Who is refusing Common Core tests for 3rd-8th graders?

[diznygirl]

My kids will go to school like on any other day and do whatever it is they do at school that day and then come home and have cookies and milk. They are not stressed out about the tests because I don't stress them out. If they say anything about it, I tell them not to worry, it's not testing them it's testing the teachers so just do your best, as usual.

If I was ranting and raving and going to the board of education and keeping them home, I would be the one stressing them out, not the test.

 

[mom2rtk]

My kids will go to school like on any other day and do whatever it is they do at school that day and then come home and have cookies and milk. They are not stressed out about the tests because I don't stress them out. If they say anything about it, I tell them not to worry, it's not testing them it's testing the teachers so just do your best, as usual.

If I was ranting and raving and going to the board of education and keeping them home, I would be the one stressing them out, not the test.

I'm not disagreeing with your approach.

But be aware that sometimes the stress comes from external factors over which you have no control. Sometimes it comes from within the child. You can't control it all. You're kidding yourself if you think you not stressing will guarantee that your kids will not stress. It might turn out that way. But it might not.

That said, I still agree they need to learn to deal with it and take the test, just as they will have to learn to deal with it and take all the tests that await them in the future.

 

[nugov2]

I am just curious who people thought were scoring tests before...Harvard grads? ACT scorers get $11 an hour right now. This is the same as has always been, private companies getting money, not a truly valid way to measure a child's growth or teachers success, class time used to prep for test. I don't get the hoopla.

My dd took the practice tests and had no issues. I took the practice test and had some difficulty. It is meant for them not us. I'd imagine I'd also have some difficulty taking the ACT now, but doesn't mean the test is crap. It is teachers who put pressure on the kids causing that particular problem for students. I saw someone post on FB that teachers were telling kids they would lose their job if they didn't do well. That is disgusting and horrible. It is districts who waited until the 11th hour to prepare making some of these issues arise. Saw another issue where the district didn't do Java updates and the program wouldn't work, but they were still blaming PARCC...isn't that the districts problem? They own the programs, they just didn't update the computers. I don't see how that is the fault of the test. This test is not anything great, but it also isn't that different. In some ways feel like it is just becoming a bandwagon issue b/c many of the issues I see people upset about are less about the test and more about the mistakes of their districts, but it is just easier to blame PARCC.

I do think the no reading or assistance for children with IEP's is awful and don't understand why that is. I thought my students were able to get accomodations on our old testing(but I have been out of teaching for a long time). That is wrong and unfair.

 

[Tinijocaro]

By refusing, I hope to be part of a larger movement to take education back from large billion dollar corporations, and put it back in the hands of people who know children best-educators! It's not just about how this will affect MY child, it is about what is best for all children, and for the future of education. I care deeply about children, that is why I went into teaching. I teach music and do not have to administer these tests, I don't know if I could continue in this profession if I had to.

This teacher's words really hit the nail on the head.
http://twitchy.com/2015/02/28/ohio-teacher-speaks-out-against-parcc-tests-in-emotional-video/

 

[Happy Snowman]

By refusing, I hope to be part of a larger movement to take education back from large billion dollar corporations, and put it back in the hands of people who know children best-educators! It's not just about how this will affect MY child, it is about what is best for all children, and for the future of education. I care deeply about children, that is why I went into teaching. I teach music and do not have to administer these tests, I don't know if I could continue in this profession if I had to.

This teacher's words really hit the nail on the head.
http://twitchy.com/2015/02/28/ohio-teacher-speaks-out-against-parcc-tests-in-emotional-video/

I didn't realize you sent your child to a school where a big corporation was teaching them...I guess I would move if that were happening to my children.

 

[Tinijocaro]

I didn't realize you sent your child to a school where a big corporation was teaching them...I guess I would move if that were happening to my children.

