refusing standardized testing

[Anonymous]

"I don't think the school needs your permission to administer the test. If the child is in school, I believe the child can be administered the test."

Is this true? Can anyone find / cite a state regulation where this is explicitly stated? I've been unsuccessful thus far.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The walk out or sit down protest is probably not such a good idea. One component of making Adequate Yearly Progress (from NCLB) is testing 95% of the students in testing grades. If you miss that, your school will not make AYP. Unfortunately, it may SEEM like the testing push is coming down from the administration (and an easy solution would be to protest at the local school level), the problem really lies with No Child Left Behind, and the federal government.

bingo!

As teachers, we hate it, too. I'm at the high school level, where testing COUNTS toward graduation. So imagine how heavily penalized we are if we're teachers of a course that's tested (10 English, NSL - for this year only, biology and algebra). It's maddening.

I am convinced that no administration - Republican or Democrat - will reverse this mess unless the economy drives us to eliminate them. NSL is gone at this point b/c it was too costly to pay people to write the tests, to copy them, to distribute them, and to score them. I am sure biology is next in line. Math and English, however, which are "staples" across the board, may indeed stay.

Furthermore, if students fail to meet the cut off score, they are given bridge projects (again, in lieu of the tests) that count toward graduation but not toward AYP, further penalizing the school.

So it's sort of a no-win situation for all involved. If you wish to fight it, hit private school. Sadly, that's the only way to escape these tests.

[Anonymous]

My wife teaches in a MC elementary school and like 13:54 she and her colleagues hate the way the county has structured its curriculum to serve the tests. Teacher have very little say in what will be taught and how it is taught. Deviating from the strict curriculum can lead to trouble. MCPS teachers are becoming nothing more than test prep. quiz masters. I hope MCPS eventually goes back to setting the bar for skills to be learned and letting the teachers decide how to best teach those skills.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:"I don't think the school needs your permission to administer the test. If the child is in school, I believe the child can be administered the test."

Is this true? Can anyone find / cite a state regulation where this is explicitly stated? I've been unsuccessful thus far.

You probably will not find one. But you will probably not find any authority for the argument that you can prevent the school from giving your child the test. If a child is out on test day, they take the test when they return.

[Anonymous]

Here are the guidelines for testing at the ES, MS and HS level.

*****
Make-up days for testing during the school
year, for example, are offered only on specific days, so a student may take the assessment on one
day or, if absent, may take it on one of two designated make-up days. If the student is absent
both days, the student forfeits the opportunity to take the assessment during that testing window
and must wait until the next testing window, six months later. Such lack of options is mirrored
in the way testing materials also are handled by the state. For example, schools are required to
order testing material separately for each make-up day. This is different from the process used
for the administration of the elementary and middle school MSA, which allows schools to use
the original books throughout the testing window, and no additional books need be ordered for
the make-up testing. The MSA also allows schools to have a lengthy make-up testing window
after the general administration for the grade level so that students who may have been absent
during the initial testing period can be assessed, unlike the provisions for the HSAs.

***** from another memo

Furthermore, several categories of students are automatically assigned a below proficiency, or
Basic, score on the MSA. Absent students who did not make up the test, excused students, and
LEP students with little or no command of English, fall in this category. So do special education
students, Section 504 students, and students in the English for Speakers of Other Languages
(ESOL) program who receive verbatim reading accommodations for the Grade 3 reading MSA
in compliance with their Individualized Education Program, Section 504 Plan, or English
Language Learner Plan. In Montgomery County, 832 students received reading verbatim
accommodations, distributed in approximately 100 elementary schools. Some of these schools,
such as Wheaton Woods, Viers Mill, Meadow Hall, and others, fell short of meeting AYP
because of the number of ESOL and/or special education students who received a Basic score on
the reading MSA as a result of verbatim reading accommodations

[Anonymous]

bingo!

As teachers, we hate it, too. I'm at the high school level, where testing COUNTS toward graduation. So imagine how heavily penalized we are if we're teachers of a course that's tested (10 English, NSL - for this year only, biology and algebra). It's maddening.

I am convinced that no administration - Republican or Democrat - will reverse this mess unless the economy drives us to eliminate them. NSL is gone at this point b/c it was too costly to pay people to write the tests, to copy them, to distribute them, and to score them. I am sure biology is next in line. Math and English, however, which are "staples" across the board, may indeed stay.

Furthermore, if students fail to meet the cut off score, they are given bridge projects (again, in lieu of the tests) that count toward graduation but not toward AYP, further penalizing the school.

So it's sort of a no-win situation for all involved. If you wish to fight it, hit private school. Sadly, that's the only way to escape these tests.

I disagree with this. The problem is at both the federal and local level. I absolutely agree that Montgomery County administrators have taken obsession with test prep and scores to level even beyond NCLB. They are competing with each other for scores and using testing to avoid investing in real instruction. Parents refusing to take the tests is probably the only thing that would deter them as it would affect their status quo.

[Anonymous]

OP, I work in a Maryland elementary school. As far as I am aware, the MSA testing window is 2 or 3 weeks, and the only way for your child to be tested is to not be in school the entire testing window.

