Why parents opt out of exams and what are the consequences for kids and schools

The tests are coming!  The state ELA tests arrive this week  for grades 3-8. The paper version of the ELA exam will be given in NYC on April 11-12 and computer-based on April 10-17.  Math tests on paper will be administered on May 1-2, and computer-based tests on May 1-8.

For the past three years, the statewide opt out rate has ranged from 19-21%. More than 90% of NY districts failed to make the 95% participation rate last year that the feds supposedly require.  No NY school or child has suffered because of opting out in the past, and this remains the case this year.

Schools will not be ranked lower in the state's accountability system for a high opt out rate or lose funding as a result, and children refusing to take the test will have not have low scores entered into their records.  LoHud News reports that the most serious penalty for schools with high opt out rates will be paperwork: "Schools that "persistently and substantially fail" to hit the 95-percent participation target will have to do a self-assessment of their failings and develop a plan to do better."  Newsday quotes the State Education Department spokesperson this way: “It’s up to parents to decide if their children should take the tests, and we want them to have all the facts so they can make an informed decision.”

So what are the facts?  The state exams have been shortened from three days to two, which is an improvement, and the state mandated that no child could be held back because of a low score on the exam, and no teacher judged on the results, as occurred during Mayor Bloomberg's administration.

But there are still many questions about the quality and usefulness of these exams. Here a third grade teacher points out how many of the reading passages continue to be far above grade level, and how the results fail to provide any useful diagnostic information to teachers about their students.  Many other educators have pointed out how the state exams are replete with questions like "What is the main idea" of a reading passage, while offering multiple choice answers that are confusing and ambiguous.

As Jeanette Deutermann of Long Island Opt Out points out, the overemphasis on high-stakes testing has caused schools to narrow the curriculum, focus on low-quality worksheets and eliminate project-based learning.  The exams also widen inequities and are toxic for students, as Johanna Garcia explains.  Chancellor Farina privately told a group of NYC parents two years ago that she herself would opt out of the test if she had an English Language Learner or special needs child -- though she  refused to admit this publicly.

The Common Core standards and exams have also promoted other damaging practices in schools, such as "close reading" strategies in which teachers aren't supposed to explain the larger context of passages, with students deprived of the background knowledge they need to fully comprehend assigned texts.  For the best and most concise critique of how this impairs learning, see a one minute video from Nick Tampio, professor at Fordham University.

Indeed, some Common Core proponents are now backtracking and renouncing the value of the current state exams, including Louisiana State Superintendent John White, (formerly Deputy Chancellor of NYC DOE) who now says that reading tests should be based instead on knowledge and a broad curriculum: 

The trouble is that by not requiring knowledge of any specific book or facts, reading tests have contributed to the false impression that reading is mainly about having skills such as being able to summarize, and not about background knowledge. Walk into many English classrooms today and you will see students capably identifying an article’s main idea. But you’re less likely to find students learning the historical context for a novel or discussing the novel’s broader meaning. By not requiring knowledge, tests create no incentive for particular knowledge to be taught. 

This is not fair to adolescents, who need knowledge to become effective adult readers. It’s particularly not fair to students from historically disadvantaged backgrounds, whose summer breaks rarely involve trips abroad or afternoons at museums, and who are thus at a disadvantage on any test that, whether it’s acknowledged or not, measures background knowledge. And it’s not good policy for a nation struggling with the influence of falsified news reports over its citizenry.

White has been congratulated for taking this position by many who formerly supported the Common Core, like Robert Pondiscio of the Fordham Institute and Larry Berger of Amplify, without acknowledging how this new stance is totally contrary to the current regime, which emphasizes "skills" in dissecting "texts" over content and background knowledge.   

Walter Isaacson, head of the Aspen Institute, which has received millions from the Gates Foundation for promoting the Common Core as well as other damaging experiments, congratulated John White this week in a speech before the Public Affairs Research Council, for being "incredibly experimental” and "willing to try new things but admit when something isn’t working and course correct", according to an attendee. 