Maybe you didn't understand what I was saying. Decisions-very important decisions relating to what goes on in the classroom are now being made by billion dollar corporations, rather than by educators. Unless your children go to private school or charter schools, their education also is being decided upon by large corporations rather than by educators.

 

[nugov2]

Maybe you didn't understand what I was saying. Decisions-very important decisions relating to what goes on in the classroom are now being made by billion dollar corporations, rather than by educators. Unless your children go to private school or charter schools, their education also is being decided upon by large corporations rather than by educators.

It also was long before CC/PARCC with NCLB as well. This isn't anything new. Your best bet is to avoid public school if possible or move to a district that doesn't rely on State funding and makes decisions in the best interest of their students not federal funding. Sadly, it is going to take more than a bunch of people opting out of PARCC to make any real changes. Even if they pull this test for another one, the decisions are still going to be made by corporations(which by the way are also the case with both charter and private schools). Private doesn't = better a lot of the time.

 

[Happy Snowman]

Maybe you didn't understand what I was saying. Decisions-very important decisions relating to what goes on in the classroom are now being made by billion dollar corporations, rather than by educators. Unless your children go to private school or charter schools, their education also is being decided upon by large corporations rather than by educators.

No, I understood what you were saying, thus my comment....

 

[tvguy]

Wow, common core sure is a hot topic in some parts of the country. Kind of a non-issue here in California. I am told that's because what California was already doing was so close to common core.

 

[Tinijocaro]

Wow, common core sure is a hot topic in some parts of the country. Kind of a non-issue here in California. I am told that's because what California was already doing was so close to common core.

There is a pretty big opt-out movement going on in California.
http://cuacc.org/

 

[tvguy]

There is a pretty big opt-out movement going on in California.
http://cuacc.org/

I will check this out. I pitched Common Core as a story back in November and couldn't find any organized opposition. Everyone had endorsed it. And I got flamed here

 

[diznygirl]

I'm not disagreeing with your approach.

But be aware that sometimes the stress comes from external factors over which you have no control. Sometimes it comes from within the child. You can't control it all. You're kidding yourself if you think you not stressing will guarantee that your kids will not stress. It might turn out that way. But it might not.

That said, I still agree they need to learn to deal with it and take the test, just as they will have to learn to deal with it and take all the tests that await them in the future.

That would the the general "You" and not actually directed at me I hope.

 

[mom2rtk]

That would the the general "You" and not actually directed at me I hope.

It's directed at anyone who believes they alone can control whether their kids will be stressed out by testing.

 

[nugov2]

There is a pretty big opt-out movement going on in California.
http://cuacc.org/

I'm not sure that 2,727(the number that signed the petition) is a pretty big movement when you consider the whole of California.

 

[undertheradar]

Maybe you didn't understand what I was saying. Decisions-very important decisions relating to what goes on in the classroom are now being made by billion dollar corporations, rather than by educators. Unless your children go to private school or charter schools, their education also is being decided upon by large corporations rather than by educators.

Yet, it is business people who should run schools and educators who should teach. Those corporate dollars that you choose to attack are just about equal to the dollars collectively pulled in by the teachers unions and pension funds. Your choice of target is questionable. The US has such a poor return on investment when comparing education results against developed countries. Let's not forget that every student required to be assisted by special teaching programs, special teachers and assistants, special equipment, all come out of the same general fund used to educate all of the students. There just is not enough money in the budget to provide every little thing that everyone wants education to provide.

As for charter schools, that is a for-profit mess just coming to the forefront of our education mess.

 

[Tinijocaro]

Yet, it is business people who should run schools and educators who should teach. Those corporate dollars that you choose to attack are just about equal to the dollars collectively pulled in by the teachers unions and pension funds. Your choice of target is questionable. The US has such a poor return on investment when comparing education results against developed countries. Let's not forget that every student required to be assisted by special teaching programs, special teachers and assistants, special equipment, all come out of the same general fund used to educate all of the students. There just is not enough money in the budget to provide every little thing that everyone wants education to provide.

