Category: Tndoe

Alarming info about TNREADY testing bomb

11/22/2015

Tick-tick-tick... is your child READY? Because they are about to bomb a major high-stakes test called TNREADY. When we say, "bomb," we mean fail.

This year, the state of TN is spending more money than they've ever spent before on a brand new test. Well, it isn’t actually a new test, but more like a recycled test since TN leased the test questions from Utah’s old SAGE test. Anyway, they stuck these expensive questions from Utah in a confusing test platform created by a company in North Carolina, and are now rebranding it as homegrown in TN. This test is called TNREADY.

Teachers across Tennessee kept alerting Momma Bears to concerns about the new TNREADY test. They said TNREADY is intentionally confusing for students, way too advanced for each grade level by several years, they said their schools have been and will continue to be disrupted by the testing schedules and lack of adequate technology, the teachers worry that higher numbers of students are predicted to fail it, and they complained that TNREADY requires even more precious class time to prepare for and administer than previous tests.

So, some of our Momma Bears bloggers spent a precious Saturday taking the sample TNREADY tests and trying to get answers. Here is what we observed on the Sample TNREADY computerized tests:

Difficult to read passages: A tiny 4-inch scroll window to read long passages of text. This requires good mouse skills and eye tracking. (see pic below) Students with knowledge of how to expand the reading pane using the little tab in the middle, and collapse it again to get to the test questions, will fare better. This format isn't like any of the internet sites or reading apps that most children are accustomed to; they will need to be taught how to navigate those tools for the sole purpose of taking this test.
Tiny window for the test questions: It was barely large enough to show all the answer options, and not large enough to show the “RESET/UNDO” buttons at the bottom of the question unless the student scrolled lower. See the photo below to understand how students are supposed to write an entire essay response in a text box that is about 4" square. Typing, mind you, which elementary students aren't fluent in doing; their hands aren't even large enough to reach all the keys properly. So, they will be hunting and pecking letter keys to write an essay in a box the size of a cell phone screen.
Distracting numbers on ELA test: Bold paragraph numbers along the left margin of the text passages.
4 Quite distracting
5 if you're trying
6 to read something.
7 Isn't it?

Read 2 long passages on the left side. Then write a freaking essay in that tiny box on the right. Do your best!

Wasteful of time and mean: We wasted 5 whole minutes of our lives reading a long, dull passage, but there wasn't even a question about it. That was the little kid test too! Just plain mean to do that to elementary aged children. Will it be that way on the real test? We'll never know since the test questions are top-secret, even if we ask for them. Teachers aren't even allowed to see the tests, and if they do and talk about it, they could lose their jobs.
Technology issues: The mouse was jumpy and the cord got in the way. This was on a laptop computer that was 1-2 years old.

Cumbersome mouse gets in the way of the scratch paper

Slow internet: This was at a school that was fortunate to have more wireless routers and newer computers than other schools in the district. It took considerable time for each passage and question to load. Schools with lots of students testing are prone to overload the system and have slower test connections. As one principal rightly remarked, “It is wrong to hold teachers accountable for the little spinning wheel while students wait for the test to load.”

Waiting for the answer choices to load.

Number lock button: How many students know to unlock the number pad for the math test? It took one mom a few minutes to realize why her numbers weren’t working because her home laptop doesn't have a number keypad lock key like that laptop did. Some students might know this keyboard trick, but kids without this same type of computer in their homes or classrooms are at a disadvantage. Cross your fingers and hope the person before your child didn't push the button down.
Confusing format: The “Done” button doesn’t mean “done with the question”… it means done with the whole test, and it exits the entire test if you click it. You have to click “NEXT” to stay in the test and go to the next question. How many times did one tech-savvy Momma Bear accidentally exit this 6-question test? Three times. Three frustrating times. Grrrr... Now multiply that times a classroom of kids. We see why teachers are concerned.

What is that white circle icon?

Strange icon buttons at the top of the test: We never really did understand the purpose of the square button with the circle in it. It seemed to make portions of the screen black if you clicked it and then dragged on the arrows on the margins. One teacher told us it was to “isolate” text for students who had trouble focusing. But teachers aren’t allowed to do it for students, so the student, who has trouble focusing, must focus enough to click that icon, drag it himself to the passage, and must then know how to click the tiny little X at the top corner to exit that tool, otherwise, the child won’t be able to see the rest of the question. It sounds like more trouble than it is worth. How many kids will click that button accidentally or on purpose and struggle trying to figure out the test?

