<p>The reason that standardized tests shouldn’t be scrapped altogether is that each school district is a little different…each teacher is a little different, although they are teaching to the same guidelines, there is no verification that they are actually teaching the same information and there is no verification that students are actually learning it.</p>
<p>The reason they started focussing on testing is because we were graduating too many students who couldn’t identify their home state on a map of the US, we were graduating too many students who were barely literate, we were graduating too many students who didn’t even have enough mastery of basic arithemetic to balance a checkbook. Whether that’s because teachers are pushing them through because they don’t want to deal with the probelm or whether it’s because parents are demanding it (my sister is an elemenary school teacher and although she can recommend a student be held back, the parents have the right to refuse in her district, they can demand their student goes on to the next grade even if she insists they are unprepared, who is that helping???).</p>
<p>Perhaps these specific tests are poorly designed and need to be rewritten. Back when I was in elementary school in Wisconsin, we took the Iowa tests or the California tests, perhaps there needs to be a national test developed and since only 1 set of resources would be necessary instead of 50, it would seem that more time and money could be invested to produce a quality product. But then you’d have states staying, but that’s not a requirement here…we don’t teach that material until later… we have a different way of doing things here. So that seems to leave us where we are today.</p>
<p>I don’t believe NYS has a waiver per se. We do have a waiver on creating a test or tests at the grades 9-12 level because we already have the Regents exams.</p>
<p>I don’t think the article that Dave linked actually touches on the issue that is driving the boycott movement, at least in our area. While there is some concern among teachers that they will be held accountable for lower test scores due to the test focusing on a common core curriculum that is not yet being taught in many/most NYS schools, the bigger issue is over the issue of sharing student personal data and test scores with the testing companies such as Pearson. Privacy concerns, not the prospect of lower test scores, is fueling the boycott locally.</p>
<p>Sure we could all rally and boycott the tests but to what end? On the one hand we want to blame the teachers for the poor performance by students so the state decides to listen and standardize tests and ties the teachers and the school to student performance. The teachers pass this anxiety on to the students and teach to the test. On the other hand parents don’t really want their kids caught up in this new evaluation in case they perform poorly because it may affect their placements for the next grade and they don’t like the lack of creativity in the curriculum.</p>
<p>What should we blame - poor parenting, poor teaching, a poor system, or perhaps a combination of all of these factors. This is a societal problem. </p>
<p>The NYS tests are being aligned with the common core standards that many states will adapt and…THE NEW SAT WILL BE ALIGNED TO THIS. When my kids took the NYS tests I told them that the tests were a way to help the school see if they were doing a good job. My kids did fine.</p>
<p>Forget the rallying. Take an active role in your kids education. Read to them every night. Check to see if homework is done. Turn off the tv, the computer, the phones and all of the distractions while they do schoolwork and they will succeed.</p>
<p>As a NY State Resident, I’ve taken my fair share of state standardized tests and I still say they are absurdly easy. They test material I learned a year before! Even so, the questions are still far too easy for the grade level.</p>
<p>They often fail to make more compelx questions that at once, draw concepts from a diverse group of subjects within mathematics. It’s either geometry or trignomoetry, etc but never together. It’s far too easy in my opinion.</p>
<p>I guess I don’t understand the privacy concerns… what are the concerns, exactly? That an organization like Pearson will share the results with… other schools the students transfer to? intended colleges? or is there fear they’re going to publish results in the local newspapers? concerns of identity theft?</p>
<p>Parents don’t seem to have an issue sharing private information with College Board and I think Pearson is just as established. Are there parents out there that request that College Board NOT share their information with colleges due to privacy concerns? </p>
