This was from Gary Thompson Dear Parents of Wisconsin: My clinic, family and I wanted to take some time to thank you all for the opportunity I had yesterday to testify at your States Common Core hearings regarding the harmful consequences of Core testing on the vast majority of all of your school aged children. I enjoyed spending time with your lawmakers, as well as Senator Ron Johnson , discussing the harms related to implementing unproven assessment instruments in your public school system. To be honest, preparing for testimony against the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium (who is in charge of developing and implementing Core tests in your state), was by far the easiest professional task I have ever performed. A quick look at the information sheet provided by SBAC (attached below) will quickly illustrate why this was the case: There were absolutely ZERO references, scientific or otherwise, to back up their outrageous claims which in essence state that they have created the best assessment in the history of mankind. Three days of research on State, District and Consortium websites also yielded no peer reviewed research to support their claims. As such, I felt very comfortable as a local clinical community scientist to make the very public and serious claim that children participating in SBAC Pilot Core Tests, as well as the final test that will be rolled out in 2014-2015, are being used a Lab Rats and experimental guinea pigs. I have been waiting 8 months for Core Testing Vendors such as AIR (American Institute of Research), CBT McGraw/Hill and several other Core Testing Developers to prove me wrong and provide the same level of data proof that their tests are as valid as those our clinic utilizes in private practice. I will be thrilled if this day ever comes to pass, and I will be the first person to contact parents around the nation to let them know that Core Tests have underwent sufficient validity testing and (real) pilot tests. The only resistance I received was from a Senator Lehman, whose only concern seemed to be about who paid for my air fare (coach) and hotel accommodations (2 Star). I did not receive any payment for my professional time which if billed, would have been about $30,000.00. In reality, I lost money by being away from the clinic for three days....but it was money well spent. Nothing angers me more than direct implications that I am on the take. I respectfully, but firmly shot the good Senator down and answered his question honestly, but ended by stating that the politics he was attempting to bring into my science testimony offensive, and should not be a part of portion of the hearings by constantly repeating my mantra of: Our Children Are Bigger Than You. As you continue your battle against multiple unproven aspects of Common Core, please always keep in mind that our children are bigger than us...us meaning the petty politics, the million dollar vendor contracts, and the hasty manner in which Common Core Testing was implemented. When faced with this, dont hesitate to tell detractors that Our children are bigger than you. It worked for me with perfection yesterday under the bright lights, cameras, media and questioning by 14 lawmakers.... ....it will work just fine also for you as parents. Parents are, and must always be, the resident experts of their own children. God bless you all. Let me know if you need me again. smarterbalanced.org/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/SmarterBalanced_Accessibility_Fa SMARTERBALANCED.ORG 21 hours ago LikeCommentShare Stop Common Core in Wisconsin
Posted on: Sat, 26 Oct 2013 03:22:14 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015