Category Archives: Policies

Googlized Learning

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Part I

 

“There are two types of education… One should teach us how to make a living, and the other how to live.”

– John Adams

 

A lot has changed with ‘making a living’ since Adams first spoke these words. At the rate technology is growing, we are now educating children for jobs that don’t yet exist. The question we need to ask is whether our current education model meets the need of preparing for the unknown.

As a nation we are currently continued to test based accountability meaning a greater emphasis on measurement. With measurement comes focus on definition, including outputs, terms, concepts, or skills, representing a sizable portion of the average curriculum. The upside of measurement is the acquisition of knowledge for the student and accountability for a system which is sorely lacking. It’s the limitations we also want to consider, since the future of job preparation may not be covered by what student know.

 

The main limitation of an educational system predominantly based on ‘what’ should be learned (#CommonCore), is decreasing attention to how the learning takes place. The emphasis on ‘what’ means we define, label, categorize and subcategorize as instruments for memorization and hopefully application, which works well for the skilled laborers. Unfortunately the demand for this occupational type is rapidly shrinking, while jobs requiring critical thinking skills are growing.

 

Critical thinking relies on questions of ‘how’ as opposed to ‘what, such as discrimination, synthesis, analysis and other essential thinking processes. We never would have figured out how to fly or mapped the human genome if we were limited to pre-existing labels. Scientific inquiry begins with reviewing the outliers, the things that don’t fit in the box, and figuring out why. An education based on neatly categorized, searchable content doesn’t guide us in that direction.

 

With pressures of time and outcome, teachers are influenced toward this data driven model of teaching because they know their own grading is measured this way. Teachers are the first to tell you however that this approach can be restrictive for students and boring for educators, who want to delve deeper and stimulate with creativity. What choice is there when our entire paradigm is based on the acquisition of information, measured by our mastery of ‘what’.

 

Thus, the next time you decide to look something up on google or ask your students to do the same, take a moment to question if the gain is simply ‘what’, or there is a way of including some element of ‘how’. A well prepared student for occupation success is going to rely on both sets of tools to navigate a rapidly changing future.

Are Teacher Evaluations Perpetuating Bad Teaching?

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CaptureThere are many benefits to a process for understanding what works best for student learning. It is important to work towards development of a body of knowledge of good practice.  Schools want help identifying potential leaders and mentors to build quality practice.  The public wants and needs a means of understanding what it takes to support quality education if we are to expect ongoing funding, advocacy and involvement.

However, according to professionals in the field of teacher assessment, less than 6 percent of teachers actually perform at below standard levels.  And for those who do need improvement, there is little evidence to suggest that evaluation in and of itself causes teacher growth. Our current model for teacher evaluation is born from, and perpetuates, a hierarchical, top down model.  The result is a climate of anxiety, contempt and increased polarization.

What is needed instead is a means for identifying and strengthening what is working well and sharing this with other educators. Efforts like Teach to Lead (www.teachtolead.org) are moving towards developing a more self-reflective practitioner, which cannot be supported by top-down outsider rating.

In order for evaluation to be effective, it should allow for teachers to assess and document the quality of their teaching in ways that are most useful and relevant to them, while incorporating measures of qualities that support the needs and culture of the school.

Right/wrong, good/bad, better/worse measurements are less effective ways to promote learning.  In fact, they could result in the dismissal of quality teachers or the over promotion of ineffective strategies. Teachers often dread evaluations as they are often subject to rater bias.  Evaluations that carry punitive elements further distance teachers who may then distrust the evaluation and not provide as authentic an assessment as they would if they had more co-ownership of the process.  Every inherent strength has a corresponding limitation.  For instance, consider the teacher who is highly organized and structured.  Lesson plans regularly occur according to schedule and rarely run over. Too much rigidity, however, may result in a teacher who is less capable of adapting to student interest or individual student needs.

