Public school teachers in New York, as in other states, are required to sign an ironclad agreement with education publisher Pearson, which produces the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers exams, to refrain for any negative comment ("Laurel teachers concerned with amount of standardized testing," March 27).
In 2013, eight courageous prominent school principals in New York, led by E. M. Baker Elementary Principal Sharon Fougner, broke the "gag" order — sort of.
Elizabeth Phillips, another rebel, wrote in a New York Times op-ed: "I'd like to tell you what was wrong with the tests my students took last week, but I can't. Pearson's $32 million contract with New York state to design the exams prohibits the state from making the tests public and imposes a gag order on educators who administer them.
"So teachers watched hundreds of thousands of children in grades three through eight sit for between 70 and 180 minutes per day for three days taking a state English language arts exam that does a poor job of testing reading comprehension, and yet we're not allowed to point out what the problems were."
I see school employees on a daily basis, and it's safe to assume that the same restrictions apply to teachers here in Calvert County.
We know from media reports that Pearson is aggressively monitoring students' social media, and I find it difficult to believe that there aren't "snoops" scouring Facebook for negative comments from teachers as well.
Carol Burris, a former Principal of the Year, and Sean Feeney, a Nassau County Principal's Association president, both co-signed Ms. Fougner's letter to parents.
Ms. Burris, Ms. Phillips are Mr. Feeney are not aligned with the "religious right," the Republican Party or the tea party. They are caring, veteran educators. Ms. Fougner's objections to PARCC testing, in her own words, are summarized below.
1. "Ambiguous questions": "We know that many teachers and principals could not agree on the correct answers to ambiguous questions in both ELA and math. In some schools, identical passages and questions appeared on more than one test and at more than one grade level."
2. Long test times: "We know that many students were unable to complete the tests in the allotted time. Not only were the tests lengthy and challenging, but embedded field test questions extended the length of the tests and caused mental exhaustion, often before students reached the questions that counted toward their scores. For our special education students who receive additional time, these tests have become more a measure of endurance than anything else."
3. Secrecy: "With the exception of select questions released by the state, we do not have access to the test questions. Without access to the questions, it is nearly impossible to use the tests to help improve student learning."
In short, the PARCC tests, like the Smarter Balanced Assessment, are designed to fail students.
Ms. Fougner writes: "We believe that the failure was not on the part of our children, but rather with the officials of the New York State Education Department. These are the individuals who chose to recklessly implement numerous major initiatives without proper dialogue, public engagement or capacity building. They are the individuals who have failed."
Her letter concludes, "Your child is so much more than a test score, and we know it." Sharon Fougner is the principal Calvert County deserves.
Edward C. Davenport, Drum Point