Testing refusal rates in your district

[aprilgail]

"The top ten reasons I support my children's right to refuse the test:

10. I will never see their test so the results are useless to me.

...
9. Their teachers will never see their tests so the results are useless to them.

8. The tests are used to rank schools and teachers based on a metric that was never designed for this purpose.

7. The tests are being used to tell us we have failing schools when the truth is we have phenomenal public schools.

6. My kids are being used to field test questions for future tests without compensation, amounting to free child labor for corporate educational publishers.

5. These tests are based on a curriculum that was only introduced a few years ago.

4. Miraculously, officials from State Ed were able to tell us the percentage of students who would fail PRIOR to the test being administered, indicating a purposeful cut point manipulation (see number 7).

3. These tests force schools to reduce studies in history, science and the arts to focus more time on "deficit instruction" amounting to a race to mediocrity.

2. Standardized tests represent corporate and governmental control over districts, reducing local control.

1. It will piss off Governor Cuomo."

 

[Tinijocaro]

Grade level readability of stories in 3rd Grade NYS test.
Day 1: 5, 6, 5, 7, 5
Day 2: 6/7, 5/6, 5.5/6
Day 3: 4.5, 6.6, 4.6

The number with a slash were from two different sites (one site says 6th grade level, the other says 7th grade level) If a child with an IEP is one or two reading grades below level, this would be extremely difficult for them.

 

[undertheradar]

Grade level readability of stories in 3rd Grade NYS test.
Day 1: 5, 6, 5, 7, 5
Day 2: 6/7, 5/6, 5.5/6
Day 3: 4.5, 6.6, 4.6

The number with a slash were from two different sites (one site says 6th grade level, the other says 7th grade level) If a child with an IEP is one or two reading grades below level, this would be extremely difficult for them.

What sites?

 

[undertheradar]

"The top ten reasons I support my children's right to refuse the test:

10. I will never see their test so the results are useless to me.

...
9. Their teachers will never see their tests so the results are useless to them.

8. The tests are used to rank schools and teachers based on a metric that was never designed for this purpose.

7. The tests are being used to tell us we have failing schools when the truth is we have phenomenal public schools.

6. My kids are being used to field test questions for future tests without compensation, amounting to free child labor for corporate educational publishers.

5. These tests are based on a curriculum that was only introduced a few years ago.

4. Miraculously, officials from State Ed were able to tell us the percentage of students who would fail PRIOR to the test being administered, indicating a purposeful cut point manipulation (see number 7).

3. These tests force schools to reduce studies in history, science and the arts to focus more time on "deficit instruction" amounting to a race to mediocrity.

2. Standardized tests represent corporate and governmental control over districts, reducing local control.

1. It will piss off Governor Cuomo."

Agenda!

 

[undertheradar]

Here is a word that was on the 8th grade exam today, which includes ELL (English Language Learners). Are you ready for this? Bowdlerize. Let me repeat: Bowdlerize. Haver ANY of you EVER heard of that word? Imagine if English wasn't your first language and you were being tested on that word.

Here's the definition. Bowdlerize - To expurgate in a prudish manner - after Thomas Bowdler (an English editor) who often expurgated! OK now for Expurgate - to amend by removing objectionable or offensive matter, especially from a book!

I am a very well-read 50 year old teacher with a master's degree, you would think I would have come across this word many times since it is on a high stakes ELA exam.

Is anyone else comfortable with this word being on this test?

You posted this yet you don't know the source? The agenda is getting old.

 

[nugov2]

Grade level readability of stories in 3rd Grade NYS test.
Day 1: 5, 6, 5, 7, 5
Day 2: 6/7, 5/6, 5.5/6
Day 3: 4.5, 6.6, 4.6

The number with a slash were from two different sites (one site says 6th grade level, the other says 7th grade level) If a child with an IEP is one or two reading grades below level, this would be extremely difficult for them.

It is very difficult to take a measure of a text and define it by grade level. Lexile is just a tool not an absolute just as the other tools like FRY. I find it hard to believe that a test had a 7th grade reading text for 3rd and honestly with all of the misinformation and exaggerating posting makes it even more doubtful. I'd be curious to see a copy of the text. Is this similar to the vocabulary question that was most likely a completely appropriate question??? Again, Chicken Little posts make the argument much less valid and the people arguing it look much less credible.

