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A Letter of Thanks to a Politico Who Stood Up for Teachers

When you catch politicos doing something right, thank them--and give them more information to repeat their good acts.


by Yvonne Siu-Runyan

Dear Representative Todd,

I want to thank YOU for standing up for teachers. You are right when you said, "The bill is not a message of hope and encouragement for teachers. I am so sad at the divisiveness this bill has caused in our state and legislature. I do want you to hear my heart, because my heart is speaking for 40,000 teachers in the state of Colorado."

The issue of POVERTY. Below is an
article about poverty and academic achievement.

A great book to read is: >i>Catching Up or Leading the Way by Yong Zhao. Dr. Zhao was born and bred in China from peasant parents and he feels fortunate that he was not indoctrinated by the Chinese educational system. By the way, China is trying to move away from the test and punishment model because the leadership knows that innovation, inquiry, creativity are important to succeed in a global economy. The United Stated, however, is going backwards.

Here are a few quotes from Dr. Zhao, distinguished professor at Michigan State.



From page 14:
"That common characteristic is poverty. In his essay, Berliner brings in abundant data to show clearly that poverty significantly affects school performance and is responsible for gaps between the poor, urban, minority students and their middle-class, suburban, white peers.

"Berliner also provides compelling evidence to show the negative effect of impoverished neighborhoods on the achievement of youth living in them, as well as the negative side effects of severe medical problems experience by poor youth. In addition, strong evidence shows that even a small reduction in family poverty significantly improves school behavior and performance of students, The United States has the highest rate of child poverty among developed nations, a condition that has persisted for decades, without clear signs of disappearing in the near future. In fact, Berliner suggests that the situation may have become worse, due to the recent increase in income gaps in the United States.
"Additionally, schools in impoverished communities often have fewer resources than their more affluent counterparts. Teacher shortages and lack of parental involvement, extracurricular activities, technology resources, and funds for libraries are persistent problems facing these schools. Thus the so-called achievement gaps are a result of the resource gaps, a problem tha cannot be solved by simply holding the schools and teachers more accountable and giving children more tests.



I am saddened by the passage of Bill 10-191. Seems that Colorado is good at NOT funding education, but willing to make yet more insane laws.

Again thank you for NOT voting for HB 10-191, You are a brave soul to stand strong against yet another law that punishes teachers. There is just way too much fear and punishment surrounding education and there is little joy in schools.

I know students who have only bubbled in the C's. I know students who have written stupid across the CSAP tests. I know students who will only do the minimum. I know students who have dropped out either physically or psychologically, because of the test, punish, and labels put on them. I can't blame them at all. If I were in high school these days, I'd be a drop out. I do not like doing busy work and bubbling in items on high stakes testing.

Here is a link to stupid test items.

With regards to formative assessment, here is a definition you can use when speaking to others. Right now, there are teachers I know who are being forced to do formative assessments using some computer program. Now really...this is truly insane. So what is formative assessment?

Formative testing has traditionally been used to refer to teacher-generated assessments that are part of their teaching practice. Teachers have always read student papers, engaged students in academic conversations, paid attention to students' non-verbal responses to instruction, used questioning techniques in class to gain insights into student learning. Because the emphasis has been on testing since the passing of the NCLB Act and the focus of testing has been on summative testing, improve the quality and use of assessment and at the same time limit and decrease the amount of onerous and burdensome over-testing in determining student achievement, teacher effectiveness, and school performance.

The basic principle of any kind of testing is NO UNNECESSARY TESTING. There is far too much unnecessary testing going on and not much learning or joy.



The Fundamental Principle: No Unnecessary Testing (NUT)
by Stephen Krashen

No Unnecessary Testing (NUT) is the principle
that school should include only those tests and
parts of tests that are necessary, that
contribute to essential evaluation and
learning. Every minute testing and doing "test
preparation" (activities to boost scores on
tests that do not involve genuine learning) is
stolen from students' lives, in addition to
costing money that we cannot afford these days,
with serious budget problems in American
schools.

If we accept the NUT principle, it leads to
this question: Do we need yearly standardized
tests closely linked to the curriculum? Do they
tell us more than teacher evaluation does? This
issue must be looked at scientifically. If, for
example, the current CSAP (Colorado Student
Assessment Program) test is shortened and/or
given less frequently or abandoned, will
student performance be affected? Would
Colorado's NAEP scores (already quite high) be
affected?

My prediction is that teacher evaluation does a
better job of evaluating students than
standardized testing: The repeated judgments
of professionals who are with children every
day is probably more valid that a test created
by distant strangers. Moreover, teacher
evaluations are "multiple measures," are
closely aligned to the curriculum, and cover
more than just math and reading.

There is some evidence supporting this view for
high school students: Research by UC Berkeley
scholars Saul Geiser and Maria Veronica
Saltelices shows that high school grades in
college preparatory courses are a better
predictor of achievement in college and four-
year college graduation rates than are
standardized tests (the SAT). Geiser and
Saltelices found that adding SAT scores to
grades did not provide much more information
than grades alone, which suggests that we may
not need standardized tests at all.

For those who argue that we need standardized
tests in order to compare student achievement
over time and to compare subgroups of students,
we already have a good instrument for this, the
NAEP. The NAEP is administered to small groups
of children, who each take a portion of the
test, every few years. Results are extrapolated
to estimate how the larger groups would score.
No test prep is done, as the tests are zero
stakes: There are no (or should be no)
consequences for low or high scores. If we are
interested in a general picture of how children
are doing, this is the way to do it. If we are
interested in finding out about a patient's
health, we only need to look at a small sample
of their blood, not all of it.

My predictions, however, need to be put to the
empirical test. A conservative path is to start
to cut back on standardized tests, both in
length and frequency, and determine if this has
any negative consequences. This is an essential
move now, when funds are so scarce, and it is
an essential exercise of our responsibility to
students.

Geiser, S. and Santelices, M.V., 2007. Validity
of high-school grades in predicting student
success beyond the freshman year: High-school
record vs. standardized tests as indicators of
four-year college outcomes. Research and
Occasional Papers Series: CSHE 6.07, University
of California, Berkeley.
http://cshe.berkeley.edu

- Stephen Krashen
The Colorado Communicator
2008-11-01




Rather than high stakes testing we should be feeding and healing our poor children and building schools rather than jails.

Thank you for standing up for teachers by voting against Bill 10-191. I have attached three files for you to read: the 2009 Bracey Report on the condition of Public Education; Test, Punish, Push Out; Incarceration in the U.S.

Sincerely,

Yvonne Siu-Runyan, Ph.D.
Vice-President, The National Council Teachers of English
Professor Emerita, The University of Northern Colorado

— Yvonne Siu-Runyan
Letter
2010-05-12


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