So many reasons to #optout: Let’s keep it going until our kids get the schools they really deserve!

It’s that time of year again: Students throughout NY State will be subjected to the burdensome, stressful, overly long, confusing and poorly constructed state exams.The ELA exams will be held from Tuesday, April 5 to Thursday, April 7, and the math exams from Wednesday, April 13 – Friday, April 15.  (Schedule here.)

Johanna Garcia, parent leader in Upper Manhattan

There were stories in today's New York Daily News and Politico New York about the dynamite NYC Opt Out press conference yesterday at City Hall, in which parent leaders demanded that DOE inform parents throughout the city that they have the right to opt out of the upcoming exams.

There is a dearth of information in many schools about this, particularly in immigrant and Latino neighborhoods, as Johanna Garcia of District 6 Presidents Council pointed out at the press conference – despite the fact the state tests are especially inappropriate for English Language Learners and provide no useful information about their skills or progress. 

Other parent leaders in schools with predominantly students of color spoke of principals who had misinformed them, saying that their kids could be held back if they opted out -- even though there is a state law barring this.  The disparity in information provided across the city is in itself a civil rights violation, parents maintained,  reflecting and perpetuating separate and unequal conditions in our schools.

Last year, I appeared on a news show with Angelica Infante-Green, then NY Associate Commissioner of the Office of Bilingual Education, now the Deputy Commissioner.   Ms. Infante-Green agreed that the state tests provide NO useful diagnostic information for ELLs, and that then-Commissioner John King had asked for a waiver from the US Department of Education so that ELLs would not have to take the state test for two years.  The waiver  was denied.

Yes, this is the same John King who is now US Secretary of Education.  Ms. Infante-Green said the state really believed that ELLs should be excused from taking the test for three years, but they hadn't asked for that as they had thought they couldn't get such a waiver.

The test is also particularly abusive to kids with special needs.  At the press conference, Brooke  Parker spoke about how at a private meeting of District 14 parents with Chancellor Farina, she had asked the Chancellor if her dyslexic daughter, a struggling reader, should take the test, and the Chancellor said no. 

Here's an account of a similar private meeting with parents in District 15, in which the Chancellor said that parents of children with special needs and immigrants should opt their children out.  But why tell this to parents in private meetings, without making this information public throughout the city?

Last year,  only 6.9 percent of NYC students with disabilities and 4.4 percent of ELLs “passed” or were deemed proficient on the ELA exams.

Council Member Helen Rosenthal also spoke about the resolution she sponsored that was unanimously approved by the City Council last year, calling for the right of parents to opt their children out of state testing to be included in the DOE Parent Bill of Rights and  sent to every NYC public school parent each year.

Although in Schoolbook, it was suggested that there is a risk of losing federal funds in schools with high opt-out rates, this has never happened.  As Jeanette Deutermann of Long Island Opt out pointed out at the press conference, there are many schools and districts throughout the state that haven’t made the 95% participation rate for three years and have not suffered any loss of funds.  Budget cuts because of high opt out numbers are even more unlikely to occur this year, as it would cause a firestorm and are openly opposed by the Governor, the Commissioner, and  the new  Chancellor of the Board of Regents Dr. Betty Rosa.

More than anything, opting out of the state exams is the most effective tool parents have to protest and disrupt the push to defund, dismantle and privatize our public schools – and turn them into test prep factories where children are treated as data points rather than human beings.

The huge 20 percent opt out rates in NY State last year led directly to the Governor changing his position on linking teacher evaluation to test scores, and also helped lead to the selection of Betty Rosa as the new Regents  Chancellor. 

The selection of Dr. Rosa, an experienced Bronx educator with years as a teacher, a principal and a Superintendent, to replace Merryl (“Push kids into the deep end of the pool”) Tisch would never have happened without the huge opt-out movement in NY over the last two years. 

