It seems that there are crazy, stupid, disturbing testing stories cropping up every day or so these days, and I have another one in the hopper right now (stay tuned…).

School officials and policy makers give the test companies so much power over judging our students, teachers, and schools, yet these companies are allowed to operate in secret, even after so many bad questions are exposed.

Well, it’s all about profit, they say. We have to make money. We can’t let you see the questions because then we would have to pay people to write even more of them.

Not that I would encourage them to do more of what they already do so badly. But still… that is just not a good enough excuse for us to allow them to operate in secret, and to have no right to monitor what kinds of questions they are putting on the tests.

Lots of Chicago folks  and advocates around the US will remember what CPS did to George Schmidt when he published a set of Chicago Public Schools end-of-course exams, the CASE exams, back in 1999. CPS sued George for $1.4 million. After long litigation, CPS “settled” for 0 dollars and never allowed George to teach in CPS again. Oh, and they also dropped the CASE exam. Because it was a lousy test.

We have ways of exposing the tests even without publication of all the questions (though that is the only sure way to hold the test publishers and testing officials accountable). The public needs to scrutinize these tests now, and share what we know. Anonymity can be maintained. No one else should lose their job over the test companies’ failures.

So for Public Schools Action Tuesday today, I am asking you to share your stories. Students, write to me about your weird or stupid test question experiences. Parents, ask your children if they ever felt that there was a strange or silly question on a test. Teachers, ask the question as part of a teacher-made test. You know what to do. You see this stuff all the time.

Share what you find with me. I will not disclose any information without your permission. You can also send them to Susan Ohanion who has a web site filled with stupid test questions and other atrocities.

Let’s keep exposing the truth behind those testing secrets.

The skeletons are flying out of the test publishers’ closets, and parents are getting angrier and angrier.

This week it was an essay question on the New Jersey Assessment of Skills and Knowledge, which asked students to write about a secret that was hard to keep.

According to the AP story, the dad who learned about this question from his twin 9-year-old sons said, “All of the sudden, you have in a sense Big Brother checking out the secrets of families.”

All of these crazy questions are making people like John Albin of New York City call for complete transparency in state standardized testing. John’s position carries special weight. He is the parent of a first grade student who has experienced test prep beginning in kindergarten. He currently works in procurement administration for a public college in New York, after having previously specialized in performance metrics for the New York City Department of Transportation (corrected as of 5-13-12).

The Pineapple Revolution is growing. Stay tuned!

FairTest’s media guru Bob Schaeffer is now providing a weekly update on testing which pulls the week’s key testing stories together in one place, and making it easy for me to pass them along to you. No pineapples this week, but lots of other craziness:

Lots of interesting stories as the annual K-12 “testing season” reaches its peak.  If you have additional articles to contribute, send links directly to me (Bob Schaeffer <bobschaeffer@earthlink.net>):

A Glimpse of Technology Enhanced Tests (be sure to read the comments)

http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/curriculum/2012/05/experts_who_work_on_technology.html

Kentucky is First State to Implement Common Core Tests

http://www.courier-journal.com/article/20120505/NEWS01/304290101/kentucky-schools-testing

Physical Fitness Impacts Test Scores

http://www.nola.com/education/index.ssf/2012/05/children_who_are_fit_tend_to_d.html

No College Left Behind — The “Holy Grail” Test Does Not Exist

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/college-inc/post/no-college-left-behind-a-guest-post/2012/05/08/gIQAnkypAU_blog.html#pagebreak

More Mistakes on State Tests — Lots of Errors in Translating Math Exam

http://www.ny1.com/content/top_stories/160845/mistakes-on-translated-state-math-exams-add-up

Accountability for Test Errors — Great Letters-to-the-Editor

http://www.newsday.com/opinion/letters/letters-doubts-about-state-s-tests-1.3704666

Tracing Test-Cheating Scandals to Their Roots

http://blogs.ajc.com/jay-bookman-blog/2012/05/09/tracing-the-test-cheating-scandal-back-to-its-roots/

Chancellor Condemns Exam Errors — Will Still Use Flawed Scores for “Accountability” (Except for Testing Companies)

http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/education/chancellor-merryl-tisch-condemns-testing-mistakes-article-1.1074997

Some bills to contact your Illinois House members and Senators about:

Please support SB 637 as amended: This bill requires charter schools to waive fees for low-income families and was introduced to address the outrageous fees charged by the Noble Charter School Network for minor infractions such as eating chips and failing to track the teacher with your eyes.