This is what happens when a student clicks the white circle. Teachers may not help students navigate or exit this feature.

"Highlight" instructions: (see pic below) The question clearly says “highlighted” but do you see any highlighted words in the picture below? Nope, they are underlined. True, the underlined parts turn yellow when you scroll over them, but semantics, people. Our kids deserve correctness on such an important test. Think literally like a child. Even worse, you HAD to scroll over it because in one text, the whole paragraph was underlined but when you scrolled over it, it was really three highlighted sections. How many 3rd-5th graders are going to count for all 5 spots to answer before clicking the "Next" button?

No "highlights" in this passage. They are underlined, not highlighted.

Couldn't pick the answers we wanted to: This question below was impossible to answer because of the screen size. It wouldn’t let you drag and drop this answer choice to the 2nd slot because it wasn’t on the visible part of the screen. Yes, we could have put it in the 5th slot and then scrolled up and moved it, but then again, we’re tech-savvy and all from years of playing Tetris and packing diaper bags. Could a 9 year-old child figure this out easily?

Students should drag choices from the box at the bottom and put them in number order. Except it won't work.

Couldn't drag and drop this last box's sentence up to the empty #2 slot because it was not shown on the screen. Savvy students might be able to figure out how to move #5 back down, then scroll up, and then re-arrange. But what a hassle!

What the heck did we do? Ever seen a three-tiered fraction? Well, we somehow made one on the 3rd-5th grade test. Not sure how that happened.

Not sure how we got our fraction answer to look like that on the 3rd-5th grade sample test.

Multiple Choice Fakes: So, the TDOE claims that TNREADY is way better than the A,B,C,D multiple choice TCAP tests were. But the whole test is filled with the same concept of pick one of 4 choices! (see pic below)

Multiple choice. Pick A, B, C, or D without actually using letters.

Questions for younger grades were way too difficult. Seriously, these multi-step word problems were like what we remember seeing on the high school ACT college entrance exams. Except, this was for 3rd-5th grade children!

WHY???
We question the real reason for this test. Is it to test what children learned in a grade level? Or could it be testing children’s grit, frustration levels, and perseverance? Are they trying to make kids cry? Will the student give up or keep testing? Are these online assessments collecting data points to assess character traits? That’s crazy to consider… but then you read this paper from the Federal Department of Education, and you get a sick feeling in your stomach. These are children, for goodness sake! OUR children. It is not okay to screw with their heads. It is not okay to frustrate them with a test that is too difficult for them. It is not okay to label them as failing due to a stinking test that nobody is allowed to see. Crushing their spirits with mind-numbing, developmentally inappropriate tests and robbing them of the joy of learning is abusive.

Even worse, the cut scores of these tests are set in secret AFTER the tests are administered. The cut scores are set so that a certain percentage of students will be in the bottom failing tier no matter what. No matter what, kids will fail, even if they all magically answer nearly all of the questions correctly. What is that percentage for Tennessee? We're willing to bet there's already a number in some ogliarch's head of how many advanced, proficient, and failing kids there will be on the TNREADY. Don't believe us? Tennessee did it last year with the TCAP writing test when they only allowed 100 students to have "perfect scores" on their tests. TN Commissioner of Education, Candice McQueen, is already predicting that scores for TNREADY will fall across the board.

You know which students will be in that bottom failing percentage category? Sadly, it is the poorest, most vulnerable students in the state... the ones that don't have parents who can afford tutors... whose parents don't understand this confusing Common Core math to help their children... students in communities with high crime, high poverty, and instability... students who speak little or no English... students with learning disabilities... students who are hungry because they didn't get breakfast that morning or dinner the night before... Those students will fail, their schools will be labeled as "failing," and will be handed over to charter school vultures to profit from. It is a vicious cycle of failure leading to the pocketbooks of those at the top of the food chain. These tests serve a purpose. Once you understand that, it makes you furious to see how students, teachers, principals, districts, and the media play right into their hands like pawns.

All of this testing madness begs the question…

What are we gonna do about it?

The TDOE says parents can’t do anything. Every child (except their own that are in private schools) must take TNREADY. Districts that allow parents to opt-out/refuse are at risk of losing desperately needed funding from the state. The state sent out this official memo to districts to bully parents. It says parents may homeschool or choose private school if they don’t want their children taking state mandated tests. So, there are your options: homeschool or private school. Is that okay with you? A group of APPOINTED people are saying this, by the way… The TN Board of Education, all appointed by the Governor… The Commissioner of Education, Candice McQueen, appointed by Governor Haslam… even the Governor’s family won’t put their kids in public schools. Why is it okay for the rest of us "commoners" then?

