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The FACTS of Excessive Testing

*how it damages our children and schools*

-Excessive testing takes away approximately 25% of our children's academic school year. In 2003 students had 625 minutes of testing and our students in 2013 have 3200 minutes. -Excessive testing forces teachers to "teach to the test" instead of nurturing higher order thinking skills. They dont measure or allow our children the ability to think critically, be creative or solve problems. -Excessive testing costs millions of dollars of taxpayer money to produce and thousands of dollars of our school district's money to implement. Private corporations profit millions of dollars from these tests. Their interest is profit, not children. -Excessive testing takes the joy out of school/learning for children and teaches them to resent school . A curriculum of "drill and kill"
test prep makes learning dull and simplistic. -Excessive testing encourages our best teachers to seek other careers where their expertise is valued . The teachers who don't teach to the test and instead focus on the whole child and individual needs will likely score low.

-Excessive testing is destructive for elementary age students. The content and time duration of these tests are developmentally inappropriate for children and cause frustration, anxiety and low self esteem. -Excessive testing uses our children as tools to evaluate school districts, schools, and teachers. For the child, the test counts for nothing. The public is not allowed to see these tests and there is no instructional feedback to
benefit your child.

-Excessive testing gives teachers incentives to care more about their teacher evaluation than children. By using these tests children are being used as tools in the workplace to evaluate institutions and employees.

-Excessive testing teaches students to be careless with tests. Students report randomly filling in answers because they no longer see the value in
test-taking since it has become so excessive.

Facts about Common Core State Standards (CCSS)


-CCSS are a set of standards that define what students should

know and be able to do in order to be "college and career ready.


(raise sign every time you here this phrase:)

-Common Core was NOT developed by educators. Non-profits coordinated the creation of Common Core and they were (mostly) funded by the federal government and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. -CCSS takes control away from local schools and teachers, completely, ignoring needs of a community, class or student. NYS is leading the way in implementing the CCSS which have no research base or proof of outcome. It is the only state to give CCSS aligned assessments this school year.

-To meet the demands of the CCSS, most school districts turn to

pre-packaged programs. The textbooks and materials purchased are often made by the same company the makes the tests.
-Common Core curriculum is not developmentally appropriate and pacing is too quick. Children are are not able to fully understand the information taught and are being trained to know information instead of learn it. -Math Common Core puts US kids one year behind their competitors by the end

of elementary school and two years behind our international competitors and high achieving countries by the end of High School.
-English English

language arts (ELA) Standards are not rigorous or internationally benchmarked in any high achieving country.
Data Mining

-NYSED is requiring school districts to collect data. Educational and personal information about each student which will be shared with the State which will then make it available on their Educational Data Portal (EDP). -NYSED is sending the data to a cloud based storage system. This system is owned and operated by inBloom (a non-profit company funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates and Carnegie Foundation) for analysis. -NYSED will grant access to parents for students information via a Dashboard". NYSED has chosen four "Dashboard providers" from which local school Districts can choose from but all dashboards and will lead to the same state regulated cloud. -NYSED assures this information is secure but that is not guaranteed. The information collected can also be used to eliminate the need for college applications since the data needed for your child's future is already stored and shared Refusing the test and way it is the fastest way to make a change Q: If my child refuses to take these tests will if negatively affect him/her? A: No. There is no negative effect on your child if they do not take these tests. The one exception would be Regents exams in 8th grade or at the high school level. Your child should NOT refuse Regents exams. Q: If my child refuses to take these tests will it negatively affect their teacher? A: No. There are no implications for the teacher. Q: If my child refuses to take tests will it affect the school report card? A: No. Refusals are scored as 999 which means the score is invalid, and it does not affect the school report card. Q: What is the difference between refusing and opting-out? A: There is no provision for opting-out, so technically it doesnt exist, and we are refusing these tests. Think of opting-out as a legal provision such as when you optout of unwanted emails that you may receive. You have a legal right to opt-out of unwanted emails. The same is true with telemarketing calls. You have a legal right to opt-out of telemarketing calls through the Do-Not-Call List. However, we do NOT have this legal right with testing. There is NO opt-out provision. We are refusing these tests. We do, however, often use the terms refuse and opt-out synonymously. Q: If my child refuses to take these tests will it have a negative financial affect the school district?

A: Schools are required to have 95% participation on State tests but the bottom line is this: A school district will NOT lose funding if there is less than 95% participation on state tests. What You Can Do! -The very best thing you can do to help this cause is to tell other parents about the danger our children and schools are facing. In addition, please visit the following resources: -NYSAPE: New York State Allies for Public Education Parents & community members who believe in public education against excessive testing and inappropriate sharing of student data without parental consent http://www.nysape.org -NYS Refuse the Tests on Facebook Up to the minute information about the movement & many resources http://www.facebook.com/groups/633360133390634 -Stop Common Core in NY This is to inform and educate parents about the FEDERAL takeover of the education your child will receive. http://www.StopCCSSinNYS.com/ -Sign the petition to Save our Schools and join the over 10,000 parents who are fighting for their children's education. http://www.fixnyschools.com/

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