Heres my testimony from today. Its not my best work, but Im hopeful that it was effective enough. Also, in fairness to State BOE members Edithe Fulton and Joe Fisicaro - Edithe was not at NJEA Convention to receive an invite to our PARCC event, and Joe was at a function, ironically in Delran, that had to do with PARCC testing. Let the testimony begin... My name is Michael Kaminski. I am a teacher, a local association president, and a parent, and today I plan on wearing all of those hats. Almost a year ago, I appeared before this same Board of Education and implored you to make changes to the Achieve NJ regulations. I want to thank you for the modest changes to those regs that you adopted in August – changes that I am hoping were a direct result of the efforts of dozens of people like me who testified in person that February day, and the tens of thousands of others who supported our efforts with their own written testimonies. So, thank you. But, I’m not really here to talk about the still-troublesome Achieve NJ regs. Last March, I saw a film called Standardized for the first time. It delivered a poignant message about a disturbing trend in public education - that our children are being subjected to too many tests – and for all the wrong reasons. Many of these tests are high-stakes and are the cause of a tremendous amount of stress and anxiety for students, parents, and teachers alike. But, I’m not going to go into all of that right now – if you haven’t seen the film Standardized, I’ll invite you to a showing at Cinnaminson High School on January 27th. If that doesn’t work for you, there’s one on February 10th at TCNJ. And if that date’s no good, come to my house – we’ll watch it together. Just call me. But, I’m not really here to invite you to a movie. Late last spring, I started familiarizing myself with the PARCC test, and I realized that I needed to share what I had learned with other people - that this test was, and still is, awful. My organization, the Delran Education Association, hosted a Take the PARCC event on December 3 at Burlington County College so over 400 community members could experience it for themselves. Unfortunately, no one that I had invited from this Board of Education was able to attend…but neither did a single legislator, either. I really wish you had been able to join us, because you would have seen for yourself how poorly-designed and developmentally-inappropriate the PARCC is. But, do not fear! I’m going to invite you to another Take the PARCC event on February 25th at TCNJ. If that doesn’t work for you, come on over to my house…we’ll take it together. I’m convinced that if you take it, you’ll come away with the same conclusion I did…and I REALLY hope you’ll take it – before you force our children to. But I’m not really here to invite you to a Take the PARCC event, either. I want you to take action to support the rights of ALL public school parents and students – even those who the Governor’s Commissioner refers to as the “less than one-tenth of one percent” – the ones who will REFUSE TO TAKE THE PARCC. But, at the same time, I also want you to support the rights of parents and students who WANT to take these tests – after all, they deserve the best possible testing environment, free from distraction. But how can the rights of the test takers be respected, when the Governor’s Commissioner insists that there is no “opt-out option?” Because of his misguided directives, he’s ensuring that test takers WILL be distracted by the “refusers” - children who will be forced to sit and stare and tests for 9 hours or more. Have you ever been in a 3rd grade classroom to witness one student NOT doing what the other 29 or 30 ARE doing? It takes like a millisecond for the others to become distracted, and the distraction never goes away as quickly as it came. But this is not just about the distractibility. It’s about respecting a parent’s right to decide how much testing is enough. Heck, even the Governor’s Commissioner has decided that for the next three years, there are multiple avenues that students COULD utilize to graduate from high school – so why force students to take, or sit and stare at, a test that is not only awful, but pointless? I really don’t have enough time to go into all of the reasons why so many parents in this state will be choosing to refuse to take the PARCC…but you can find many of those reasons in the 12-page position statement on high-stakes testing that the Delran EA created. I’m going to include that with my testimony today…but I want to be very clear about what I’m asking of you: I am asking you to create and broadcast to every superintendent and local board of education in New Jersey clear and specific language that does the following three things: First: Recognizes a parent’s right to refuse to submit their children to standardized testing. Second: Directs school administrators to implement educationally-appropriate responses for test refusals, rather than punitive ones, that include alternative settings and even grade-specific activities wherever possible. Third: Instructs local boards of education to develop policies that embrace multiple measures when considering student placement in educational programs, rather than relying on test scores alone. My two high school aged daughters are prepared to do what it takes to resist and refuse this test. But, fortunately, they are old enough, mature enough, and have been educated by great Lenape Regional High School teachers enough so that they know the value and the strength of acts of civil disobedience. My question to you is – why force my daughters to have to be disobedient? Why put any child, particularly those in the primary grades, in the middle of a very difficult and critical social issue? You can take action to prevent our schools’ computer labs from becoming battlegrounds over testing. You can, and you should.
Posted on: Wed, 07 Jan 2015 23:45:29 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015