A teacher speaks out against Tripod: I hope that my letter informs every public education school parent in the state of Tennessee about the abuse educators are facing from day to day.  

I received my TRIPOD scores from the 2012-13 school year on Sunday evening, November 3rd, 2013--- one day before my 2013-14 students were to take the TRIPOD.  As I began to look at my scores, I chuckled. I called my husband in the room and he immediately said, "What's this?" "My 2012-13 TRIPOD scores," I told him. "What a joke," he said.  

And he was right. My scores were incredibly low. You see, I am an ESL teacher in Metro Nashville Public Schools. My students are early childhood age, and have little to no developed vocabulary. As I sat at my home computer, looking at the scores I was incredibly horrified, but more so, insulted. One of my lowest areas was a 22/60--- how I CHALLENGE my students. The state average was 50. This didn't make sense. I was a "4" teacher in 2012-13. These scores did not correlate.  

As I went on a tangent, trying to figure out why my scores were so low not just in this one area, but all the way across; I remembered a question my students answering a question on TRIPOD. The question was, "Does your teacher push you to do your best?" I chuckled, remembering my ESL students asking after the survey if it meant that I physically pushed them. Perhaps my students all answered no to this; I would NEVER put my hands on a child.  

This year, the TRIPOD survey is 5% of my TEAM evaluation, and quite frankly--- I don't think it is fair. I did not go to school for over 20 years to be evaluated by 6 and 7 year old children. I did not pay nearly $50,000 of my hard earned money (much of it which I am still paying on) to have a CHILD much less a CHILD WHO DOES NOT SPEAK ENGLISH evaluate my effectiveness as a teacher.

It is my hope and prayer that the state of Tennessee will WAKE UP and realize they are running off the best and the brightest teachers by treating them like dirt. I will be totally honest here--- I have been in this profession less than 5 years and I am not sure how much longer I care to be in it. I am already exploring other career options. Oh, yeah... and remember I am a "4" teacher--- above and beyond what Tennessee likes to call "rock solid."  

Commissioner Huffman and other Tennessee lawmakers must know that to keep the best and the brightest teachers in Tennessee, it is not about paying them more--- it's about treating them with dignity and respect. They have degrees. They went to school. They know what they are doing. Wake up, and remember that. Let's keep our GOOD teachers, not run them out. 

(This was posted anonymously, with permission, to protect the privacy of this teacher in Metro Nashville School District)

In June of this year,  it was announced that 10% of TN public school students will be involved in field testing of the Common Core test (PARCC) during the 2013-2014 school year. This field testing helps the for-profit creator of the test–Pearson–fine tune the test for the planned administration to all TN public school students during the 2014-2015 school year. Sadly, it also essentially turns our students and teachers into unpaid research and development subjects for a company that is worth approximately 1.5 BILLION dollars.
 
Upset parents in New York state recently created an “invoice” to highlight the costs of the Pearson Common Core field tests to the districts and students. (You can see it at this link.)  Many parents refused the field testing for their children and some openly expressed their anger at Pearson and the NY Department of Education: “If Pearson wants to use my daughter to ‘field test’ during the school day,” opined Brooklyn parent Johanna Henry, “they will have to pay us...  I will use the money to provide my child an enjoyable and relevant learning experience.’”
 
Our students will not only be denied payment for taking the PARCC field test, they will be denied valuable instruction time–time that is arguably more necessary than “helping” a testing company that could easily afford to pay children to take (and teachers to administer) this test outside of school hours.  Instructional time is extremely precious, especially considering that teachers across the state estimate that 30-45 days of instruction are lost each school year due to test preparation and administration. This works out to 2-3 years of lost instruction between kindergarten and 12th grade. The PARCC field test will also create additional stress for our children, especially since the PARCC is supposed to be very different from tests our children have taken in the past.  And finally, this pilot testing will increase the already ridiculous workload for our teachers and could result in pushing even more highly qualified educators out of the profession.  

In addition to the educational and emotional costs of this test, TN will lose out on an untold amount of tax revenue because Pearson does not pay teachers and students to administer/take these pilot tests.
 
The Tennessee Department of Education has not published a list of the schools that will undergo field testing in Tennessee.  Attempts to find out this information have been unsuccessful.  
 
(This was reposted with permission from www.stoptntesting.com, a website, blog, and facebook group with a strong and rapidly growing social media presence in TN)

Ethan Young is a high school senior in Knox County.  Ethan courageously spoke at the Knox County Board of Education meeting on November 6, 2013.  Since his video was posted on Youtube just 4 days ago, it has gone viral with over 89,000 views.  His 5 minute speech has gained attention across the nation.

