$1,000.000.00 for Governor Malloy education campaign?

http://jonathanpelto.com/2013/12/30/wendy-lecker-takes-pryor-common-core-751-words/

Who can forget Gov. Dannel P. Malloy's repugnant words, "I'll settle for teaching to the test if it means raising test scores?"

When it comes to their children, parents do not want to settle. They know that teaching to the test means a narrowed curriculum and mind-numbing test prep. Unlike the governor, parents and teachers understand that children need and deserve a well-rounded and engaging education.

A recent study out of MIT renders Malloy's statement even more odious. Researchers found that an increase in standardized test scores does not increase a child's cognitive skills: specifically her ability to analyze abstract problems and think logically. This study confirms earlier research showing that standardized tests essentially measure merely how good a test-taker a student is.

Governor Malloy's statement and resulting policies undermine the goal of developing citizens capable of flourishing our complex world.

The MIT findings also shed important light on the dangers associated with our state's rush to implement the controversial Common Core State Standards. Proponents of the Common Core swear that this new regime will teach our children to think deeply and critically. In fact, it was just revealed that Malloy's Education Commissioner plans to spend up to 1 million taxpayer dollars on a public relations firm to sell this idea to the public. The plan is to create a multi-media campaign to try to convince the public that the Common Core is worthwhile.

However, the focus of the Common Core is new and even more onerous standardized testing. The tests are longer, contain more multiple choice questions and have computer-scored essays that cannot assess anything but rudimentary writing skills. MIT's study proves that a regime, such as the Common Core, whose goal is increased scores on standardized tests, will not develop critical thinking, no matter what its high-priced salesmen claim.

It is no wonder, then, that parents across the country are rising up to resist the rollout of the Common Core tests. There has been an explosion in the opt-out movement, from New York, to Oklahoma to Chicago to Oregon. Protesting parents are meeting with some impressive success. For example, after 80 percent of parents at one elementary school in Washington Heights in New York City, boycotted new state testing of young elementary school students, the school canceled the tests altogether.

Now that Common Core testing has come to Connecticut, officials around the state are reporting that parents here are seeking to opt out of state tests. They are preparing for the possible tidal wave of parents who will refuse to subject their children to invalid, overly long and meaningless tests.

State and local officials also know that while Connecticut law provides that students "shall" take state tests, there is no sanction for parents who refuse to have their children take the tests. Rather than honestly inform parents of this fact, the State Department of Education has a detailed plan of action for how to frighten those parents who might want to opt their children out of testing into submission.

If a parent seeks to opt his child out, SDE suggests that administrators inform him that the district has no freedom in the matter. State officials are instructed to tell parents who contact them that there is no opt-out language in the law. If a parent persists, the district is advised to present him with an intimidating legal-looking, but meaningless, "letter of intent" to sign.

Should a parent make it past the bullying gauntlet outlined above, he will find out what SDE knew all along. SDE's instruction provides that if, after all these steps, a parent still refuses, then "the district generally does not test the student and the student is counted as `absent' (for purposes of testing), which negatively impacts the participation rate for the district."

In other words, there are no negative consequences to a parent or child who opts out of state tests.

When our state education officials impose an educational program that does nothing to develop our children's intellectual abilities, intentionally mislead parents about what the law on testing permits, then waste scarce taxpayer dollars, not on educational services, but rather on a media blitz to further snow the public, we know that they do not have the best educational interests of our children in mind.

Governor Malloy, Commissioner Stefan Pryor and Connecticut's legislators need to understand that Connecticut's parents, like those in New York and elsewhere, will not stand for this unprecedented assault on our local schools and the children they are dedicated to serve.

Wendy Lecker is a columnist for Hearst Connecticut Media Group and is senior attorney for the Campaign for Fiscal Equity project at the Education Law Center.