video: Occupy the DOE, talking about class size & big data

Talking about class size, the depersonalization of learning, Bill Gates, big data, Big Brother, inBloom Inc. and online learning on April 4, the first day of Occupy the US Department of Education in DC.

One Size Does Not Fit All: A Student’s Assessment of School

Earlier this year, Molly Moody of Class Size Matters interviewed Nikhil Goyal, seventeen-year old student writer and international speaker, to discuss his new book, One Size Does Not Fit All: A Student’s Assessmentof School. Goyal is well known as an advocate for student voice. In addition to his book, published in 2012, you can find his writing in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, MSNBC, NPR, NBC Nightly News, Huffington Post, Education Week and other news outlets.  

Below, Goyal discusses his view of the U.S. public school system, technology and other education topics.

Molly:  What is your optimal design for a school system

Nikhil: First, we should get rid of the compulsory school system. Second, students need to have ownership and agency over their learning. The role of a teacher becomes a mentor and facilitator rather than a "sage on the stage." Intrinsic motivation to learn something outweighs everything else. Third, schools should look less like prisons and more like startups and horizontal work environments. Research has concluded that a school's design can impact a child's learning greatly. Fourth, grades and testing should be abolished. In lieu of this, portfolio-based assessments can be added. And lastly, learning should happen in the context of the community and the city. 

What are the top 4 classroom changes you would have liked to see implemented in your own school?

 First, I would abolish A.P. classes. Second, I would like to receive graduating credit for projects like writing my book. Third, I would love to have had my voice valued in the administration. And fourth, I wish that there was more collaboration between teachers across departments.

What role do you think smaller class sizes could play in schools, and in obtaining the C’s you mentioned in the book (creative thinking, critical thinking, imagination…etc)? 

 Smaller class sizes play a very important role in these changes. There is an exorbitant amount of research that links smaller classes to higher student achievement, if you want to use test scores as a yardstick. It's really a no-brainer. 

So many “reformers” right now are trying to revamp the teaching profession with merit pay, younger and less experienced teachers in the classrooms, etc. Do you think we need changes to the profession?

 The "reformers" changes, as demonstrated by experiments and trial studies, simply do not work. The teaching profession still needs to be transformed. This means teachers need to paid MUCH more, given adequate professional development, evaluated holistically, and taught learner-centered techniques in graduate education schools. Absolutely. 

What is your personal relationship with technology and what do you think of the current plan to hand student data over to inBloom, Inc? 

 I love technology. I'm fueled by social media especially. At times, it can be distracting, but that's something that children of this generation must learn to overcome. Technology can be an extraordinary tool to engage with all types of people. But what inBloom and these data hungry companies are engaging in is simply wrong. Stealing students' data for profit and manipulation while violating their privacy cannot be tolerated. Students will not stand silent.

 What are your suggestions for people applying to colleges, or thinking about applying? Are you considering college for yourself?

 My suggestions for people applying or thinking about applying to college would be to fundamentally evaluate what you, as an individual, will gain from the experience. Obviously, some people are required to go to college -- doctors, some lawyers and engineers, public school teachers. But for a majority, it's important to consider the debt you will be burdened with, the prestige and brand of the institution, and whether alternatives like apprenticeship programs, self-directing your learning, volunteering, or traveling work better for you. At the very least, I advocate for students to take a gap year at some point. I plan on going to college eventually, because I want to go into politics.  

What advice would you give to other young people/students looking to share their voice?

 I would suggest that they start a blog and begin documenting their opinions on schooling and other issues. Having a Twitter account is also very important. 

What are your next plans? Policy? Entrepreneurship?  Advocacy? All of the above?

 I just graduated high school in January. I plan on taking a year and a half off until going to college. I'm launching an organization called Learning Revolution to create walkouts and school protests to promote specific platforms for transforming schools. 

To read more about Nikhil Goyal’s book, One Size Does Not Fit All: A Student’s Assessment of School, and his latest appearances, visit his website: www.nikhilgoyal.me

Please come to our April 29 Town Hall meeting on student privacy & inBloom Inc.

