Because of my recent move to Wyoming I no longer sit on the Parent Review Committee in the state of Utah. The remaining committee members will be testing again the first week in December. There were a LOT of questions. 10,000 questions. I did not answer all of them. All fifteen parents sat in a small rectangular room, across from each other at a board room table with laptops in front of us. We were welcomed with open arms, smiles, and food. The hospitality was fantastic. I made my first mistake when they handed each of us a nondisclosure agreement. It was uncomfortable for me. I asked why we needed to sign this? What does it matter if we share what little we remember from 10,000 questions? Ms. Park stood at the front of the room and stated some of these questions were worth $10,000 each! They would have to throw the question out if we disclosed anything about it. We would jeopordize $38 million dollars of Utahans money. If I didnt sign it, I wouldnt be able to stay and take the test. I signed the non-disclosure agreement. I felt silly for even showing discomfort with what they were asking. I was the only parent rep from southern, rural Utah. The USOE staff proceeded to assuage any concerns by sharing a power point presentation on how awesome AIR is. They taught us about the genius of CAT exams and how this test would be my kindergartners ticket to global leadership, and college and career readiness. John Jesse (no longer with USOE) had previously been educating districts and superintendents throughout the state about this test, he told them the USOE hoped to have 60% of Utah students proficient. Administrators were riled with the idea they were being forced to administer a test 40% of students would fail. We began plowing through the questions. I took questions from all grade levels but mostly high school questions. I attempted to do math I hadnt seen in 20 years, science with poor illustrations, and read passage after passage in language arts. I flagged all the questions that had typos, computer glitches and poor graphing. I also flagged questions that presented material as fact even when it was theory, misleading questions, and questions that were offensive to different lifestyles and personal choices.At the end of the week we met in a closed door meeting with legislators and government officials, the state superintendent and USOE employees, of course mum was the word again. We were each given a couple of minutes to express our feelings about the test. Some parents voiced concerns about testing, some saying they would be considering opting their children out. After we all spoke, the legislators were free to ask questions...what could have been a beneficial experience turned into a couple of them getting upset about their own agendas and political bickering ensued. Time was up. Meeting done. I expressed my eagerness to come back and see the corrected questions before the test was administered. Despite my desire to do this, the USOE was unwilling to allow parents to see if corrections to the flagged questions were made. I told Ms. Park I would have to opt my children out of the test and I would campaign for parents in our district to do the same. In the spring the USOE released a statement saying ALL 15 parents on the committee agreed there was nothing inappropriate on the test. The following emails transpired: Ms. Park, I am very disturbed at what you said in a recent letter sent to districts across the state: There are also concerns that the test questions contain inappropriate content of a social or political nature. Every question on the SAGE assessment has been reviewed by the 15 member parent committee last fall. Every parent on the panel (including the parents that do not support the common core) agreed that there was nothing in the questions that was inappropriate. I am on your 15 member parent committee and you know we agreed there were questions that were inappropriate. It is unfortunate that I have to tell people that the USOE is not a trustworthy entity. I did not intend my participation that week to be a blanket validation for your political purposes. Thank you. Molly Foster Molly, I am so sorry that you misunderstood my comments. I am regularly receiving concerns that the questions have inappropriate language and are pushing a social agenda. When we held the parent debrief panel the last day of the parent committee review, when asked if the test questions had inappropriate words or pushed a social agenda (I don’t remember exactly how it was worded), all 15 parents responded that the questions did not. There is no doubt that there were many questions that were flagged by the parent committee. I have freely shared the information you received from John Jesse that showed the number of items that were flagged by the parent committee and the resolution of those items. I am also in the process of preparing the items that were dropped from the test due to the input from the parent committee, for public release. I think it will be very helpful for any interested persons to see the actual items that have been eliminated. I have tried in all of my comments about the parent committee (written or verbal) to honor the great work of the committee and appropriately portray the views and opinions that were shared. I will try to be much more specific in the future to hopefully prevent misunderstanding. Thanks Judy W. Park, Ed.D. The USOE has unfortunately allowed these misunderstandings to permeate student and teacher achievement, and public relations. It is no wonder employees are resigning at an increased pace. I have 5 children. My Junior in high school has almost completed a lifetime of educational data for the state of Utah. Her testing side-effect is most noticeable when she mistakenly judges her personal success on data and outcome. This is not surprising, she is a people pleaser, for years she has been taught in school that the teachers she loves depend on her high test scores. She is recently finding herself afraid of failing, not getting the highest score possible on her AP or college courses. I fear that amidst all my hard work it just wont be enough, she wrote in a recent class. Since she was 6 years old she has spent most of her lifes hours in public education. I am saddened when I consider the states judgement and assessment of human success is dependent on computerized data measuring her future on how it compares to some boy or girl in Singapore. Before I opted my kids out of tests my fourth grader took up to 4 computer formative assessments per week, and CAT summative assessments three times a year, each of those tests took a week of up to 4 hours a day in the testing lab. All five, including kindergartners were under the same testing demands. Maybe one day I will share details of how getting a green dot on their data charts sent my 7 year old into a world where he didnt feel like living. But these assessments reach way beyond the children of your community. You would be foolish to think SAGE or any CAT exam is about assessing your childs comprehension. I visit with teachers that get written up if they voice any contrary opinion to the testing, their time is overwhelmed with deciphering and measuring the data. Administrators have grown accustomed to accepting the USOE sending their new yearly requirements for testing, curriculum, lunch programs, health education, science, and many more programs that entrap our local schools into losing our freedom. Dont think for a minute these testing ideas are coming from your teachers or administrators. Go to the USOE and your legislators. They are trading our freedom in education for a dime. A dime dangled in front of men and women who ignorantly believe money for free and reduced lunches is a fair trade for a poor one size fits all education. We are losing the very core of our humanity, the freedom to learn. It is the parents responsibility to advocate for the students and teachers. So what can we do as parents? It is simple. Refuse to take the test. Opt out. There is no time better than now. Dont wait and see if things change next year, they wont. Nothing will change until parents refuse to allow children to be subjected to the tests. We want them to administer education to our children freely, with no strings attached. We want our teachers to freely teach, we cannot assess a teacher from the SAGE test and their pay should never be contingent upon the SAGE scores. We want the data mining to stop. We want our children to be protected. We want our children to learn in unique, individual ways. Opt out because of the data mining. Opt out for the children and their teachers. Opt out for your district. Opt out. Your childs future depends on it.
Posted on: Tue, 25 Nov 2014 23:46:44 +0000