Rebellion against standardized testing spreads to Philly

The No. 2 pencils have been sharpened, but teaching has stopped: It is standardized-testing time again in Philadelphia public schools. But, this year, some local parents are rebelling against the Pennsylvania System of School Assessment (PSSA) exams and opting their kids out of the tests.

“There’s just no way that I can allow the School District to not educate my child effectively and then tie this albatross around her neck,” LaTonia Lee, the mother of a seventh-grade special-education student at Feltonville School of Arts and Sciences, says of the standardized test. Lee was distressed to learn that no accommodations would be made for her daughter’s language-based disability.

Lee and other parents echo widespread complaints by teachers that the high-stakes tests distort the curriculum and stress out students — at a time when schools have suffered mass layoffs.

Shakeda Gaines only recently discovered that she could opt her children out and plans to do so next year. Gaines, who has three children at Thomas K. Finletter Elementary School in Olney, has disliked standardized testing since her oldest daughter first took the PSSAs in third grade. 

“She had anxiety attacks. She had panic attacks. She was nervous. She was scared. She put so much pressure on herself,” the mother says.

It’s a busy schedule: There are two weeks of math and reading tests for third through eighth graders, a week of the PSSA writing assessment for fifth and eighth graders, and a week of science testing for fourth and eighth graders. High school students take Keystone exams one time each — if they pass — in algebra, biology and literature.

This year, sixth through eighth graders also took the PSSA Writing Field Test and the results will be used to align the state’s tests with the controversial new Common Core standards, an initiative being implemented in most states. Critics note that the test has no direct use for educators, and call it a giveaway of free student labor to Data Recognition Corporation. The state Department of Education will pay the private company an estimated $59.5 million this academic year alone for PSSA- and Keystone-related expenses.

Only seven District parents have asked to opt out their children from this year’s PSSA tests, according to the School District, in addition to three other opt-outs for different state exams. Both Gaines and Lee believe that number will be much higher next year. While only students whose parents cite religious reasons can opt out of PSSAs, Philadelphia has not questioned the requests. The number opting out is small, given that 131,362 students are enrolled in District-run non-charter schools. 

But Bob Schaeffer, public education director at FairTest, says that the movement largely began in the 2012-13 school year and took off for the first time this year. Parents at three Brooklyn schools, for example, announced this week that more than 70 percent of students had opted out. Schaeffer says that the movement arrived later in Philadelphia since parents have been focused on the budget crisis and school closings.

Since the passage of the No Child Left Behind Act in 2002, standardized testing has become a core feature of public education nationwide. Advocates of the testing say it ensures that low-income children, particularly students of color, were not being shortchanged. 

“We have graduated far too many kids from Pennsylvania who are not ready for the next part of their life,” says Joan Benso, CEO of the Pennsylvania Partnerships for Children. She praises the state’s “rigorous academic standards” for preparing students for college and the workforce, and says that tests allow schools to identify those who need remediation.

But critics say that the tests have only highlighted what was already known: Students in well-funded districts score better, and those in poorly funded districts score worse. 

Teachers say placing such emphasis on testing has encouraged teaching to the test and limited access to subjects like art and music, which are not tested and thus subject to budget cuts. 

“Sure, we want kids to have  rich curricular offerings,” Benso responds. “But kids need to master the fundamentals.” 

In Philadelphia, a scandal erupted in 2011 after a state Department of Education-commissioned forensic analysis of 2009 tests was uncovered: 225 Pennsylvania public schools, including 88 Philadelphia District-run schools and 11 charters, evidenced suspicious patterns of wrong-to-right erasures or other anomalies. 

Schools that consistently score poorly must be radically overhauled, which can mean being turned over to a private charter-school manager. That means some Philly schools have been closed or turned into charters based partly on test scores that are now in doubt. 

Since the testing scandal broke, investigations carried out by the state and School District have been secretive. The public response so far has been to punish a few wrongdoers and require stricter testing protocols, and not to reevaluate the role of testing writ large. Indeed, the stakes of standardized tests have only increased.  

A new evaluation system implemented this school year will make student achievement, including PSSA results, a significant portion of teacher evaluations. And the Pennsylvania Independent Regulatory Review Commission voted in November to make passing the Keystone exams a graduation requirement beginning in 2017. Advocates say that schools, which have suffered large cuts under the Corbett administration, are being asked to do a lot more with a lot less.  The Corbett administration, which denies that it has cut funds, says that testing is necessary to make sure that taxpayer dollars are being spent appropriately.

“It’s not really the amount of dollars that go into public education [that matters],” says state Department of Education spokesperson Tim Eller. “It’s how those dollars are strategically used to educate students.”

Some teachers chafe at the new security protocols, including the requirement that teachers not administer tests to their own students. And they dislike covering artwork and other materials on the classroom walls.

“All I can do is apologize profusely and tell them, it’s just for this test,” said one teacher at a high-poverty school in North Philadelphia who asked to remain anonymous. “Our room [is] no longer colorful, inviting and stimulating with brown and gray butcher paper taped on every wall.”