What does Ethan say?  Watch it for yourself.  His understanding, knowledge, and poise will amaze you.  He is the future of TN.  Here is the link:  
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PprP5TCZBRI

Here are some highlights:

• He knows more about common core than most grown-ups do.  He is absolutely correct when he says that Congress, the Department of Education, State, or Local Governments never voted on the Common Core standards.  He realizes the $4.35 billion of our tax dollars were used as a bribe to coerce states into participating, and that TN received $500 million. 
• Ethan is smart enough to know that these new standards won't fix our academic deficit.  He knows that there is not even any research even showing common core might work.  Furthermore, he says it shows a mistrust of teachers since they were not consulted in the process.
• Ethan's respect for his teachers is obvious.  As a student, he has been in the classrooms when his teachers have been evaluated.  He sees firsthand how teachers are impacted.  He says it is like "watching your teacher jump through flaming hoops to earn a score."  Students see what administrators, parents, and legislators don't see:  the stress and anxiety teachers are experiencing. Students notice.  So, listen closely to what he is saying.
• "Standards-based education is ruining the way we teach and learn."  He asks WHY we are doing it this way?  Ethan knows the answer, saying it is "Bureaucratic Convenience.  It works with nuclear reactors. It works with business models.  Why can't it work with students?"  However, Ethan is smart enough to realize that "Education is unlike every other bureaucratic institute in our government. The task of teaching is never quantifiable."
• "If everything I learn in high school is a measurable objective, I haven't learned anything."  Wow.  This kid is way more than a test score!!!
• He gets it: "Creativity, appreciation, inquisitiveness - these are impossible to scale, but they're the purpose of education."  
• Yes, yes, yes:  "We teach to free minds.  We teach to inspire.  We teach to equip.  The careers will come naturally... Haven't we gone too far with data?"

Listen to this wise student.  Please.
 

My husband and I have been mentoring a young student for several years now. Through his elementary years, he struggled to focus at school and maintain positive peer relationships but benefitted from the modifications afforded him. We were hopeful that KIPP Academy Nashville, where he began middle school, would also embrace his differences and offer him tools for success.

Unfortunately, though, KIPP was not willing to do so. The student was told he must withdraw after violating school rules during his sixth grade year. As a teacher, many of the most rewarding moments in my career have involved challenging students who habitually violated school rules, so I was surprised at how readily KIPP was willing to release him.

In response, we asked the school leader to allow him to finish the year on the condition that we increased our involvement and put immediate interventions in place. We knew that a spring transition would be difficult for him, potentially intensifying his behavioral struggles. Despite our efforts, KIPP refused to let him stay for the remainder of the year.

Before signing withdrawal papers, his parent requested a psychological evaluation. KIPP had never initiated any testing even though they deemed his behavior disruptive enough to warrant his dismissal. By law, potential disabilities and formalized behavior plans should be considered prior to expulsion, but choice schools get around this by sending students back to zoned schools.

The student remained at KIPP during the course of the evaluation and his parent provided written permission for the school to communicate with us regarding his progress. During that time period, we met with all of his teachers, enrolled him in counseling at Oasis Center, reminded him daily to complete homework, bought him a belt and shoes to ensure compliance with the dress code, made sure he went to all assigned detentions and served those detentions with him. We relayed information to his parent who could not get to the temporary KIPP location easily on the bus and frequently worked late hours. We made every effort to reinforce KIPP’s expectations for him.

At the conclusion of the psychological evaluation in April, the results revealed a disability and indicated that the student would qualify for exceptional education services. Seemingly apathetic to this revelation, KIPP proceeded with his dismissal anyway, and he entered his zoned middle school days before TCAP testing began.

KIPP’s decision to follow through with the dismissal despite having the added support of counseling, mentoring, and formal services suggests interests not related to the child’s well-being. Typically, a school welcomes the support of community agencies in addressing a student’s needs, realizing truth in the old adage, “It takes a village.” What is more, the allowance of such exclusion implies that choice schools are either above certain challenges or ill-equipped to handle them—neither of which is accurate.

Shuffling students around school districts is not in the best interest of those students or our state. This practice communicates a lack of commitment likely to be internalized by the child, and frequent school changes will lead to achievement gaps. A strain is placed on zoned schools as a steady stream of students enters throughout the year. Additionally, the public is misled as choice schools boast high performance without disclosing the questionable means employed.

