This is not so much of a testing story but it does tell of inconsistencies...I attended the ELA common core training last summer. We were told not use "base" word and "root" word interchangeably. All year long I made a point to use "base" word instead of "root" word and my students knew to say "base" word. On the online tcap practice test, one of the questions asked for the "root" word of flies. Fly is the "base" word, not a "root" word. Makes you wonder how many other inconsistencies/mistakes there are on the real test.
- A third grade teacher in Tennessee


Do we know if this happened for sure on the TCAP?  Do we know if students truly mastered the base/root word concept?  Do we know how many students got base/root word questions wrong on the real TCAP because of this inconsistency?  We will never know.  The TCAP test is top-secret.  Teachers can't see it.  Parents can't see it.  Administrators can't see it.  Taxpayers can't see it, even though we paid the Pearson corporation handsomely for it.

Our children deserve better than this.  Tennessee needs testing transparency.

The above law was violated by a person appointed to a position of authority over our public schools, Commissioner Kevin Huffman.  The law is clear: he did not have the power to grant TCAP waivers to over 100 school districts.

Teachers are being unfairly held accountable for test scores on tests they are not allowed to see and whose cut scores are admittedly manipulated....  Students are being held accountable for grades on tests that their parents are not allowed to ever see.... but....

Who is holding Kevin Huffman accountable? Certainly not Governor Haslam who appointed him.

Legislators:  All of the laws you pass are worthless if they can be blatantly ignored without any penalty by those at the top.  Not a single legislator voted against this law in the House or Senate.  Beth Harwell, Ron Ramsey, & Bill Haslam all signed it.  Is it okay for the Commissioner of Education to break the laws you pass?

Superintendents & School Board members:  This is a case of "Do as I say, not as I do" by Commissioner Huffman.  Speak up for your districts and demand an end to all of this excessive testing and top-down control.  Talk to your legislators.  Your voices are important.  Do what you know is best for your students.

Media:  Publish facts, not what they want you to believe and print. 

 

Thank you, Legislators, for hearing the concerns of parents, teachers, & administrators in Tennessee!

Representative Bo Mitchell, Representative Gloria Johnson, and Representative Mike Stewart filed a detailed request under the Tennessee Open Records Act seeking records related to the suspicious TCAP delay, post-equating process, and strange results.  

Representative Mitchell said, "I hope this information will shed light on the saga so that we can have some level of confidence in the results of this test for which our students, teachers, and administrators were forced to spend much of the year preparing."
 Visit this link to see the request from the Representatives
 
Meanwhile...

Representative Billy Spivey and Senator Janice Bowling requested that Comptroller Justin Wilson investigate the expenditures and conduct of the Department of Education regarding last week’s delay in releasing TCAP scores.  (as reported by Rocky Top Politics)
 
Check out what is going on in Louisiana...  it is the same fishy scenario as TN!
Click HERE to read the strange situation in Louisiana

A TN Momma Bear writes:
"That is like deja vu with what is going on in Tennessee! Kevin Huffman (also a Chief fire Change) is putting pixie dust on TCAP scores here… messing with cut scores and aligning TCAP questions with Common Core supposedly. The test results were not ready from the state when they were supposed to be (everyone is wondering if the scores show that his reforms and Common Core aren’t working). Districts found out the day the quick scores were due to be released to them that there would be a 10 day delay (announced conveniently after a huge education conference in Nashville was finished and after Arne Duncan was gone) so districts couldn’t get final report cards out in time. So, Huffman said districts could apply for waivers to exempt them from including TCAP in student grades. Huffman granted over a hundred waivers to districts BUT he didn’t have the legal authority to do so. It will be interesting to see how he wiggles his way out of this hot mess! People are awful furious at him right now and with the Governor for appointing him. Even the news media isn’t painting a pretty picture of him like they usually do. Hopefully, Huffman will be fired or will resign soon."

Important Fact You Need to Know:  Kevin Huffman & John White are both in an exclusive organization created by Jeb Bush called "Chiefs for Change".   There are only 7 members in this organization, (Plus Tony Bennett who was given "Emeritus membership" after he was involved in a highly-embarrassing grade-tampering scandal in Indiana to protect a wealthy contributor of Governor Scott who owned a charter school that earned an embarrassingly bad score.  Shortly after Bennett's damning and indisputable emails became public, Bennett resigned.)  
 

"The sad fact is that testing no longer functions as a way to inform teachers and parents and to help children but as a blunt instrument to wear children down and demoralize their teachers."  - Diane Ravitch
 

Tennessee Teachers are stressed out to the max.  