Evaluation of any kind is always going to have an element of subjectivity, whether it stems from the bias of the evaluator themselves or if the tool reflects the bias of the funding source of the tool.  An evaluator with a bias towards structure may rate the teacher above as high and teachers with a talent for creative and adaptable teaching styles will become engaged in a power struggle for recognition.

The most valuable evaluations for teachers and schools are those which promote self-determined learning and continuous improvement.  They should be a part of a system that promotes self-reflection as well as the integration of applicable feedback.

Herein lies another challenge.  Most of us are not trained in how to give or receive feedback.  Poorly given feedback can result in defensiveness, fear or shame meaning that even valid information stands little chance of making a difference.

What constitutes poorly given feedback?

  • Poorly organized feedback
  • Feedback given without dialogue before or after observation
  • Feedback that is not given constructively, rather is delivered in such a way as to create shame
  • Feedback that is tied to compensation
  • Feedback that relies on one-time observation that may occur on a day when performance was atypical
  • Feedback given from someone with whom there is not a positive relationship

 

Teachers must also learn to receive feedback if they are to integrate the helpful elements into their practice.  Many things can influence a person’s ability to remain objective when presented with another’s observations.  If there is distrust in the observation process or in the system overall, if what is being measured does not reflect our philosophy or values of teaching it is hard to be open to the information.  Our own anxieties and insecurities as well as our self-perception can also block us from considering the assessment fully.

 

Most of us fall victim to old stories or patterns when we hear critical information about our abilities. We protect ourselves from difficult feelings about the criticism by denying the information outright or accepting everything we are presented with without consideration. The golden rule of accepting feedback is to maintain a sense of curiosity and openness. This does not mean we need to accept everything to the point of feeling criticized but we want to learn to seek out data that will help us to grow as a professional.

 

Feedback is essential to honest personal and professional relationships.  It helps us to connect us and our behavior to those around us. Learning to lean into the discomfort others’ perceptions of us is helpful in developing deeper personal and professional relationships and becoming a whole teacher, one that can accept and become excited about areas for growth while building on current strengths.

 

If you would like to learn more about how to give and received meaningful feedback, Click here to be taken to our courses which can help you learn to:

 

  • Minimize judgement of self and others
  • Become aware of your own emotional biases
  • Regard evaluation with curiosity and with caution
  • Be discerning of information without being dismissive.

Three Steps from the Assembly Line

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  • Lack of control over their work
  • The inability to be able to use their acquired skills
  • Low job security
  • High performance demands
  • Low pay
  • Limited decision making power
  • Lack of mental stimulation
  • Long hours
  • Poor work conditions

This is not a list of complaints from the teacher’s union, but a list of factors identified as contributing to stress and burnout among factory workers. As these stressors continue, workers become disengaged from their work, productivity drops and stress related injuries increase.

While attention in the field of industry turns to ways for increasing employee satisfaction and engagement, education seems to be marching closer to the assembly line. Teachers are being pressed to rely less and less on their own talents and passions in order to conform to prescribed academic standards and curricula. Measurements for teacher success seemingly have little to do with a teacher’s creativity or job satisfaction and do not take into account the impact of the larger education culture.

When teachers feel disconnected from their work, they become disconnected from their students.  Research shows that risk-protective factors such as self-esteem, determination, and  ‘grit’ in young people are fostered through relationships with caring adults, teachers and mentors. And yet, teachers’ well-being is often at best an after-thought to professional development, and more often dismissed entirely.

When teachers can bring their whole selves to work they can foster the kinds of relationships necessary for student well-being. Teachers who have a greater awareness of their own needs and abilities have a greater potential to be effective educators and role models to their students.

What can schools do to create a culture that values the importance of teacher engagement and satisfaction? Again, we might look to industry research that suggests that workplaces that incorporate wellness into the culture see greater productivity and satisfaction.

The following elements have been shown to be essential to creating a workplace that values the whole person. How far from your school to the factory floor?

