Children should not be a number.: NYSED Debunked 2019

Children should not be a number.: NYSED Debunked 2019

NYSED Debunked 2019

As the NYS Education Department and Commissioner Elia continue to pressure local districts and schools to increase their state assessment participation, we have seen basically the same letter used as communication with families across the Empire State.

Here is the basic version of what we are seeing as schools mirror the NYSED pro-test talking points:

Let's look at each of these bullet points:

• Involvement of educators in the test development process:
• This process is very secretive, but we know through conversations with teachers who have served on past test development teams that the testing companies, formerly Pearson, and now Questar have a vested interest in limiting as many changes as possible when teachers are asked to review the questions developed by these corporations.  Remember, these for-profit corporations have invested time and money in creating the assessments.  Teachers who have served on these review groups have told us that they are discouraged from making significant changes or critiques, and ultimately may not know if their suggestions were followed since the assessment review is secretive and the educators sign documents that they cannot reveal test content.  Do we know if the educators actually had an influence on the assessments?
• Continued untimed testing.
• On the surface, this sounds like a good idea.  Some students need more time to process and the perfectionists want to triple check their work, so let's give those students more time if they need it.  (IEP/504 students have always received their proper accommodations)
• Unfortunately, some students, especially in the elementary grades, cannot self-regulate and realize that they need to stop, this resulted in students working an entire school day.  See this post from the 999ers blog about untimed testing experiences.  
• A move from a three-day to two-day assessment:
• Will only a small reduction in actual test questions occur as in 2018, meaning NYSED jamming too much into one session occur again in 2019?
• Are these age-appropriate times for students, especially 8 year-olds in third grade?  If a third grade teacher had their students sitting in rows for over an hour, would that be educational malpractice.  Also, understand that teachers must read the entire NYSED provided instructions, usually around 20-30 minutes with set up.  In addition, if the school is using computer-based testing, it could add another 30-60 minutes of students sitting quietly.  (Some teachers commented last year that their students were already burned out by the time the instructions were read and computers were set up.

CONTINUE READING: Children should not be a number.: NYSED Debunked 2019