CRCT Appeals Process – a re-posting

Hi everyone – I’m getting so many blog hits from parents trying to figure out what to do with these crazy testing policies, so I wanted to re-post something from way back in 2009. As far as I know this all still holds. In addition to this, I’ve been commenting back and forth with some parent commenters – so check out this link. And get involved! Endorse the National Resolution on Testing and Google your local, state, and national organizations fighting against high-stakes testing. In Georgia, that would include EmpowerEdGeorgia and at least one national organization is the Save Our Schools group, or SOS.

 

From the 2009 post:

We all know how ridiculous it is to decide a student’s fate on one test score. It doesn’t make any sense at all from an academic, social, emotional, or policy perspective. Teachers, students, and parents know best about how a student has progressed across a year – and if a teacher doesn’t know that, then she is not doing her job. I can’t get to this issue though – because kids’ lives are being ruined by unthoughtful decision-making about whether they should be promoted or retained. Wanna know the odds that a kid will finish high school if she or he is retained one time in their educational career? Not good…check out the statistics for yourself.

I’ve heard numerous stories about students in all grades being spontaneously “retained” at the end of the school year because – and only because – of the CRCT scores. And kids are carrying home this news on the last day of school – crying on school buses. This is regardless of how well the student has done all year.

Here are some facts about the Georgia state policy on promotion/retention:

THERE IS ONLY A STATE POLICY FOR 3RD, 5TH, AND 8TH GRADE regarding CRCT scores -

THERE IS NOT A STATE POLICY FOR OTHER GRADES regarding the CRCT scores – DO NOT LET SOMEONE TELL YOU THERE IS (or ask for it in writing – I can’t find it anywhere). That means that any last minute decision to hold back a child in K,1,2,4,6 based on CRCT scores is not substantiated in state policy – and parents, teachers, students should fight this decision if it is not in the best interest of the child.

For 3rd (READING SCORES ONLY – DOES NOT REQUIRE MATH SCORES), 5th, and 8th graders (BOTH READING AND MATH):

1 – The school district should have a local policy about how the CRCT is “weighted” in decisions of promotion and retention.

2 – The school district should have a local policy about the other factors that will go into deciding whether a child is promoted or retained.

ASK ABOUT THESE TWO POLICIES. ASK FOR THEM IN WRITING.

3 – If a child in 3,5, or 8th grade does not pass the CRCT, the family must be notified BY FIRST CLASS MAIL WITHIN 10 DAYS OF THE SCHOOL’S RECEIPT OF THE SCORES WITH THE FOLLOWING INFORMATION:

a) The below-grade level score on the CRCT

b) The specific re-tests to be given and testing dates

c) The opportunity for accelerated, differentiated, or additional instruction (this can be like summer school – but this is NOT mandatory for students to attend prior to retaking the test. It is only mandatory for the school to offer it).

d) The POSSIBILITY that the student might be retained for next year

IF THE STUDENT RE-TAKES THE TEST AND STILL DOESN’T MEET GRADE LEVEL EXPECTATIONS:

a) The principal may choose to retain the student – and if so, the student’s family must be informed BY FIRST CLASS MAIL of this decision, AND of the option of the parent/guardian or teacher to APPEAL this decision.

IF A PARENT/GUARDIAN OR TEACHER APPEALS THE DECISION:

a) A “placement committee” must be formed and convened to discuss information about the child from across the school year that one might not know from looking at the CRCT scores. This committee would be: the principal OR a designee, the family/parents/guardians/ (I would add other advocates), and the teacher or teacher(s) who know the student best in the subject of the CRCT. If a child receives special education – THE IEP COMMITTEE IS THE PLACEMENT COMMITTEE).

b) In addition to other things, the placement committee must establish ongoing assessments for the child in the next year to monitor her/his progress.

c) The decision to promote to the next grade must be unanimous.

BUT – IF IT IS NOT – THERE IS A WAY TO APPEAL THIS DECISION THROUGH THE LOCAL SCHOOL DISTRICT. CALL THEM AND ASK FOR THE POLICY IN WRITING AND ASK FOR SOMEONE TO EXPLAIN IT TO YOU IN PERSON OR OVER THE PHONE AS WELL.

Listen – the No Child Left Behind Act has created a machine that eats up children, families, teachers, and administrators. CRCT is part of the machine. Everyone is working over-time to cover their own butts – and you’ll find VERY FEW PEOPLE going out of their way to save a child who is dangling over the edge getting ready to plummet into the grinder.

If you don’t do it – no one else will.

STAND UP FOR KIDS.

(ALL INFORMATION PULLED DIRECTLY FROM PROMOTION/RETENTION POLICY DOCUMENT “STATE BOARD RULE” 160-4-2-.11.PDF ON THE GEORGIA DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION WEBSITE. I have paraphrased most of this given the complex language of the original document – but I have also pulled some direct quotes. I have the full pdf if someone wants to contact me about getting it)

Getting Clear about Emotion – Teacher Morale, Crying, and Policy Makers

What’s all the crying about? Education policy that requires teachers to engage in malpractice – that’s what.