In fact, in her very first press conference Dr. Rosa said that if she still had kids in the public schools, she would opt them opt.  See yesterday's  Juan Gonzalez column for more on this: "This grass-roots civil disobedience stunned the politicians and data-obsessed bureaucrats who have dictated public education policy for more than a decade.Ever since then, the bureaucrats have been scrambling to win back the confidence of fed-up parents."

  

Here are even more reasons to opt out of testing this year:

•  Pearson, the company known for writing the ridiculous Pineapple passage and many other confusing and badly designed questions, is still writing the exams this year.

• The number of test questions has not been significantly shortened. See the chart to the right.

• While the exams will be untimed, this may mean your child could be subjected to even more hours of pointless stress.       

• ·         In NYC and many other districts, teachers are pulled out of their classrooms for up to three days to score these exams.  The fewer students take the tests, the fewer days they will lose their teachers.  Last year, in some Long Island districts, Jeanette Deutermann told me, teachers only were pulled out for scoring for one day instead of three – because so many students had opted out. 

• ·         There is also the critical issue of privacy.  Nearly two years after the state law passed requiring the appointment of a chief privacy officer and a Parent Bill of privacy rights to be created with public input, neither of these events has happened – despite the fact that the legal deadline for both was July 2014.  And as we recently found out, the State Education Department decided in 2013 to place all the personally identifiable student data it holds, including their test scores, into the State archives potentially forever – a decision which, despite protests, it still has not revoked. 

Here’s a nifty quiz you can take yourself about the exams.  Here is a sample letter you can send to  your principal from NYSAPE; here’s one from Change the Stakes.   

 Here are more detailed explanations by testing expert Fred Smith, Jessica McNair of Opt out Central NY, and NYC teacher Katie Lapham about exactly what has and what hasn’t changed ,and why the current testing regime produces unreliable results and is bad for kids. 

This Saturday, at the office of Senator Bill Perkins at 10 AM, there's a meeting to provide parents with more information on this issue.  Address: Adam Clayton Powell State Office Building 163 West 125th Street, Conference Room B.

See the video below from NYS Allies for Public Education and another from filmmaker Michael Elliot, with simple instructions on how to opt out.

Let’s keep the opt-out movement going until our kids get the schools they really deserve!

HOW TO OPT OUT OF THE NY STATE TESTS from Shoot4Education on Vimeo.

Class Size Matters 7th Annual "Skinny" Awards Dinner

Leonie Haimson and Diane Ravitch,

Patrick Sullivan and Monica Major

Emily Horowitz, and Cynthia Wachtell

invite you to

Class Size Matters 7th Annual "Skinny" Awards Dinner

When: Tuesday, June 9 at 6:30 PMWhere: Il Bastardo/Bocca Di Bacco
191 7th Ave (21st St)
New York, NY 10011

A fundraiser for Class Size Matters

This year we are honoring the NY leaders of the Opt-Out movement:

Change the Stakes

NYC Opt Out

New York State Allies for Public Education

Please join us for an opportunity to enjoy a four course dinner to celebrate three organizations that led a historic movement resulting in 200,000 students refusing to take the NY state tests this year.

Ticket Information:

http://www.nycharities.org/events/EventLevels.aspx?ETID=8217

$250 - Defender of Public Education

$150 - Patron

$75 – Supporter

Thank you for your support and we hope to see you there!

If you can't attend, please consider making a tax-deductible donation to Class Size Matters, to help support our work

New video: Why NYC parents are refusing the test! Deny them the data!

See the great new video below made by filmmaker Michael Elliot, explaining why so many NYC parents are having their children refuse the state exams this year.

Today the DOE came out with a new fact sheet about the consequences for those students opting out of the exams, due to start next week.  It makes clear that there will be NO negative consequences for your child:"If, after consulting with the principal, the parents still want to opt their child out of the exams, the principal should respect the parents' decision and let them know that the school will work to the best of their ability to provide the child with an alternate educational activity (eg reading) during these times."

