11/9/14, "States Listen as Parents Give Rampant Testing an F," NY Times, Lizette Alvarez, Royal Palm Beach, Fla.
"Florida embraced the school accountability movement early and enthusiastically, but that was hard to remember at a parent meeting in a high school auditorium here not long ago.
Parents railed at a system that they said was overrun by new tests coming from all levels — district, state and federal. Some wept as they described teenagers who take Xanax to cope with test stress, children who refuse to go to school and teachers who retire rather than promote a culture that seems to value testing over learning.
“My
third grader loves school, but I can’t get her out of the car this
year,” Dawn LaBorde, who has three children in Palm Beach County
schools, told the gathering, through tears. Her son, a junior, is so
shaken, she said, “I have had to take him to his doctor.” She added: “He
can’t sleep, but he’s tired. He can’t eat, but he’s hungry.”
One father broke down as he said he planned to pull his second grader from school. “Teaching to a test is destroying our society,” he said.
One father broke down as he said he planned to pull his second grader from school. “Teaching to a test is destroying our society,” he said.
Where
once these frustrations were voiced in murmurs, this year not only
parents but also educators across Florida are rebelling. They have
joined a national protest
in which states have repealed their graduation test requirements,
national
standards in more than 40 states —
and rolled back the number of
required exams.
In August, Education Secretary Arne Duncan added to the chorus when he wrote in a blog post
that “testing issues today are sucking the oxygen out of the room in a
lot of schools,” and that teachers needed more time to adapt to new
standards and tests.
Last
month, state school chiefs and the heads of large city districts were
the latest to express their concerns by committing to review the panoply
of tests students must take.
In
Florida, which tests students more frequently than most other states,
many schools this year will dedicate on average 60 to 80 days out of the
180-day school year to standardized testing. In a few districts, tests
were scheduled to be given every day to at least some students.
The
furor in Florida, which cuts across ideological, party and racial
lines, is particularly striking for a state that helped pioneer
accountability through former Gov. Jeb Bush. Mr. Bush, a possible
presidential contender, was one of the first governors to introduce
high-stakes testing and an A-to-F grading system for schools. He
continues to advocate test-based accountability through his education
foundation. Former President George W. Bush, his brother, introduced
similar measures as governor of Texas and, as president, embraced No Child Left Behind, the law that required states to develop tests to measure progress.
The
concerns reach well beyond first-year jitters over Florida’s version of
Common Core, which is making standards tougher and tests harder.
Frustrations also center on the increase this year in the number of
tests ordered by the state to fulfill federal grant obligations on
teacher evaluations and by districts to keep pace with the new
standards.
The state mandate that students use computers for
standardized tests
has made the situation worse because
computers are
scarce and easily crash....
School
districts across Florida have started to pare back the number of
district-mandated tests. Palm Beach County announced recently that it
would cut dozens of tests this year.
“This
is the proverbial perfect storm of testing that has hit not only
Florida but all the states,” said Alberto M. Carvalho, the influential
superintendent of Miami-Dade County Schools, the fourth-largest district
in the country, who was named the 2014 national superintendent of the year.
Mr.
Carvalho has joined other superintendents and school board members in
the state in calling for a delay in the use of new tests, including the
not yet validated Florida Standards Assessment — a Common Core variant,
with tougher standards than the last assessment used — to grade the
state’s schools, teachers and students.
Despite
continued support in the Republican-dominated State Legislature for
high-stakes testing, there are signs that Florida is headed for a
showdown with opponents of an education system that many say is
undermining its original mission: to improve student learning, help
teachers and inform parents.
Responding
to the growing outcry, Gov. Rick Scott in late August called for
Education Commissioner Pam Stewart to investigate standardized tests,
many of them state-mandated.
Robert A. Schaeffer, the public education director for FairTest,
a standardized-test watchdog organization, said, “The numbers and
consequences of these tests have driven public opinion over the edge,
and
politicians are scrambling to figure out how to deal with that.”
Much has changed this year in Florida. As part of the federal Race to the Top grant
obligation, the state will require end-of-the-year tests for every
subject to help evaluate teachers whose pay and job will be tied to
scores. In Miami-Dade County, there are 1,600 courses. School districts
are obligated to write the course exams, but the Legislature did not
give them money for the task, so districts are far behind in developing
them.
On
top of routine classroom tests, students face an increase in
district-led diagnostic tests to keep tabs on student progress. Some
teachers are testing children biweekly. This is in addition to high
school Advanced Placement, SAT and ACT tests.
But
there is another requirement that has made testing more difficult in
Florida.
The state ordered all students, including those in elementary
school, to take standardized tests on computers as of this year. But
again, the state did not give districts extra money for computers or
technology help.
Because
schools do not have computers for every student, tests are staggered
throughout the day, which translates to more hours spent administering
tests and less time teaching. Students who are not taking tests often
occupy their time watching movies. The staggered test times also mean
computer labs are not available for other students.
The
overlay of this year’s tougher Common Core-like standards — which has
led to drops in test scores in cities like New York — also has students
in a panic over falling grades. Teachers, too, are worried about how the
scores will affect their evaluations.
In Florida, students who fail the
test can be held back in third grade or fail to graduate from high
school.
The frustration over testing has spilled across the state. The Lee County School Board led the charge in August when it voted to opt out of state-mandated standardized testing
during an emotional meeting in Fort Myers. It rescinded the vote
shortly after it learned of the penalties the district would face.
Miami-Dade just canceled one set of district-ordered interim exams to
allow teachers and students more time in the classroom.
In Gainesville, one kindergarten teacher, Susan Bowles,
explained to parents on her Facebook page that she would refuse to give
state-ordered diagnostic reading tests. The kindergartners were
obligated to take the tests one by one on a computer. After the first
go-round, Ms. Bowles calculated it would eat up three weeks of teaching
time.
Her
public stance galvanized even more parents and educators. Not long
after her posting, Ms. Stewart, the education commissioner, suspended
that particular test for younger pupils. Parents and teachers across the
state began to air their grievances, detail by detail.
“The
emotional effect on students, teachers and parents has been damaging;
the manifestation of sadness and frustration is real,” Mr. Carvalho said
of the headlong rush into more tests. “And the state should pay
attention to it.”"
.
No comments:
Post a Comment