Feb 16, 2016, Accountabaloney Press Release: Parents ask Lawmakers to “Smell the Baloney”
Parents ask Lawmakers to “Smell the Baloney”
Today, a group of Florida parents will be delivering red foam clown noses to Governor Scott, Education Commissioner Pam Stewart, the Board of Education and all 160 legislators, in an attempt to draw attention to what they believe is a flawed Education Accountability system.
Their accompanying message is “We want a fair and valid education accountability system that holds not only schools and teachers accountable, but policy makers, as well. We think our current system is accountabaloney and we are inviting policy makers to join us in our campaign to call out the baloney when you smell it,” according to Sue Woltanski, a Monroe County parent and co-founder of the education blog “Accountabaloney.” She hopes the gift of a red foam clown nose will inspire more legislators to “take a critical look at the current accountability system, to smell the baloney and to work towards solving the problem.”
Inspired by Jon Stewart’s closing monologue, which encouraged people who smelled “baloney”, to say something, the Accountabaloney movement is asking for a complete re-evaluation of the current education accountability system, which relies on standardized test scores, often with questionable validity, to evaluate teachers, administrators, schools and districts. Currently, performance on state assessments can result in retention, remediation and, possibly, failure to graduate with little or no input from classroom teachers.
The women at Accountabaloney are concerned that the resulting test focused system has led to a significant narrowing of curriculum with some schools feeling little more than test preparation factories. They fear this high stakes accountability system is leading to the destruction of the same public education system it was designed to monitor.
More information regarding the efforts of Accountabaloney can be found on their blog at accountabaloney.wordpress.com.
Kit Contents:
- Clown nose (to help you smell the baloney)
- postcard
- Current Accountabaloney Legislative page
- Brochure
