‘What we’ve got here is failure to communicate’
A growing number of parents are opting their children out of taking high-stakes standardized tests, but do school reformers who have imposed the testing regimes really understand why? Award-winning Principal Carol Burris of South Side High School in New York doesn’t think so. Burris, who has for more than a year chronicled on the test-driven reform in her state (here, and here and here andhere, for example) was named New York’s 2013 High School Principal of the Year by the School Administrators Association of New York and the National Association of Secondary School Principals. In 2010, she was tapped as the 2010 New York State Outstanding Educator by the School Administrators Association of New York State. She is the co-author of the New York Principals letter of concern regarding the evaluation of teachers by student test scores. It has been signed by more than 1,535 New York principals and more than 6,500 teachers, parents, professors, administrators and citizens. You can read the letter by clicking here. By Carol Burris
“What we’ve got here is failure to communicate.” In the 1967 Paul Newman movie classic, that memorable line is used by Captain to justify beating Cool Hand Luke. Captain of Road Prison 36 has just told Luke that he is wearing chains for his own good—to which the prisoner cleverly responds, “Wish you’d stop bein’ so good to me, Cap’n.”
Reformers believe that “failure to communicate” is the reason for parent and teacher discontent. When teachers complain about test scores in their evaluations, they are