A Common Core
To many, Common Core and high-stakes testing feels like a corporate takeover. There were very few teachers and no developmental psychologists involved in the creation of Common Core. It was developed by the business community and education vendor companies that now write and sell the product. Pearson, the British education publishing and assessment service, creates teaching resources, sells the assessments, and determines the scoring process, then sells the interventions when a number of children fail the test. "It's a very incestuous system," Tanis says.
People understand the connection between budget constraints and test scores. At the panel in February, Paul Padalino, the Kingston City Schools superintendent, remarked, "High levels of expectation require high levels of support." When NYSAPE looked at the 17 failing districts on the governor's list, 12 of them were in the top 50 schools with the largest funding shortfalls. "We know that poverty is the biggest indicator of school performance," Tanis says. "All of these reforms ignore that."
Tanis hopes that if enough people refuse the tests in New York's public schools, it will hit a pause button in Albany. "It's really important to value parent voices in education. Schools work best when there's a collaboration."
Resources
NYS Allies for Public Education Nysape.org
ReThinking Testing: Mid-Hudson Region Facebook.com/ReThinkingTesting
Common Core Engageny.org
The NY Performance Standards Consortium Performanceassessment.org
Kingston Catholic School Kingstoncatholicacademy.org