A downloadable flyer is also posted here: http://shar.es/J6QSI  

 Parents, do you know your child’s confidential, personal school records are going to be shared with a corporation called inBloom Inc?

This highly sensitive information will be stored on a data cloud and disclosed to for-profit corporations to help them develop and market their “learning products.”

The data will include your child’s names, address, photo, email, test scores, grades, special education, economic and racial status, and most likely detailed disciplinary, and health records as well.

Please come and hear more about this plan from advocates and state and city education officials.

What: Town Hall meeting about student privacy

When: Monday, April 29^th at 6 p.m.

Where: Brooklyn Borough Hall, 209 Joralemon Street

(Take the #4 or 5 Trains to Boro Hall, #2, 3, or R to Court Street, or the A, C or F Trains to Jay Street/Boro Hall)

Invited guests include representatives from the NYS Education Department, the NYC Department of Education, the Gates Foundation, inBloom Inc., and the Board of Regents.

Co-sponsored by the Brooklyn Parent Academy; Assemblymembers Danny O’Donnell, James Brennan, William Colton; NYS Senators Liz Krueger and Martin Golden, NYC Public Advocate Bill de Blasio, NYC Council Education Chair Robert Jackson, Council Members Gale Brewer and Leticia James; Class Size Matters, the Learning Disabilities Association of NY, Community Education Councils of Districts 1, 3, 13, 14, 15, 20, 21, 22 and the Citywide Council for Special Education.

This year's NYS/Pearson ELA exams: an Epic Fail

UPDATE from 3rd day: Pearson Always Learning But Never Getting it Right; turns out they made big errors on scoring Gifted and Talented exams which were only found because parents were allowed to examine the tests and identified the mistakes themselves.  See the Pearson press release, and DOE's here.  Of course, the state is refusing to let parents examine the Pearson ELA or math exams -- so there's no way we will know just how many errors are embedded in them as well.

As for the third day of the ELA:
Even some of those kids who had managed the first two days, decomposed and fell apart the 3rd day of testing. Some vomited, cried, and got asthma all because of unfair, overly long and highly flawed exams that are being used for invalid purposes.  There are reports of even more product placements, added to the long list below, including Nike shoes and iPods.  I am quoted in the Daily News and the NY Post about how passages  pulled straight from Pearson textbooks used elsewhere in the state disadvantaged NYC children, and s the Commissioner to invalidate those items, as he did with the Pineapple section last year.  Let's see what he does. His email is jking@mail.nysed.gov.

UPDATE: The reviews are in, and the consensus among parents, students and teachers is that this year's NYS/Pearson ELA exams were even worse than expected.  

The tests were too long, the questions confusing even for teachers, and many students ended up in tears.  See just a sample of observations below.  Is this what Chancellor Walcott meant when he said, "It's time to rip the Band-Aid off" , or Regents head Merryl Tisch, when she explained, “We have to just jump into the deep end"?

In addition, the fact that passages in some of the forms given some children at multiple grade levels most likely disadvantaged those 3rd or 4th graders who had to struggle with inappropriately difficult material -- and these passages apparently appeared at the beginning of the exam (see comment below) .

According to the NY Post, the tests were also replete with corporate logos and commercial product names, like Mug Root Beer, the LEGO game Mindstorms, IBM, the soccer league FIFA, and the comic book and TV show “Teen Titans” – though the state insists that these companies did not pay for that privilege. The NYSED spokesperson explained instead that this occurred because the passages were drawn from "authentic texts." Not to mention that they fell under the category of "informational text" as prescribed by David Coleman, the primary author of the Common Core standards -- or should we call this infomercial text instead?


To make things worse, it appears that passages in both the 6th and 8th grade exams were taken straight from Pearson textbooks in the same grades. Perhaps this is a clever move of Pearson's to persuade districts to buy their products,  but it represents an unfair advantage to those students who had already been assigned these passages.  (See also the comment from a  teacher that a reading passage on the 5th grade exam was taken from a Ready New York CCLS review book published by Curriculum Associates.)

