inBloom=inappropriate

Tags

Children, Data mining, inBloom

I was in the store today with my one year old in the stroller. A stranger stopped, bent down to him and said, “You still use a pacifier, huh?” She then flashed me a condescending smirk and continued on with her shopping. I wanted to yell out, “I’m a great mom!” I wanted to tell her that he is still teething and it helps his gums feel better. I wanted to tell her that I have a perfectly adjusted four year old that voluntarily gave up her pacifier at two. I wanted to hug him and tell him that it’s okay that he still uses a pacifier.

Having a complete stranger judge me and my parenting was infuriating. I wondered what she inferred about him, me, and our family that was untrue. Did she think I just gave it to him to keep him quiet in the store so I could indulge my shopping habit? The reality is that he rarely cries, and I rarely shop. What are her credentials that certify her to pass judgment? Is she even a parent herself? If so, is she good at it? This woman saw a snapshot of our life; a quick image of a baby with a pacifier. From that, she made inferences and deemed me worthy of a patronizing comment. This was rage-inducing, and unfortunately, an occurrence that I need to get used to it if our school district signs on to use inBloom, an organization that collects and shares data about students. It will take snapshots of my children and make inferences about our life and family.

inBloom is exactly like the judgmental stranger at the store. Before inBloom, if I decided to take my child out of school for the day because our family had the opportunity to work for a day at our local farm, my child’s teacher would be thrilled. Knowing my child, she would know how much she loves her garden and all things agricultural. She would know how well my child does when she is physically engaged in an activity. She would know how my child devours knowledge every chance that she gets and she would anticipate a full report to the class from my daughter about everything that she learned and experienced upon her return. She would also know my husband and me, and would be confident that work missed would be made up.  She would know that we would undoubtedly end our day at the farm by reading books about farming, comparing it to our experience,  and writing a thank you note to the farmer.

After inBloom, a data-mining stranger would note an illegal absence from student #8754790. A note would be made. We would be put on a list.

This is unacceptable, but it is becoming a reality in more and more districts. We need to stand up and speak out against data miners judging our children and our choices (yes, even your political preferences can be tracked by inBloom).  The time for seeing how this will all pan out has passed.  Trusting that oraganizations like inBloom have the best interest of our children in mind is foolish. We need to take action now in order to protect our children and their shot at a valuable, meaningful education.

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Scooby Rules to High-Stakes Testing

Tags

Green Laces, High-stakes tests

I loved Scooby-Doo when I was a kid. I don’t like it so much now as the parent of three children. I worry it will give them nightmares because of the scary monsters. But there are lessons to be found, even in a Hanna Barbera cartoon. I think high-stakes testing promoters used Scooby Doo as their template for taking over public education.
The first rule in Scooby Doo is people will react irrationally to scary stories. High-stakes testing began the same way as most Scooby Doo episodes begin; an illusion scared everyone away from questioning the story to find out the truth. Only a few people with a connection to the location, the bad guys(s), and the teens from the Mystery Machine ever stick around to find out the truth. In Scooby Doo, an elaborate plan involving deception, misdirection, and fear tactics is employed to frightened everyone away so the crook can walk away with the loot without conflict. High-stakes testing required tremendous planning and enormous sums of money. It was sold as the solution to our “failing educational system.” Media bought it. Politicians bought it. Few questioned it. As a result, district leaders, administrators, teachers, parents, and kids were forced to abide by it even though it went against what they though was right. Almost all did what they were told to do because of the scary story. The plan was working perfectly and most people were too afraid to question it.
The second rule is the bad guy always looks like the good guy at first. The high-stakes bandits wore suits, quoted statistics, created charts, and invented acronyms. Who would distrust Old Man Withers? Especially when the developing story was the bad guys who created the education crisis were the lazy teachers and the parents who didn’t take their kids to the museum.
The last rule is the bad guy only scares and never hurts. The first two rules of Scooby-Doo were followed by the promoters of high-stakes testing. People reacted irrationally to high-stakes testing and no one expected the bad guys to be the nice people in suits. The third rule was broken. This scary high-stakes testing monster actually hurt children. In Scooby-Doo, the only thing the monster ever really does is scare people. A monster in Scooby-Doo would never cause a child to vomit, bleed, or cry. Scooby-Doo monsters just yell with a mask on to scare everyone off so the bad guys can steal all the gold from the mine. (My apologies to those of you who have never seen an episode of Scooby-Doo, but I hope you’ll trust that the analogy works and you’ll continue reading.)
This high-stakes testing plan worked until children were hurt. That’s when people stopped being afraid to speak out, refused to suffer in silence, and chose to stand up to the monster. Irrational fear clears up quickly when a mother sees her child in pain or a father sees his child threatened by a scary monster.
A plan to fail kids intentionally is abuse. A plan to fail kids intentionally and profit from their failure is disgusting. A plan to fail kids intentionally, profit from their failure, and then blame it on the system that the reform is trying to destroy is unconscionable.
Parents will do whatever they can to protect their children from monsters, real or imagined. Wear green laces and fight the monsters. Lace to the Top.
And you would have gotten away with it too… If it wasn’t for these awesome kids.