Healthy and successful schools:

  • Embrace risk-taking
  • Allow for and celebrate mistakes as evidence of learning
  • Support healthy conflict
  • Set high expectations without demanding perfection
  • Offer a high level of nurturance
  • Focus more attention on process and environment instead of output

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When it Comes to Education Issues, It’s Crickets for the Donkeys and Elephants

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The presidential election is still ten months away and field is still broad.  There are currently 1507 individuals registered as candidates for president, including both Yoda and Darth Vader.  There have already been ten debates held among front runners of the Democratic and Republican parties with at least another ten expected to be scheduled before we cast our ballots.

Issues of immigration, national security and climate change have made the stage in both red and blue debates and candidates continue to throw jabs across the party lines on issues of abortion, Wall Street reform, gun control and health care.  While there has been brief mention of college tuition and the future of the Common Core, education and education reform has been absent this debate season.

Former US Secretary of Education, Arne Duncan recently called for candidates to address a five-year plan to address universal pre-school, high school and college graduation rates and college readiness.  CaptureThere are an estimated 3.12 million teachers employed in US public school.  How is it that this collective voice has not been leveraged to demand that candidates address issues central to the support and development of a robust education system in our country? Capitalizing on fear and threats is nothing new to the political landscape.  We are wired to attend to what we perceive as threats and candidates are hoping their promises to alleviate imminent danger will drive us to the polls. Fear-driven and angry rhetoric stimulates the emergency system of our brains and can lead us to minimize issues that are important but don’t feel as imminent.

The last child of a US president to attend a public school was Amy Carter who attended DC public Schools through the family’s four years in office.  What happens when teachers don’t see themselves reflected in the political landscape?  When education is not a part of the national discourse? Teachers often cite a lack of public support for their work as a key factor in burnout, coupled with a sense that things are not going to get any better. Without a clear legislative plan for how to adequately fund education, it’s likely we will continue to see numbers of talented teachers decline.

Arne Duncan is calling for presidential hopefuls to provide details on a five year plan to address education issues.  Imagine the impact of 3 million people submitting demands to the hosts of upcoming presidential debates that Mr. Duncan’s questions be addressed. You can see a listing of the currently scheduled Republican and Democratic debates and their hosts here: https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/politics/2016-election/debates/schedule/

The February 6th Republican candidate debate is being co-hosted by ABC and the Independent Journal Review.  Questions for candidates can be submitted to storyideas@wmur.com Be sure to specify in the subject like that you are submitting questions for the Republican Debate.

PBS News Hour will be hosting a Democratic candidate debate on February 11th. Nick Massella is the Director of Audience Engagement and Communications at News Hour and can be reached at nmassella@newshour.org.

 

Cookie Cutter Education Can Take its Toll on Job Satisfaction

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Never tell people how to do things. Tell them what to do

and they will surprise you with their ingenuity. —General George S. Patton

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Scripted curricula, manualized education plans with uniform outcomes and detailed discipline/ classroom management guidelines may be making schools more uniform, but what do they cost in terms of teacher health and children’s learning?

The latest federal schools and staffing survey reveals that teachers are continuing to feel they have less professional autonomy in every area from teaching strategies and amount of homework given to discipline. The loss is felt most by veteran teachers, those with ten years of experience or more. Sadly, a recent Gallup poll showed nearly 70 percent of teachers surveyed reported feeling disengaged from their work.  When teachers no longer feel connected to their work, they find it difficult to bring energy to the classroom and are less available for caring positive relationships with their students.  The emotional connection between teacher and student is one of the core elements of the learning process, one that cannot be prescribed in a ‘one-size-fits-all’ model.

To be fair, there may be such a thing as too much autonomy.  Not everyone works well with little direction.  When not managed well, an autonomous workplace can be seen as disorganized and chaotic and newer, less experienced teachers, often placed in high-needs areas, may struggle without greater administrative oversite.  Too much control and teachers burn out, too little and they can feel isolated and unsupported.