The secret is out, teachers, and you are not the only one crying over the soul-crushing policies in schools.

The first murmurs I heard about teachers in crisis came from a principal several years ago. Teachers were streaming into his office seeking counseling services. Many were taking anti-depressants. Some couldn’t sleep at night, and some were so anxious and stressed they were worried their families would suffer irreparable damage.

Teachers enter the profession to do what is best for the students in front of them and for society at large. They earn degrees, immersed in rigorous study of how and why humans learn, how to individualize instruction, and how to inspire lifelong learning and engaged citizenship.

But individualization, inspiration, and engagement aren’t in current policies, and neither is teachers’ professional knowledge. Instead teachers must follow pacing guides and move on with assignments regardless of whether students are beyond or behind. Anyone can walk into a teacher’s classroom at any moment and evaluate whether the teacher is following the one-size-fits-all program with “fidelity” and “full compliance.”

The choices are soul-crushing: 1) Slow down, teach creatively and get students excited about a topic, but fall behind the pacing guide and receive a poor evaluation and possible humiliation and job loss; or 2) Move on with the pacing guide and ignore students’ pleas for help or their yearning to learn more, and evaluations might be fine, but students suffer.

Most teachers do a little of both, but their no-win situation is devastating.

And when students’ needs aren’t met because teachers are following mandates, they also cry or cry out in other ways.

I’ve witnessed sobbing children in school, crocodile tears streaking cheeks. Their bodies rejecting the relentless mistreatment they receive from impersonal curriculum, strict limitations on socializing and movement, and harsh punishments for child-like behavior. Students reject dehumanization.

When children hold it together at school they often fall apart at home. Yelling, slamming doors, wetting the bed, having bad dreams, begging parents not to send them back to school.

Some parents seek therapy for their children. More parents than ever feel pressured to medicate their children so they can make it through school days. Others make the gut-wrenching decision to pull their children from public schools to protect their dignity, sanity, and souls. Desperate parents choose routes they have never considered: homeschooling, co-op schooling, or when they can afford it, private schooling. But most parents suffer in silence, managing constant family conflict.

And I cry.

When I spend a lot of time in schools I often cry. Each day when I would leave a particular school in New York, I would find a park bench and have a good cry before heading home on the train. I cried for the children because they were so young and vibrant and constrained to desks for seven hours at a time and they were unable to talk during lunch and they were only allowed outside for ten minutes – if at all – and those ten minutes could quickly evaporate into no minutes if the line to the outside door wasn’t straight enough or quiet enough or fast enough. I cried because I witnessed their crocodile tears streaking their cheeks as they sat silently into space.

I also cried for teachers. They were often threatened by administrators  and humiliated in front of their students, they were told at the last minute that no, they wouldn’t be teaching fifth grade like they have in the past two years – they will be teaching kindergarten and they better damn well be happy they at least have a job. They were told to collect data, look at data, analyze data – and any mention of an individual child’s struggle would be interrupted with some line about “data.”

And I cried for myself and every other parent out there who would never want her or his child treated like a number, a digit on a data sheet, a potential deficit to the school’s reputation. I have hugged and consoled countless parents who were crying and suffering in silence when their children weren’t around to see them. Parents who try to support the school’s wishes and tell their children to do what teachers say, but then fall apart in private because they know their children are miserable, sad, depressed, and crying too much over school.

Some people might say that crying is an expression of emotion and that it ought to be kept private. Some might even say crying is a sign of irrationality, of over-sensitivity, of hysteria – all insults used to pathologize women (most teachers and all mothers) for at least a hundred years.

However, teachers, students, and parents are not the only emotional players in the unbearable game of school.

Policy makers are emotional. Punitive policies forcing the impossible combination of rigidity and test-based accountability are produced out of fear, anger, distrust, and arrogance. They are written in an irrational effort to control the bodies that fill schools every day.

But policy makers don’t have to endure the physical and psychological effects of their policies – those of us in schools do.

It’s time to stand in solidarity against mandated dehumanization in one-size-fits-all schooling and against over-emotional policy makers who have a reckless stranglehold on schools. Demand that humanity be returned to teachers, students, and parents who know how to make schools dynamic, inspirational places where everyone can thrive.

Fabulous TED Talk about Choice…

Obama on LGBTQ bullying…and CDC website for LGBTQ youth

Love this!

 

Obama’s video message to LGBTQ youth.

 

And the Center for Disease Control’s website for LGBTQ Health – great resource!