Some teachers were told by their administrators to teach the old TN standards (SPIs) this past school year in order to get TCAP scores higher both for their own personal evaluation and also for their school & district.  Understandably, those administrators made this decision to not teach Common Core last year because of the abysmally low TCAP scores of the previous year when their students were taught Common Core.  Their TCAP scores plummeted under Common Core, so who can blame them to returning to the old standards to boost this year's TCAP scores?   

It was a punch to the gut last week for those administrators and teachers to learn that non-Common Core questions on TCAP were cut by the TDOE.  The old SPI questions won't count.  This means those districts who gambled on teaching the old SPIs will have even lower TCAP results.  Furthermore, if TCAP doesn't reflect what students have learned, how can it measure a teacher's effectiveness to teach?

It is sad that adults feel that they must "game the system" to protect their teachers, schools, and districts. Children are the pawns and are the real losers in this overemphasis on testing.

Legislators, please make this crazy testing merry-go-round stop!

Just when you think the madness can't get any more maddening, the TN Department of Education raises the bar: 

1) Children were forced to take TCAPs and End of Course exams soon after their communities were ravaged by storms and tornadoes. It doesn't take a genius to figure out that their scores are not going to truly reflect what these children are capable of doing. 

2) There were errors discovered on the 4th grade math TCAP test and in TCAPpractice booklets. Where there is smoke, there is fire.

3) Several parents have asked the TDOE to see copies of the TCAP tests their children took--all requests have been denied even though we have yet to find a law that prohibits us, as parents, from seeing this test. Transparency anyone? 

But wait....There's more!

4) Just yesterday, the Tennessee Department of Education (TDOE) informed districts that they will not have the TCAP "quick scores" back in time for districts to include them in grade calculations on final report cards! The scores, by law, make up 15-25%of a child's final semester grades and teachers use the percentage of problems correct (i.e., quick scores) on the TCAP to determine the semester grades. 

We have obtained a copy of the letter the TDOE sent to the state's school district directors and, from what we can tell, the TDOE is supposedly conducting a statistical analysis (i.e., "post-equating") on the quick scores and that is why the scores will be delayed. (According to the letter, in the past they they conducted post-equating after the quick scores were released and that is why they were able to get the scores out earlier.) Even though the TDOE suggested that districts delay the release of final grades, some districts are applying for waivers from the TDOE, asking that their student's TCAP scores not be included in their grades. It remains to be seen if the TDOE will honor these requests. 

We have lots of questions for the TDOE:

• When did you decide to make this change?
• Why were districts told at the last minute about this change?
• What about the districts that don't get waivers? Are their teachers supposed to come back to work during summer vacation to complete final grades? 
• What about the districts that do get waivers? Kids all over the state stressed out, to the point of illness, over these tests. And all of a sudden, all of that stress and hard work will have been for naught!   How is this fair to our children? And what about the kids who needed those scores to increase their grades? How is this fair to them? (Don't get us wrong--we despise the requirement that TCAP scores be included in grades, but we despise the additional emotional trauma inflicted on our kids even more.)
• And what about the teachers whose job security is dependent upon these scores? How can we be assured that the scores are not purposefully being manipulated to reflect an agenda that includes undermining traditionally educated teachers (Teach for America, anyone?), closing neighborhood schools, and opening unaccountable, privately-run charter schools? (Transparency is not something the TN DOE is known for.) 
• And last, but not least, would you allow a group of independent, 3rd party statisticians, testing experts, and parents to be a part of the current "post-equating" process so we can be assured that you are not attempting to manipulate the very scores that may affect our children's grades and definitely will affect their teachers' evaluations? 

To the legislators reading this post: 
We appreciate all that you did to help protect our children, their teachers, and their schools this past legislative session. But, as you can tell, there is much more work to be done. Please keep this in mind during this campaign season and, if you are re-elected, during next year's legislative session. We are desperate for your help. We are fighting for our children the best we can, but we are battling a bureaucratic nightmare. Using test scores to judge teachers and our students is clearly wrought with errors at every turn. It's time to find a more effective, and much less emotionally traumatizing, manner of evaluation.  

From a parent in Tennessee:

I received an email from my daughters choir teacher. He has been teaching for 20 years and is an excellent CHOIR TEACHER in Tennessee. He was going to retire this year but had such a great group of 7th and 8th graders, he decided to stay. This is what he was told:

I learned I have been categorized as a “non-re-elect” teacher. The justification for this is my reading, language, math, history and science scores are low after two years of TCAP testing. They don’t show sustained growth, and based on this, I am accused of being a bad teacher. Actually, I don’t recall teaching these subjects.
 