Students are expected to learn critical thinking and decision making skills, in essence generating their own critical independent thinking skills.  This can only be accomplished in an environment that embraces autonomy and creativity and allows for learning through trial and error.  When the school culture prohibits teachers from collaboration and innovation, when decisions are made top-down and void of input from teachers, students are robbed of the chance to see leadership in action.  Students need teachers who are enthusiastic about their craft and models for how to embody a love of knowledge and to create their own fulfilling work.

Teachers interact with the students of their schools on a daily basis. They know what works and what doesn’t.  Schools wishing to empower greater teacher autonomy can start by finding ways to include teachers in decisions concerning hiring and firing; learning materials; discipline; scheduling, budgets and salaries. Teachers can help encourage a more teacher-led approach by welcoming opportunities to collaborate, mentor and learn from one another.  In the end, it will be the students who reap the rewards as their teachers remain excited and committed to their passion for the profession.

 

Treating Violence as a Symptom is Only a Band-Aid

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CaptureIf you go to your physician you will generally get give to ten minutes to present your symptoms, which are then treated to ease your discomfort. With some physicians you may get a more thorough evaluation that looks at the underlying causes of your illness. Rarely however do you get a full work up that looks at all the various influences for your health and a proactive model to present future illness.

The same dynamic may be true in our schools. Few violence prevention efforts include a comprehensive view of organizational health or a systems level focus targeting the root causes of different types of violence in schools.  When the health of schools is ignored school culture is adversely impacted, giving way to greater potential for violence.

If we want to help our schools become healthier and safer, there are certain things we need to look at to accomplish this goal.

  1. Nationally, the focus for education is becoming more outcome focused. Less attention and time is spent on the how of teaching in favor of outputs of test scores. Teachers are pressured to deliver more content in shorter amounts of time, leaving them fewer opportunities for forming individual relationships with children and developing ways to meet diverse learning needs.
  2. Resources for schools become scarce and lead to increased competition.
  3. The increase of social media allows for adults and children to have anonymous interactions, resulting in a decrease in personal accountability and increased sense of entitlement to a single position or opinion. ‘Right’ and ‘wrong’ thinking leads to increased ostracism of those who are ‘different’.   Children and adults have fewer opportunities for developing empathy.
  4. As children’s needs become more complex, increase it becomes more difficult to know how to meet them. Time and resources continue to decrease so children’s behaviors become more challenging to address.
  5. Most strategies for dealing with disruptive behavior focus on the child without taking into account the pressures of the larger school and community systems, leading to increased polarity and greater divisions between students and staff.
  6. Teachers and educators are themselves under tremendous stress. Studies show a greater than 20% decline in teacher job satisfaction and a 50% increase in teacher stress.  Add to this the ongoing cuts in benefits and salary it is difficult to see how a teacher might have the mental health and wellness level to face these stressors.

The most crucial skill being left out of our children’s education is how to navigate differences. Without this skill, we don’t deal well with conflict, we lost the ability to get our needs met, and we are at a disadvantage with negotiating. Overall, we are less potent and more prone to acting aggressively to get our needs met. This concept is called constructive differencing. Next week’s blog will explain this concept and how it can be used to create learning environments that maximize children’s emotional safety.

Families Don’t Accept the Way the Cookie Crumbles When it Comes to Teacher Cuts

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12144919_816902248421035_5366000602956885724_nA recent protest in Seattle called attention to the increasing trend of viewing teachers as expendable resources that can be cut any time the budget gets tight.  The Half-Baked Bake Sale was a tounge-in-cheek way to point out the absurdity of expecting to fund basic education through car washes and bake sales. Treats like Bum Deal Brownies and Chopping Block Chocolate Chip Cookies were priced at 0.5 FTE.  Cupcakes were sold at $18 a piece, the equivalent of one hour of an instructional aide.