Okay, so back to the million dollar question…

WHAT ARE WE GONNA DO ABOUT IT???

You can try refusing/opting-out. You will be told you can’t. Yes, that’s bull-poo-poo. They are your children and the Constitution is on your side. Even so, you'll be told you can't.

You can tell your child not to take the test. This method puts the burden on your child to refuse. Will they obey their parent... or obey their teacher? We don’t like this option, but it is better than nothing. This year, refusing the test shouldn’t hurt student report cards because the TDOE won’t even have the scores back to the districts in time for final report cards (NOTE: the test scores will still hurt teacher evaluation scores). The TNREADY scores are supposed to be sent to districts in October. That’s way into the next school year! How helpful is that to parents and teachers? Not at all.

Okay, so that’s one option. The other, for those of you that have the means, is to withdraw your child to homeschool during the testing windows. If you don’t want to go that extreme, you could schedule annual doctor appointments, dentist checkups, etc to get excused absences. The monstrous problem with that is that the TNREADY testing windows are ghastly long… Nearly 2 whole months of testing! We’re not kidding. Click HERE to see the testing windows for TNREADY set by the TDOE are:
February 8 - March 4 for Part I of TNREADY
April 18 - May 13 for Part II of TNREADY
April 25-May 6 for the Science TCAP (given on paper)

We don’t like that option, either. Missing school isn’t what is best for students. Parents in other states have the right to Opt-Out, but Tennessee does not (It's a long story involving expensive lobbyists paid for by the testing companies and generous campaign contributions to politicians...grrrr!). Other states have massive Opt-Out movements over tests just like the TNREADY. Other states are demanding change in testing by opting-out/refusing the tests. In fact, over half-a-million students opted out of state mandated tests last year in the U.S.A. So you can see that this high-stakes testing problem isn't isolated to Tennessee.

Alas, it looks like our hands are tied, parents. There's nothing we can do. Better just shut up and pretend this isn't happening, right? Sorry, Governor Haslam, today is not your lucky day. Even though our hands are tied, our voices are not. And parents, your voice is your strongest weapon to protect your child. You must use it. You need to call, email, visit, and royally bug the stew out of your elected officials until this mess goes away. Do the pestering politely, of course. But they need to know that voting parents are very concerned about this. Legislative session starts in January. The time to act is now.

Here’s a list of folks to contact:

school board members for your district
Superintendent for your district
Elected House Representative click HERE to find yours
Elected Senator click HERE to find yours
Governor Haslam! (gets most of the blame for this because he appointed the people who are making these awful mandates!)
TN State Board of Education (appointed by the Governor) click click HERE to contact them

Contact those important people

Lest you think this is an over-reacting Momma Bear rant, we give you this alarming fact:

We were told that 70 teachers in one district recently took the practice 3rd grade Social Studies test (you have to have a password to access that practice test). These were excellent teachers with over 50 of them being Level 5 teachers (the highest rating a teacher can get). Of these 70 excellent, college-educated teachers, how many of them PASSED the 3rd grade Social Studies practice test?

Take a wild guess.

ONE.

One single teacher passed the 3rd grade Social Studies practice test out of 70. One! If adults can't pass it, third grade children don’t stand a chance!

If that isn’t a huge red warning flag to you, then you must be squeezing your eyes shut and plugging your ears.

Still in doubt? Go to this link and see the sample TNREADY questions for yourself. Start with the 3rd-5th grade questions for English or Math. Or if you’re really fearless, attempt an older grade level’s test questions. There are only 6 sample questions for each, you have time to do six measly elementary questions, right? You’re smart enough to read this far in our blog, so you can surely answer half-a-dozen elementary standardized test questions...

Go on, try it. We’ll wait right here and hum the Jeopardy theme song while you do it. Take your time...

Brutal, huh? Did the test questions load quickly for you or did you get the spinny time wheel like we did? Were you baffled by the MIST testing layout and multi-step questions? Are you wondering how young children with little or no keyboard training, who have trouble opening a milk carton without spilling milk, are expected to navigate a keyboard and mouse just like a doctoral student? Remember, teachers’ jobs are on the line for this test. Your child’s test scores are a major part of their job evaluation scores. The stakes are high, and your children feel it. Better hope they are tnREADY.

