeing it again. However, it did touch on things like the value of seasoned teachers observing and mentoring less experienced teachers in the classroom, which doesn't so much measure as help improve the quality of teaching, a much more important goal in my opinion.

I'd like to see more qualitative oversight by principals and department supervisors than pretending you can objectively measure something as subjective as interpretive reading. When something like the Dufault case can happen in virtually plain sight, you have to wonder who's minding the store. And what about parent/student feedback? While not every teacher is a great fit for every student, I think good teaching is one of those you-know-it-when-you-see-it things more than something you can measure with a yard stick.

And to point out another hole in the PARCC balloon, I just tried some of the sample math questions for the first time (previously, I only looked at and was appalled by the poor quality of the English questions), and was aghast to realize that students have to write equations and "show their work" in an online form. Math is a pencil and paper discipline. As a technical writer, I've had to use equation editors to input complex formulas in documentation, and I can tell you that it's very painstaking, and the "quants" who initially worked out those formulas certainly did not do so with a keyboard. Working out problems in that fashion is a nightmare, and completely conflates a student's math ability with their ability to map their thoughts to a keyboard and screen. On that basis alone, I reject the validity of this test, never mind all the other issues.

Well said, Jasper. I hate to even join this thread bc the topic is so polarizing and the MOL viper pit is what it is, but... I saw the movie, and I'd encourage others to see it. It does present the anti-testing point of view. We have heard the other side enough in the run-up to PARCC. We are opting out for several reasons. I grew up with standardized tests, even back in the days of sentence diagramming, and fundamentally I don't have a problem with the concept per se. However, I can appreciate that high-stakes testing has become a huge business, and I do agree with the premise that it isn't making our students any more successful. My husband grew up in a smaller town in Europe, where he received a far better education than I did in a U.S. metropolis at both public and private schools, and he never took a standardized test, even to go to college. The theory there, and it largely remains the same today, was that everyone should have the right to attend university, and if you go and find you aren't successful, then you quit and do something else. I attended university a year in France, and frankly, no one even took attendance to see if I showed up in the lecture hall. You went, you studied, you passed. You didn't go, you didn't study, you failed. I never tested to get in. I don't know if the European system is better overall, but it does free teachers to teach the subject matter they are trained to teach, as opposed to teaching to the test, which from what I've seen in the last few weeks, is about all that has been done in the elementary and middle schools. Anyhow, that's my two cents. All you pro-testing folks lash out.

What are the ramifications for a district like ours if the teachers universally agree to stop doing test prep? Like, fine, we'll take the tests, but other than the actual time spent taking the test, teachers can use classroom time as they see fit? So the scores might go down.......and then what?

I have a friend who teaches in West Orange and she is the kind of teacher I want my kids to have--she LOVES teaching and her kids and she makes it fun and educational... but she said in the past few years, with Common Core, she can't do what makes her so special as a teacher and it's so frustrating. It's a shame that teachers like her are starting to hate their jobs.

Along those lines, AFA, this was in the Washington Post:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/wp/2015/02/27/the-good-teachers-are-starting-to-leave/