 

[msjprincess]

Grade level readability of stories in 3rd Grade NYS test.
Day 1: 5, 6, 5, 7, 5
Day 2: 6/7, 5/6, 5.5/6
Day 3: 4.5, 6.6, 4.6

The number with a slash were from two different sites (one site says 6th grade level, the other says 7th grade level) If a child with an IEP is one or two reading grades below level, this would be extremely difficult for them.

That doesn't really mean anything taken out of context. I know that some of the book excerpts that were used are above grade level. But without seeing the actual text and questions I have no idea if it was too difficult or not.

 

[jodifla]

Carol Burris, the outspoken NY principal, is retiring because of Common Core and the NY evaluation system:

“Well, the legislature has woken a sleeping giant. Around the state today parents are saying “no more.” The robust opt-out movement, which began on Long Island, has now spread across rural and suburban areas in upstate New York as well. Over 75 percent of the students in Allendale Elementary School in West Seneca refused the Common Core tests today. In the Dolgeville district, the number is 88 percent. Over 70 percent of the students in the Icabod Crane Elementary and Middle School refused. On Long Island, 82 percent of Comsewogue students, 68 percent of Patchogue Medford students and 61 percent of Rockville Centre students opted out of the tests. And that is but a sample."

http://dianeravitch.net/category/common-core/

 

[jodifla]

From Michigan, where testing is just beginning its 8-week extravaganza:

http://www.mlive.com/lansing-news/i...tml?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter

In a letter to lawmakers that's been posted around social media, Pine River Area Schools Superintendent Matt Lukshaitis called the M-STEP "a painful invasion of teaching and learning."

He said the fact the MEAP test took three days and the M-STEP test can now be dragged out over 17 days makes him wonder if school officials "collectively lost our minds."
"At Pine River, our computer labs are tied up from April 13 to June 4 for testing. This is a good use of taxpayer dollars?" he wrote. "I cannot fathom how many great minds it takes to change a state system from one day of juniors taking an ACT test on a Saturday morning in a high school cafeteria to a system testing K-12 students over a period of two months, but I'm pretty sure between the MDE and the legislature that we have discovered the formula. I'm saddened by this. Education is not happening."

He added he's concerned about whether students will decide to take the M-STEP seriously.
"Principals and teachers are in high stress mode. Students are not learning, they are in Sarcasm 101 mode," Lukshaitis wrote. "How hard they try is going to be a true turkey shoot."

 

[undertheradar]

Carol Burris, the outspoken NY principal, is retiring because of Common Core and the NY evaluation system:

“Well, the legislature has woken a sleeping giant. Around the state today parents are saying “no more.” The robust opt-out movement, which began on Long Island, has now spread across rural and suburban areas in upstate New York as well. Over 75 percent of the students in Allendale Elementary School in West Seneca refused the Common Core tests today. In the Dolgeville district, the number is 88 percent. Over 70 percent of the students in the Icabod Crane Elementary and Middle School refused. On Long Island, 82 percent of Comsewogue students, 68 percent of Patchogue Medford students and 61 percent of Rockville Centre students opted out of the tests. And that is but a sample."

http://dianeravitch.net/category/common-core/

I know that you are against these tests. Did you ever think that instead of all of these tiny samples, you might want to wait for the actual test results?

 

[undertheradar]

From Michigan, where testing is just beginning its 8-week extravaganza:

http://www.mlive.com/lansing-news/i...tml?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter

In a letter to lawmakers that's been posted around social media, Pine River Area Schools Superintendent Matt Lukshaitis called the M-STEP "a painful invasion of teaching and learning."

He said the fact the MEAP test took three days and the M-STEP test can now be dragged out over 17 days makes him wonder if school officials "collectively lost our minds."
"At Pine River, our computer labs are tied up from April 13 to June 4 for testing. This is a good use of taxpayer dollars?" he wrote. "I cannot fathom how many great minds it takes to change a state system from one day of juniors taking an ACT test on a Saturday morning in a high school cafeteria to a system testing K-12 students over a period of two months, but I'm pretty sure between the MDE and the legislature that we have discovered the formula. I'm saddened by this. Education is not happening."