From Raise Your Hand (with a few informational comments I added in italics)

Please support Recess Bill – SB636, Amendment 2: This bill requires a 20 minute recess for all Illinois Pre-K– 5th graders and allows districts to implement recess for grades 6-8. Next year CPS schools will have a much longer day. Every child deserves a break during the day! Support this bill.

Please support Reduced Class Size Bill SB3362 and HB4455: Lowers class size to 18 for Pre-K -3rd, 22 students for grades 4-8 and 25 students for 9th grade – 12th. Lower class size is one of only four strategies identified by the Institute of Education Sciences as evidence-based reforms that have been proven to increase student achievement.

Please support Anti-Bullying Bill HB5290: This bill requires the Illinois State Board of Education to develop a model bullying prevention policy for schools.

Please support Moratorium Bill SB3239/HB4487: This legislation stops school (closure) actions for the school year 2012-2013 while school districts establish policies that improve academic performance at low-performing schools. CPS’s school closing processes so far have been disruptive, have sent children to worse schools, are contributing to increased youth violence in our communities, and unfairly put experienced, dedicated, qualified teachers and other staff out of work during a time of economic difficulty. In doing so, CPS has ignored students, parents, teachers, the community and the facts. A sounder, community-inclusive plan must be put into place before more damage is done.

Please support HB4246 (Barbara Flynn Curie amendment): This legislation requires the State of Illinois to pay for the normal costs of Chicago Teachers Pension Fund benefits earned from 2013-2059. State support for CTPF has fallen in recent years: CTPF received $34.5 million in 2011, compared to the $2.5 billion plus received by districts outside of Chicago. This bill includes a state appropriation of $191M to CTPF in 2013.

Raise Your Hand also opposes HB 4277 (see below).

Finally, this from CTU

Please oppose HB 4277 and the associated Amendment #1.

This bill would force school districts to divert more funds from neighborhood public schools to charter schools. While public schools are funded almost entirely by taxes, charters receive private money from corporate privatization proponents.

This Charter School Bill (HB4277) is not about reform or the betterment of our communities. It is about transferring a public good—Education—to private non-profits, where taxpayers and parents have NO recourse or chance for accountability. In addition, most charter schools do NOT offer a better education for students (2009 Stanford/CREDO study).

CPS faces a $712 million deficit due to the serious fiscal crisis as federal, state, and local revenues have decreased. By increasing the required funding for charters, the state would decrease the amount available for neighborhood public schools that serve the vast majority of CPS students.

The FY 2012 budget already includes a funding increase in 2011-12 for charter schools. Charters already receive:

• $348 million in annual support for charter and contract schools
• $9.7 million in new funds to open 4 new charter schools in 2011-2012
• $6.7 million in new funds to support 1,000 expanded slots for new students at currently operating schools in 2011-2012
• $22 million in new funds to add additional grades for 3,000 students in 2011-2012

Because of the district’s financial crisis, CPS reneged on a negotiated 4% pay increase for teachers and other staff, saving a mere $100 million. CPS, per state statute, will be required to implement a longer school day, a new teacher evaluation system, and the new Common Core State Standards. These new responsibilities beg the question: how will CPS fund these new initiatives while at the same time increasing funds for the Charter Schools?

Negotiated Charter legislation that passed in 2008 included a moratorium on new charter laws specific to Article 27A of the school code, which includes statutes on local and state finance for charters, until June 30, 2013.  The proposed legislation is a significant change to charter law, thus violating the spirit and intent of the agreement.

This is National Teacher Appreciation Week. Teachers have been the whipping post for “reformers” for several years now, and the least we can do is take a break from the privatization and teacher-bashing rhetoric to honor teachers honestly and strongly.

So, what did the man in the bully pulpit do? President Obama issued a proclamation declaring this “National Charter Schools Week:” “I call on States and communities to support charter schools and the students they serve.”

No. Don’t do that to teachers. Not this week.

And you might send a stern note to whitehouse.gov or send a tweet #barackobamashouldhonorteachersandnotcharterschoolsthisweek.

Did you get a “heartfelt e-mail” from Michelle Rhee, asking you to honor teachers this week by clicking on her web site to hear the messages of thanks for teachers from her billions of members? A lot of people did.

