The Observation Deck

Last week from OptOutOhio:

GOVERNOR KASICH SIGNS HB7 – GREAT NEWS FOR OHIO CHILDREN!

Governor Kasich signs HB7 making it the first Act of the 131st General Assembly…and great news for Ohio children!

HB7 Safe Harbor for Students provisions: (press release below)

- Protects students against any 2014-15 PARCC & AIR assessment scores being used for purposes of retention, course credit, or in a punitive manner, at any time in their academic career.

- Allows students to take the high school End of Course exams at anytime prior to graduation.

- Protects districts from loss of funding from enrollment count impact resulting from opt out students for the 2014-2015 school year. Waives the testing participation mandate for students enrolled in state scholarship programs for the 2014-15 school year testing, no loss of voucher.

- With the passage of HB7, there is NO reason to subject your child to this inane testing.

Go to OptOutOhio.com today and be a part of the solution.



So when the state of Ohio gets wise and ditches these things completely, how many hoops did we jump through in Lakewood. How much of our kids', teachers' time did we waste that we can never get back for actual education?

Betsy Voinovich

I wouldn't hold my breath for the testing to go away.

When was the last time the State of Ohio ever "got wise" about anything?

There are a lot of deep pockets in the testing industry, and they have/will invest heavily in political campaigns.

Michael Deneen wrote:I wouldn't hold my breath for the testing to go away.

When was the last time the State of Ohio ever "got wise" about anything?

There are a lot of deep pockets in the testing industry, and they have/will invest heavily in political campaigns.

Hi Mike--- I know what you mean about Kasich-- but with the way this testing situation is going, in Ohio and around the country, maybe he'll want to get ahead of the curve and be a hero if it's going to come apart. Parent groups are starting to be active in every city, along with the Ohio Superintendents, etc.

Here's the latest from the Ohio Senate, from the Ohio Senate Advisory Committee on Testing website:

Ohio Senate members have heard concerns from parents, educators and other stakeholders about state student assessments and their administration. Legitimate concerns have been raised both about the current state assessments as well as Ohio’s overall testing policies. With this in mind, the Senate President created the Senate Advisory Committee on Testing. The immediate charge of the committee will be to review and evaluate the PARCC (Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College & Careers) math and English language arts state assessments and the AIR (American Institute for Research) science and social studies state assessments and provide advice to the Senate as to whether Ohio should consider alternative tests and/or make specific modifications to the tests for the next school year. The committee will also explore whether or not the quantity of testing currently being conducted in Ohio classrooms is out of balance with time students are engaged in active learning.

You know what happens when committees are started... well. It's usually to look like they're doing something. They probably already know what they want to do and now they'll study it in front of us. I wonder what they will conclude.

Betsy Voinovich

Another Opting Out letter. This was read aloud to the Cleveland Board of Education yesterday and posted on the author's blog at https://msvigeljsmith.wordpress.com/…/my-plea-to-the-cleve…/

My 3-Minute Plea to the Cleveland Board of Education 3-26-15

Good evening. My name is Melissa Marini Švigelj-Smith.

Thank you, once again, for this opportunity to speak.

This evening I stand before you as a parent advocate. As evidenced by the easy passage of our last school levy, this community and its parents support Cleveland schools, and that respect and support deserves consistent reciprocity. I don’t believe that I need to rehash recent media reports in order to justify bringing attention to this issue.

As I briefly share some reasons why families have refused to allow their children to participate in high stakes standardized tests, I hope that you will consider adopting a policy that is respectful and supportive of families who express the desire to direct their children’s education, as protected by the 14th amendment.

This is why we refuse…

Because children should not have to attend a school labeled “failing,” or labeled anything at all. School buildings shelter children with vast amounts of untapped potential. Not failures.

FAILURE should never be the name of a monster hovering over a school building making children afraid of how they will do on a test.

Children shouldn’t have to be afraid of how their teacher will be hurt by their performance on a test.

Or how their school or community or city will be labeled because of how they do on a test.

What sort of sane society that supposedly cherishes its children puts that sort of pressure on a child?

We refuse because without the data, they can’t label our children or anyone else’s children.

We refuse because we know that standardized test scores have only been good at proving one thing: children's life experiences and backgrounds far outweigh the impact that a school or teacher has on their test performance

We refuse because we don’t want our children’s privacy violated & we don’t want test companies profiting off of our children.

We refuse because we know that things like art, music, gym, and recess have been shown by research to increase academic success and shouldn’t be reduced or eliminated because kids need to take or prepare for more standardized tests.

We refuse because we know that the emotional and social growth of children in school is not measured on a standardized test

Because the teacher who delivers groceries to a family in need, advocates for a student, or becomes a student’s confidant, counselor, or role model will never have that data show up in test results & we trust our children’s teachers to assess their progress.

We refuse because struggling students should not be made to feel like less than the developing human beings that we ALL started out as because tests are used to label.

We know that the long term consequences of labeling & retention are profound.

NONE of our children are “limited,” “basic,” or “common.”

Words that label can and do hurt and divide.

We refuse because over 2000 education researchers, experts, and professionals signed a letter pleading with our President and Congress to stop relying on high stakes standardized testing to improve education – we have a decade of data proving that it doesn’t work.

We refuse because there are mountains of research that provide more effective and research proven methods to educate our children and to evaluate teachers and schools.

We refuse because when we look at our children, we see their smiles, their talents, their goofiness, the crumbs around their mouths, the dirt on their skin, and the hope in their eyes.

And when we look at our kids, we never see them as data or test scores.

And neither should you.

Thank you for your time and attention.

She also included the following links in her blog post if you're interested. I haven't read them yet but I will.

Betsy Voinovich



fairtest.org



parentsacrossamerica.org



teacher-advocate.com



http://unitedoptout.com/



Or take a look at recent articles and blog posts:



http://www.washingtonpost.com/people/valerie-strauss



http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/



http://dianeravitch.net/



http://www.plunderbund.com/?s=ecot



http://www.plunderbund.com/2015/02/22/d ... de-levels/



http://www.politico.com/story/2015/02/p ... 15026.html

Not one of his best bits but it reminded me of this post.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J6lyURyVz7k

Follow the money.