It’s interesting how the biggest proponents of Choice! are the ones now against it. Then again, anyone who understands how Choice came to be and the reasons behind it knows it never had anything to do with giving parents options. Choice was simply the stepping stone to privatizing our public schools. Choice is what has hurt our public schools; it’s what opened the door to charters and privatization (as well as magnet schools). What we’re dealing with now in education wouldn’t be possible if we hadn’t implemented a system designed to create high poverty schools – schools no one has seriously tried to help.
But the point has never been to help high poverty, struggling schools. The point, and one I’ve been making for over a decade, is to privatize/charterize our public schools. It’s no coincidence that the privateers started with the poorest among us – the ones with the least influence and voice. It’s how they got their foot in the door. Take a good long look at the city of Wilmington. That’s the plan for everyone. Yep, all this will spread outward (and is spreading) to suburbia. No one actually thinks that Ed Reformers are going to let all that education money slip through their hands, do they? Of course not. What they’ve done/are doing to our struggling schools sets the precedent. And once that precedent is set it will spread like wildfire.
Which brings me to the point of this post and Mike Matthews’ Delaware Voice column. The Smarter Balanced Assessment (SBA) is the tool to implement this agenda. This test isn’t about helping children learn; it’s about labeling schools and teachers as failing so the next step in the Ed reformer’s agenda can be implemented. Remember Priority Schools? Remember how ALL roads in that plan led to privatization and charterizatiion? Out of everything in that plan only private/charter conversion was carved in stone. The reason it was carved in stone was because it was the end game.
The way you get to that end game is through SBA. This test (and I’ve written about how awful a test it is before) isn’t about helping children learn, it’s about labeling schools and teachers as failing so the school can be handed over to the business community – which then can tap into all those education dollars – and the teachers replaced by those who will work for less with no union.
But something happened – parents started hearing about this test, and what was going on in the classroom because of this test, through their kids, and what they heard deeply concerned them. My daughter took the SBA when she was a junior in high school, and boy, did I get an earful. My daughter does extremely well on standardized tests. She even received a scholarship from the State of Delaware for her high state test scores, so I was concerned when she came home after taking the SBA and announced it a complete mess, with tons of errors (especially in the math portion) and written in such a way that she questioned if English was the test writers first language. I bet a lot of parents heard the same thing I did. In fact, I know they did.
Which brings us to parents wanting to opt-out (Choice-out?) of the test. Suddenly Choice! – the word ed reformers have built their entire agenda on – is bad. Which begs the question: Was Choice ever really about giving parents choice or was it merely a necessary step to get us where we are now?
I’ll turn this over to Mike’s Delaware Voice column. Go read the whole thing!
The hallmark of Gov. Jack Markell’s education agenda has been to place an unbearable emphasis on standardized testing. In laying out his plans and in his first six years in office, he stacked the leadership of the Department of Education with ideologues whose biggest goals have been to test, label, punish, and “turnaround” schools.
Under Markell’s administration, testing in classrooms has skyrocketed. Teachers and specialists have been faced with obscene amounts of data entry and test prep to prove they’re implementing all standards and curriculum with absolute “fidelity.” Because of this, teachers often have to forego truly fun and engaging lessons just so they can stick to the script given to them by billionaire textbook publishers.
Under Markell’s administration, play and social and emotional learning have been stripped in the classes of our youngest learners. Curriculum is being sped up all in the name of the developmentally-inappropriate Common Core State Standards. Kindergarten teachers in my district and others have reported loss of dramatic play centers because they are told they need to teach more letters and sight words. Students are given inadequate recess time and time to be kids — all because of the governor’s interest in test scores and “rigor.”
This. This is exactly why our kids have fallen behind. None of this is about them. Kindergarten serves many purposes (yes, letters, numbers, etc. are part of it) and some of the most important are being ignored. Kindergarten teaches kids how to go to school, how to get along with others and implements the school structure kids will need as they move through higher grades. These skills are vitally important and we’re getting rid of them… in the name of rigor. I really hate that word, mainly because it’s so meaningless.
rigor:
1 a (1) : harsh inflexibility in opinion, temper, or judgment : severity (2) : the quality of being unyielding or inflexible : strictness (3) : severity of life : austerity b : an act or instance of strictness, severity, or cruelty2 : a tremor caused by a chill
3 : a condition that makes life difficult, challenging, or uncomfortable; especially : extremity of cold
4 : strict precision : exactness <logical rigor>
Hmmm… perhaps, given the main definition, ed reformers are using the word correctly.
Back to Mike!
So why is it that the governor would be so shocked that the Parental Opt-Out Movement has picked up so much steam in Delaware? Why did the Opt-Out Bill, HB 50, pass both houses of the General Assembly with such stunning super-majorities?
Here’s the answer: A clear majority of our senators and representatives recognize and value the separation of powers and that they are to do the work of the people and not the executive branch. They heard from their constituents and they voted in a manner that squares with their requests.
I can’t understand why the governor would be so surprised that this grassroots movement would take hold because it’s totally a response to a failed education agenda that hasn’t actually increased achievement levels on the one test that is considered the standard-bearer for measuring student success, the National Assessment of Educational Progress.
Please go read Mike’s column. And remember it the next time someone waxes lyrical about Choice! They’re only for it if you choose what they want you to choose and it helps their agenda.
The General Assembly needs to override the veto.