We've heard from many teachers who said students were upset or cried during the practice tests in class. Teachers told us that their SPED students tended to lose hope and give up during the tests, so they just randomly click through the questions to get finished. Teachers confided to us that some of their brightest, most advanced students have tears running down their faces when they try to complete test questions covering material they haven't been taught yet. Students complain of stomachaches and headaches. Students have barfed on tests before. If that happens, don't fret, because there's a handy-dandy testing procedure to follow to save the test.

Parents, we must speak up. You know too much now. You know this is wrong. This testing obsession is harmful to children and wasteful of their time.

Share the sample test questions with your legislators and school board members. Show them this blog. Ask them to just try a few questions, and tell them to remember when they or their own children were 8 years old. Better yet, ask them to proctor a test or try to take the real test.

Okay, Momma Bears, Poppa Bears, GrannieBears, and GrampaBears, here is YOUR homework:

Contact that bright red list of important people we gave you up above in this blog. Make some noise! Be louder than the TNREADY radio advertisements that the Governor’s fake parent group is broadcasting in districts where citizens are speaking against the testing. Be bolder than their fancy billboards, more compassionate than their overpaid lobbyists, and more convincing than their slick colored pamphlets. We can do this!

TNREADY or NOT... HERE WE COME!!!

Update:

We heard from parents of SPED children who were extremely concerned about how the new TNReady test will affect them. So, we reached out to some of our most voracious Momma Bears, the SPED advocates and we have a new blog for you.

Update 11/24/15: Momma Bears wrote a blog for parents of SPED students with IEPs. Click HERE to read it.

Semantics: how tests are used to fool people

7/2/2015

Are you gullible enough to fall for it? Someone says one thing, but means another. Twisting words and their meanings...That's called semantics.

Definition of Semantics:

the study of meaning.
the study of linguistic development by classifying and examining changes in meaning and form.

example: Bill Clinton used semantics to wiggle out of hot water by pretending not to understand the meaning of "sexual relations" with an intern. Whether you hate him or love him, it worked.

another example: We bet your kids have tried it. Suuure their room is clean... just as long as you don't look under the bed or at all the stuff they crammed in their closet. Suuure they ate their vegetables... if you count one niblet of corn and half a green bean.

Is it lying? Well, ask yourself the opposite question: Is it truthful?

The Tennessee Department of Education, politicians, and reformers use semantics, too. They deliberately use words to convince people of something that is not truthful. Unfortunately, their scheme is working. How do they do it? They simply say that students aren't proficient. Proficient. That is the key word right there: Proficient.

What does that word, "proficient," mean to the average person? Well, most people think it means that a student has at least a basic level of understanding to pass a test, right? Most people assume that if a student is deemed proficient for a grade level, that student passed and is ready to be promoted to the next grade. This leads people to assume that if a student is not proficient or scores below proficient, then the child has failed and needs to be held back to repeat the grade. When it is applied to standardized testing, people naturally assume things.

For example, when you hear or see a scary statistic from a Tennessee politician or reformer like this:

"Only 43% of 3rd graders scored Proficient or above on the 2015 TCAP test!"

You automatically think: "Oh my goodness only 43% of them passed, which means means that 57% of third graders are failing! That means 57% of 3rd graders can't pass a Reading Test! That means those children can't read!!!" Thus, people are easily convinced that something drastic must be done like: (insert the reform that benefits the politicians or reformers like: Common Core, more standardized testing, computerized intervention replacing teachers, firing teachers, getting rid of teacher unions and teacher associations, giving public schools to private charter operators, legalizing vouchers so that kids can escape these scary low test scores, data mining student's personal information without parental consent to find out why they aren't passing the tests, etc.)

Stop. Just hold your proficiency horses. Let's take a look at those Performance Levels on the TCAP test for grades 3-8. We found this info on the TDOE website, but it is also on the TCAP result sheets that parents are supposed to get in the fall when they eventually receive their child's test results (You can click on the image to see the entire document):

See how there are 4 different Achievement Levels? 4 different levels. That's important to know and something the politicians don't mention. Now the TDOE and testing company admit these performance levels do not correlate to the typical A,B,C,D,F grading scale for school report cards, but since the method of setting cut scores is not transparent, nobody in the public really knows. But let's just look at each level. Note: these descriptions and comparisons are our own:

ADVANCED: (what many would consider an A+) Generally, these are the above average students who are probably in advanced or gifted programs. They are super at taking standardized tests and picking the right answers. The percentage of students that fall into this Advanced category is small as you'll see in the chart below. Again, since the process of setting cut scores is not public, we can only suspect that this cut score is set high so that only a small percentage of students are classified as being in this category. Generally, most kids in this category are affluent and have a strong network of family support.
PROFICIENT: (what many would consider an A or B) Generally, these kids are natural learners, self-motivated, good at taking tests, smart, and/or have parents who make sure they do their homework? As you will see below on the chart, this category is a much larger percentage of students than the advanced category, if not the largest for some. Generally, most students in this Proficient category eat 3 meals a day, get enough sleep each night, and probably have not been chronically hungry or in need.
BASIC: (what many would consider a C) These kids passed. These kids passed! These kids passed!!! See that description in the image above? It clearly says these students are minimally prepared for the next level of study. They didn't fail! They didn't fail!! They didn't fail!!! Generally, students in this category are generally middle-class, borderline poverty, have special needs or disabilities, or are students who just generally don't test well. Generally. This is a large percentage of students compared to the other categories, as you'll see below. Again, these kids didn't fail the test and they are prepared enough, according to the state of Tennessee and the test manufacturer, to advance to the next grade. Sadly, some districts and teachers call these basic students the "bubble children" because they are the ones that need to bubble more correct answers to bump up to the Proficient category to make their district look better.
Below Basic: (what many would consider a D or F) Unfortunately, these students failed. They are not prepared for the next level of study. Notice that like the Advanced category, it is quite a small percentage of students, if not the smallest category on some of the tests. Sadly, generally students in this category may be homeless, may not speak English, may have parents that work multiple jobs or be unemployed, may not have parents and are raised by relatives or in foster care, may have disabilities or special needs, may be dyslexic (or un-diagnosed dyslexic because 1 in 5 are), are victims of violence or dysfunctional homes, or just don't care about the test so they randomly bubble in answers.

Disclaimer: Of course, not every student fits into those categories. We've all known kids, or are raising kids of our own, that somehow aced a test despite never paying attention in class or doing homework. And we've all known super-smart kids who bomb tests. So these descriptions certainly don't reflect any of that. Did you notice how many times we wrote, "generally," in our descriptions? Momma Bears have been preaching for a long time now that children are so much more than test scores, so please don't send us hate mail about how your child doesn't fit into those categories or how we're just bitter because our kids didn't score Advanced (because some of our kids did). Having said that, we will now return you to the original blog about the semantics shenanigans...

Politicians and the TDOE only mention 2 categories to the public (Proficient and Advanced). See this pretty bar graph on a poster they showed to the news media last week when they released TCAP scores?

See underneath the title at the top of the picture in smaller font where it says "Percentage of Students Proficient and Advanced by Subject"? Hmmm... Why didn't they include the Basic kids??? Basic is passing! Basic is okay. Maybe we need a bumper sticker that says, "My kid is Basic and that is ok!"

Why would they be dishonest?
You may be wondering why politicians and/or reformers would do this kind of untruthfulness? To find the answer, you need to follow the money, honey. The politicians and reformers are trying to convince you that our public schools are in "crisis." There is money to be made from a crisis, lots of money, and change happens when there is a crisis. So, they show misleading charts and say scary statistics. They compare our state to other states and claim we are failing and falling behind (but they don't ever mention that the other states have less poverty, they fund their schools better than ours, they don't test every student, and those high-scoring states have strong teachers unions).

That's how we got into the whole Race to the Top mess. Reformers fed politicians untruths using the old "Proficient" category on the national NAEP test where Tennessee ranks low compared to other states. (The NAEP test also has the same 4 categories of scoring as the TCAP). It worked. Legislators were convinced enough to vote that money must be thrown at consultants, Common Core, and even more standardized testing to improve Tennessee's ranking. And legislators were convinced that Tennessee needs drastic measures like charter schools and vouchers to fix this make-believe crisis.

Okay, I believe you, but the failing students category is still not good
Some of you may be thinking, "there are still kids failing and that is not good enough!" You're right. We can do better. Students need smaller class sizes, more support from guidance counselors and specialists actually working in the schools, fully funded public schools, and proven methods of helping students learn instead of experimental computer programs. You must realize, too, that some students may never pass those tests because of disabilities, or not speaking English, or just not caring about a test so they bubble in random answers. Setting a goal of 100% of students passing (like No Child Left Behind mandated) is noble, but it is impossible unless those low-scoring students are kicked out of schools (like charter schools and private schools are allowed to do to inflate their scores).