Welcome to the Common Core Initiative which, indeed, does tell teachers how and what to teach.  Here’s the link for music educators to learn how to incorporate Common Core standards.

Common Core is NOT “just standards”.  It is part of the Common Core State Standards Initiative which includes the four assurances contained in the State Fiscal Stabalization Fund given to the states with these strings:

What does increasing teacher effectiveness really mean?  It can mean that teachers who teach English literature must incorporate math standards, math teachers must incorporate ELA standards,  and even music teachers must incorporate ELA standards….in music.  

(The above excerpt was printed with permission from The Missouri Watchdog)

Last week, 4th grade children across Tennessee complained to their parents about a question on their high-stakes TCAP test that was clearly very wrong.  What was wrong?  Well, we can't tell you exactly because we parents are never allowed to see the test, but we have good reason to believe our kids are telling us the truth based on the fact that many different students from different parts of the state, who don't even know each other, told their parents the same story about that question.  Undeniably, where there is smoke, there is fire.  

We asked some 4th grade teachers about it, and they confirmed the error (without using words, of course), but no teacher would let us use her name or even her district for fear of losing her job.  See, the high-stakes TCAP test is so secret that teachers are forbidden from discussing it.  They will lose their job if they do.  Teachers are forbidden to look at the test questions on TCAP.  Administrators know of this error, too, but filing a complaint with the state over the error is a sure-fire way to get their district in hot water for tattling.  

Even though teachers are not supposed to look at the test questions, every single 4th grade teacher in TN saw this particular test question, and in fact was required to see this question, because it was a SAMPLE question for the Math TCAP.  

The way TCAP works:
Before students begin the actual TCAP test, teachers have a script of directions to read aloud.  The teacher reads a sample test question from the test booklet, and students then go through the process of bubbling in the correct answer so they get the hang of the test.  The teacher waits as each student bubbles in an answer to the SAMPLE question, and then the teacher reads aloud the correct answer from the script.  (Last week, some bright students raised their hand and told their teacher the answer was wrong, and their teachers agreed, and told their class to bubble in the correct answer).  After that moment of questioning and confusion for students, the teachers started the timer and told students to begin the real test.  

From several students' memories, the test question was something like this:
It was a multiplication problem. Something like 4x60. The answer choices were:
F) 240
G) 160
H) 260
J) 140
The teacher read from the script that the correct answer was "G". Several kids in his class told the teacher the answer was wrong, the teacher agreed, and they all changed the answer to the correct answer: "F". (Some students also told us that the letter choices did not correspond to the A,B,C,D bubbles on their student answer sheet)

Again, we aren't really sure that our kids remember the exact question and choices after nearly 8 hours of testing last week, but all do clearly remember the teachers realizing that the test booklet, sample question, and scripted answer given were obviously wrong.

This test is high-stakes. It is an albatross around students' necks.  For students as young as 8 years old, the score is mandated by the State of TN to count as 15-25% of their report card grade.  Their score can determine whether they pass to the next grade or not.  Their score can also strangle a teacher's rating, dropping a teacher's 1-5 level through the mysterious TVAAS evaluation formula that nobody can explain.  These test scores are even used to punish and close schools.  "High-stakes" is an understatement!

Are there more errors like this on TCAP?
It is entirely possible.  We will never know if there are because the test security is so tight.  Parents and teachers never get to see the questions or correct answers.

What if there are errors?
Maybe the Pearson Corporation will come clean and tell us.  (If you believe that, TN Parents would like to sell you some stock in our new Gullible Company.)  The fact is, Pearson has had many, many, many problems with its testing in the U.S.A.  It is in the best interest for Pearson to keep their test security tight, to prevent parents from seeing the questions, and to require teachers & administrators to sign gag-orders preventing any discussion over the test.  Teachers have also told TN Parents about the many errors in Pearson's textbooks and test prep workbooks.  For the millions of American tax dollars we pay Pearson, our students should be getting error-free learning products and assessments.  