Here are my responses to this on twitter:

Incredibly experimental is not a great compliment @walterisaacson if you have a child in the Louisiana public schools cc @deutsch29blog https://t.co/UQ7PQeMOHg

— leonie haimson (@leoniehaimson) April 8, 2018

What right did @billgates and their facilitators and grantees like @aspeninstitute have to experiment on the entire nation’s public schoolchildren all at once by imposing flawed #commoncore standards and exams-@WalterIsaacson @LouisianaSupe @larryamplify @gatesed https://t.co/rpm8bCY9r0

— leonie haimson (@leoniehaimson) April 8, 2018

Until you guys admit your complicity & arrogance in imposing your flawed vision w/o consultation & consent of those affected your second thoughts deserve no credit https://t.co/u2QRASF1i9

— leonie haimson (@leoniehaimson) April 8, 2018

Unless it can be shown that the New York state exams are high-quality, yield reliable and useful results, and encourage rather than discourage good teaching and real learning in our schools, parents not only have the right to opt out their children of these exams, they have good reasons to do so. 

As Chris Cerrone, a teacher and co-founder of Western New Yorkers for Public Education, writes:

The opt-out movement is not just about refusing to take a test, but, instead, offering a vision for public education that rejects a focus on assessment skills, workbooks and teacher-centered classrooms. Families who boycott yearly standardized tests instead advocate for student-centered learning and creative activities that include hands-on and real-world simulations. Imagine every classroom and school system engaging students, to promote imaginative, higher-order thinking that goes well beyond the narrow scope of a test-focused education system. These are the skills our children need to truly be ready and flexible to meet a rapidly changing world as they graduate.

Sample parent opt out letters are offered by NYS Allies for Public Education  and NYC Opt Out.

A Parent Guide to the Broad Foundation just released!

Check out the new Parent Guide to the Broad Foundation, its Training Programs and Education Policies, just released by Parents Across America.  (Here is the guide as a handy downloadable fact sheet.)

Jean-Claude Brizard is a Broad Academy graduate, formerly of DOE,  subsequently Superintendent of the Rochester schools.  Just yesterday he was appointed to be Chicago's CEO of schools.

So is Chris Cerf, John White, Shael Suransky and several of the top corporate-style educrats who worked at Tweed and across the country, many of whom have provoked controversy with their pro-privatization policies and autocratic leadership style.

What is Eli Broad trying to achieve by installing his brand of leadership in schools throughout the country? Parents, be forewarned!

What's the real story behind Black's fall from grace?

The three NYC dailies have conflicting accounts, sometimes within their very same pages, about why Black was fired by Bloomberg, after three short months. Bloomberg usually sticks by his deputies, no matter what their level of incompetence. Despite all the emphasis on "accountability" at the school level, there is generally little accountability at the top at City Hall.

The Daily News claims that the mayor didn’t like her inability to cut the budget:

Two sources said the mayor became increasingly disenchanted with her inability to do the grueling and technical work of cutting the education budget.

Meanwhile, the NY Post says it was because she made decisions to expand programs too slowly:

The Department of Education under Black actually delayed plans to expand citywide an ambitious special-ed pilot program and increase the number of schools containing a high-tech education program. Even when she rolled out a program -- finding $10 million to spend on after-school tutors -- Black drew criticism for bragging about such a paltry expenditure.

These programs – the special ed pilot and expanding the Izone -- are both very controversial, of course, and the latter is going to cost millions of dollars, not less; of course, which doesn't exactly help with cutting the budget.

In a different NY Post article, it says that John White was actually running the department, and when he left, Bloomberg realized he needed someone else in there quick:

Bloomberg admitted the breaking point came earlier that day when Black's most competent deputy chancellor, John White, quit -- the fourth top DOE official to defect since Black took over the nation's largest school system. "White was running the system," a source said. "The mayor felt he needed to make a move."

Yet the NY Times features an account that claims that decisions were being made too slowly, because they were vetted through her two top deputies, as well as Walcott and Wolfson at City Hall, and doesn't even mention John White:

Under Ms. Black, proposals meandered through layers of review: Ms. Black, her two powerful deputies, and City Hall officials, including Mr. Walcott and another deputy mayor, Howard Wolfson. …Ms. Black often deferred to Shael Polakow-Suransky, the chief academic officer, and Sharon Greenberger, the chief operating officer, giving them so much power that education officials jokingly referred to them as “chancellor,” the two aides said.