What if every student passed? Hallelujah!
But what if every student did amazingly well on the standardized test? You know what would happen??? The cut scores would discreetly be moved on the tests before the results were announced, that's what. Because the politicians and reformers can't have a test where every student passes (except in Lake Wobegon, of course.) After all, the tests would be deemed too easy if students were doing so well on them. Don't believe us? Then what happened to the Social Studies TCAP test last year where every student in Tennessee passed? (Click on this link to see the proof that every student in grades 3-8 passed) Did you know that the TCAP Social Studies test wasn't even given this year and that it is being completely changed for next year to make it much, much harder? (weird side question to ponder: How did every 3rd-8th grade student in Tennessee pass the Social Studies TCAP test, but not pass their TCAP Reading/English test???) And what is TN about to spend $108 million dollars on next year? Yep, a brand new harder and more rigorous tests that will have an even higher failure rate for English, Math, and Social Studies. Say "hello" to the all new TNReady test, children.

Kinda like Russian Roulette with tests instead of bullets...
Another thing worth pointing out about cut scores and percentages, if a student (or school or district) improves his/her score to move up a category, then that means another student (or school or district) somewhere in the state gets bumped down a category. These cut scores and percentages are determined in such a secret manner that nobody knows how or why. And nobody ever really questions it. Here is an excellent link to how this monkey-business of tinkering with cut scores really works. In that link, you'll see some eye-opening graphs that explain how these categories, percentages, and cut scores are moved and manipulated, so, you should definitely read it after you finish reading our blog.

Back to the question you're all asking...

So how many students in Tennessee actually passed?

See for yourself on this chart we downloaded from the TDOE and added red ink to:

See? The sky isn't falling! Those are some high numbers for passing rates! Why isn't this a headline on the front of newspapers? Why aren't politicians throwing flowers at teachers, bestowing raises upon them, and kissing teachers' feet for this great news? You know the answer to that... it doesn't fit their agenda.

The public has been duped into believing that a scary high percentage of students are failing, when that is clearly not the case. Even worse this year, the Tennessee Department of Education used fishy math to determine the quick scores for student report cards. The fishy math is called the cubed root formula, and it inflated the low scores big-time. It was a sneaky way to fool parents into thinking the test is great because their own child scored so highly on it, and it also tricks parents into thinking that Common Core must be magically working. It is not truthful.

So now what?
Well, parents, now that we know the truth, what are we gonna do about it? The answer is that we're gonna tell others. Spread the news! Share this blog! Talk to your legislators! Tell them to fix this broken system. Tell them to listen to and trust teachers and parents. Tell them we need Testing Transparency in Tennessee! These tests carry too much weight to be manipulated like this. These tests should never ever be used to evaluate teachers. Some parents may wish to opt their children out of the tests. Tell your legislator to pass a law that will parents the explicit right to refuse/opt-out of tests for their children. Oh, and be sure to sign and share this petition calling for Testing Transparency in Tennessee. The testing system is clearly rigged. We won't fall for their semantics baloney anymore. They have lost our trust!

Testing the TDOE Bullies

4/20/2015

The testing season is upon us. This month, Tennessee Students in grades 3-8 will take the TCAP (Tennessee Comprehensive Assessment Program). Parents have been well-aware of this for months. Homework is now all TCAP practice. Field trip participation and carnival rewards are based on participation in test prep. Classroom walls are either covered with plain paper or stripped bare to prepare for the TCAP, which makes the schools look more like prisons. Schools are even hosting TCAP pep rallies. There is little doubt the stakes are high and the anxiety is higher. It is just “All About that Test”.

Read the entire beautiful REFUSAL LETTER HERE. It might give some Momma and Papa bears some ideas about how to get their kids out of testing. Use it. Share it. Go for it!

