[Xmca-l] Re: Opt-out movement

[Peter Farruggio]

Yes, but the whole point of the opt-outs is a protest vs the testing regime, not just to protect "my child" The hope is that a mass movement will scare the bullies who are promoting the testing and shut down the whole enterprise. Bloody the bully's nose and he won't dare to retaliate against teachers. The dynamic was captured by Frederick Douglass's truism "power concedes nothing without a struggle."

-----Original Message-----
From: xmca-l-bounces+pfarruggio=utpa.edu@mailman.ucsd.edu [mailto:xmca-l-bounces+pfarruggio=utpa.edu@mailman.ucsd.edu] On Behalf Of lachnm
Sent: Monday, March 30, 2015 4:33 PM
To: xmca-l@mailman.ucsd.edu
Subject: [Xmca-l] Re: Opt-out movement

The teachers I work with in NY are highly critical of standardized testing and are theoretically in favor of new opting-out legislation but are also worried that in practice parents of more privileged students, who tend score better on high-stakes testing, are more likely to opt-out than parents from underserved homes. If the case this would provide unfair evaluations of teachers' "effectiveness" - it seems that many of these teaches are in something of a double bind.
peace,
Michael Lachney

On 2015-03-30 00:48, Peter Farruggio wrote:
> Yes, it's still unsafe for teachers to boycott the tests in most 
> places, although the local teachers union in Seattle coordinated such 
> an action last year. But the opt out movement is led by parents, 
> certainly with teachers supporting it in the background, and it has 
> blossomed this testing season. Certain administrators have been using 
> bullying tactics, including outright violations of parents' rights; 
> but the resistance to incessant testing will continue to grow as 
> parents organize and coordinate their actions nationwide. Education is 
> and always has been political, and the politics have become harsher 
> with the neoliberal push to privatize schools and everything else.
> 
> Teachers can and must play a role in defending democratic education, 
> and that means helping to stop the testing madness. The best thing 
> they can do at this point is to find ways to educate parents about 
> what is at stake and how to exercise their parental rights. If that 
> means conducting clandestine informational meetings in church 
> basements, so be it.
> 
> See below
> 
> 
> 
> http://unitedoptout.com/
> 
> http://www.substancenews.net/articles.php?page=5528&section=Article
> 
> http://fairtest.org/get-involved/opting-out
> 
> 
> Pete Farruggio, PhD
> Associate Professor, Bilingual Education University of Texas Pan 
> American
> 
> 
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: xmca-l-bounces@mailman.ucsd.edu
> [mailto:xmca-l-bounces@mailman.ucsd.edu] On Behalf Of Greg Thompson
> Sent: Sunday, March 29, 2015 11:04 PM
> To: eXtended Mind, Culture, Activity
> Subject: [Xmca-l] Opt-out movement
> 
> This is related to the other thread since one of my initial responses 
> to the comments there was: As teachers, why not just stop paying 
> attention to all the testing and do the stuff that we know really 
> matters?
> 
> Here is one answer for why not:
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08ntklteK_c&annotation_id=54833ffb-000
> 0-2b41-a517-001a11c17db2&feature=iv&src_vid=JM1ddULfdhU
> 
> It is a video about a school in Chicago where 75% of the students 
> opted out of taking a standardized test and the fallout that followed.
> 
> Scary.
> 
> -greg
> 
> --
> Gregory A. Thompson, Ph.D.
> Assistant Professor
> Department of Anthropology
> 880 Spencer W. Kimball Tower
> Brigham Young University
> Provo, UT 84602
> http://byu.academia.edu/GregoryThompson