One cannot escape that perhaps conservative Rick Hess is right; that the Common Core is really a political strategy, not an educational one, designed to "shine a harsh light on the quality of suburban schools, shocking those families and voters into action,"  and "scare" them into embracing the "reform" agenda, including more charter schools and the outsourcing of education into corporate hands. Please post your comments below.

     If you have children or students in grades 3-8 they are now in the midst of three days of state ELA standardized testing.  Last year, the ELA exams were full of errors and confusing and ambiguous questions, including the infamous Pineapple passage, which we first reported on our blog. This year, we have heard from teachers and principals that the reading passages were difficult and the questions extremely tricky.  Some  said they could not figure out the answers themselves.

In addition, several passages and questions were repeated at several different grade levels.  Reportedly, one of the four forms of the test had the same passage in grades 3,4, and 5.  So many principals and teachers thought this was a mistake that the state posted a memo, calling this "vertical linking" and claiming that repeating the same items in adjacent grades is one of the"typical testing processes." Yet a principal told me that in her twenty years as a NY educator, she’s never seen this before on a state standardized exam.

As a parent, student, or educator, if you have comments or observations about the exams this year, please email me directly at leonie@classsizematters.org or post them on our blog below.  Your name and/or school will be held in strict confidence if that's what you prefer.  thanks!

Sample opt out letter and press release of NYC opt out parents.

Here's a sample opt-out/refusal letter you can send with your child tomorrow. 

Here's a report from the press conference by NY1.

NYC PARENTS BOYCOTT HIGH STAKES STATE TESTS

Media Contact: Jane Hirschmann, 917 679 8343             

Jane Maisel, 917 678 1913

3^rd THROUGH 8^TH GRADE PARENTS IN OVER 33 SCHOOLS REFUSE TO ALLOW THEIR KIDS TO BE TESTED

Parents in New York City as well as across NY State are mobilizing for a large scale boycott of this year's state standardized tests which start tomorrow. Parents assert that based on the numbers of concerned parents attending meetings and signing petitions, there would have been thousands more participating in this boycott if the NY State Education Department and the NYC DOE hadn’t created such an atmosphere of fear and intimidation.

Many children across the city will not be taking part in the state tests this April. Parents from 33 schools have instructed the administration and the teachers that they do not have permission to administer the tests to our children.  Parents are determined to end the use of high-stakes testing which are now tied in with New York State’s new experimental Common Core curriculum.

 According to Chancellor Dennis Walcott of the Department of Education children are expected to do poorly on this year's tests because these tests are based on an as yet unused curriculum.  “Why put our children through this exercise? This is surely education malpractice. You can also call it child abuse,” said Marco Battistella. We know our rights as parents and we have an obligation to protect our children.  None of the top performing private schools (where Board of Regents children have attended) give these tests. Could that be why there are no consequences for their opting out?

Evelyn Cruz, a parent of a 6th grader reports that, “I have watched as my son who once loved school, now comes home complaining about all the test prep and emphasis on testing.  He doesn’t want to go to school anymore.  We parents are coming together to tell the Mayor and the Chancellor that despite attempts at fear and intimidation we say, ‘No more!’”

We have had enough of our children doing work that is developmentally inappropriate and focused on drill and kill. We see our children losing their love for learning. Something is very wrong when nine and ten year olds are so stressed out that they are crying, losing sleep and dreading going to school. A 4^th grade parent reported that her son is saying that he must be ‘stupid’ because he is having difficulty with material that is at the ninth grade level.  Test anxiety makes learning impossible.

 “We have had enough of the endless test prep that comes with high-stakes testing tied to promotion decisions, teacher evaluations, school report card grades, closing of schools,” said Cynthia Copeland, a parent.

Parents have had enough of our educational system being dismantled by businessmen and politicians, not educators. We insist on a rich curriculum where teachers can teach and children will have a true pathway to successful careers and college.

                                                            ###