Around the country the Opt -Out movement is growing. Dr. Mark Naison, a professor at Fordham University, compiled an excellent list on reasons why parents are rebelling over these tests:

There are too many tests.
The tests are too long.
The tests are poorly designed and poorly written.
The tests are surrounded by a level of secrecy usually reserved for a nuclear arsenal.
The tests are never returned to students and teachers to inform instruction.
The tests are used to rate teachers, schools and whole school districts, purposes for which they were never intended.
The tests are made by profit making companies who give huge contributions to legislators and perks to policy making bodies.
The tests are used to justify the implementation of a National Curriculum- the Common Core- whose advocates claim it is neither national or a curriculum.
The tests are incredibly expensive and take money away from the arts, counseling, and libraries.
The tests are discriminatory in the manner they are applied to Special Needs and ELL Students.
The high stakes attached to the tests have forced schools in high poverty districts to use recess and gym for test prep.
The tests have been used as an excuse for closing thousands of schools and firing tens of thousands of teachers, many of them teachers of color.

Tennessee is no exception. Parents are asking how they can get their child out of testing. Today UnitedOptOut.com posted a TN refusal letter. It might help Tennessee parents who wish to refuse the tests for their children.

On the UnitedOptOut website, there is also a link to a Letter to Directors of Schools in Tennessee Regarding Opt Out/Refusal that Momma Bears think is an attempt to bully parents and take away parental rights. Your kids are data points to them. The Refusal letter is interesting. It cites TN code - TCA 49-2-211(a) states that, “Every LEA shall develop a policy setting forth the rights of parents and students as guidelines for teachers and principals with respect to the administration of surveys, analyses or evaluations of students.” Section (b)(1) of this law states that, “[t]he policy shall enable a parent or legal guardian to opt their student out of participating in a survey, analysis, or evaluation.” (Note that there are no definitions of “survey,” “analysis,” or “evaluation” in this statute.)

Momma Bears would love to see this stand up as lawful. What else could TCAP be besides an evaluation? Teachers don’t ever see the answers. There is nothing diagnostic to help a child improve upon what they do not know. These tests are used to “evaluate teachers and schools” in order to manipulate government policy. So we’d say they ARE a definitely an evaluation.

Momma Bears also loves the use of the Attorney General's opinion that claimed former Commissioner Huffman was within the law to waive the TCAP for grades. “While state law requires that TCAP scores make up 15%-25% of a child’s final semester grades, our former Commissioner of Education waived this requirement in 2014. Despite TCA 49-1-201(d)(1), this was allowed. The Attorney General opinion dated July 2, 2014 stated that “the requirements of Tenn. Code Ann. § 49-1-617…can be waived; they are not statutory requirements related to “federal and state student assessment and accountability” under Tenn. Code Ann. § 49-1-201(d)(1)(J).”

The ending to the letter says, "Because it appears that I have the legal right to opt my child out of the TCAP evaluation, and the law requiring the use of TCAP scores in grades seems to be subjectively disposable, my child’s TCAP scores (or lack thereof) will not be factored into his/her grades. In summary, I respectfully request that you respond, in writing, confirming that you will abide by my expectations set forth in this letter. You may contact me in writing if you have any questions. ” Smart! Get it in writing. It is a good idea to keep detailed notes and written evidence. You never know when it might come in handy in court. Hopefully, it won't come to that, but if the TDOE keeps bullying parents, we may just have to file a lawsuit.

Not to change the subject, but some good things happened today in Nashville!
Today at the Tennessee Legislature, Representative Matthew Hill added a surprise amendment to a bill that would make Opting-Out legal. This amendment caused the folks at the Governor's astroturf organization, Tennesseans For Student Success, to royally freak out (since their well-funded jobs exist to save Common Core and testing). It was a beautiful amendment that Representative Hill did, simply stating "parents or legal guardians of students enrolled in an LEA may opt the student out of participating in all state mandated assessments." Unfortunately, Representative Hill withdrew it because it didn't fit with the caption bill it was attached to, but it did give him the opportunity to speak to the other legislators about Opting Out. There may be another bill coming up that is a better fit and might not be declared unconstitutional to attach it to, but with only two or three days left in the session, it probably will not happen until January. 2-4-6-8, who do we appreciate? Representative Matthew Hill!!!

Also on that bill, some amendments were attached by Representative Spivey that set in motion the death of Common Core. The bill passed the House 97 to 0 and is scheduled to be in the Senate tomorrow. Is it a smoke-and-mirrors attempt at keeping the Common Core? Perhaps. Time will tell. The language is pretty clear that the new standards will be created in a clear and transparent manner, and that the former standards (which are Common Core) will be rescinded. The Senate has been pretty much in love with all things that harm public education, so we'll see how the vote tomorrow goes.