A sample opt out letter to send to your principal is here.   Along with all the other reasons these parents provide for protecting their children from all the stress and pressure, opting out will also deny inBloom and the other vendors the test score data and proficiency levels for your child that the state plans to disclose.   The test scores are the most valuable data to them, for their unreliable teacher evaluation systems, commercial data-mining schemes, and invalid measures of school success.

Have your child refuse the test, if you want to protest and add your voice against the dangerous trend of collecting, tracking and data-mining children without parental consent.

For other information about opting out, check out Change the Stakes and NYS Allies for Public Education.

Questions to DOE from Jeff Nichols of Change the Stakes re opting out of the exams, promotional guidelines and data sharing

Yesterday I sent the following letter to the Senior Deputy Chancellor of the NYCDOE, Dr. Dorita Gibson. As a parent of a fourth grader and a fifth grader in New York City and as a member of Change the Stakes (changethestakes.org), I am deeply concerned about the level of public confusion around the subjects of testing and opting out. This letter is part of an effort to help clarify matters at a moment in our city's history when our local leaders may be departing from past policies on these issues in many significant ways.

As the letter indicates, last year Change the Stakes worked with the DOE and the public to provide a FAQ page on opting out that many parents found very helpful. In the course of that process I supplied questions to Deputy Chancellor Suransky's office, but they also took questions directly from the public once the process was initiated. Please feel free to suggest to me any further questions you feel should be addressed now, and I will post any response I get from the DOE about how to proceed from here to create a useful ongoing resource for the public. (I can be reached at jeff.william.nichols@gmail.com.)

-- Jeff Nichols
*  *  *

Dr. Dorita Gibson

Senior Deputy Chancellor

New York City Department of Education

March 3, 2014

Dear Dr. Gibson,

I am writing on behalf of Change the Stakes, an association of parents and teachers in New York City concerned about the misuse of testing in our schools, to request clarification of the DOE’s policies regarding opting out of the state tests. Many parents are deeply confused about how test scores, or the lack of them, will affect student promotions, middle and high school admissions, and the evaluations of teachers and schools.

I’m sure you are well aware of the rapidly growing opt-out movement. Change the Stakes and other groups like it are aware in turn that the DOE is taking a new approach to the role of standardized tests in our schools. However, NYSED is not, many principals in New York City seem to be operating according to Bloomberg-era policies, and many of our members are still determined to refuse their children’s participation in a practice that a preponderance of educators regard as fundamentally unsound – high stakes tests.

Last year Change the Stakes worked with Shael Suransky and his staff to develop a FAQ page that parents across the city and beyond found extremely helpful. This year the need for such a site may be even greater, as the opt-out movement grows in the context of gyrating state policies around testing, which are in greater disarray than ever because of the incomplete and -- in the view of many, irretrievably botched -- implementation of the Common Core State Standards.

Parents in New York City continue to receive radically inconsistent messages from principals and superintendents about opting out. Some are told their children will be given alternative activities, ranging from quiet reading to helping out in the classrooms of younger, non-testing grades. Others are threatened with retaliatory measures like denial of promotion or banishment from honor societies, graduation ceremonies, sports teams and the like.

We are sure you are already taking steps to address such contradictions, and we would like to help with that effort by presenting you with the kinds of questions we have been receiving from dozens of parents.

Last year Mr. Suransky worked with us on an ongoing basis throughout the spring to develop and update the FAQ site. We submitted an initial list of basic questions, and then both we and his office added to those questions as new issues arose. Of course Mr. Suransky and his staff took our questions as drafts and often re-worded them to best suit DOE policies, but the results were I believe satisfactory and very useful to both parties, even though the relationship of Change the Stakes to an administration that was strongly pro-testing was essentially adversarial.

Below, then, is an initial list of questions for your consideration. We hope to work with you to create a vital public resource that will allay stress and confusion over testing for many public school families.  

*  *  *

Opting Out and Student Promotion

How does Chancellor Fariña plan to direct principals and superintendents to approach families who opt out of the state tests? Will these directives be shared with families so teachers, principals and parents alike know what to expect?