You notice that I have not included a link. That’s because the minute you click on any link from Michelle Rhee, sugar-coated as each one is in the gingerbread of her lies about how much she supports “great” teachers, she will add you to her pretend army in her crusade to destroy public schools through privatization, high-stakes testing for students, teachers and schools, charters, vouchers, “virtual school.” She claims several million members already.

Don’t do it. Uh-uh. You can find out all you need to know about Michelle Rhee here and about how change.org is complicit in her efforts by redirecting people to misleading Rhee  petitions (sign if you love teachers, eg) after they have signed someone else’s petition. Rhee pays change.org to do this something like $2 per signature). Read about a PAA member’s efforts to get them to stop here.

And please spread the word about Rhee petitions. Treat them like the virus-loaded messages they are.

What about applauding your local pol for tipping his/her hat to teachers?

Except in rare cases, don’t do that. Please.

Instead, share this message from a Syracuse, NY teacher: “Keep your empty words to yourself. Your actions have already shown us what you really think.”

So, what to do?

I think you know what to do. And now you know what not to do.

While teachers spend every day in school educating our children — against great odds — propaganda flaks like Rebeca Nieves Huffman, new Illinois director of Democrats for Education Reform (DFER), write ugly, extremist op ed pieces like the one the Sun-Times printed last week. It started out this way: “For much of the last year, while parents, community leaders and policy makers have been focused on bringing much-needed improvement to the Chicago Public Schools, the teachers’ union has been not-so-secretly planning to hold our city — and our schoolchildren — hostage by calling for a strike.” You don’t really need to read the rest of this toxic dump to know what it said.

Time for Democrats to take action

Recently the chair of the Los Angeles County Democratic Party sent DFER a “cease and desist” letter directing the group to remove all references to the Democratic Party and the words “Democratic” and “Democrat” from its name or face action from the California Secretary of State. “It’s clear that the so-called ‘Democrats for Education Reform’ are an astro-turf group trying to trick voters into thinking they are, or speak for, the Democratic Party,” Democratic chair Eric Bauman said in a statement. He was objecting to DFER’s endorsement of a former Teacher for America member as a candidate for the California assembly.

Democrats everywhere ought to urge their local party to take the same action, especially when the party name is used in connection with ugly letters like Baumann’s Sun-Times diatribe.

Dr. Joyce Epstein, who heads the National Network of Partnership Schools at Johns Hopkins University, created the gold standard for parent involvement programs – a comprehensive set of practices that encourage good parenting, strong home-school communication, volunteer opportunities, support for learning at home, a parent voice in school decision making, and community collaboration.

Last night’s parent forum at DePaul really made that package come to life.

On the panel were (right to left in photo) Monica Espinoza and Joanna Brown from Logan Square Neighborhood Association, Lynn Morton from Community Organizing and Family Issues, yours truly, Wendy Kattan from Raise Your Hand, and Latrice Watkins, LSC chair of Piccolo Elementary, who led the Occupy Piccolo protest earlier this year (Cecile Carrol from Blocks Together arrived after this pic was taken).

Together, we represented that full package of parent involvement activity, and, as I pointed out to the audience of about 100 teachers and students studying to be teachers, you get the whole package with parents. We want to be involved in all those areas and woe to the school principal, school CEO, or US Education Secretary who tries to relegate us to cookie baking, science projects, or cover for a school privatization and union-busting agenda.

I talked about the importance of the parent voice in the context of the critical need at this time for parents and teachers to have a united front. PURE was founded by parents and teachers together during the last Chicago teachers’ strike in 1987, to help parents and teachers speak with one voice about who was failing our children: not the greedy teachers or the lazy parents, but the politicians and bureaucrats whose neglect and poor management was forcing failure on our schools.

Things are much worse today. Now, in addition to lazy, greedy politicians and bureaucrats, we also have to deal with the multi-million dollar attack campaign against teachers and public schools coming from the corporate sector, and from both the right- and left wing. Propaganda against public schools and teachers is turning up everywhere – on fashion designers’ billboards, in major Hollywood movies, etc. So the truth has got to be told more loudly. PURE has a long track record of speaking the truth and sharing it in the media, in workshops, and in clear fact and tip sheets so that the public is better educated about education issues. Students and teachers need to help spread the word – your reach is vast and we all need to be on message together.

I assigned homework, too, starting with asking everyone to sign and share the National Resolution against High-Stakes Testing.

My colleagues all had amazing stories to tell. All in all, it was a very inspiring evening.