While the situation is bad in Washington State (currently the state is paying $100,000.00 a day in court fines for failing to adequately fund basic education needs), teacher cuts, cramped classrooms and limited resources plague districts around the country. These cuts have devastating effects on children and the community.  As parent Shawna Murphy, one of the bake sale organizers, said, “Teachers are children’s lifeline and path out of poverty”.

Teachers suffer at a personal level in this climate as well. Fellow bake sale organizer Carolyn Leith points out that ‘the humanity of our teachers and their students is stripped away’ when funding decisions favor bottom line, test result-driven funding decisions.  When teachers feel their self-worth devalued, when they internalize the belief that they are replaceable resources, it is difficult to form the kinds of relationships with children that research shows is necessary to connect with children and inspire them to learn.

The tendency, when resources are scarce, is to isolate and protect one’s self.  Teachers stay in their classrooms, ‘just do their jobs’ and hope to stay off the radars for the next wave of cuts.  When teachers lose the human connection to their work, they are at risk of burnout, depression and stress related illnesses. Increased absences and complaints, a lack of enthusiasm at work and a resistance to sharing and collaborating might be signs that you or a colleague is approaching dangerous levels of stress at work.

Parents know that their children’s well-being depends on the health of their teachers.  Well teachers teach well.  The Seattle protest highlights the need for teachers and parents to join together to demand that teachers be recognized as more than deliverers of content but as creators of connections between children and their world. Please visit our website here to learn more about how maintain wholeness in a system that is becoming increasingly fractured.

A final note about Seattle’s bake sale.  Parents raised a grand total of $329 which they split among three high-needs schools and a Special Education PTA. The proposed cuts are still being made.

 

 

The Proof is in the Pudding: But what if the pudding is rancid?

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Evidence-based teaching, evidence-based decisions, instruction and school improvement –terms driving the school reform movement as we seek to identify how to make our nation’s students competitive with the world.  Standardized curricula and assessments purport to be the silver bullets that will help students achieve meaningful outcomes and tout data gathered from research as evidence of their effectiveness.

It is no doubt that teaching strategies and educational theories with little evidence to support them, and even those that have been disputed as invalid, continue to be passed along through tradition or myths. New teachers often rely on mentors and more experienced colleagues to find what works with students, perpetuating methods that may or may not lead to student improvement.  Strategies promising research-backed evidence of success, therefor, can look very attractive, especially to those outside the education system who may lack the knowledge and expertise for running a successful classroom or school.

But what if this evidence is based on bad science?

CaptureChallenges of prescribed curricula: Let’s start with the assumption that any one practice or set of practices will be adequate to meet the needs of diverse student populations in this country.  These practices can lead to the failure of students who may need alternate or multiple approaches. Teachers who are trained to cover a curriculum rather than find the best ways to reach individual students may adapt a kind of a learned helplessness as they are discouraged from finding innovative and creative solutions.

What are we measuring? Educational outcomes aren’t always as clear-cut as curriculum developers may have us believe.  Scientific research involves randomization and the isolation of variables that might confound results.  How can researchers separate issues of poverty, health, welfare, family structures and other social influencers from the impact of the tested ‘treatment’ in such a way that any of the studies could be replicated?  Current measurements seem to be missing data on how students persist when challenged and what strategies students use to try to gain deeper understanding.  This information would provide parents, students and teachers with a much deeper knowledge of how children learn.

Who are we measuring? When evaluating a researched curriculum, it is important to know where it was tested.  Often curricula are promoted for use with groups on which they have never been tested. Phonics curricula aimed at struggling readers may then be used in classrooms with children who learn quickly, with no evidence to support that this method is also beneficial to them or may not actually discourage their learning.  Affluent schools with fewer social problems, if used as a test site, may skew results as their students may already be able to perform better on measurement tests created out of a pedagogy relevant to their culture. School culture may also dictate how well certain methods can be delivered, results that may not translate to poorly funded or managed schools.

