The New Mexico Public Education Department overhaul has been targeted at raising standards. But some critics say the bar may have been raised too high and too quickly. As a result some parents are opting their children out of state mandated tests.
Volunteering as a teacher assistant in her daughters’ classrooms over the past 11 years Magaret Sanchez Maes has been able to get an insider’s look at public education.
“I have seen the magic that happens in the classroom, magic. It is awesome because I got to see it everyday. ” she says
But little by little with each one of her three daughters…she noticed engaging lessons becoming something else entirely.
“Instead of these great things that can happen in classrooms they are focusing more on this testing and it is just not one test during testing week” she says
The frequency of state-mandated testing and the amount of class time being spent on testing instruction began affecting her daughters’ enthusiasm, happiness and well being at school.
Sanchez and her husband were particularly concerned about her oldest child, who was being considered for scholarships at some of the finest universities in the country- like Stanford, Yale, MIT, and Columbia University.
“She was very stressed out and worried and she got to the point- where she really was saying I don’t want to do this any more, I don’t want to do this any more, I wish I could just be opted out.” she says
Sanchez and her husband began speaking to their kids’ teachers and questioning all the standardized testing.
“These scores don’t matter" she says "The only scores, that we need to really score good on are the PSAT, the SAT and the ACT. Because those determine college scholar ships and college entrance."
So Sanchez met with administrators at Las Cruces Public Schools and formally opted her daughters out of all of the tests they could.
“Experience was it was a talk to say all the negative things that you were doing to yourself and your school and your child by opting out
Las Cruces Public Schools director of assessment Tim Hand says when parents opt students out of a test the student risks falling short of the requirements needed for high school graduation.
“That it will affect the type of diploma that student can receive” he says
And for the school and the districts fewer students taking the tests leads to an unreliable measure of where improvements need to be made in the curriculum.
“The primary focus of education is too identify where a student is in their student progression and then determine whether there is growth or not and then make some adjustments to their curriculum and their instruction based on that.” he says
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OLf6ddQHtso&feature=youtu.be
But Kathy Korte of Stand4KidsNM says districts’ reluctance to accommodate parents opting their children out of testing illustrates the top down management of public education.
“If fewer than 95% of kids take this test- you will lose your funding and that is a big fat lie but it is that fear that gets pushed from Santa Fe down to the districts. So they are scared to give parents that option so a lot of parents don’t even know.” she says
Korte says it is left to parents to push for change. On its website Stand4kidsNM lists the tests that parents can opt their kids out of without affecting high school graduation.
“Don’t let fear keep you doing what is right for your kids” she says
Sanchez says all of her daughters have aspirations to attend universities.
So they still have to take a lot of the state-mandated tests, as well as college entrance tests.- But she says the issue goes beyond her children.
“It is up to the parents to kind of make a change in the system and the change isn’t going to happen if we don’t stand up and say all this testing is not even helping my kid If it was I would be the first one to say” she says