Teachers at a New York City high school fired a
shot across the bow of the concept of a nationalized education industry
Thursday, becoming the first in that state to refuse to administer a
standardized test tied to the controversial Common Core national standards.
The boycott by teachers at Prospect Heights
International School in Brooklyn comes amid a small but growing “opt out”
movement in which thousands of parents across the country have refused to let
their children sit for standardized tests tied to Common Core’s data-hungry
student assessment industry.
The state assessments are given at least twice
a year, and a growing number of parents are choosing to “opt out,” saying the
tests cause anxiety and other health problems in young children. Still others
have refused the tests because of data mining conducted on students by the
companies that write and analyze the tests.
If the movement needed a jolt, it came from the
most unlikely of places, a high school that caters mostly to New York City’s
immigrant community. About 95 percent of the students at Prospect Heights are
learning English as a second language.
The teachers held a press conference Thursday
morning to announce their refusal to administer the NYC English Language Arts
Performance Assessment. They were photographed by friends and family holding
signs that said “Fewer tests, fewer tears” and other slogans. They said they
refused to administer a test that is part of the new teacher evaluation system
pushed by Mayor Bloomberg and the United Federation of Teachers as part of
Common Core.
No fewer than half the parents at Prospect
Heights have opted their children out of the test, according to an April 28
letter sent to the school system chancellor by 30 teachers and staff, a copy of
which has been obtained by WND.
In accordance with Common Core standards, part
of teachers’ annual evaluations is tied to the test scores their students
receive on state-sponsored, standardized tests.
“We understand our decision to abstain from
administering the test may impact aspects of our evaluations. Despite the
potentially negative consequences, our professional judgment dictates that we
cannot participate in this assessment,” the letter from the teachers stated.
“We are not willing to sacrifice the trust of our students, their feelings of
self worth, and our professional duty to do what is best for them.
“In good conscience, as educators dedicated to
the learning of our students and the welfare of our school communities, we are
not administering this test.”
Fred Klonsky, in a blog picked up by
ReclaimReform.com, an education reform website, photographed the teachers, one
of which was his daughter, at Thursday’s protest.
“This morning teachers and staff at the
International High School at Prospect Heights are rebelling against the wrong
that standardized testing has become,” Fred Klonsky wrote. “Each staff member –
teachers, psychologists and paraprofessionals – has signed on to a letter to
the new New York City Schools Chancellor, Carmen Fariña.
“Among the dedicated teachers whose name is on
the letter printed below is my daughter Jessica Klonsky. She is a teacher at
this wonderful Brooklyn high school serving the community’s immigrant students.
She is a veteran of more than a dozen years.”
This latest salvo in the battle against Common
Core testing in New York is likely to echo loudly in states like Georgia,
Alabama, California, New Jersey and Colorado, all of which have their own
nascent “opt out” movements.
But this is the first time a group of teachers
have taken such a bold move against Common Core in New York, which is
considered a national leader in the opt-out movement. The NYC teachers sent the
letter to Schools Chancellor Carmen Fariña urging her to drop the test for the
city’s immigrant students still learning English.
The letter said the New York ELA Performance
Exam was made “without any thought to the 14 percent of New York City students
for whom English is not their first language.”
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