We must examine any policy that allows schools to decide who they will and will not teach. When a student enters a school--charter, magnet, or zoned—it is the obligation of that school to serve him. I have never once attended an education class, professional development training, or meeting with colleagues in which getting rid of a student was suggested as a means to manage behavior, improve class climate, or raise academic achievement. In contrast, we learn to think creatively, find resources, and build positive relationships with students.  As inconvenient as this may be in these times of performance rankings, evaluations, and overall high stakes, it is our responsibility to make sure all students are being served adequately and that the decisions we make about their lives are ethical and implemented equally across all schools in our state.

(This was posted anonymously, with permission, to protect the privacy of the student & mentor.)

What do our parents want???  We want quality neighborhood public schools that educate EVERY student.  (Click HERE to see survey results)

My children LOVE school. They love it so much they pretend to play school on the weekends and breaks. They both want to be teachers when they grow up they love it so much.

Starting in the spring of her 2nd grade year, my daughter started having stomach aches and throwing up. We didn't know what was causing it, and she missed a lot of school. We took her to her pediatrician many times, and tried modifying her diet. None of that helped, so we were referred to a GI specialist.  We were scared to death that it was ulcers or cancer or worse.  The GI doctor put our 8 year old to sleep and put cameras in her intestines and down her throat.  He checked every inch of her digestive tract.  He came out of the room while she was still sedated and told us that our daughter is perfectly healthy, that she has anxiety.  "Anxiety? She's only 8 years old!"  We later asked her, and she admitted that she was scared of failing the "big TCAP test at school."  (The SAT-10 test for 2nd graders).  By the time we knew what the diagnosis was, the testing was over at school.  She was so sick on the testing days that she missed school.  She had to take the make-up tests in a custodial closet with a teacher's aide for 2 straight days.  By the time we found out her "anxiety," it was the end of the school year. She didn't have another stomach ache all summer long.

The GI doctor told us it is quite common for students who are high-achievers or perfectionists to have anxiety over testing.  He said he diagnoses more and more children with anxiety every year.  But at 8 years old??? It makes me sick, as her Mom, to know my 8 year old child was burdened and stressed by inappropriate tests.

To be clear, it wasn't her teacher's fault.  She's an awesome teacher who loves her students and gives 110%.  She even won outstanding teacher of the year for our district.  We know she didn't pressure students to score high on the test (even though it affects her evaluation and paycheck).  

The entire school atmosphere changed a couple of months before SAT-10 and TCAP testing...  The classroom walls were stripped bare, resembling a prison more than an elementary school.  The music teacher taught songs about "Zapping the TCAP" and "Do the TCAP Rap."  Students spent hours and hours bubbling in answers to trick questions in test-prep workbooks.  Strangers arrived in their classrooms on testing days to "proctor" (sit in the room and stare as students take hours and hours of tests).  How is this good for children???  And now, our district tests kindergartners & 1st graders this way, too!  This is child abuse!!!

Since then, I have opted both of my children out of all testing and pre-testing this year. It was like a weight was lifted off of their shoulders when we told them they didn't have to do any more standardized tests like the CRA, TCAP, PARCC, Thinklink, Discovery Ed Probes, Compass Math Assessments, Tripod Surveys, or do any more TCAP prep-workbooks.  (I honestly didn't realize that my children ever did all of this testing and test-prep until I researched it).  Parents do not see our children's test results to most of these, nor are we allowed to even see the test questions.   Parents do realize that our schools are very, very tight on money.  It is obvious that our children's student:teacher ratios are larger than they have ever been and that the Arts & extra-curricular activities have been cut.  All the money spent on these wasteful assessments is draining dollars that could be better spent on worthwhile things like smaller class sizes, music, art, counselors, librarians, nurses, etc.  

Since we've opted our children out, their teachers and principals have been very understanding and respectful of our wishes.  Even though it may affect their evaluations, their teachers told us they support us and that they think we are doing the right thing as parents.  Two of their teachers even told me privately that they wished they could opt their own children out but are afraid to since they work for the district!

Their Principals said they are still researching what to do about the TCAP.  Because it is state mandated, there is no way to opt out and they are required to give it to students.   I don't want to jeopardize their jobs.  So far, their suggestion is to keep our children home on testing days, and they will receive zero's on their final grades on their report cards. That's okay with us. We don't care about their letter grade. We trust their qualified teachers to teach and grade them fairly without an expensive standardized test full of trick questions we aren't ever allowed to see.  Both of our girls are straight A students and we are very proud of them.  No test in the universe can measure that.

