Test Reform Email News Digest and Florida Test Reform Email News Digest http://www.fcarweb.org/trendigest
	Blog: FCAR Speakout

www.fairtest.org

www.susanohanian.org

www.alfiekohn.org

Educator Roundtable -- Read 16 reasons for dismantling NCLB, then sign the petition.

 

Eliminate NCLB -- Kings/Tulare UniServ - CTA - NEA - Eliminate NCLB Task Force

 

www.thecbe.org/ -- The Coalition for Better Education was started by a group of aspiring teachers from the University of Northern Colorado. It's rapidly expanding to teachers, parents, and students across the state. We are hoping to empower people to take control of our children's education. One of our goals is to end CSAP testing.

http://www.calcare.org/ -- California Coalition for Authentic Reform in Education

http://www.geocities.com/stophsa/ -- Marylanders Against High Stakes Testing

http://www.stophighstakestests.org/ -- Ohio

http://www.solreform.com/ -- Parents Across Virginia United to Reform SOLs

http://www.nclbgrassroots.org -- This new web site brings into focus the growing local opposition to controversial school reforms under No Child Left Behind.

 

http://readingtonparents.org/ -- New web site by parent volunteers from Readington Township (NJ) schools currently focuses on effects of standardized testing.

 

A new organization called Save Our Summers -- Florida is on the web at http://saveoursummers.org/pages/1/index.htm

Recommended Listening/Viewing

http://www.thememoryhole.org/911/bush-911.htm --For those of you who missed the video of President Bush in a Sarasota elementary school on 9/11/01, here it is again. What is significant for our purposes is the mindless parroting that passes for reading instruction in this classroom, while the President, US Secretary of Education Rod Paige, and then Florida lt. gov. Frank Brogan beam their approval.

"Justice Talking," featuring Stan Karp of Rethinking Schools and Gene Hickok of US DOE, on NCLB http://www.justicetalking.org/viewprogram.asp?progID=428

"Classroom Struggles," a web-based radio program created and hosted by Bess Altwerger of Towson University, with archived discussions with Susan Ohanian, Gerald Bracey, and other guests. http://www.classroomstruggles.org/home.htm

Terry Crooks, of the Educational Assessment Research Unit, University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand, credits BBC's 2002 Reith Lectures, by Cambridge philosophy professor Onora O'Neill, as a major inspiration for his article titled "Some Criteria for Intelligent Accountability Applied to Accountability in New Zealand," especially the section on the effects of the erosion of trust. [See http://www.fairtest.org/k12/AERA_Paper.html for Crooks's excellent article.] O'Neill's third lecture in the series focuses on accountability. You can read and listen to all four lectures (each under 30 minutes each) at http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/reith2002/lecture3.shtml. Even the Q &As are great models of public discourse.

	In wake of hurricanes more children left behind By Gloria Pipkin From the News Herald, Panama City, Florida, December 27, 2004
	Low Test Scores + High Retention Rates = More Dropouts By C. Thomas Holmes Kappa Delta Pi Record, Winter 2006 A clear, succinct, accessible, attractive, and utterly credible (and persuasive) piece on the effects of grade retention. http://www.kdp.org/pdf/RW06%20Holmes.pdf

Among the results of a survey of teachers and administrators by Orange County's "Blue Ribbon Panel on Public Education" are these findings: 84% report too much emphasis on test prep 83% report too much emphasis on test scores See the full report at http://www.blueribbonschools.org/blueribbon/default.htm

"The Standards Juggernaut" by Marion Brady in Phi Delta Kappan http://www.pdkintl.org/kappan/kbra0005.htm

"A Balanced School Accountability Model: An Alternative to High-Stakes Testing," by Ken Jones http://www.pdkintl.org/kappan/k0404jon.htm

A study recently released by Ohio State suggests that "rewards, not sanctions, help schools succeed under accountability programs." http://researchnews.osu.edu/archive/nochild.htm

"Setting the Record Straight" by Richard L. Allington http://www.ascd.org/publications/ed_lead/200403/allington.html University of Florida professor Dick Allington deconstructs many of the inflated claims underlying Reading First. -- EDs

"Exploring the Costs of Accountability" by James Peyser and Robert Costrell, http://www.educationnext.org/20042/22.html

Have fun with Sherman Dorn's exhibit "Pencil-Art of the Naidirolf" -- and add your own comments to the "art." http://visual.shermandorn.com/gallery/Pencil-Art_of_the_Naidirolf/fcat

FCAR has inspired its first editorial cartoon that we know of, by guest cartoonist Bob Zaratzian. It appeared in the St. Petersburg Times' Hernando edition on February 18, 2004. http://www.fcar.info/trendigest/docs/cartoons.htm

"No Child's Behind Left: The new educational eugenics in George Bush's State of the Union" by Greg Palast. http://www.gregpalast.com/detail.cfm?artid=310

"Turning the Accountability Tables: Ten Progressive Lessons from One 'Backward' State" by Chris W. Gallagher http://www.pdkintl.org/kappan/k0401gal.htm

"National and State Writing Tests: The Writing Process Betrayed" by Edgar H. Shuster http://www.pdkintl.org/kappan/k0401sch.htm

"Leaving Children Behind: How No Child Left Behind Will Fail Our Children," by Monty Neill of FairTest http://www.fairtest.org/nattest/Kappan.pdf

"10 Strategies to Fight Mandatory Retention & Other Damaging Policies" by Suzanne Heath http://www.wrightslaw.com/info/retain.strategies.heath.htm

"Fighting the Tests: a Practical Guide to Rescuing Our Schools" by Alfie Kohn http://www.alfiekohn.org/teaching/ftt.htm from Phi Delta Kappan, January 2001

"Survey of Elementary Teachers in Florida" http://www1.stpt.usf.edu/bjones/survey.htm Two USF professors, Brett Jones and Robert Egley, surveyed elementary teachers in Florida about their perceptions of FCAT and have posted here two papers about their findings. Don't miss "Is High-Stakes Testing Right for Florida? Teachers Speak Out!"

"Capitalism, Calculus, and Conscience" by Susan Ohanian, in Phi Delta Kappan http://www.pdkintl.org/kappan/k0306oha.htm

http://www.fairtest.org/Failing_Our_Children_Report.html Fair Test recently released a new report on NCLB, called "Failing Our Children." The report consists of two parts: • How "No Child Left Behind" Undermines Quality and Equity in Education • An Accountability Model That Supports School Improvement

http://www.asu.edu/educ/epsl/EPRU/epru_2004_Research_Writing.htm#florida From the Education Policy Research Unit at Arizona State, a series of policy briefs examining education reform in Florida finds that the results of the state's aggressive school-reform program have been mixed, and that the state's actions often do not match its rhetoric when it comes to implementing reforms. Two of the briefs are by FCAR member and USF assistant professor Sherman Dorn.

http://www.nasponline.org/publications/cq297protocols1.html NASP Communiqué, Vol. 29, #7 Test Protocols, Part I: Right to Review and Copy by Andrea Canter, NCSP From the National Association of School Psychologists, an excellent article that addresses access to children's test booklets and answer sheets as an opportunity for collaboration with parents.