Do parents have the right to request a portfolio evaluation in place of the state ELA and math exams for the purposes of promotion? Can they request the teacher's judgement or report cards be used in place of standardized tests for this purpose?

Are parents required to use specific language when opting out of the state tests (for example, must they avoid the phrase “opt out” and use the term “refuse” instead?), or does the clear expression in writing of their intention suffice (as it presumably does for other school activities like field trips or sex education for which they might refuse their children's participation)?

The Black Line Masters and portfolio assessments are very time-consuming substitutes for the state tests and would be difficult to administer on a large scale. Are there plans underway to provide a less cumbersome alternative in the event of widespread growth of the opt-out movement?

When portfolios are used to determine promotion, what are the the contents of a portfolio and who evaluates it, on the basis of what criteria? The BLM passing score is apparently a "high 2."  How does this compare to the state test "2" as passing?

Can parents see and approve their child's portfolio before it is submitted to the superintendent by the principal?

If a school is considering retaining a student, can families request the alternative solution of promotion combined with extra support?

What is the appeals process that families can use if they do not agree with a school's promotion decision? Can teachers appeal a promotion decision that runs counter to their judgment of what is in the best interests of the child? 

What was the rationale for removing the promotion decision from the classroom teachers? Are there any plans to restore their traditional authority over this decision?

What is the timeline for promotion in June, promotion after summer school, and promotion appeals?

Impact on Schools

Will schools that fall below a 95% participation rate in the state tests, either cumulatively or by sub-category of students, be penalized in any way?

Is it true that NYS was granted a waiver from NCLB in 2012, and that any school in good standing cannot have that designation changed until 2015-16, regardless of its test scores or student participation rates?

Will  a school currently labeled as a  "focus school" have special consequences different from other schools if they have a participation rate under 95%?
How are this spring's ELA and math exams going to figure in the evaluations of teachers and schools?

Administration of State Tests

Who scores the state tests? Do teachers see the questions or do they only see the scores the student receives? Are teachers allowed to discuss the contents of state tests with students at any point after they are given?
Can parents see the state tests after they have been administered? Is there any provision for parents to challenge their children's scores?

Who scores the Blackline Masters and the August standardized tests given to determine promotion after summer school? Are parents allowed to see these tests?

When state tests are used to determine promotion, are the tests used in their entirety or are partial scores used (omitting for example sections involving extended responses)?

Middle School Admissions
Given the widely acknowledged disjunction between the still-incomplete implementation of Common Core standards and this year's ELA and math exams, will the DOE direct middle and high schools to disregard state test scores in admissions?

As a general matter, apart from the current confusion about the alignment of state tests with CCSS, for students subject to "middle school choice" and/or applying to middle schools throughout the city, is there an official policy in place that will ensure that children who opt out will NOT be disadvantaged relative to private school students, home-schooled students or others who do not have NY state test results when it comes to consideration for admission?

Field Tests

Will there be stand-alone field tests this spring, and if so, when?

Should parents be asked for permission for their children to participate in field testing? Are schools required to notify families ahead of time about the administration of these tests? What form will this communication take, and will all schools be expected to follow a similar procedure for notifying parents?

Testing and Student Privacy

If parents wish to refuse to allow their children to be tested or assessed in any way that will be tracked by InBloom, how would that affect their children's standing in the NYC public schools?

What measures generally can parents take to prevent their children's personal information from being given to InBloom or any other outside entities without their consent?

Freedom of Speech for Teachers and Parents

Under Mayor Bloomberg’s administration, many teachers were afraid to openly discuss vital educational policy matters of deep concern to parents, such as high-stakes testing and the implementation of the Common Core. They feared retaliatory actions even including dismissal for engaging in speech that ran contrary to the official line of their school's administration. 

