PresentersEric Crump (Illinois) — conference director, founder of Interversity, NCTE webmaster
Resistance Rhetoric: Putting a Positive Spin on an
Anti(testing, standards) Campaign So often in our debates with pro-testing folks there comes a moment in the fray when an exasperated opponents say something like, "OK, so tests are horrible. What alternatives would you suggest?" How do we reply?
Discussion with Eric >>> Susan Harman — California teacher and pioneering anti-testing activist From a garage-based t-shirt business to leadership role in a national movement: a California teacher tells her story of how one thing lead to another... Stephen Krashen — professor of education at University of Southern California who specializes in bilingual education, neurolinguistics, second language acquisition and literacy; author of *The Power of Reading* and many others
The Invalidity of SAT9 Scores and the Effectiveness of Bilingual Education The only scientifically valid way to determine whether the presence or absence of bilingual education makes a difference in test scores is by doing controlled studies. In such studies, groups differ only with respect to the use of the child's first language. Studies of this kind done before Proposition 227 consistently showed that bilingual education was successful in helping children acquire English Kathy McKittrick — high school social studies teacher who started the teacher-parent resistance to high-stakes testing in Colorado
"If We Don't, Who Will?": Fighting the Rising
Tide of Education "Reform" In the spring of 2000 a coalition of parents, educators and students fought the passage of SB 186, a bill that would grade schools based on standardized test scores and convert failing schools to state-run charter schools.
Discussion with Kathy >>>
Ted Nellen (New York) — longtime teacher and technology advocate in Manhattan who pioneered "CyberEnglish"; also a vocal opponent of high-stakes testing
Assessment Should Inform Not Drive Instruction Let's move beyond high stakes tests to better assessment using the ideas of scholarship to create authentic assessment which informs instruction instead of the current use of high stakes to drive instruction.
Discussion with Ted >>>
Mary O'Brien — parent activist; founder of group opposing Ohio proficiency exams Dealing with the media is an education in itself! Learn to try to figure out the direction of a reporter's story, give them the key points that speak to their topic and play those points like a broken record. You have a chance to educate someone that has access to getting the word out to a larger population... Susan Ohanian (Vermont) — longtime teacher and anti-testing activist, author of One Size Fits Few: The Folly of Educational Standards
Silence Ain't Golden: Spread the Word Silence is our enemy. Secrecy is a tool of the Standardistos. Sharing our stories is our strength. Let's tell our stories of risk, resistance, and courage so that everyone who wants to resist will know they are not alone.
Discussion with Susan >>>
Steve Orel — lifelong human rights activist and adult educator in Birmingham, AL, who was fired after he questioned school officials' decision to involuntarily withdraw at least 522 students from the city's high schools shortly before Stanford 9 tests were administered
522 students pushed out of school in Birmingham, Alabama “In what perilous direction is education heading when we view our students as “interfering” with standardized student achievement test scores?”
Discussion with Steve >>>
Gloria Pipkin — longtime Florida teacher and student advocate; coordinator of Florida Coalition for Assessment Reform
A Techno-weenie Learns to Use E-Tools for Organizing The World Wide Web offers endless possibilities for reaching other people and communicating our messages. But where to start? This is a session for novices, but we welcome the support of veteran webcrafters, too. Annelise Schantz — Hudson, MA, high school valedictorian who made brilliant anti-testing graduation speech with MA Governor Cellucci on the stage with her
Why are grades becoming more important than true learning? School has become a place where the idea of learning to understand the world around oneself has been replaced by learning solely to pass state mandated tests or to achieve good grades. Students no longer are looked at as whole human beings, rather they are numbers to be labeled and categorized. I decided to take a stand. George and Sharon Schmidt — Chicago teachers and editors of Substance, the city's only education newspaper. George, a veteran English teacher, was suspended without pay early in 1999 when Substance published six pilot forms of Chicago's standardized tests after they were administered. Chicago Public Schools also sued him for more than $1 million. The school board fired him on August 23, 2000.
Organizing resistance in a totalitarian city --
Chicago in the Age of the Testocracy The crimes of the high stakes testing movement are no more clearly exposed than in the fate of the children and faculties of the public schools that serve Chicago's most impoverished Third World communities
Discussion
with George & Sharon >>> Patrick Shannon — professor of education at Pennsylvania State University; author of *Critical Literacy* and editor of *Becoming Political : Readings and Writings in the Politics of Literacy Education*
Strange Bedfellows: The Conservative and Neoliberal Coalition Behind High Stakes Testing Shannon looks at how neoliberals and conservatives embrace the same end -- high stakes testing -- to achieve different goals, and suggests how we can best resist their efforts. Dave Stratman (Massachusetts) — editor of New Democracy, a bimonthly newsletter devoted to democratic revolution, and the author of We CAN Change The World: The Real Meaning Of Everyday Life. Stratman is the former Washington Director of the National Parent-Teacher Association and has taught at colleges in Maine and Massachusetts.
What's Behind High Stakes Testing and How We Can
Expose It High stakes tests will push a high proportion of young people out of school, force them to lower their expectations, and attempt to get them to accept their place in a less democratic society. This session also addresses three major goals of the popular revolt against high stakes tests as well as specific strategies for getting started. Mickey VanDerwerker — founder of Parents Across Virginia United to Reform SOLs
Are Virginia's High Stakes Tests Good Enough? Virginia's SOL tests are in their third year. Increasingly parents are questioning whether they are being used appropriately and whether the technical aspects of the tests meet acceptable standards for tests. Margie Yansura — anti-testing parent activist, former journalist, and owner of PR firm from Palm Beach County, Florida
How to Fight High-Stakes Testing through Your Local
School Advisory Council (SAC) Since the Florida Legislature created the School Advisory Councils as the mechanism for school improvement at every public school in Florida, it is the perfect mechanism to use in expressing the need for change in the A+ Schools program and the need to stop high-stakes standardized testing in our state. |