Wouldn't PARCC test be better?
Um, hello??? Pearson does the PARCC test, too!  That's like buying a different flavor potato chip.  Same company, same potatoes, same quality control, same profit motive for their company.  Besides, the reports from other states that gave the PARCC test this school year are horrendous.  They tell of vague, confusing PARCC questions with no legitimate answer choices... frustrated students, even the brightest, advanced students in the class who weren't able to finish and who shed tears of frustration...  and they mention many questions that contain advertising for brand-name products such as Nike, Apple iPod, Mug Root Beer, LEGO, and IBM.  These tests and test-prep products have become a Common Core Cash Cow for Pearson, with Pearson owning the only ranch in town.

Politicians: many of you insist that we must hold teachers "accountable".  Why don't you hold Pearson "accountable"?  

*The $40-50 million that TN spent on TCAP expenses last year would have given teachers that 2% raise they were promised and deserve.  The $150 million spent on testing in TN could have hired more teachers, which would truly help our children succeed more than any test ever will.

The Elephant/Donkey in the Room:
Why does the British corporation, Pearson, have so much power and control over our American education system and over our children?
ANSWER: $$$ to political campaigns; $$$ to lobbyists; $$$ to faux-student organizations; lavish trips for politicians and education leaders to exotic places such as Brazil, London, Singapore, and Finland; and the best tax attorneys money can buy to keep it all above-the-law.

Dear Gov. Haslam,

I am writing to let you know that my fourth-grader will not be taking the TCAP test. This is unfortunate for her school because she scores in the advanced range every time.
Auria is in fourth grade at Northfield elementary in Murfreesboro, TN. This is our fourth year at this school, and between her and her sister, I have fallen in love with numerous teachers there. Murfreesboro has the best school system in the state (according to Google), and I have been highly impressed with the people and their level of care for my children.

Third grade changed, though. My highly-intelligent, confident kid became a wreck - early in the year - over the pressure associated with the TCAP. I was confused, as I took the TCAP every year as a child and have nothing but fond memories of bubbling in the little circles. I started to notice the growing intensity leading up to the test, and I became a little disgusted. That was last year. This year it was worse. The teachers I have had the pleasure of working with are so wound up that I feel sorry for them. The teachers, the staff, the administration...everybody.

These are obviously brilliant and creative people, and this test has taken over like a life-sucking monster. Teaching isn't an exact science, just like parenting. Every child is different, and this terrible system is stifling all the joy and creativity that is required to really make an impact. 

Now, if I love this school and staff so much, and I know her test scores would attribute to an average boost ($$$), why would I pull her from this?  She wants to be a teacher when she grows up. These teachers are already being grossly underpaid for such an important role.
 "Pearson is America's largest corporate maker of standardized testing. It has a multiyear contract with our Department of Education: For creating and implementing the TCAP and the end-of-course tests for high schoolers, we pay more than $150 million.  (That's three times what it would have cost to give Tennessee teachers a 2 percent raise.)  The deepest cut of all? Teachers aren't able to preview the test. They are neither editor nor author of the single most influential test of the whole year. It's the educational equivalent of a slap in the face." 
- David Cook (Times Free Press)

Auria can already make better decisions than this.

My child's job is to learn. The teacher's job is to teach. But my role as her parent is more complicated. I also have to teach her when standing up for something is necessary. This system is stupid and unfair. She will be accepting a 0 as 15% of her grade for the year. But she will also be standing up for teachers and students all over the state. She will be taking steps toward bettering her future right now, and I think that's better than just a memory of all those bubbles.

Thank you for your time reviewing this matter,

Alicia Maynard
Murfreesboro, TN

The above letter has been shared on Facebook over 1,140 times in the past 48 hours.  Here are some of the many comments on it:

• Amen!
• As a teacher in metro, I love you!
• Wow! Seems I'm not alone about my TCAP feelings! Kuddos to this mom!!!
• The pressure for students, teachers, and parents is so unfair. It makes me so sad.
• This is so beautiful. It's a must read for all parents and students.
• Maybe more parents should jump on this bandwagon!!! I would love to shake her hand and meet her in person!
• Incredible parent and letter! Hope someone listens! Something to think about where we are heading for the future of education for the little ones. Lets put Common Sense back in Education and worry bout the little ones not which pocket is getting thicker!!!!
• How many letters like this will it take to change things?
• Simply the truth. I am forbidden by law from seeing, asking or being told what is on the test my kids take. Ever. We never see the old tests. We cannot challenge bad questions...and trust me, the practice tests have bad questions. Parents can also never see the tests. Just try and ask, even after it is given. I have yet to have a teacher's edition grammar book that did not have a wrong answer or horribly confusing practices. It happens, but now who is double checking? My kids will do well...they always do me proud in a pinch, but this is beyond ridiculous. Pearson controls education in Tennessee. Get over the outrage over the feds/Common Core (for now) and ask why in the Hell a private company gets to determine kids' grades and teachers' fates with ZERO oversight.
• May do this next year. Zac is flipped out about TCAP.
• This sums up my feelings on standardized testing word for word!!!!!!!
• I love how you just stand up for things that are unjust without ANY hesitation and I respect the heck out of that! TCAP tests and the like are the reasons why I did not complete my certification as a secondary educator. It's an unfair system that pigeon-holes children into measurable data. You, Alicia Maynard, are a beautiful soul and a wonderful mother. Thank you for standing up for teachers and for teaching your children to stand up for their generation of learners.
• I applaud this mother and think it would be awesome to boycott this stupid standardized testing

