In today's Rocky Mountain News, is a letter-to-the-editor that I penned about the Colorado Student Assessment Program (letter and link below).
This is the third year that my wife and I have opted-out our daughter from taking these seemingly endless and grueling tests. Besides the points I stated in the letter, consider this: we have been CSAP testing for ten years now, we have spent tens of millions of dollars paying for these tests and the grading -- what has changed in our public school system for the better?
The only positive development that I perceive is for state and national politicians who can now bray about how they are doing something for educational 'accountablility'.
My position is that a 'president' from Texas, or a Senator from Alabama, or a state legislator from Grand Junction shouldn't be telling my school board in Jefferson County how we -- here -- should be teaching our children.
The thing is -- I am no 'bleeding heart' when it comes to education. I think 'core knowledge' should be the basis for teaching in all of our public schools; I think that public school students get way too many days and afternoons off; I'm for banning cell phones in the schools; there are too many administrators; public school teachers get paid a good salary and benefits in Jefferson County, and so on.
I also believe that most teachers are sincere, hardworking and will do almost anything they can to educate the children in their care. But I also believe that mandates and regulations from centralized authorities at the Colorado state capitol and from Washington, D.C., are tying teacher's hands and burdening them with unnecessary paperwork and reporting requirements.
CSAP is a perfect example of the kind of mandated, top-down, centralized, bureaucratic scheme that politicians and pandering elected officials come up with -- the actual education of the students is the least of their concerns (re-election and getting campaign contributions is their number one priority).
Finally, to the first couple of comments left at the Rocky Mountain News web site page for my letter, I have this observation: my hunch is that these two commentors are probably old enough that they never had to take a test like CSAP. Without all this high-stakes, mandated testing guiding their education, how did they ever get smart enough to put those sentences together at all? Like me, they were probably taught fairly well in public schools twenty and thirty years ago -- when there was no CSAP. There has been a decline in the quality of public education for sure, but I see that degradation occurring with the rise of state and national micromanagement of curriculum.
I hope that is what changes.
Link: Mandated Testing of Students is a Fraud | Dave Chandler/Letter to the Editor/Rocky Mountain News
CSAP testing is a fraud. The report in the March 5 Rocky Mountain News — “See-Sap! Schools begin their yearly sweepstakes run today/State-mandated tests put educators on funding spot” — proves the point.
The concept behind this one-size-fits-all testing was to provide an impartial survey of how schools are teaching our children.
Pep rallies, prizes for performance, special tutoring and heavy pressure from administrators have created an artificial testing environment. Under these conditions, the testing results become highly suspect.
Why do schools feel so compelled to go to these extreme measures to inflate Colorado Student Assessment Program results? Because the testing is solely about keeping and gaining money from the state and federal government. CSAP is a prime example of centralized education, and the usurpation of local school boards’ power to decide what is best for their own students.
I encourage parents to opt their children out of CSAP testing. More important than the funding schemes of national and state politicians is to instill the joy of learning in our children.
Dave Chandler, Arvada
The Core Knowledge movement or back to basics movement is corporate America's way of sponsoring a "dumb-downed", privatized version of education. Granted, students must have certain skills and abilities to progress forward, but core knowledge does not improve students moral values or academic skills; which it says it does. Many core knowledge schools are charter schools and recent data from the National Association of Assessment in Education shows that charters have not made gains or are equal to public schools on reading and math skills. Core knowledge is also promoted by right wing conservative organizations such as the Heritage Foundation and JF Maddox Foundations. Banking, gas-oil and real estate industries have a vested interest in dumbing down the curriculum in America.
Please check out the website http://www.essentialschools.org/pub/ces_docs/about/about.html
on Essential Schools. Progressive education and democracy based schools are better aligned to Green Party Values.
Posted by: Antonio D'Lallo | January 13, 2008 at 12:21 PM