Meetings were rife with jockeying as senior officials tried to steer Ms. Black toward their view, the aides said. Mr. Polakow-Suransky and Ms. Greenberger served as gatekeepers, deciding which proposals to endorse and which to scuttle.

One of the few named sources in this NY Times article is Joe Williams of DFER, while failing to identify him as a charter school lobbyist:

“Anybody working on any plan for the last two and a half months had no assurance that it would ever get done rather than just having dust gather on top of it,” said Joe Williams, the executive director of Democrats for Education Reform, who works closely with schools and education officials. “Not having a leader there makes them wonder why they are showing up every day to this giant bureaucratic blob.”

Clearly, Joe felt that the DOE under Black was not giving him and his hedgehog friends the sort of access they got when Klein was there.

Here’s another quote from the Times, this one from an anonymous source:

Among some charter school operators, there is also frustration. When new charter schools open, the Education Department guarantees most of them space. But there have been challenges to the space allocations, brought on by flawed plans that needed to be amended due to lack of detail or typographical errors.

The problems have also meant that e-mails and phone calls are not getting returned. “I’m trying to hang a sign on a building, and the czar of signs is not answering his phone,” said the head of a high-performing network of charter schools, who asked not to be named for fear of angering the department.

My guess that this quote is from Eva Moskowitz, who works closely with Joe. Few other charter operators would be so open about their desire to acquire space to admit frustration in "trying to hang a sign on a building".

So charter operators were fed up with the slowness of DOE to respond to their demands, especially as compared to Joel Klein, who was at Eva's beck and call and responded to every one of her innumerable emails.

Is the real explanation, then, that Black was fired because the privatizers complained that they weren’t getting their co-locations quick enough?

Who knows? My guess is that the story is far more simple: Cathie Black was fired because the mayor’s poll numbers were falling fast, down to 27% approval for his handling of education, in spite of the millions of dollars of TV ads he is paying for out of his own pocket. Wolfson, his political guru, probably told him the ads weren't working, and that he had to throw her overboard, fast. Loyalty only goes so far, after all.

John White, the next Superintendent of New Orleans?

UPDATE: his appointment was just announced; see Times-Picayune, with quotes from MBP Stringer, Irene Kaufman and me. My condolences to New Orleans.

John White, NYC Deputy Chancellor, is reportedly being considered as the next Superintendent of New Orleans schools.

White led the DOE’s efforts to expand charters, and to co-locate them in already existing schools. He is also a former TFA-er, and a graduate of the Broad Superintendent Academy, which has trained countless controversial superintendents, including many that have received no-confidence votes, like Jean-Claude Brizard of Rochester, and the scandal-ridden Maria Goodloe-Johnson, recently dismissed from Seattle schools.

In the views of many public school parents, he has consistently ignored our concerns about overcrowding and inequitable distribution of resources and space. See this account, for example, of the proposal to place the Hebrew Language Academy charter school within Marine Park middle school; here are also videos of the highly contentious hearings.

During the proceedings, he called the 150 children who would attend the Hebrew charter school the "jewels" of the DOE, which hugely offended the parents of the 1100 children currently attending Marine Park MS, as well as the community's elected officials, including Rep. Anthony Weiner.

White also supported the creation of a middle school called "Quest to Learn" based on video games, despite the opposition of District 2 parents and the Community Education Council. He promised it would not go into an existing school building but that it would find its own building. That never happened, of course. Instead it was inserted into the Bayard Rustin building, eliminating precious gym space for students at the schools already housed in the building. His refusal to consult with parents and the CEC led to a lawsuit.

White is now been pushing the rapid and costly expansion of the Izone, or online learning, to 400 schools, despite the fact that it has little or no research to back it up, as today's NY Times points out. Yet he wants to spend $500 million on technology next year to make this possible. As quoted in this recent report on the Izone, White said, “We are trying to make achievement the constant and adults the variable.”

It is no wonder that White would want to leave NYC, considering the negative feelings he has aroused; and the fact that approval ratings for Bloomberg's handling of education is at an all-time low of 28%. Despite all the money spent and often wasted, achievement has lagged, especially among black and Hispanic students.

John White also led the campaign to close schools. Below are videos of public hearings at which he presided concerning the closing of Jamaica HS in Queens and Metropolitan Corporate Academy in Brooklyn.