How are we measuring? The external validity (the extent to which you can generalize a study’s results to other situations) is another critical feature of sound research.  Often the teaching used to test a curriculum is done by researchers or research educators and may not resemble the kind of teaching that goes on in actual classrooms or school buildings.  Additionally, when classroom teachers who are inadequately prepared to deliver the a new curriculum are part of the test group, this validity is again threatened.

The pitfalls of basing teaching on data: Since the explosion of standardized testing, educators may have access to a plethora of data, so much so that it can be impossible to act on all of it in a thoughtful and analytical way.  Data collection and processing requires a tremendous amount of expertise and resources that schools and local education agencies simply don’t have, leaving them in the position of accepting presented results as ‘facts’ and answers devoid of critical analysis. And, in the face of so much data, it is possible that other critical data about school problems is ignored if there is not an offered ‘solution’ tied to it, leaving the problem unaddressed and unstudied.

Teachers are the experts in what makes learning work: Data-driven decisions about instruction doesn’t have to leave teachers behind.  In fact, this movement may provide teachers with the opportunity to regain control of their profession from those who know very little about the complexities of the student/teacher relationship. Professional development focused on how to evaluate education research, and the creation of learning communities within schools can offer teachers the opportunity and knowledge to discuss emerging research and modify accepted techniques in ways that work best for their students.

Great teachers combine personal experiences and intuition with thoughtful and well-researched evidence and, if given the proper support, can make data work for schools and for student success.

Other Resources:

http://www.alfiekohn.org/article/one-size-fits-education-doesnt-work/

http://media.education.gov.uk/assets/files/pdf/b/ben%20goldacre%20paper.pdf

http://www.readingonline.org/articles/art_index.asp?HREF=/articles/rt/9-03_column/

 

 

Why I am Refusing the PARCC

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An Open Letter to Teacher Coach

Next week the middle school students at my son’s school will be taking the PARCC.  He will not be one of them.  He will be sitting for two hours in the auditorium with a book and possibly a folder of some work he needs to make up from this marking period if he takes the initiative to collect it.  I have officially ‘refused’ the PARCC.

This is our first year in middle school and so far, it has been a wonderful experience.  The teachers are committed to student success.  They are quick to respond to any questions or concerns I have and work with my son to help him make the transition from elementary school.  He has been more excited about his classes than he ever was in elementary school. My journey to this decision was not an easy one.  Like many of my friends, I began the year with the intent to have my son test, despite his pleas for me to ‘get him out of this’.  He actually tends to enjoy standardized testing and doesn’t get anxious about the scores or grades.

However, as I began to read more about the PARCC and follow the debate, I became less willing to quietly sit by and let the drive for standardization eclipse the incredible creativity and dedicated teaching that makes my son’s school so special.  A grass-roots movement of families interested in refusing the PARCC has led to spirited and mostly respectful discussions amongst my parent friends and I am grateful to for the questions being raised by friends who will be allowing their children to test next week, as they help me consider my decision to refuse.

They wouldn’t be using this test if it wasn’t a good measurement.

The lack of transparency about the creation and intended scoring and use of this test has been a concern of mine.  Fewer than half of the original 24 states originally signed up for PARCC are still planning to use it.  These states have dropped out citing serious concerns about the test.  The development and implementation of this test has been funded by technology and testing companies, not educators and there has been no study of test validity (how well the test measures what it says it measures) for this test.  States are paying, and paying big, to be the test group for PARCC.

Critics of the format of the test cite problems with the question format and complexity of the test.  Specifically, some researchers have found that the Lexile measure of the test questions is 2 grade levels above the grade Lexile levels, leading some to argue that the test is deliberately intended to show failure.

I took those tests as a kid. They weren’t that disruptive.