Women’s history month begins today…

…with a White House report showing the persistent gap in income earning between men and women. Despite the higher educational achievement of women (more higher education, more master’s degrees), women are still paid merely .75 for every one dollar paid to a man for a similar job.

 

 

More on Ruby Payne…and research

I still have numerous conversations with educators about the work of Ruby Payne. These conversations started about ten years ago, and they continue as if no time has passed at all. While I am surprised at the weight her work still carries, I am also sensitive to the fact that many educators are introduced to her through “Professional Development” opportunities at their schools as “The” authority on issues of poverty. Such an introduction, or “orientation,” toward poverty and schools is often very influential indeed.

Recently a teacher-colleague wrote a thoughtful email message that included an example of a family-based scenario from R.P.’s most in/famous book. The scenario was used as an example, in this email, to show me that R.P. was writing from the perspective of family members – not, as I was claiming, from her own classist perspective.

I respect this colleague a great deal, so I won’t share any more about the correspondence, but I will share my response to her here:

I know that you – and many, many others – do think about some important things from R.P.’s book. And I am glad that “poverty” has become a common topic of discussion in schools as a result of her book and professional development offerings. I would never take that away from you – the important thinking and self-work you have done in concert with her writings. And I am so grateful that you – and so many others – are thoughtful and contemplative and turn your thinking into valuable practice in the classroom.

It’s funny – the example that you use from her book strikes me as another example of how her unbridled assumptions about people and circumstances perpetuates negative stereotypes throughout the book. I realize you were using this example as one that shows some value, which reminds me, too, that we are simply reading this book from very different perspectives. This happens with all texts – the meaning we make is particular to the kind of meaning available to us based on all the funds of knowledge we bring to a reading.

Here is one reason, as a researcher and scholar, that these scenarios are so bothersome for me: they are fictional. If R.P. interviewed folks, had focus groups, did home or school observations, and used that “data” to create scenarios such as these, that would be one step in the right direction. In other words, if her work were research-based, we would be having a very different discussion. But it’s not, and she hasn’t – they are fictional portraits created out of her (from my perspective) naive and stereotypical images of people in her mind. This makes it so much worse for me. And even if she has attempted to write the scenario from a character’s perspective rather than her own, the use of derogatory names and negative stereotypes within those fictional scenarios is not productive – in fact, it’s only hurtful.

Everything in education has to be “research-based” now, except for the way we think and talk about working-class and poor children and families. R.P.’s book is often held up as “research” but it absolutely is not. There are scholars who have been conducting incredible research for decades about working-class and poor kids and families and what schools can do to make sure they succeed. Their solutions are complex – R.P.’s are simple (and don’t hold true based on decades of research). That’s the best way I know how to explain why her non-research-based book has been taken up by districts across the country. She writes about poverty in ways that people already “assume” exists – so it’s more palatable for folks to read and believe. And she offers very simple solutions that don’t get to the heart of how things such as classism and pro-poverty policies operate.

I truly appreciate you writing to me about this, and I would welcome the opportunity to talk more in person. I respect you a great deal, even from just one week of getting to know you, and look forward to getting together very soon!

Poverty in the Papers

Check out this op-ed piece related to poverty and education…

Pedro Noguera talks about ongoing issues and his collaborative efforts in Newark, connected to the Promise Neighborhoods federal grants competition. A similar effort is being waged in Athens, Georgia under the name “Whatever It Takes.”

GO SEE ‘RACE TO NOWHERE’ !!

“Race to Nowhere” is a film made by a mother who became increasingly concerned about her children’s and family’s emotional well-being resulting from pressures at school, loads of homework, and family time that was decimated by requirements from school.

This concern intensified and catapulted the making of the film when a 13-year old “perfect” child killed herself in the community over a bad math grade.

A 13 year old killing herself over a grade in school?

What do we expect?

We are guilty of allowing school’s competitive nature to infiltrate the bodies and psyches of our children (and even parents).

We are guilty of abusing children who are pushed to stay up late at night finishing  homework and who cry and complain of headaches, stomach aches, dizziness, and depression all related to school.

We are guilty.

Who is we?

Educators, parents, citizens.

All of us.

Can we finally come together around protecting children’s right to a human existence inside and outside school?

Can we finally coalesce around a fundamental belief that children are human beings who do not exist in the world to “produce” for adults?

Go see this film – and then find a way to order it – and then find a way to get as many people as possible to watch it.

Then change how our children are experiencing the world.

Race to Nowhere Website,  Film Trailer, and Organizing Ideas

the time has come…to say fair’s fair…

Honda workers in China are striking for better wages and working conditions, and if low-wage workers in China start standing up for their rights even the “cheap” stuff we have in the U.S. will cost more and U.S. low-wage workers will have to start standing up for their rights too.

