[Xmca-l] Re: Opt-out movement

[Beth Ferholt]

Again, I can see that the opt out movement could look very different in New
Jersey or even farther afield.  From where I am it is not prolonging the
disease.  It is a political action, not an educational gesture.

I think more important than where you fall on this movement is learning
from it.

This is what it looks like in NYC:
http://thejosevilson.com/this-is-not-a-test-new-york-edition-thanks-nycore/.

Beth

On Mon, Mar 30, 2015 at 6:04 PM, Peter Farruggio <pfarruggio@utpa.edu>
wrote:

> 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
>
>


-- 
Beth Ferholt
Assistant Professor
Department of Early Childhood and Art Education
Brooklyn College, City University of New York
2900 Bedford Avenue
Brooklyn, NY 11210-2889

Email: bferholt@brooklyn.cuny.edu
Phone: (718) 951-5205
Fax: (718) 951-4816