I wish we had Long Island's Jeanette Deuterman's clear and articulate thinking up here where I teach and live. I wish there had been more talk about civil disobedience and how change doesn't happen through compliance. It happens through civil disobedience.
But we didn't.
Because civil disobedience is what's called for if there is going to be real and substantive change in public education.
The 2016 testing season is over. There is a new Chancellor of the Regents who believes and articulates all the right things for the right reasons. There are several other Regents who understand what is going on and what needs to be done.
But change is not here yet. (Again, despite what NYSUT, my State union keeps saying.)
I'm still trying to get my class back on track after two weeks of disruptive testing schedules. My students are still faced with Local assessments at the end of the year which have suddenly taken on far greater importance than prior years as the resulting scores will stand in for the State test scores to judge my teacher effectiveness. And in my classroom and everyone else's in NY State, there are still unreasonable expectations for students to meet age-inappropriate standards, teachers are still being assessed and observed for not-always-supportive reasons, and computer-based testing is on the near horizon.
It's not too late, (nor too early) to reiterate Jeanette's words:
"It's time for parents to understand the power that parents have.
It's not about whether or not your child would do fine on the tests. It's about standing up for all children.
There are bystanders and up standers. Which are you going to be?
The tests are wrong and they hurt a lot of children.
If we don't stop it. Nobody will stop it.
It's time to say all these things are not okay."
Civil disobedience in the form of withholding the data the State so desperately wants is what we need.
Don't be misled. Testing data isn't to show you how successful your child is. Your child shouldn't take the test because "they're good at taking tests."
Whether or not to take the tests is about the Big Picture. And the Big Picture includes a lot of children who aren't good at taking the tests. And the process by which the tests are administered is questionable on many levels. It's not "just a test." It's not a benign process by which children learn real life lessons. The data is a valuable commodity you are providing free to the State. So please, learn more and ask questions.
There is almost a year until the next testing season arrives. As an act of democratic citizen participation, find out more about the issues. Six days of un-timed tests are no good for anyone. There is nothing of use to a teacher that will be discovered from so many hours of testing.
There are new people in Albany who really do have our children's best interests at heart. But they can't make change happen alone. They need our support, and our voices. So, if you don't hear about substantive changes in time for Testing 2017, I urge you to consider your small part to affect real change.
Thanks.
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