Misleading Parents and Gagging Teachers

One of the more pernicious aspects of the Common Core/Smarter Balanced roll-out is the marketing strategy employed to mislead parents.  State departments of education and school districts have become marketers for test-makers, spouting talking points fed to them by the same company, Pearson, that stands to profit from test-based accountability systems.  Teachers are threatened with disciplinary action if they criticize the tests or point parents and students to information about their rights.  This has led to critics of testing to go underground, surreptitiously distributing information, sometimes at great personal risk.  There is something wrong with an educational policy that causes the promulgation of information to be dangerous.

If you are a parent or a teacher, it is likely that you have been invited to or participated in information sessions hosted by your school district.  These information sessions usually bring in an "expert" to persuade parents that the tests are necessary and provide valuable information.  District websites sport "informational" pages that are essentially talking points fed to them by Pearson (example).  The session I attended did not even allow parents to directly ask questions of the whole group but instead filtered queries through moderators.  My question, "How will the district inform parents of their right to opt out?" was changed to "How will we reassure our children that their poor test score is not a true reflection of their ability."  Which seemed to me to be self-defeating when testing advocates assert that the test score is an accurate reflection of their ability.

Several teachers around the country have faced disciplinary action for providing students and parents with information about their rights.  The Pawtucket (RI) school district suspended teacher Bill Ashton for discussing the opt out option with students.  In Farmington, New Mexico, teacher Sharon Yocum was put on paid administrative leave after sending a letter to parents explaining their rights. Students have also faced disciplinary action. In Albuquerque, where 1,700 high school students have opted out and organized massive protests, the school district threatened to suspend students for an unexcused absence.  Here in Eugene at a recent school board meeting, Stand for Children organizer Joy Marshall complained that teachers were encouraging students to opt out and handing out forms to students.  Board member Jim Craig promised to look into the allegation.  Because, you know, students shouldn't know their rights.

Any policy that requires the most knowledgeable people in the community about our children and their education to remain quiet is scary.  If the only way for Smarter Balanced to get accepted is through threats of loss of funding, gag orders on teachers, suspensions of students, then there is really something wrong here.