This is not your mother’s Iowa Basic Skills class.  I remember coloring in those oval bubbles too.  The only ‘test prep’ we had back then was to eat a good breakfast and get a good night’s sleep.  And the test was not given to every grade, every year.

While the reported ‘total in-chair time’ for taking the PARCC is estimated at 13-15 hours (longer than it takes to complete the bar exam!), schools are commonly referring to the test taking season lasting from March through June.  At my child’s school, the test will span only 5 days but since we share the library with the high school, it will be closed for two full weeks and the block schedule which has allowed for extended time for hands-on projects and in-depth exploration of content, has been condensed for 5 weeks to allow for time to train the children in how to take the test and for the actual administration of it.  During these five weeks, each class is only 30 minutes long.

Districts are reporting less of a focus on subjects not tested by PARCC.  At one local meeting, a science teacher told parents that her administrator told her to stop teaching science and teach math that would be on the test, and to then use the math grades as those for her science course.

Finally, I believe the test is financially disruptive.  While schools have fired nurses, principals and school counselors, and teachers are paying out of pocket for basic supplies for their students, billions of dollars have been spent on these tests, and that’s not counting the money spent on computers required to take the test.  That is money I feel could better be spent on resources and staffing and services.

Teachers need to know how kids are doing. I have a right to know if my child is learning.

Absolutely.  And I know teachers don’t always have the time or perhaps the resources or knowledge to fully assess every student’s ability or progress.  However, the information that will be returned to teachers, if it is even returned to the teachers before the end of the school year, is not broken down in a way that provides them with diagnostic or instructional information.  Teachers, students nor their families will be allowed to see the tests to find out what students got wrong or why. And yet, the results will inevitably be used to determine teacher and school effectiveness.

I will also say that every teacher I have contacted about my son’s progress since the fourth grade has been able to show me examples of his work and clearly communicate to me where he excels and where he is struggling in meaningful ways that allow me to partner with them and help him improve his grades.

An act of civil disobedience.

I understand my fellow parents’ concerns.  There is fear that children who do not take the test will be penalized.  Some parents have resigned themselves to the fact that this test will eventually be required for high school graduation so they might as well let the kids get used to taking them as early as possible.  Others feel they need to teach their children to follow state mandates. These were all things I considered before sending in my letter of refusal.

Legally, it is the schools who are required to administer the exam in my state.  Children are not legally mandated to take it.  This is an important distinction I shared with my son when I explained he would not be testing with his classmates.  Additionally, I wanted him to understand that standardization of education does not accommodate differences in student ability, interests or experience.  My child would be fine taking a test.  My child’s in-school education is also supplemented by classes and extra-curricular activities I can afford to enroll him in, experiences that no doubt contribute to his ability to master information and perform better on tests.  This is not true for all students and I believe high-stakes testing deliberately undermines and punishes under-resourced areas and disproportionately affects students of color and students with special needs.

I don’t imagine that my refusal is going to do much to change the test and standardization climate in this country and I’m not terribly optimistic that the PARCC will go away.  But the attention it is drawing is bringing people together to focus on education in this country, and for that I am glad.   I have been fortunate that my son has had a series of dedicated, interested teachers who seem to still love the art of teaching and I hope that my small act of refusal sends the message to them and my state that I deeply value and appreciate what they bring to school every day.

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Sources for this opinion piece:

http://dianeravitch.net/2014/11/30/bob-shepherd-why-parcc-testing-is-meaningless-and-useless/

http://www.saveourschoolsnj.org/2014/12/23/the-12-reasons-we-oppose-the-parcc-test/

http://www.thedailyjournal.com/story/opinion/2014/08/31/parcc-tests-looming-danger/14917409/

http://njea.org/news-and-publications/njea-review/january-2014/parcc

http://truthinamericaneducation.com/common-core-assessments/the-parcc-test-is-neither-valid-nor-reliable-as-a-measure/

http://unitedoptout.com/