This issue is not going away.  This movement will to continue to grow in TN, as it has in other states as parents realize that their children are being needlessly and expensively over-tested.

Common Core and the inseparable requirements of the Race to the Top contract require even MORE testing, including benchmark tests and probably the PARCC (which is a much more difficult, time-consuming, and stressful test than TCAP is).


Legislators:  Parents need a law that gives us the legal option to protect our children by Opting-Out of standardized tests.  Other states have this law.  Tennessee needs it, too.  Parents should be able to decide what is best for our children.  Private school and home-school students don't have to take these tests, so why are our public school children forced to do them?

School Board members & Superintendents:  Some districts in TN (like Metro Nashville) allow parents to refuse standardized tests for their children without penalizing the child, teacher, or school.  Even though TN does not yet have an Opt-Out law, the state, at this time, allows districts to decide without penalty (See this document and see how the Metro Nashville School District handles parents who wish to refuse testing for their children).  Locally elected school boards have the authority to set policies regarding testing and the rights of parents to refuse these tests for their children.  Please, listen to the parents.  

Parents know what is best for their children.  We know better than the Pearson corporation, better than the government, and better than any standardized test ever created.  We trust our children's teachers to fairly assess our children's progress.  

TODAY is the last day of the Legislative Session but there are many BIG questions still unanswered...

The word on the street is that there is a SECRET Conference Committee report prepared by Commissioner Huffman (okay, actually, by his lawyer) that not only allows Common Core and PARCC, but locks Tennessee into it because of the deceptive wording and testing criteria.  

Not only that, this agreement would give Commissioner Huffman (who is ON the Executive Committee of PARCC) and the TNDOE the power to expand Common Core to include the Next Generation Common Core Science Standards, Social Studies Standards, and those Common Core Sexual Education standards that parents have been freaking out about. 

Also very disturbing, things that were promised to be included, like protection for student data, have been so watered down, they are worthless.  FERPA is not the safe law everyone thinks it is.  FERPA doesn't protect our children against data sharing without parental consent, it just makes it legal for companies and organizations to do so, and there's nothing that parents can do to stop it.  This is sickening and scary for parents.

Politicians that vote for this will be just playing right in to their hands, and they know it.  This is a deliberate, underhanded move by the administration.

Remember just a few weeks ago?
82 Representatives bravely voted to delay Common Core
88 Representatives wisely voted to delay PARCC

Heads up:  They are also trying to SNEAK the VOUCHER bill through on another bill (again).

It is a shame that the leaders of the House & Senate are doing the bidding of Governor Haslam and corporate-interests instead of representing the people that elected them to serve.

Once we get this SECRET CONFERENCE REPORT, we'll send it out for everyone to read.

A Tennessee parent recently met with a TN legislator and tried to share with him what is happening in other states regarding Common Core and standardized testing.  This legislator, who we won’t name, replied, “I don’t care what other states are doing. I am only interested in what Tennessee is doing.”
 
That is scary. 
 
That close-mindedness can be dangerous.  That is like sweeping your own kitchen floors while the neighborhood around you is in flames.  Look up!  Pay attention!  Danger!!!  You could prevent your own house from going up in flames.  That legislator could prevent getting voted out of office, if only he would listen and respond to his constituents. 
 
 
Does it matter that other states are pulling out of Common Core and out of the PARCC agreement?  Absolutely!  Oklahoma, Georgia, Indiana, Alabama, Pennsylvania, Florida, & Kentucky have all withdrawn from the PARCC test.  Others, like TN, are in the process.
 