I believe it is not possible for you to request your child not be tested, any more than you could request your child not have to take the math chapter test or spelling test. It is a part of schooling.

[Anonymous]

The Bartlby Project: "I respectfully refuse to participate in your standardized test."

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/answer-sheet/guest-bloggers/a-father-agonizes-should-his-s.html

The problem with this approach is, the kids still have to participate in the 5 months leading up to the test... all the worksheets about finding the main idea and so on.

If your child's school is teaching in this manner, then just having your kids protest the actual test itself isn't going to change anything.

Parents need to band together and protest the curriculum if it is this uninspiring. If they could keep an eye on the percentage of uninspiring skill builder worksheets versus interesting, thoughtful activities, that woudl be a big start.

[Anonymous]

Read this article about the MSAs -- how it is designed, and how that design impacts instructino in elementary school, unfortunately.

http://www.aft.org/pdfs/americaneducator/summer2010/Perlstein.pdf

Saddest quote: "After the MSAs we can do science and Social Studies."

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If you do make the switch to public and boycott the MSA, the HSAs in high school (similar format) are a graduation requirement.

At the high school, those scores count toward schools' AYP and toward an individual student's graduation - assuming, of course, that the student has made the cut off score.

The HSAs seem pretty benign. There are only 4 and it may drop to 3. If you get a 3 or higher on the AP government test you don't need to take the NSL HSA. Most kids in our cluster take the math one in middle school when they take Alg 1. So that just leaves biology at the end of 9th grade and English at the end of 10th grade.

Just wait until your kids start doing SAT prep - that takes hours and hours and multiple practice tests. Makes MSAs and HSAs look like a walk in the park.

[Anonymous]

Depending upon the schools, the HSAs are not benign. I work with students who can't pass the test and who are - sadly - relying upon the bridge projects to graduate. So don't make that assumption. Perhaps if you're in a high-flying cluster, that's the case. But it's not the norm.

Furthermore, after this year, the NSL test and bridge projects are gone b/c of budget cuts. Also, AP tests are usually given in grade 11, which is the year after most students take the HSAs. So, by then, most have already taken the HSA in grade 10. Of course, there are schools giving AP Government and Politics: US in grade 10, but this course doesn't contain questions that mirror the HSA NSL test, by the way. So they're not "equal" in terms of content.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you do make the switch to public and boycott the MSA, the HSAs in high school (similar format) are a graduation requirement.

At the high school, those scores count toward schools' AYP and toward an individual student's graduation - assuming, of course, that the student has made the cut off score.

The HSAs seem pretty benign. There are only 4 and it may drop to 3. If you get a 3 or higher on the AP government test you don't need to take the NSL HSA. Most kids in our cluster take the math one in middle school when they take Alg 1. So that just leaves biology at the end of 9th grade and English at the end of 10th grade.

Just wait until your kids start doing SAT prep - that takes hours and hours and multiple practice tests. Makes MSAs and HSAs look like a walk in the park.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Read this article about the MSAs -- how it is designed, and how that design impacts instructino in elementary school, unfortunately.

http://www.aft.org/pdfs/americaneducator/summer2010/Perlstein.pdf

Saddest quote: "After the MSAs we can do science and Social Studies."

Oh why did I read this right before bed??????!!!!!! Does anyone else feel completely helpless and sad about the state of our children's learning experience? I don't understand how this can continue to go on.

[Anonymous]

yes

[Anonymous]

The Bartlby Project: "I respectfully refuse to participate in your standardized test."
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/answer-sheet/gues...her-agonizes-should-his-s.html
The problem with this approach is, the kids still have to participate in the 5 months leading up to the test... all the worksheets about finding the main idea and so on.
If your child's school is teaching in this manner, then just having your kids protest the actual test itself isn't going to change anything.
Parents need to band together and protest the curriculum if it is this uninspiring. If they could keep an eye on the percentage of uninspiring skill builder worksheets versus interesting, thoughtful activities, that woudl be a big start.

Bottom line, if enough parents refuse to participate in the tests it has an immediate hit on the administrators of the school and county school board who do have the power to affect the curriculum. Parents banding together to request less test prep time in favor of science, art, or even just a deeper level of instruction on core areas have been unsuccessful. A large number of schools in this area have extremely high scores and would be in no danger at all of not meeting NCLB if they backed off on the test prep. These school are doing it to compete for resources within the county school system and justify performance of the administrators. MCPS, in particular is very obvious about using test prep as an excuse to cut curriculum budgets and test scores to retain administrators.

If enough parents refuse testing and the local school boards/admins can no longer benefit from the scores then you will see the 5 months of test prep being reduced.

[Anonymous]

I agree with PP (sort of). I don' think the tests themselves are so terrible. They are really only a few hours out of the whole school year. They give us in idea of the school. If we were considering a school they would likely be a factor. The test prep on the hand appears to be out of hand in some cases. My kids get one practice math and one proactice English sheet. That's it. If your kids are only focused on test prep for months...that is a problem. If the tests and the curriculum are alligned as expected there should be littel test prep.