Parents with children in the Charlotte-Mecklenburg School (CMS) District are fighting mad over the sudden announcement of 52 new tests to be rolled out next week. The purpose of these tests is to measure teacher effectiveness. Parents want the school district to find other ways to evaluate staff that does not require excessive testing on their children. Parents are requesting to be pulled out of the testing. The school board will not permit opting-out; however, parents are saying they keep their kids home if they have to.
While North Carolina legislators attempt to reduce the level of required testing, the Charlotte-Mecklenburg School District announced it will trial 52 new tests. The school district has paid $1.9 million to design new year-end tests in reading, math, science, and social studies for grades K-8 and end-of-course exams for all high school classes. Kindergarten through second grade students will be tested one-on-one in four subjects - reading, math, science, and social studies. The test lasts one hour; for a class of 22 students, that is 44 hours of time spent on testing. An adult reads the question and the student replies or circles an answer. There must be another adult present during the testing to ensure teachers do not cheat. Schools are asking parents to volunteer to cover classroom instruction while the teacher conducts the testing.
While the CMS school district faces a shortfall of $100 million, anticipates layoffs of 560 school personnel including 400 teachers, and the closing of 10 schools, it used $1.9 million from its 09-10 budget for test development and projects ongoing costs of $300,000. CMS Superintendent explained that this testing initiative prepared for the new national exams being prepared by the federal government. National exams? That piece of information is creeping out.
Secretary of Education Arne Duncan is a "big fan" of CMS Superintendent Gorman. Duncan said that like CMS, the vast majority of school districts across the nation are being forced to do more with less.
“These are just tough times… There are no easy answers. That’s reality, and it’s not going to change anytime soon. We can either cry about it or we can figure out how to use every single dollar wisely and how we can create innovative partnerships and bring in the philanthropic community, the business community, and how we engage parents in different ways,” he saidIf there are even more new tests coming down the pike, how is this test development and example of using money wisely under such budgetary constriction?
http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2011/03/31/2184241/gorman-defends-cms-testing-as.html
http://www.thecharlottepost.com/index.php?src=news&srctype=detail&category=News&refno=2975
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44 Classroom hours to administer one test to 22 K-2 Kids... Plus the time the teacher spent teaching to the damned test
ReplyDeleteIf public schools operated like private schools and could hire and fire at will these excessive testings would not be needed. Bad teachers don't last long in a private school. They are easily "found out" and "kicked out".
ReplyDeletegrumpy its joe i dont have your new # and u didn't leave a way for me to get in and move the rest of your stuff so wright me back when you get this
ReplyDeleteSOL: We disagree. Florida just became a fire at will State when it comes to teachers, but that isn't making a dent on the amount of tests. Our tax dollars are in the cookie jar that the the political establishment, Right and Left, has decided is fair game for spending hundreds of millions of dollars, redundantly in each State, and national tests on the way in 2014. No business would survive under these circumstances.
ReplyDeleteI let teachers speak for themselves. I write about the costs and now the rights of parents to decide if they want their kids to take the tests or not.
If we are in such a financial crisis, where did they find the orchard of money trees?
Here's what a parent in Texas wrote me. She doesn't send her kids to public school. She keeps them at home and uses the Texas virtual school. However, she MUST drop her child to the school to be tested. She is not inclined to drop her child off to strangers and does not want her child to take the test. She will use a homeschooling option. Another parent writes that opting out of the test is not possible in Texas either. It would be considered an UNEXCUSED absence. If a student as an UNEXCUSED absence for 3 days, the parent is hauled into court for contributing to truancy of a minor, fined $500 a day, and assigned a truancy officer. Do parents rights matter?
ReplyDeleteProtectionism, When parents started homeschooling the school's had to prove they were still in charge, otherwise they risked a lose of power, prestige and in turn funding,
ReplyDeleteNew Hampshire parents got themselves a lawyer last year when the State wanted the kids to be tested. The parents won and the legislature backed off. It's not the schools that are pushing this, but the legislatures.
ReplyDeleteAnon: Would you post somewhere else please. THIS blog is about excessive testing.
ReplyDeleteANON: READ THE BLOG OR GO SOMEWHERE ELSE.
ReplyDeleteLet me see what I can do Sandra
ReplyDeleteThank you Fishy.
ReplyDeletePoor individual has a serious problem.
