All Massachusetts parents and students know spring is testing season. You may have heard about “opting out” and wonder what the big deal is. The opt out movement is a group of parents, grandparents, teachers, administrators and other concerned citizens who are worried that large testing and computer companies are using public schools as profit centers and eroding the quality of public education.
Most importantly, we are concerned that all this is being done on the backs of our students, who are made to feel awful if their school doesn’t score high. These big companies are giving children the message that it’s their fault their schools are failing, and there must be something wrong with them and their teachers because they can’t do better.
In some towns, parents and students are allowed or even encouraged to refuse. In others, the pressure is on both parents and their children not only to submit to testing but to perform highly.
So why all the fuss? Because no one asked for Common Core.
When No Child Left Behind called for measureable outcomes (a terrible idea when it comes to small human beings whose comprehension cannot be charted and graphed), a couple of testing company executives met with Bill Gates. They saw the opportunity that had just been given. They weren’t the only perpetrators; this system had been brewing with several companies for many years. But they finally had their in.
The Common Core curriculum was
The PARCC test, by any scientific measure, it is not only an inappropriate test, but the worst way to measure student development. We are now using this disastrous formula to rank and rate schools to determine how much funding they get, whether teachers can keep their jobs and even how involved the state can be in determining the details of the school day — down to whether the students are allowed to take a break.
This is why we are opting out.
People say Gates’ donation of $300 million of his own money to Common Core is philanthropy. In fact, it is a business investment. Who stands to profit when every school in America uses Common Core software to take PARCC tests on Microsoft computers? (Keep in mind there are about 50 million students today and they all need their own computer to take the test.)
So, the argument goes, let’s drop PARCC and go back to MCAS (the state has promised a PARCC/MCAS fusion called MCAS 2.0). But MCAS in itself is problematic, especially when we tie student performance on tests to teacher job stability and school funding. The way we rank our schools has been boiled down to one number which is attained through the worst possible measure of student performance.
We have the ability to watch learning happen. Scientists can see the electrochemical changes in the brain when something is added to long-term memory. We know this happens when students learn through exploration, cause and effect and feeling emotionally invested in the work. In other words, students need to be actively involved to solidify learning.
There are scientific reasons why the best education is designed to look and feel like play. Teachers know how to teach this way — in fact they even manage to do it sometimes despite the ridiculous system they’re operating in right now.
But standardized testing demands a system that crams our students into desks and lectures at them for six hours, and the trend is increasing as test prep and testing schedules grow every year. In the last two years there has been a full month of testing that stretches from April through May.
The opt out movement is about ending this cycle. Parents have every right to refuse tests for their children.
The commissioner of the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education has said that people have this right (see the Commissioner’s Weekly Update, Jan. 29, at doe.mass.edu). It is as easy as sending an email to the school principal saying you refuse tests for your child. The school must allow that child to sit quietly and read or do other schoolwork.
As one of my favorite teachers once said: “My job is to create lifelong learners.”
The foundation of a public school education is to encourage children to grow and learn, and give them the skills they will need to move on in life. Standardized testing is turning school into a nightmare for many children. The only way we can stop it is for their parents to say enough is enough. The testing companies can’t win if we refuse to play.
Amy Pybus is an educator who lives in Easthampton.