Will the DOE direct all principals in NYC that there are no restrictions on the right of parents and teachers to discuss freely with each other all aspects of educational philosophy, teaching methods, and state and local education policy, with no penalties for teachers or parents who express opinions contrary to those of school administrators, the DOE or the SED?

*  *  *

Thank you for your attention and for your ongoing work to meet all of our children's educational needs.

 

Jeff Nichols, Associate Professor, Queens College and The Graduate Center, CUNY

Attorney and Parents Send Letter to NYS Attorney General & Education Officials Questioning Legality of Providing Confidential Student Data to Limited Corporation

UPDATE: Please sign our petition against providing our children's confidential data to private corporations! Also check out media clips from our press conference.

 We had a press conference at noon at Norman Siegel’s law offices today; lots of TV cameras were there and WNYC radio so watch/listen for the story tonight and tomorrow. 

The letter Norman sent Friday to the Attorney General and the Regents on behalf of Class Size Matters and other parent groups is posted here: http://bit.ly/W6H2qV  A background memo on these issues is here.  I don't think it is an overstatement to say this whole project represents perhaps the most serious erosion of privacy in our nation's history.

For Immediate Release:  October 14, 2012

For more information contact:

Norman Siegel: (347) 907-0867; NSiegel@stellp.com

Leonie Haimson: (917) 435-9329; leonie@classsizematters.org

Attorney and Parents Send Letter to NYS Attorney General & Education Officials Questioning Legality of Providing Confidential Student Data to Limited Corporation and Demanding Parental Right to Consent

On Sunday, October 14, at a press conference held at the midtown law offices of Siegel Teitelbaum & Evans LLP, attorney Norman Siegel and New York parents released a letter sent Friday to Attorney General Eric Schneiderman and the New York State Board of Regents, demanding that the agreement between the NY State Education Department and the “Shared Learning Collaborative” be released, setting out the conditions and restrictions on the use of confidential student and teacher data to be provided to this limited corporation.  The letter asked that parents be informed exactly what information concerning their children will be shared with this corporation, why the transfer of this data does not violate federal privacy protections, and demanding that the parents have the right to withhold their children’s information from being shared.

Background: In Aug. 25, 2011, NY State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli informed the NY State Education Department that he was rejecting its proposed no-bid contract with Wireless Generation to build a state data system, composed of confidential student and teacher information because of privacy concerns. Wireless Generation is a subsidiary of News Corporation.  Several high-ranking former executives and employees of the News Corporation in the UK were being investigated for violations of privacy and bribing public officials.  As the State Comptroller wrote, "in light of the significant ongoing investigations and continuing revelations with respect to News Corporation, we are returning the contract with Wireless Generation unapproved."  Since then, the scandal has continued to grow, with the number of indicted News Corporation officials expanding in number.

Yet four months later, in December, the NY Board of Regents approved NYSED’s plan to provide this confidential student and teacher data to a limited corporation, called the Shared Learning Collaborative LLC (SLC). The Gates Foundation awarded $76.5 million to form this LLC, with $44 million going to Wireless Generation, to design and operate the system.  According to the SLC’s website, New York is one of five states – along with Colorado, Illinois, Massachusetts, and North Carolina – participating in Phase I of this project, starting in late 2012. The pilot districts are Jefferson County School District (CO); Unit 5 (Normal, IL); District 87 (Bloomington, IL); Everett (MA);  Guilford County Schools (NC), and NYC. Four more states – Delaware, Georgia, Kentucky and Louisiana – have committed to join Phase II in 2013.  Though New York City is one of the pilot districts, the city’s parents have been told nothing about this project, and the state has not shared its agreement with the SLC about the use and protection of this data, despite several requests to do so.

Apart from the lack of parental disclosure and privacy concerns, the SLC website makes it clear that this student data will be used to help companies develop and market educational products.  However FERPA, or the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, appears not to allow the sharing of confidential student information for commercial purposes.