(This was posted anonymously, with permission, to protect the privacy of these children and parents in Shelby County)

• Click HERE to see what a Senator in New Mexico plans to do about excessive testing in his State.
• Click HERE to see what Texas legislators did this past summer to reduce testing 
• Click HERE to see what is currently happening in New York because their students took the PARCC last year (yes, PARCC is the same test that TN students are supposed to take next year) and 70% of their students were rated as failing. Their parents are furious at the NYBOE. 

What’s the real motivation for standardized testing?  It’s clearly a money-making business.  Why are we spending all of this money on these expensive tests? and even more money on test-prep materials from the same companies that make and score the tests???  
Tennessee parents want our tax money spent on students, and not on testing companies.

As an ESL teacher in Metro Nashville, I have seen MANY children struggle. More recently, ESL children are becoming bombarded with testing that is not beneficial for them. These tests include verbiage that is inappropriate for their language barriers, but it is inappropriate for their age. 
 
When I was a child, I learned best in a hands on work environment. I learned best when I was not taking test after test. I never had the best grades in school, but I knew my content well. I tested well through hands on methodology... not pencil to paper. I grew up successful. 
 
Tennessee's strange obsession with testing has gotten out of control, and I as a teacher am tired of seeing students struggle from the anxiety it bears them. And the lack of respect students are demonstrating from testing too often. It is burning them out.
 
The other day my 1st graders took the practice CRA, a test that is more so geared toward 3rd and 4th graders within the elementary setting. My students were given numerous mathematical word problems to solve. As I began to read them the problems, I immediately noticed the verbage was not age appropriate nor was it language appropriate. One of my students who is a beginner ESL student, heard me read the problem, "Circle the three correct addition problems." I immediately noticed her circling all the 3's on the paper. The child is BRIGHT when I can test her in the way I know works best for her, however, she does NOT do well on tests that are state mandated. 
 
My 1st graders will soon take the TRIPOD survey. (Our district is being PAID by the state to give this). This survey asks students questions that have confusing verbiage; questions that range from "Does your teacher help you?" to questions about students personal home lives. This survey will count towards my teacher evaluation this year.  As an individual with a Master of Arts in Education degree and over 20 years schooling, I feel insulted that Metro Nashville Public Schools and the state of Tennessee are allowing 6 and 7 year olds to rate my teaching--- let alone 6 and 7 year old children that have not fully developed the vocabulary ---to take this survey to rate my teaching.
 
And that's not biggest problem. I am horrendously upset with how this obsession the state has with testing affects kids confidence levels and ability to handle testing anxiety. Last year, when giving the SAT-10 test, my ESL students struggled. "When is this going to be over?," they would ask. "I don't understand what this means." It killed me as their teacher to say, "I'm sorry but you'll have to figure it out." Many of them drew pictures on their test booklets. I felt like I had to bribe them with a million dollars to get them to complete the test.
 
It's not fair to treat our young students as if they are 5-6 years older than they actually are. These are 6-7 year-olds who want to learn through HANDS ON INTERACTIVE LEARNING. Giving these students test after test not only loses VALUABLE classroom time, but causes them to be "burnt out," and causes them to not take future tests as "seriously."
 
Tennessee is a growing population; particularly with our immigrants. We need to be more welcoming to these children, and focus on the English language. We need to test them on what they KNOW and are LEARNING-- not concepts that are over their heads. Giving students tests that are not age and language appropriate are a waste of my tax dollars. 
 
(This was posted anonymously, with permission, to protect the teacher and her job.)

Click HERE to read what Momma Bears uncovered about the inappropriate Tripod Survey that is being administered to students in many TN school districts without parental permission 

My 6th grade son came home with math homework last week.  They had to convert oz to pounds, cm to meters, miles to feet, etc.  The way he had to write his "problem solving steps" down where SO CONFUSING that we couldn't help him (although we understand the converting part. The way they want it is WACKED!).  
Today, he came home with math homework on converting percentages to fractions & decimals.  I asked him if they were done with measurements.  He said the ENTIRE class failed their test on Friday and his teacher didn't know what to do, so she decided to skip this chapter 'till later.

(This was posted anonymously, with permission, to protect the privacy of this child and the employment of his frustrated teacher in Wilson County)