He added he's concerned about whether students will decide to take the M-STEP seriously.
"Principals and teachers are in high stress mode. Students are not learning, they are in Sarcasm 101 mode," Lukshaitis wrote. "How hard they try is going to be a true turkey shoot."

Perhaps he can show protest by refusing his paycheck.

 

[deedeetoo]

The problem with quoting one person who is against something as is that is comes off like one of those infomercials where they have one doctor saying how good something is when you know it is complete garbage. One person's quote proves nothing - you need data. But all we have here are "facts" about grade levels that don't appear to be real verifiable facts. They're just something someone posted somewhere. Maybe someone just made them up? Maybe not. But you can't tell.

And I don't even bother reading posts that start with hyperbole such as referring to tests as an "8-week extravaganza" and contain random bolding. Its really not the best way to present your case.

 

[jodifla]

The problem with quoting one person who is against something as is that is comes off like one of those infomercials where they have one doctor saying how good something is when you know it is complete garbage. One person's quote proves nothing - you need data. But all we have here are "facts" about grade levels that don't appear to be real verifiable facts. They're just something someone posted somewhere. Maybe someone just made them up? Maybe not. But you can't tell.

And I don't even bother reading posts that start with hyperbole such as referring to tests as an "8-week extravaganza" and contain random bolding. Its really not the best way to present your case.

The quoted person is a school official. So that's news, since he's willing to go against the status quo. Sorry you don't like lively writing. 17 days of testing as opposed to 3 -- how about that data for you?

 

[undertheradar]

The quoted person is a school official. So that's news, since he's willing to go against the status quo. Sorry you don't like lively writing. 17 days of testing as opposed to 3 -- how about that data for you?

17 days testing everywhere?

 

[sam_gordon]

17 days testing everywhere?

I think it's 2-3 days here (Kentucky), at least in my kid's school. How 17 days = 8 weeks is beyond me. Unless they're only testing two days a week.

 

[Kbee]

The quoted person is a school official. So that's news, since he's willing to go against the status quo. Sorry you don't like lively writing. 17 days of testing as opposed to 3 -- how about that data for you?

17 days of testing for students K-12. 17 days equates to 3 weeks and 2 days. Based on what you quoted I'm trying to figure out how 17 days equals 8 weeks, and are the kids sitting in the computer lab every day for 17 days, or for 8 weeks of testing?

 

[erin1715]

Speaking to some of you who seem to support these tests is like speaking to the pro FP+ crowd. No matter how many real life examples we give you(from people actually IN NY and in classrooms) it's like talking to a wall. You don't believe it and everything said must be an exaggeration. Who care what the results show! These tests are really not needed to evaluate students. Teachers have been evaluating students for years with their own testing. And the tests cannot possibly measure a teachers effectiveness because of too many outside factors. These tests are garbage all around.

 

[undertheradar]

17 days of testing for students K-12.

So each student is taking 17 days of testing?

 

[undertheradar]

Speaking to some of you who seem to support these tests is like speaking to the pro FP+ crowd. No matter how many real life examples we give you(from people actually IN NY and in classrooms) it's like talking to a wall. You don't believe it and everything said must be an exaggeration. Who care what the results show! These tests are really not needed to evaluate students. Teachers have been evaluating students for years with their own testing. And the tests cannot possibly measure a teachers effectiveness because of too many outside factors. These tests are garbage all around.

Yet the top 10 list posted by aprilgail has an agenda. See item #1.

 

[Kbee]

Speaking to some of you who seem to support these tests is like speaking to the pro FP+ crowd. No matter how many real life examples we give you(from people actually IN NY and in classrooms) it's like talking to a wall. You don't believe it and everything said must be an exaggeration. Who care what the results show! These tests are really not needed to evaluate students. Teachers have been evaluating students for years with their own testing. And the tests cannot possibly measure a teachers effectiveness because of too many outside factors. These tests are garbage all around.

What real life examples? I haven't seen any questions from the tests posted here. I haven't seen any stories, poems or essays from the tests posted here.
I'm from NY, and please don't insult me because I didn't jump on the opt-out bandwagon like you did. Some of us don't just blindly follow the herd.
And FTR, questioning the validity of some of the things posted here doesn't automatically make one a supporter. I like to know the facts before I commit to something. I don't make my decisions based on other's opinions. But again thanks for your insults. And you wonder why some people don't want to listen to you and your agenda.