Dear Commons Community,

The are two stories making the headlines one in El Paso and the other in New York City involving the insanity that has evolved over standardized testing in our public schools.

In El Paso, a cheating scandal has erupted over the school district’s policies of keeping low-performing students from taking the tests in order to boost overall student performance indicators.  As reported by the New York Times,

“… in the cheating scandal that has shaken the 64,000-student school district in this border city, administrators manipulated more than numbers. They are accused of keeping low-performing students out of classrooms altogether by improperly holding some back, accelerating others and preventing many from showing up for the tests or enrolling in school at all.”

In New York City, later this month, children at 169 New York City elementary and middle schools will, for the second time in a calendar year, take a 40-minute “field test” in math and English language arts to determine which questions will go on future state standardized exams.

Lori Chajet’s daughter will not be among them, though the tests are scheduled to be given at her school, Public School 321, in Park Slope, Brooklyn. Nor will many students at Public School 261 in Boerum Hill, Brooklyn, or children at schools across District 6 in northern Manhattan.

Ms. Chajet’s objection is not to testing itself, but to the way tests are being used to evaluate schools and teachers.

“I want my school to use tests to help instruction, to help find out if kids don’t know fractions,” she said. “I don’t want my child to feel like her score will decide if her teacher has a job or not.”

Ms. Chajet is one of a small but growing number of parent activists in New York City opposed to the system’s emphasis on high-stakes testing. Many of them took part in a boycott of the field tests in June, when parents at 47 public elementary and middle schools of the 1,029 tested had their children sit them out. In their eyes, it was a win-win situation: Children who skipped the field tests did not risk punitive action or potential harm to their school’s grade on the city’s progress reports, while their parents could make a statement against the tests.”

The stories of school officials manipulating test scores and parents protesting them are becoming commonplace.  Are there any education policy makers willing to take on the politicians and ideologues who keep pushing for more and more high-stakes testing.

Tony

Dear Commons Community,

Reuters is reporting that plans to save Big Bird and Sesame Street from possible extinction are taking shape in the form of a puppet-based protest next month dubbed the “Million Muppet March.”

The demonstration is planned for Nov. 3rd at the National Mall in Washington, D.C.

“Before the presidential debate between Democratic President Barack Obama and Republican challenger Mitt Romney had concluded on Oct. 3, two men who had never met each floated the Million Muppet March idea on social media. They immediately united to defend public broadcasting.

Romney pledged during the debate to end the U.S. federal government’s subsidy for the Public Broadcasting Service despite his professed love for Big Bird, one of the characters on PBS’s 43-year-old children’s educational program Sesame Street, which features the Muppets.

Michael Bellavia, 43, an animation executive from Los Angeles, and Chris Mecham, 46, a university student in Idaho, separately came up with the Million Muppet March idea in response…

Bellavia bought the URL www.millionmuppetmarch.com during the debate and discovered Mecham had already started a Facebook page by the same name.

Within 30 minutes of the end of the debate they were on the phone with each other, planning the march.

“I figured, why just make it a virtual show of support? Why not take this opportunity because it seemed like there was already a growing interest in it and actually make it an active, participatory event,” Bellavia said. “I literally just said, ‘It’s happening.'”

Both men consider themselves fans of “Sesame Street,” perhaps the best-known program on PBS, which received $445 million of $3.8 trillion in federal budget outlays in 2012.

They are not sure how many people or muppets will come to the event but they do hope to create what Bellavia called a “lovefest” featuring skits and performances with Muppets.”

Tony