Leonie Haimson, the Executive Director of Class Size Matters, said: “Just this week in Washington the Federal Trade Commission announced sweeping new protections for children’s privacy data. The reason is simple: abuses are rampant, and once a child’s identity is in the marketplace it cannot be called back or protected. We stand with the FTC, every major privacy advocacy group, and all concerned parents in opposing any action to relax child privacy protections, including this plan by the NY State Education Department and the NYC Department of Education, to share confidential information about our public school students without their parents’ knowledge or consent.” 

Janice Bloom, a member of ParentVoicesNY and a parent of a kindergarten student and a 3^rd grader in a Brooklyn public school, said, “I am outraged that the state and the city would have agreed to share our children’s confidential data with a private corporation, without telling us anything about it. I am even more upset that this data is apparently being made available to companies for the purpose of marketing commercial products to the public school system. Parents need to be fully informed of the purpose and ramifications of this project, and provided with the right to opt out.  I do not believe that public schools should be in the business of exploiting children for profit.” 

Karen Sprowal, the mother of a 4^th grader, added: “As a parent of a special needs child, I need to be especially vigilant as to where my child’s information ends up, who gains access to it and for what reason.  I think that the State and the City owe a detailed explanation to me and other NYC parents what the purpose of this project is, as well as an apology for having decided to go forward without telling us a word about it in advance.”   

As Nancy Cauthen, a member of the organization Change the Stakes and the mother of a 6th and a 10^th grader in NYC public schools said: “The erosion of privacy that this project represents is part and parcel of the pillaging of public education for private gain.  The fact that Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation is involved makes me even more fearful that my child’s privacy will be violated and abused.” 

Julie Cavanagh, a special education teacher in Brooklyn, explained: “As a public school teacher I am concerned not only for the privacy of my students, and the way this data will be provided to for-profit enterprises, but I am also worried that this national database may be used to blacklist members of the teaching profession.  Though the National Academy of Sciences and other expert groups have concluded that teacher evaluation systems based on student test scores are not to be trusted, the Gates Foundation seems intent on foisting these systems on the nation.  When the DOE’s unreliable teacher data reports were released, Murdoch’s NY Post not only published them in the paper, but tracked down and harassed teachers who had received low ratings. ” 

Tracy Pyper, the Advocacy Chair of the Westchester/East Putnam Region PTA, said:   "I was extremely troubled to learn that NY State has decided to hand over student personal information to Rupert Murdoch's Wireless Generation, without asking or even telling their parents about this.  And while I realize that at this point, only NYC data is being provided, it is just a matter of time before all of our children in NY State may have their confidential information shared.  Once parents are made aware of how the state is making critical decisions about our children’s private information, without parental consent, they will be very concerned.  I strongly urge the State Education Department to halt all further action until they can explain exactly what personal information will be provided to Wireless Generation, what safeguards they are taking to protect the information, and most importantly, give parents the right to opt out.” 

Norman Siegel, attorney, concluded:  “The risks are real and immediate. The State Education Department has a fundamental responsibility to protect the privacy rights of public school children and their families. Before a single child's information is turned over to the Shared Learning Collaborative (a joint venture of the Gates Foundation and Wireless Generation LLC), our education officials must guarantee that no harm will come to New York school children by meeting the following requirements: 

·         Publish the agreement with SLC in printed and electronic form, include a thorough  explanation of its purpose and provisions, and make it available to parents and local school authorities statewide; 

·         Hold hearings throughout the state to explain the agreement, answer questions from the public, obtain informed comment, and gauge public reaction; 

·         Notify all parents of the impending disclosure, and provide them with a right to consent; 

·         Define what rights families or individuals will have to obtain relief if harmed by improper use or release of their private information, including how claims can be made; 

·         Agree to allow no disclosure of public school records until the State Education Department and the NYC Department of Education meets all of its ethical, security, and statutory obligations to the parents and public school children of the city and state; 

·         Ensure that the privacy interest of public school children and their families are put above the interests of the Shared Learning Collaborative, News Corporation and its agents and subsidiaries.”

###