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The Biggest Bully

Tags

bully, DASA, Department of Education, education, High-stakes tests, Student

On September 13, 2010, in response to the negative effects of bullying, NYS signed the Dignity for all Students Act, or DASA, into law. Children that are bullied are more likely to experience: Depression and anxiety, increased feelings of sadness and loneliness, loss of interest in activities that they used to enjoy, decreased academic achievement and decreased school participation.  Children that are bullied are more likely to miss, skip, or drop out of school.

The intent of DASA is to provide all public elementary and secondary students with a safe and supportive environment. Our government recognized that bullying is detrimental to a student’s education and needs to be eradicated from the school environment. Lawmakers felt so strongly about protecting the learning environment that they mandated districts to appoint at least one staff member in each school to handle all bullying incidents on school grounds. In addition, administrators are required to report incidents of bullying to the NYS Department of Education.

Interestingly, it is this same Department of Education that is requiring all students to be subjected to high stakes exams, which have been proven to have consequences very similar to bullying. A 2009 study used three hundred and thirty-five students in grades three through five. It was found that, as a whole, students reported significantly more test anxiety when faced with high-stakes testing opposed to traditional classroom testing.

Test anxiety is associated with significant impairment in performance on academic achievement assessments, lower course grades, decreased motivation, and increased stress. Students’ GPAs are inversely related to test anxiety levels and it should be noted that significantly more test anxious students drop out of school than non-test anxious students.

With DASA, the Department of Education is telling us that schools should to be safe, happy places that are conducive to learning. With the current policy of high stakes testing, they are telling us the exact opposite. Join Lace to the Top and tell the Department of Education to stop bullying our children!

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You Only Get 1 Childhood

Tags

education, parents, testing

You only get one childhood.  Our kids can’t afford for you to remain silent any longer.  The way your children remember their childhood will depend on how passive or active you choose to be!    

Be active! Lace to the Top!

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Restoring Confidence With Green Laces

Once a child loses their self-confidence, they can spend a lifetime trying to get it back.

Lace to the Top was never designed to live solely on Facebook, Twitter and blogs. Our mission was built to be carried out with a unified symbol and one clear message – OUR CHILDREN ARE MORE THAN A TEST SCORE. We look to restore the confidence that was stripped away by high-stakes testing. 

As One

Lace to the Top

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The Words Matter

Tags

education, testing

The words that have recently forced their way into education must be examined. They reflect the needs of the business world but seem horribly out of place in a child’s classroom. The power of these words cannot be overstated which is why they must be challenged and replaced.

The first two words are standardized and common. Try to write an inspiring inscription for a child’s graduation card using these words. How can a standardized or common child be college and career ready when we face a future that is uncertain but will certainly require uncommon approaches to new challenges?

The next three words are modules, high-stakes, and cut scores. A module is for a space ship, not an elementary school classroom. High-stakes are for poker players, not Pokemon players. Cut scores are for golfers on the PGA tour, not children in the NYS school system.

The three most disturbing new words used in education are rigor, data-mining, and death penalty. These are the words that pervade educational, corporate, and political leaders’ perceptions of children’s relationship with education. Rigor is appropriately used when something has died. Data-mining reveals the truth that the real value for corporations is not in students’ achievement, but in their personal information that will be stored for (most) every child. The most despicable is “death penalty.” New York State will not subject criminals to the death penalty but offers it cavalierly as an option for schools attended by the neediest children in the state. The death penalty is not given to child molesters and murderers. Yet, the death penalty is ok for children’s schools with dedicated individuals fighting to make a difference for students battling poverty and the realities of living in a low socio-economic setting.

The current educational dialogue is upside down. Parents are “special interest groups” if they dare stand up and speak out against the groups abusing children with high-stakes testing. Children are treated like lab experiments. Educators are demonized and ignored. Unless this message hits a number of people that can affect the power and money of those controlling the dialogue, we will learn to accept this upside down world as the way it is.

Discussions of school should be centered on words that evoke the parental, humane, and compassionate nature of the people inside schools, not the greedy, corporate, and bureaucratic training of the people outside. Words like honest, inspirational, and transformative need to come from experienced decision makers who know how to support imaginative teachers to create compelling lessons that motivate students.
So, as we engage in journeys to the future of education, we envision a common core of beliefs fit for a king. We love our kids. Our kids trust us and our communities are beginning to learn why we wear green laces. Be bold and don’t be ignored. Lace to the Top and change the conversation with words that belong in your living room, not a war room. The words matter. Love. Kids.

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