By Frank Breslin [Retired high-school
teacher]
It is now clear to tens of thousands of
parents across America that their children are being victimized by mandated
standardized testing. Outraged by the effrontery of this illegal intrusion by
the federal government into the classroom and Washington's dismissal of their
parental rights, they have opted out of having their children tested.
What has particularly galled parents is
that U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, who never taught a day in his
life, claims that he, better than they, knows what is best for their children.
Last year, educators and parents formed
a nationwide advocacy group, The Network for Public Education (NPE), which has
called for Congressional hearings to investigate the misuse of standardized
testing in our public schools.
Some of the questions the NPE is urging
Congress to explore are:
Do these multiple-choice tests promote
the skills children need in the 21st century? Certainly it's more important to
give students a rich and well-rounded education that teaches them to think
critically and creatively in facing the challenges of the modern world, rather
than teaching them to choose the right bubble on a standardized test.
How good are these tests? There are
many flawed questions, some with no right answer, and others with more than
one. Some questions are so unclear or misleading that a soothsayer would be
hard-pressed to divine their meaning, while others are far too difficult for
their intended age group. Some questions seem politically slanted, others
contain product placements, and still others cover material that was never
taught.
Are these tests culturally biased?
Students from racial and ethnic minorities, students with disabilities, and
poor students almost always score poorly on these biased tests, resulting in
the closing of schools that serve low-income communities of color and turning
them into privately managed charters.
Are these tests harmful to children
with disabilities? Children with severe brain disorders were pressured to
complete required tests. The State of Florida harassed an 11-year-old boy dying
in hospice to take the state tests; he died before he was able to take them.
What is the purpose of these tests?
They are not diagnostic, since neither students nor teachers see the test
results to learn from them, so they must be punitive. Test scores will
determine whether students can move on to middle school, be admitted to honors
and AP programs, or graduate from high school. Teachers and principals may be
fired, and inner-city schools may be closed and turned into charters.
Does testing harm teaching? Teachers
spend so much time prepping for tests that many schools have reduced time for
teaching science, history, art and music. These subjects are not tested, so
they aren't taught. All that matters is test preparation for reading and math.
Has the frequency of testing increased?
Florida high-school students were tested on 65 out of 180 days. In North Carolina,
third-graders are tested in reading 36 times alone, in addition to other
standardized tests.
How much money does testing cost?
Millions of dollars are yearly diverted from what should be invested in
teaching children to testing companies like Pearson, providers of testing
hardware like Microsoft, test-prep providers, vendors, and consultants, who are
lining up to cash in on this latest bonanza that will save American education
from some imaginary nemesis.
Consider the mission-creep stealth with
which Secretary Duncan has proceeded in dismantling traditional public-school
education. Understandably, he could not have called a prime-time press
conference to formally announce that, henceforth, he would be taking control of
what was taught in America's schools, as this is expressly forbidden by federal
law.
Instead, he has resorted to its
full-scale takeover under the guise of standardized testing, whose political
purpose is to destabilize public schools and discredit public-school teachers
in the eyes of the public by the punitive use of these rigged tests.
The poor scores will negatively impact
inner-city schools already earmarked for "failure" by government
neglect and underfunding, thereby providing the legal fiction for closing these
schools, which will then become charters. Charters do not produce better test
results than public schools, even though charters are free to choose their
students, refusing those who test poorly and admitting only those who test
well, thereby gaming the system from the outset.
The intent of these corporate
reformers, abetted by various governors and legislators, is to demoralize
teachers to leave the profession as part of an agenda of union-busting and
stripping teachers of their pensions and tenure to destroy public education for
profit.
The fate of American children will be
left in the caring hands of charters, investors, hedge-fund managers, and
foundations, the new recipients of billions of taxpayer dollars, with no
accountability, using poorly-paid temps, without benefits, pension, or tenure,
who will be gone in two years, creating chronic staff turnover, poor
teacher/student rapport, little continuity of instruction, and loss of
institutional memory.
One final question should also be
considered at these Congressional hearings -- abolishing the U.S. Department of
Education altogether to prevent this and future takeover-attempts of public
education by the federal government. Removing a particular Secretary of
Education, who serves at the pleasure of the president, is not only unlikely,
but pointless, since the next administration might perpetuate the same
destructive educational policies. Better to rid the country forever of even the
possibility of the problem.
We are still reeling in disbelief that
we are living in an America that spies on its own citizens. We cannot believe
that George Orwell's prophecy of a Big Brother has been fulfilled on our
shores, the bastion of the free world, the City on the Mountain, the land of
Washington and Jefferson, Hamilton and Adams. My God, we are imploding as a
nation, and somewhere, at this very moment, another Edward Gibbon may be
penning the Decline and Fall of America.
So shocking is this realization of
universal surveillance of our own people that many still find it too hard to
believe. But, for all too many, the sense of betrayal remains all too real
despite President Obama's assurances that we have nothing to fear, while a
commissar has taken over our schools and controls what they teach.
Source: HUFF POST EDUCATION, Monday,
September 8, 2014. Seehttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/frank-breslin/standardized-testing_b_5784058.html?1410208049
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