Does it matter that other states "rebranded" Common Core Standards by simply changing the toxic name?  Same pig, new lipstick.  Voters aren't fooled.  New legislators to be elected very soon in these states:

• Arizona (aka: "Arizona's College & Career Ready Standards")
• Iowa (aka: "The Iowa Core")
• Florida (aka: "Next Generation Sunshine State Standards")
• Indiana  

Does it matter that Indiana withdrew from Common Core, only to implement nearly identical standards to Common Core?
Whatever you call it, they are still developmentally inappropriate, not state-led, and are the same nation-wide standards written by and for testing companies.  These attempts to change the name of Common Core just make voters even more upset.  Voters sure don't like to be tricked or manipulated, and they remember that in the ballot box. 
 

Here are some very loud warning bells from New York:
New York is one step ahead of Tennessee with Common Core implementation.  Their students took the Common Core PARCC ELA exam produced by Pearson last week.  A wise leader should heed these warning sirens:

• 31,000 of NY students (which is 10% of their students) opted-out of the test.  Even more are expected to opt-out of the math tests in a few weeks.
  
  
• "I administered Grade 4 ELA. Completely inappropriate passages and even worse questions. Students are totally set up to fail to make teachers appear incompetent. A number of my students had sick stomachs due to stress. THIS IS CHILD ABUSE!!!!
  - A 4th grade teacher in New York
  
  
• ADVERTISING embedded in the test:  "Today's 5th grade test book had a passage instructing kids on "how to be a smart risk taker." One of the instructions was to, "Think about Nike (TM) and their slogan 'Just do it.'"   Another example of product placement was in 6th grade - "Barbie."  Product placement in 6th grade, day 1 (this one actually made me laugh out loud): iPod -registered trademark of Apple Corporation." 
  - A teacher in NY
  
  
• "Proctored the 4th grade exam and was horrified by the lack of literary flow in just about every passage, but only in moments when I wasn't pausing to reflect on questionable grammar. Reading it was painful and the accompanying questions were ridiculous." 
  - New York proctor
  
  
• "I have been a principal for 10 years, with the last 7 in a district in Nassau County. In all my time as an educator, I have never seen a more disgraceful state exam. The third grade ELA was particularly complex and even inappropriate. The State Education Department should be ashamed at how they treat teachers and children! I work with the most brilliant and capable teachers, but they were completely demoralized and even saddened by what they witnessed today. When will politicians and Albany put teachers and children FIRST!!??" 
  -Eric Nezowitz, Principal
  
  
• "No, it's not a mistake.  Yes, the test makers knew what they were doing. What were they doing? Creating a set-up for failure to use as more ammunition to prove that public education is failing." - An upset NY parent
  
  

• This was written by a Principal to parents:  "Our 3rd, 4th, and 5th  graders have just completed three days of the New York State English  Language Arts Exam.   Your children were wonderful and worked incredibly hard.  On the whole, we think that we were able to protect them from the worst stresses of the test, and most seemed fine during most of the exam.  However, the teachers and administration are truly devastated by what a terrible test it was and how little it will tell us about our students.  Because we are bound by test security, we cannot reveal details but we can tell you that we have never seen an ELA exam that does a worse job of testing reading comprehension.  There was inappropriate content, many highly ambiguous questions, and a focus on structure rather than meaning of passages.   Our teachers and administrators feel that this test is an insult to the profession of teaching and that students’ scores on it will not correlate with their reading ability.  Because of this, the staff has decided to hold a protest outside of school TOMORROW, FRIDAY, APRIL 4, FROM 8:15-8:35 to express their extreme dissatisfaction with the ELA exam.  Parents are invited to join the staff before going into classrooms for Family Friday." - Principal at PS321 in NY

 

Legislators: Tennessee Parents know the tricks played in other states of renaming and/or delaying Common Core but still implementing it.  We know our rights as parents, and we know who these tests are designed to profit.  We know our votes count in the ballot boxes across the state.  Parents know what is best for our children.  Our voices are loud.  We hope you heed these warnings. 

April used to be poetry month,
Where we’d learn about rhythm and rhyme,
But now that standardized tests have set in,
They tell us we just don’t have time.
 
There was ‘Poem in Your Pocket’ day,
Where you share your unique voice,
But now creativity’s gone away,
Now it’s nothing but multiple choice.
 
They say tests show how smart you are,
And teach you all you know,
But how does filling in circles,
Help anyone learn and grow?
 
In class, when we could be thinking,
Learning how we can go far,
We’re categorized by the grades we get,
Like those numbers are all we are.

 - Eliya Ahmad, age 12 (written on back of ELA testing booklet, April 2, 2014)