Workers’ rights, wages, workers’ safety, and working conditions seem to be deteriorating in this global economy where corporations keep scanning the earth for cheaper labor and cheaper produces that will yield greater profits. We also know now that Deep Water Horizon (the BP oil rig that exploded and is now the site of the largest oil spill in U.S. history – and it continues gushing today…) had safety concerns in the past.

Interested in a quick overview of labor union statistics in the U.S.? Click here.

Why Parents Lose Trust in Teachers – and What Some Teachers are Doing About It #1

Key to trust: Make sure parents and children don’t feel like they’re just another person in an impersonal “institution,” which of course they are, so this can be difficult and it’s often why families lose trust…

First let’s start with the fact that no one – I mean no one – cares for a child more than her or his primary caregivers. Maybe that’s a parent, a set of parents, grandparents, aunt, uncle, or cousin, but whoever holds that child when she is sick, wakes up in the middle of the night for his nightmares, puts food in the home for her to eat, tickles and play-tackles him, takes her fishing, helps him find bugs outside, cleans the laundry, finds someone to cut his hair, teaches her to swing a bat, kicks a soccer ball with him, lets too many kids come over who will wreck the house because it’s fun, smiles at her not-so-funny jokes, chokes up when he gets hurt and blood is involved, panics in the middle of the night and heads off to the emergency room, and picks out that something special for her at the grocery store because she’ll be so surprised…whoever that person is…also cries at night when something is going wrong at school and it seems like there is nothing they can do about it.
Educational research tells us this is true – but I’m also a parent, who talks to a lot of other parents, so I know it in a way that research might not be able to convince me.

In my own research, mothers and grandmothers have cried in front of  me talking about their horrible experiences with schools.

I have cried too. Sobbed, in fact, about the helplessness I have experienced when trying to get something changed at school to better meet the needs of my child.

In my research, dads have told me how pissed off they were about something going on at school.

I’ve been pissed off too. Really pissed off, in fact, about some of the double-speak and empty promises and defensiveness and aloofness I have experienced at school when I ask questions about things that seem like common sense to me (How is she doing? What are you studying at school that I can extend at home? Are parents invited to these events? Why didn’t I know about [some event, or a social problem at school, or a homework assignment, or a disciplinary action, etc.]?

And in my “hanging out with friends and colleagues who also happen to have school-age-children” research, moms, dads, grandparents, aunts, uncles, and really committed family friends have cried, yelled, complained, cussed, shook their heads, and expressed anger/sadness/hopelessness about the children they care about most and what’s going on with them at school.

Interestingly – this often has very little to do with academics.

Instead – this usually has to do with trust.

Do I trust that my child – my pride and joy who I would be willing to die for – will be treated with care and sensitivity?

Do I trust that if something is going on with my child socially, emotionally, or academically at school that his teacher will contact me immediately so we can work together to figure it out?

Do I trust that my child will be provided with security and encouragement by her teacher at all times?

Do I trust that my child’s unique gifts that make us smile at home will be perceived the same way by his teacher?

Do I trust that if I contact the teacher about a concern she or he will respond with a genuine, “How can I help at school?” or an “I’m really sorry to hear that – that must be awful. What can we do here?” rather than a defensive argument?

Do I trust that what I share about my child will be believed by the teacher?

Do I trust that the teacher will be professional, kind, perceptive, and insightful enough to recognize when my child is sad or distant or scared or hungry or sick?

Can I trust that when my child walks into the door of the school that she or he will be treated as if she or he is the future president, physician, artist, engineer, teacher, community worker, carpenter, construction worker, counselor, psychologist, non-profit director, customer service director, governor, inventor, entrepreneur, civil rights worker that she or he can be given encouragement and access to high quality education from the school?

Can I trust that the adults in a school are high-quality professionals who know what education is for, what education makes possible, and that a significant part of “education” has little to do with the math lesson being taught?
Can I trust that my child’s teacher knows that if a child is treated poorly, doesn’t feel welcome, isn’t regularly recognized and encouraged, doesn’t feel a part of a community, or doesn’t see how schoolwork connects to his passions outside of school he will be far less likely to show any signs of success in school and that will affect him for the rest of his life?

To send a child off on a school bus or drop him off at the school door each morning where other adults are in control of his every move is a huge leap of faith taken by millions of caregivers every single morning.

While most schools and districts have policies about parental involvement, or at the very least some nod to parental involvement in their mission statements, very little attention is given at the school level about what parents wish would happen, how parents would like to be involved including in-school involvement and out-of-school involvement, and what turns off parents most about school.

Research tells us what we need to know – but most of the time schools and districts don’t do what research says, because it means paying a different kind of attention to caregivers and children. It’s clear that “PTO” participation or fundraising or even attending special events including parent-teacher conferences are not the keys to connecting home and school. It’s the basic level of trust that a caregiver can instill in a child’s teacher.

It is absolutely necessary that the disconnect between school and home be addressed, and that won’t happen until real people start having real conversations.

To be continued…