Because the kids who already know the stuff don’t get to learn anything new - the advanced children get left horribly behind. Because they teach kids how to pass the test, not how to really know it. Because they spend an inordinate amount of time teaching to the test and leaving OTHER valuable material out. Because the tests are created by each state and a waste of money. Because they teach that “learning” is painful, not joyous.</p>
<p>If I understand correctly NY together with 22 (or so) more states will be having PARCC ([About</a> PARCC | PARCC](<a href=“Ensuring Every Student Succeeds - New Meridian”>http://www.parcconline.org/about-parcc)) as their standardized tests. Those will be college readiness tests, given to students twice a year (one in the 3/4 of the year and one in the very end) starting from 3rd grade. The results of the tests will be part of the college application (I assume mostly for state universities). A college can use the results for admissions purposes or for placement purposes. </p>
<p>A bunch of other states (20 or so) will be using “Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium” instead. You can google to see where your state falls.</p>
<p>A few states, like MN will not be using any of those… Actually, MN agrees to use the common core for English but not for math.</p>
<p>"
■Pearson has also acquired partnerships with companies to deliver PARCC, SAT testing, GED testing, and was the central player (through Achieve) in the design of the National Common Core Standards. The GED Testing Service, while wholly owned by the American Council for Education, entered into a joint venture with Pearson to transform the GED for some 40 million adult Americans (one in five adults) lacking a high school diploma. This is an entirely new market.</p>
<p>Even with all of Pearson’s efforts, they are not the only game in town. McGraw-Hill is another publisher forging similar connections and making money hand over fist due to NCLB-mandated reading programs like Open Court and SRA Reading Mastery. Of course, after billions spent on Reading First and the McGraw-Hill materials, the federally funded evaluation of the program showed no increase in reading comprehension by third grade. McGraw-Hill is also one of the biggest test publishers in the U.S. and publishes the CTBS, the central competitor to Pearson’s illustrious SAT-10.</p>
<p>The legislation forced upon states to adopt the curriculum (i.e., the Common Core) and its required testing measures (i.e., PARCC) essentially eliminates the possibility of consumer choice (supposedly a key concept in free market ideology) and requires that taxpayer dollars for education be handed over to Pearson and McGraw-Hill as the sole providers of nearly all educational resources available to the schools. It is frightening that Pearson, profiting billions from public education, is simultaneously operated by and sponsors organizations that promote the destruction of public education. It is essentially forcing the public to pay for the demise of its own education system"</p>
<p>It will probably take more than a billion dollars in the bank to run for President of the United States in 2016. It looks like New York State Governor is already lining up corporate support. My concern is that he will sell out the education of New York State’s children to for-profit companies, particularly Pearson, to position himself for the run.
Pearson is one of the most aggressive companies seeking to profit from what they and others euphemistically call educational reform, but which teachers from groups like Rethinking Schools andFairTest see as an effort to sell, sell, sell substandard remedial education programs seamlessly aligned with the high stakes standardized tests for students and teacher assessments they are also selling. Pearson reported revenues of approximately $9 billion in 2010 and generated approximately $3 billion on just digital revenues in 2011 [Alan</a> Singer: Cuomo, Common Core and Pearson-for-Profit](<a href=“HuffPost - Breaking News, U.S. and World News | HuffPost”>Cuomo, Common Core and Pearson-for-Profit | HuffPost Latest News)</p>
<p>Seriously, have you guys even looked at these tests?
Our kids should NOT be failing these tests - they are very basic.</p>
<p>Do you realize that the great state of New York spends close to 19K per student.
Yet the high school graduation rate is around 77%.
And we are complaining about some standardize tests that these kids should be passing without much effort.</p>
<p>No wonder we are an object of ridicule around the world.</p>
<p>“Pearson” did not develop the the common core standards. The standards determine what is taught in schools…not a text book company. Schools do not need to buy "special " textbooks to teach the new standards. Funny how people always criticize the weak curriculum in public schools, the schools adopt new curriculum, and people still complain.</p>
<p>The feedback my 7th grader gave me was that some in the class she was in did not finish, much more difficult than previous years exam. This was the accelerated class of kids. </p>