UNANSWERED LETTER TO NYSED #921

Here's another unanswered letter.  (And more interesting in light of the discovery today by my students that the new and improved Questar published tests were missing the Planning Page for the essay.  May seem trivial to some, but as I mentioned previously, it's relied on by many students for utilizing their pre-writing strategies to ensure a clear and coherent essay...No way for teachers to have known if we aren't supposed to read the tests....)

Dear ____________,

I'm not sure my question was understood exactly.

I was asking about any teacher's ability to read the test to themselves, while students are taking the test.  Before Pearson put a gag order on teachers which prevented us from looking at tests to preserve their profit interests, teachers always read the tests to themselves as part of a responsible teacher's duty when administering a test to young children.  Then Pearson declared this "illegal" and threatened legal action against teachers who read the tests as part of their professional duty.

Now that we're in a new era of education reform in the state, and we're trying to encourage parents to trust the tests and the decisions the State is making on behalf of their children, are teachers still prevented from reading the test booklets to themselves?

The teacher administration manual is contradictory on this issue.  On Page 6 the language implies teachers can read the test.  On page 8 it says we can't.

I've called the SED twice and both times employees in the Office of Assessment have affirmed a teacher's ability to read the test booklet to themselves.  

But there are still conflicting directives being given by administrators.

If we're still prevented from reading the tests, I think the public should know that not too much has changed.  (How can teachers support the contention that there have been changes to the tests themselves, if we can't read them?)

If we can read the tests, to ourselves, for professional use only, then the directions need to be made abundantly clear on that issue.

Thank you for helping to clarify this for me and the rest of the 3-8 teachers in the State of New York.