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| Will teachers say "NO" to the Common Core assessments caused by "crises" fabricated by private interests? |
Will Missouri teachers (and teachers from other states) stand up to the increased Common Core standardized assessments and begin to refuse the avalanche of testing required? They can take a page from the playbook of teachers in Seattle who are saying "no" to testing. From The Underground Parent:
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The Garfield Stand and the Common Core: Will They Both Come to a School Near You?
The “Garfield Stand” may eventually come to a school near
you following the roll out of the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) and
related assessment implementation across the country. What is the Garfield Stand? It is what the teachers at Seattle’s Garfield High School
are doing---they are taking a stand on important issues related to student
assessment. You can read about it
in the
letter from teachers at Garfield High School and at additional links
provided below. Teachers at
another school, Ballard
High School, are not just in sympathy with their Garfield colleagues; they
are taking the same stand.
This may be the start of our seeing the hundredth monkey phenomenon related to the CCSS and other education reform issues. Individual
teachers may not be comfortable or may even be fearful of speaking out on these
issues but when they realize other colleagues have similar views and concerns,
collectively they may take a stand as we see at Garfield.
Is the Garfield Stand a preview of what we may see across
the country in the not to distant future as teachers have first hand classroom
experience implementing top down education reform mandates?
I encourage you to read the
letter from the Garfield teachers.
The Ballard teachers wrote a letter supporting their Garfield
colleagues. That letter is copied
below. In a few years how many of
the statements below will have a ring of truth if MAP is replaced with SBAC or
PARCC assessments?
25
teachers at nearby Ballard High School signed a letter against continuing to
use the MAP test, and in support of our Garfield colleagues:
Whereas
The MAP
test is a resource expensive and cash expensive program in a district with very
finite financial resources,
The MAP
test is not used in practice to inform student instruction,
The MAP
test is not connected to our curricula,
The MAP
test has been repurposed by district administration to form part of a teacher’s
evaluation, which is contrary to the purposes it was designed for, as stated by
its purveyor, making it part of junk science,
The MAP
test has also been repurposed for student placement in courses and programs,
for which it was not designed,
The MAP
test was purchased under corrupt crony-ist circumstances (Our former
superintendent, while employed by SPS sat on the corporation board of NWEA, the
purveyor of the MAP test. This was undisclosed to her employer. The initial MAP
test was purchased in a no-bid, non-competitive process)
The MAP
test was and remains unwanted and unneeded and unsolicited by SPS professional
classroom educators, those who work directly with students,
The MAP
test is not taken seriously by students, (They don’t need the results for
graduation, for applications, for course credit, or any other purpose, so they
routinely blow it off.)
The MAP
test’s reported testing errors are greater than students’ expected growth,
The
technology administration of the MAP test has serious flaws district wide which
waste students’ time,
therefore
We, the
undersigned educators from Ballard High School do hereby support statements and
actions of our colleagues at Garfield High School surrounding the MAP test.
Specifically, the MAP test program throughout Seattle Public Schools ought to
be shut down immediately. It has been and continues to be an embarrassing mistake.
Continuing it even another day, let alone another month or year or decade, will
not turn this sow’s ear into a silk purse.
I salute the teachers at Garfield and Ballard for taking a
stand. I feel it is unfortunate teachers
feel the need to take such a stand.
Should they, and other teachers across the country, be making more of
the decisions that will directly effect their instructional practices and their
students’ education or should those decisions continue to be made by remote
educrats and others at district offices, state departments of education,
business and corporate offices, wealthy foundations, and Washington, D.C.?
The letter from the teachers at
Garfield High School regarding the MAP test
Letter of support for Garfield High
School teachers from Diane Ravitch
Garfield High School teachers say
“NO!” to high stakes testing
Standardized test backlash: Some Seattle
teachers just say 'no'
Garfield High teachers won't give required test they call flawed
Garfield High teachers refuse
to give standardized test
Garfield High teachers refuse to administer
District-mandated reading and math test
Garfield High School teachers boycott MAP assessment test
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