Yes he does, great blog Sandra
ReplyDelete"While the CMS school district faces a shortfall of $100 million, anticipates layoffs of 560 school personnel including 400 teachers, and the closing of 10 schools, it used $1.9 million from its 09-10 budget for test development and projects ongoing costs of $300,000. CMS Superintendent explained that this testing initiative prepared for the new national exams being prepared by the federal government." The dollar amounts spent should bother everyone. On the national tests, I'm researching that now. Stay tuned.
ReplyDeleteNEW INFORMATION: Turns out the CMS Superintendent Peter Gorman is a graduate of the BROAD INSTITUTE. He worked in schools here in Florida in a variety of capacities and got an MBA from Rollins. I wonder if Broad shared his salary in Charlotte. Don't know what Broad is? One of the big philanthropic organizations the Gates Foundation works in concert with. They will pay salary when their graduates are deployed.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.broadacademy.org/fellows/20_Pete+Gorman.html?page_filter=0
Cute arrangement, I thought it was illegal, guess Obama/Ducan/Gates and friends found a way around the law
ReplyDeleteIllegal? What part?
ReplyDeleteIfigured it was illegal for a vendor to be paying the salery of a goverment agent who buys stuff from that vendor
ReplyDeleteI fully agree with...Sandra...stupid liberals wanting their cake and eating it too...I fully agree with SOL, Teachers and students must be evaluated, I fully agree with Grumpy..a vendor is not allowed to pay the wages of those who buy their products.
ReplyDeleteThe fact that teachers and students must be evaluated is not the issue...the issue is how do you do it.
Maybe someone could offer a means to that...after all complaining does not fix the problem.
Grumpy - The Broad Foundation is not a vendor. It is a non-profit venture philanthropy that offers a Superintendent's academy and job placement services. If hired, the Foundation may subsidize the salary for the first year. I don't think that's illegal. The Broad Foundation has been involved in this way during the previous administration, so it's incorrect to suggest this is a "liberal" idea. It is truly bipartisan embraced.
ReplyDeleteLiberal and conservative leaning parents are resisting the tests all across the country. In the North Carolina case, they seem to have been the last ones to know and are none to pleased.
Capt BE: As I mentioned above, this testing madness is a toxic blend of liberal and conservative Party establishment types and deep corporate pockets with specialized interest. This whole deal started during the previous administration and is getting worse during this one. Students have been tested for years and years, but the quantity and frequency has increased without sufficient explanation. The investment in testing is out of balance with the need. I think Tennessee came up with a pretty good model for evaluating teachers, but every State wants a unique feather in its cap. Why does each State feel obliged to reinvent the wheel? If there's a good model that's been in place for 15 years, why not use it as a starting point? I have looked for criticisms of the TN model, and found the only issue is with the value-added part, but it seems to be balanced sufficiently against other components. So there is a reasonable means but other interests are driving this train rather than analysis, priorities, and outcomes measured against costs.
ReplyDeleteSandra, in a legal sense, no the Board Foundation isn't a vendor.. neither is the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. The law allows what amounts to a laundering scheme.
ReplyDeleteMicrosoft funds the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation funds the Board Foundation. The Board Foundations susidizes the School System Employee, The employee then purchases Mircosoft Products
The New Jersey education commissioner cut a deal with the Gates Foundation for them to develop the teacher evaluation mechanisms; however, the foundation will not reveal any details. If it is public, it is supposed to be open for public inspection. I guess the costs will revealed when the are ready to leave. It is hard to believe that it is all legal.
ReplyDeleteActually, the Gates Foundation is made up of his money...Microsoft may make donations...although I'm not sure they do.
ReplyDeleteSo them Microsoft pays Gates who donates to..
ReplyDeleteBill Gates has no role in the business aspect of Microsoft. He is using his own wealth to fund these projects through a non-profit foundation he started. They may donate time, equipment, and talent, but his non-profit is large enough in personnel to operate independently. Illegal? Doesn't seem to be. Moving into the public sector without public disclosure? That's another thing.
ReplyDeleteHow much of that wealth comes from Mircosoft?
ReplyDeleteWell, Grumpy, you have a point. Gates remains Chairman of Microsoft, but he stepped away from daily operations to devote time to his foundation. That answers your question I think, but I don't find the $ details. That led me to another thought...his foundation, 891 employees, trust endowment $36.7 billion, 2010 grant payments: $2.6 billion.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.gatesfoundation.org/about/Pages/foundation-fact-sheet.aspx