In California, it’s billionaires vs. the PTA on testing 2nd graders

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Aug 31, 2011 4 Comments ›› CarolineSF

I’m sharing information from the Educated Guess forum (run by the reform-minded Silicon Valley Education Foundation). State standardized testing has been imposed on second-graders here in California for quite a few years – in the ’90s, standardized testing began at third grade. California state Sen. Loni Hancock (D-Berkeley) has sponsored a bill that would eliminate standardized testing for second-graders.

According to Educated Guess, the bill – backed by the California state PTA, the California School Boards Association, state Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson and the teachers’ unions – appeared to be moving forward successfully. Then the billionaire-funded so-called education reform operation Ed Voice spoke up to oppose it. Suddenly, the bill was blocked by the Assembly Appropriations Committee.

Here’s what California state PTA Legislative Advocate Patty Scripter wrote in a June 2011 letter on behalf of the state PTA supporting the Hancock bill:

The California State PTA believes that an effective statewide assessment program should provide strategies for monitoring the consequences of assessments to ensure beneficial impact on teaching and learning, include assessment instruments that have been field tested, and provide scores that are valid and reliable. Standardized testing of second graders does not meet that criteria, rather yields unreliable data while creating stressful situations for our young children. The National Parent Teacher Association has long held the position that standardized multiple-choice tests…should never be used withearly elementary children for any purpose.”

I don’t yet know the lay of the political land on this particular issue and will add information when I get it.

I guess we shouldn’t be surprised that a billionaire-funded policy/advocacy group wields such clout that it immediately crushes the concerns of parents and teachers. When it’s the billionaires and corporate titans vs. the best interests of children, wealth and power have the upper hand — for now.

- Caroline Grannan, PAA Founding Member, San Francisco


Comments

  1. Kathryn Baron says:
    September 2, 2011 at 9:38 pm

    Hi,
    I wrote the article referred to in this blog and I’d like to clarify a few misinterpretations and mistakes.

    The Educated Guess is a blog founded by my colleague, John Fensterwald, when he was an editor at the San Jose Mercury News. When John left the paper to start the online education news site Thoughts on Public Education (TOP-Ed), he took his blog with him. John continues to use the name Educated Guess for his blogs, however, it is published by TOP-Ed. I write for TOP-Ed.

    Also, we are not run by the Silicon Valley Education Foundation. We are an independent, nonpartisan news organization. Because we are not incorporated as a nonprofit, SVEF has agreed to manage our operations grants and provide us with office space and web space on its site. This is a critical distinction. We are not a PR arm of the Foundation.

    That segues into my last comment. I never referred to EdVoice as a “billionaire- funded so-called education reform organization.” That commentary was added by Ms. Grannan. To read the original blog, go here: http://toped.svefoundation.org/2011/08/31/states-second-graders-get-a-star/.

    Thank you

    Reply
  2. CarolineSF says:
    September 3, 2011 at 2:12 pm

    Sorry — I wasn’t aware that SVEF was merely a fiscal sponsor. The blog/site (which is a great source of information) seems to walk an unclear line between partisanship on controversial education issues and serving as a nonpartisan news organization.

    Yes, those were definitely my words and not Ms. Baron’s.

    Reply
  3. Kira says:
    September 6, 2011 at 9:53 pm

    Please do keep us informed on this issue! It’s either TESTING our children or EDUCATING our children. I for one, am for educating them. California spends way too much on testing.

    Reply
  4. Anne says:
    September 14, 2011 at 4:23 am

    I agree with Kira and I would much rather focus on educating children. I do research in education, I’m not an expert, but a graduate student who has read quite a few studies and policy documents. For what its worth, the advice that I would give to parents is:

    You know your children best and you know if they will be afraid or less confident of themselves as a result of testing. You can always choose not to have your child tested and your school should respect your decision. There is still debate on what counts as evidence of student learning and how to assess student achievement, but standardized tests are not the only option. What I do know is that standardized tests for second graders is unreliable at best, destructive at worst. It costs approximately $1.5 million per year to test just second graders in CA. Test scores most strongly correlate with socio-economic status, not with achievement. This means those bubbles can tell you which students’ families have more money better than they can tell you which students have greater abilities to read or do math. This isn’t to say the tests do not have some indication of achievement; yet, there are other better ways to assess second graders. As a parent, I would ask my child’s teacher regularly where they are in their skills and understandings and where they could be. I would ask them what I can work with them on individually and how I can know when they have progressed. You, your child, and your child’s teacher have more observational and experiential evidence of understanding and ability than a standardized test any day. Not to mention, we really should shift the focus from what a child knows or does not know to what they can do to learn more no matter where they are coming from.

    Reply

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