As for charter schools, that is a for-profit mess just coming to the forefront of our education mess.

Are you saying teachers should teach what large corporations "think" they should teach? With no educational background, these corporations are going to decide what is best for students rather than the people who are actually qualified and who studied child development?

 

[Tinijocaro]

I'm not sure that 2,727(the number that signed the petition) is a pretty big movement when you consider the whole of California.

That number isn't big, but that is only online signers of the petition. That's not counting people who printed it and got signatures, nor is it counting refusers.

 

[Tinijocaro]

Wow, common core sure is a hot topic in some parts of the country. Kind of a non-issue here in California. I am told that's because what California was already doing was so close to common core.

http://www.dailynews.com/social-aff...overhaul-than-other-states#.UrO7aFlJF6A.email

You are right that California has been more accepting of CC Standards than most states.

 

[nugov2]

Are you saying teachers should teach what large corporations "think" they should teach? With no educational background, these corporations are going to decide what is best for students rather than the people who are actually qualified and who studied child development?

I think they are saying that Unions are also a big business who influence what is going on in schools, but shouldn't be involved at all in our children's education. Unions are out for number one and do not care if what they do helps or doesn't help our students. It is just another reason why our education system is in so much trouble. Unions are just as big of a bully as the corporations who are interested in money not the best interest of the kids.

That number is big, but that is only online signers of the petition. That's not counting people who printed it and got signatures, nor is it counting refusers.

I disagree that 2,000+ is big. Even if 10,000 additional people printed it out and opted out that is still nothing. California has millions of students in the public school system. They would need to have numbers in the hundreds of thousands to make an impact. They have over 6 million students in over 10,000 public schools. They are lucky if they have one person signing the petition/opting out per school by those figures. I think even a small ripple can gain momentum, but I think that many of the people(not all) that are against CC or opting out of PARCC don't realize this has been the way of the public schools loooong before this latest "improvement". They also in almost all cases I see posting examples of what is wrong with the people running their districts(administrators/teachers bad decisions) and not what is wrong with the new standards/testing. I think that is where this movement will fail. In areas with educators and administrators who have taken time to thoughtfully implement standards, to ready their district for this test, nobody is having any issues. I can say that in any of the surrounding areas around here, nobody cares and just views it as more of the same when it comes to the new standards and the test. Districts not ready with technology due to funding are still taking paper/pencil tests. I don't know why schools with only 2 computers per class are not using the paper/pencil version. I truly believe some districts are using our students as pawns to make this roll out/test so disastrous as to say....look we tried to test and it didn't work. Well, how can you expect students to take a computer based test, and why are you doing it via computer instead of paper/pencil when you don't have the resources. Who is responsible for that bad decision, the test creators or the ones with the poor implementation? Why are teachers posting stories of horrible practice sessions b/c the test doesn't work on a computer when there computers haven't been properly updated? What teachers puts his/her students through that stressful situation when a simple JAVA update would have made it successful. Again, is that the test creators fault or the teacher/administrators who thought it was a good idea to take a test without the proper equipment.

If a teacher posted a horror story of a test her students couldn't take b/c they didn't have sharpened pencils and how horrible the test company was and students were crying because it wasn't working would we blame the test or the one administering it? The one giving it right, but b/c anit CC/PARCC is the latest bandwagon movement everyone looks beyond the mistakes the teachers/administrators made and go right to blaming PARCC and that, to me is shocking. Lets hold the correct people accountable. Is the test bad, probably(but no more so than those of the past) but also we have people using students as pawns to try to get across their feelings. Telling a kid that they will be fired if they don't succeed and then blaming the test for causing stress is BS. That is on the adult working with those kids.

 

[undertheradar]

That number is big, but that is only online signers of the petition. That's not counting people who printed it and got signatures, nor is it counting refusers.

When we lived in SoCal our kids attended a school district with over 15,000 kids in it, so that number is very small by California numbers.