Okay, now, back to the testing issue...
Refusing testing is a civil protest. And our lawmakers really need to understand that this is what happens when a government service, managed by the democratic process around tax dollars, is held captive by testing, sold off to privatization, and is manipulated by lobbyists and foundations un-elected by the citizens of this country. Public school is a public good, for the public. This manipulation through testing has ZERO to do with our children or education experts. It must stop. Opt-out and/or refusing is our only choice to show this bad policy must stop. For our kids.

"Parents are getting more and more angry and disobedient. Public officials are really trying to bully them, and never expected this much pushback." - Dr. Sandra Stotsky

Hide & Seek: TNDOE hides Common Core

8/19/2014

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Our last Momma Bear blog focused on the external makeover of the TNDOE: website, email, and Bill's staff's letter to teachers. However, there was one huge difference that deserved its own blog. Did you catch it? Take a look at their new website, again, in the previous blog and see if you can tell what is missing:

Do you notice anything "common"?
Bingo!!! All references to Common Core have been removed!

You'll see plenty of the word, "CORE," because of TNCORE. They can't really eliminate "TNCORE" because they have a whole different website devoted to it with its own logo and all. Obviously, the TNCORE website hasn't gotten a makeover yet because Bill's picture is still at the top along with Kevin Huffman's name just like on the old website:

But notice that even this TNCORE website doesn't even mention the word, "common," on its main page. You have to play hide & seek with your mouse to find the actual words, "Common Core," anywhere at all on the subpages. There is also no ketchup-mustard-onion-swirl Common Core logo:

Does that mean we aren't doing Common Core in Tennessee???
Oh, don't we wish! Unfortunately, there are lots of people making lots of money on this Common Core gravy train, so it is still chugging along the tracks full-steam ahead whether parents and teachers like the direction the train is heading or not.

Here is what the TNDOE has sneakily done, they have renamed the Common Core standards to:

 "Tennessee State Standards" 

Teachers told us that this renaming quietly happened over the past year. Teachers and Common Core coaches have been told to call it by the new name from now on and not to use the words, "Common Core" to avoid controversy or conflict. The name is toxic.

We are not stupid. Taking "common" out doesn't make it any less "common". It doesn't change the developmentally inappropriateness of the standards one bit.

Wait, can they do that???
Now, everyone knows that Tennessee didn't write these standards. Even so, our state is branding them as their very own, which any English teacher can tell you is plagarism. Some would even consider it "stealing," "theft," or "lying" to take someone else's property and put your name on something you didn't write. Whatever you call it, it is undeniably sneaky and underhanded. If the owners of the Common Core don't object to it, (and why would they? they just want the standards implemented no matter what it takes) Tennessee can do it.

The TNDOE thinks that by not using the toxic name people won't be so upset. Think again. It is even more infuriating to know they are blatantly trying to trick us, isn't it?

So, what can we do about it, Momma Bears?
Our elected officials need to hear from parents and teachers. Contact your State Representative and Senator and politely tell them you don't want Common Core in Tennessee no matter what they call it or how they sugar-coat it with fancy marketing.

Click HERE to find your legislators and send them a quick email, make a few quick phone calls, or even handwrite some letters (We've heard that snail-mail letters are the best at getting their attention). You could even make an appointment to meet with your legislators when they are in town and bring your kids along!

The Legislative Session in TN doesn't start until January, so we're stuck with the Tennessee State Standards (aka Common Core) until then. Now is a crucial time to contact legislators because November is prime time: Elections.

Our elected officials need to hear from you, parents. Most legislators' children are grown or in private schools; they are out of touch with what is really going on in public schools. They get biased information from highly-paid lobbyists who work for organizations funded by corporations that profit from Common Core and other lucrative reforms like charter schools. It is up to you, parents, to use your voice to advocate for your children and their education.

And, for pete's sake, be sure to vote in November!!!
There are candidates running for Governor against Bill in November. He scared away many candidates with his massive campaign warchest, but there are some underdogs still in the game. Their chances are slim since they are all waaaaaay outspent by corporate millionaire Bill... but it could happen! If every informed parent in TN voted and/or if every teacher in TN voted, it is entirely possible Bill could be defeated. Two of Bill's candidates are opposed to Common Core and the federal takeover of our public education system. Here are links to more info about them:

Shaun Crowell, Constitution Party
Isa Infante, Green Party

Remember:

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Alarming info about TNREADY testing bomb

Update:

Momma Bears unofficial survey:

Semantics: how tests are used to fool people

Testing the TDOE Bullies

Hide & Seek: TNDOE hides Common Core

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