Jamaica HS Closing Hearing: James Eterno Presents the Real Data from Grassroots Education Movement on Vimeo.

The Marine Park community comes out to protect their public school

Last night the Marine Park community in Brooklyn came out in numbers to voice their opinion regarding the placement of the Hebrew Language Charter school inside Marine Park Junior High School. All in all it was a great meeting, and included over 900 people, parents, community people, and elected officials.

We packed the entire auditorium with standing room all the way out the doors. The overwhelming majority were against the forced entry of the charter into the existing building. The charter people came and spoke about their wonderful program, etc. but the issue at this point if not whether we are for or against charters but its placement in the public school.

Congressman Anthony Weiner, City Council Member Lew Fidler, Comptroller Bill Thompson and Senator Marty Golden spoke vehemently against the placement. Assembly Member Alan Maisel and Senator Carl Kruger were up in Albany and sent reps who also indicated that they were totally against the idea. Many people spoke and offered alternate possible sites – but not in any public school. It seemed very pertinent to Ms. Sarah Berman, the founder of the charter school, as well as Mr. John While of the DOE that they had 300 signatures of people who wanted the charter. The committee at IS 278 presented them with over 7000 bound signatures on petitions against this placement.

It was also pointed out by one of the speakers that if Michael Steinhardt, Ms. Berman’s billionaire father, were not a personal friend of Mr. Bloomberg this placement would not even be an issue.

Mr. White of the DOE dangled the carrot that if we went for this for the two years they would then let Marine Park have the 6 - 12 program they have been asking for four years now. He was told that the carrot and stick wouldn't work.

He also promised that the charter school would sign a memo of understanding that they would get out after the two years. He was again told that with the track record of the DOE, we didn't believe that either. This is especially true, since he himself said at the town hall meeting the previous week, when questioned what would they do if the Charter still didn't have a space after two years, he said to the effect we couldn't throw the kids out on the street.

A video of this earlier meeting can be viewed at the www.marineparker.net

Last night, the DOE mostly just listened while person after person stated valid reasons why they did not want the charter housed in Marine Park JHS. At times their boredom was apparent, but the parents and community intend to continue this fight. -- Dorothy Giglio

Charter school students as the "jewels" of the DOE

In recent days we are hearing a lot about Mayoral Control and whether it should be continued or not, changed or left the same. The Mayor said many times he wants to be judged on how he handles the schools.

Well right now, the parents and community of Marine Park in Brooklyn are involved in a real life struggle with the Department of Education. A struggle that would never have existed except for the current system of Mayoral Control.

In order to satisfy the whims of a newly established charter school, one whose founders clearly stated if they were allowed their charter would find their own space and would definitely not look to enter any public school building, has now shown their real colors as they attempt to force their way into an existing neighborhood junior high school, IS 278.

This would never even have become an issue if we still had Community School Boards that actually answered to the community and had some real power. Instead the DOE does as it wants. Against the will of the people, the elected representatives, the civic associations etc.

But worse of all, it became really apparent the contempt that the DOE holds the parents and students of New York City. Last night at a town hall meeting held by Sen. Marty Golden where this issue was raised at a packed house and the opposition of everyone there was apparent, Mr. John White of the DOE stated that the 150 children scheduled to be in the charter school are the "jewels" of the DOE.

I guess that means that the 1100 children currently attending IS 278 as well as the numbers of students that would attend this school in the future are just dross to the DOE. They are throwaways. Why care what happens to them, their education, their class sizes, and the programs that help them or the quality of their school day -- all of which will be sacrificed because of the forced entry of this charter school? Why care what happens to a neighborhood school that has worked for years to improve the success of their children? They don't matter because to the Mayor and the DOE they are not the "jewels".

Mr. White also stated those 150 families signed up in the charter are taxpayers who have rights. More rights, I guess, than the thousands of taxpayers that have already signed petitions against this placement throughout the community.

So that is what they think of our children and anyone not involved in their charter schools. That is the result of Mayoral Control.

--Dorothy Giglio, long time parent leader in District 22

For more on the Hebrew Language Charter school, which has announced an intention to take space inside IS 278, a Title One school in Brooklyn, see this Daily news article and Diane Ravitch's oped here.