Some students from Gage Park High School are planning to boycott part of the Prairie State Achievement Examination (PSAE).

About 80 Gage Park students walked out of a NAEP exam earlier this year. NAEP is a national exam used to compare districts and states across the U.S. The students objected to having their time taken up with tests that had no bearing on their studies, at a time when some students didn’t even feel safe inside the school.

A WBEZ report quotes the students saying they are sick of test prep and opposed to the use of PSAE test scores to evaluate teachers, principals and schools.

The danger of the PSAE boycott is that the exam is a state graduation requirement — students don’t have to “pass” the PSAE but they do have to take it.

Here’s hoping that they will show up, sign their names to the test, answer at least one question, and then do whatever else they feel moved to do.

For Public Schools Action Tuesday today, you’ll need to get ready for the More Than a Score Play-In tomorrow. Bring your kids and prepare to learn through play.

Tomorrow’s elementary school report card pick up for Chicago Public Schools so there are no classes, and we will be done in time to get back to the school for report cards.

Here’s the press alert:

WHO: Dozens of parents, children and educators working with More Than a Score, who are concerned that testing has taken over the Chicago Public Schools (CPS) classrooms of our youngest children, pushing play-based learning out.

WHAT: We will set up play areas at CPS headquarters to demonstrate the power of play. We’ll be telling the CPS Board of Education that we want play back in our schools for all children. We’ll be playing with blocks, bubbles, fingerpaints, musical instruments, trucks, dolls, Play-doh, crayons and paper, puzzles, etc!

More Than a Score members will also pass petitions against the misuse and overuse of testing in CPS at the event and later in the day at local schools.

WHEN: Wednesday, April 17, 9:30-11am (Brief press event at 10 am).

This is CPS elementary school report card pick up day (pick-up begins at noon).

WHERE: CPS headquarters, 125 S Clark Street, Chicago.

WHY: The youngest learners in Chicago Public Schools are facing multiple standardized tests—as many as 14 in some kindergarten classrooms – inappropriate amounts of seatwork and homework, and a lack of opportunities for play, exploration, and creativity. The combination of the longer school day, an overly academic curriculum for the youngest learners, and high-stakes testing is turning our children’s first learning experiences into an ordeal. Opportunities for true free play are becoming more and more rare in Chicago Public Schools.

We know that children learn through play and that play is crucial to children’s mental and physical health. We want opportunities for free play, the arts, and active exploration returned to classrooms and schoolyards across this city:

Bring Play Back to Our Schools!

Please read and share this excellent opinion piece by Bob Koehler in today’s Tribune. Here’s a sample:

Everything is at stake in these tests, so perhaps it’s dawning on us that fraud — by adults — is inevitable, but there’s a bigger issue here that continues to escape public outrage: The tests are stupid. They measure virtually nothing that matters, but monopolize the classroom politically. Teachers, under enormous pressure, are forced to teach to the tests rather than, you know, teach critical thinking or creative expression; and education is reduced to something rote, linear and boring.

Standardized testing is part of the era of backlash the Reagan presidency ushered in, which has stopped progressive thinking in its political tracks. As our social problems have grown more complex over the last three decades, we’ve met them with increasingly simplistic solutions. Nowhere is this more apparent than in the realm of public education, which has become the plaything of political fanatics.

Indeed, high-stakes testing, in tandem with “zero tolerance,” militarized security and sadistic underfunding, has succeeded in warping public education beyond recognition, especially in low-income, zero-political-clout neighborhoods. And the result is kids in prison, kids on the streets, kids with no future.

And the result of that is violent urban neighborhoods.

Jesse H with JW

Garfield High School teacher and MAP test boycott leader Jesse Hagopian told the crowd at the Mt. Carmel Missionary Baptist Church in Chicago last night that he agreed with Arne Duncan that education is the civil rights movement of our time. But history teacher Jesse reminded us that the last major civil rights movement started with a boycott….but this time it might just be a test boycott.

All the speakers for our “The Case Against High-Stakes Standardized Testing” forum were outstanding. Leslie Leon told the story about students boycotting the NAEP test to protest the lack of safety at her school, a version of which was published in Education Week. Poet-activist Malcolm London shared a piece he wrote about education, school and life. Jesse shared the details of the test boycott at Garfield, and inspired everyone with his wisdom and fire. And of course, last but not least, CTU President Karen Lewis brought it all together with a call to stop the overtesting, the labeling and the school closings based on test scores.

This event was sponsored by a parent group (More Than a Score – which includes several parent groups), a teacher group (the CTU), a student group, and CReATE, the university research people. I commented at the forum that this broad-based alliance is essential, sinces separately we are accused of “fronting for the teachers’ union” (parents), “not wanting to be held accountable” (teachers), “goofing off in school” (students) or “being out of touch in their ivory towers” (researchers)! Together we can refute all of those arguments and make sure the focus stays where it belongs – with what research and the truth say is best for our children and our communities.

When: Tonight! March 19! 7 pm!

Where: Mt Carmel Missionary Baptist Church, 2976 S. Wabash, Chicago

What: Chicago Parent/Teacher/Community/Student forum: “The Case against Chicago’s High-Stakes Standardized Testing”

This forum will be crowded, so come early.

Hear from Jesse Hagopian, leader of the Garfield teacher test boycott in Seattle, a local Gage Park HS student who was part of a recent student test boycott, and our own Karen Lewis.

You’ll also hear about some of More Than a Score’s upcoming activities.

As we move into high gear with resistance to school closings, don’t forget that standardized testing enables school closing.

From Seattle to Chicago:

The Case Against High Stakes Standardized Testing

Tuesday, March 19, 7:00pm
Mt. Carmel MB Baptist Church, 2976 S. Wabash

With Jesse Hagopian, teacher at Garfield High School in Seattle and leader of MAP test boycott
and Karen Lewis, Chicago Teachers Union president

Sign up for this event on Facebook!

The well-publicized efforts of teachers, parents and students in Seattle in boycotting the MAP test there has brought the issue of the overuse and misuse of high stakes standardized testing to the national stage.

Join teachers, parents and students to understand the role high stakes testing is playing in undermining great teaching and learning in our schools.

Test scores are a key component of school rankings and closings, student tracking and promotion, principal evaluations, teacher evaluations, and all too often result in a limited and narrow curriculum in our classrooms. Tests unfairly discriminate against schools with low income students, students of color and students with disabilities.

We will discuss the many options for becoming involved in the growing movement against excessive standardized testing in our schools.

Childcare will be provided.

Sponsored by
More Than A Score,
the Chicago Teachers Union
and CReATE
www.morethanascorechicago.org
info@morethanascorechicago.org