Over the last few days, I have been posting members of Oregon Save Our Schools testimony to the Oregon Board of Education on October 22nd regarding a rule change around HB 2655. You will find my previous posts here and here. Today, I post my written testimony submitted to the board. Thanks for paying attention and keep opting out until they give our kids assessments that are worth taking! 

Dear members of the Oregon Board of Education,

It has come to my attention that you will be reviewing a decision regarding a rules amendment on HB 2655, an attempt by ODE to “clarify” that this bill applies only to the Smarter Balanced Assessment. 

As someone who worked very hard to help get HB 2655 passed, the idea that a rule change would be slipped in to specifically identify a single test as being the only assessment to which this bill applies is infuriating. Smarter Balanced was a huge reason for the effort to pass this bill but certainly not the only reason, nor even the main reason, people worked so hard to get it passed. Smarter Balanced is one of two assessments that were pushed across the country by those promoting the Common Core, and people across the country have rebelled against those assessments. If the rule is amended as stated here, then Oregon could go ahead and give PARCC, or some other hastily developed and poorly implemented Common Core assessment, or even simply rename the Smarter Balanced Assessment and then claim that this clarification of a parent’s right to control their child’s education just doesn’t apply. This would not be unprecedented, as similar "rebranding" of standards and assessments has occurred in other states. 

I want to be very clear: the many people who worked to pass this bill did not believe it applied only to SBAC. Parents have the right to opt out their children out of any test. Control and direction of their children’s education is a right granted to parents by the Constitution which the Supreme Court has upheld multiple times. This law clarified that right, it did not grant it. 

Furthermore, it is particularly concerning that the longer discussions go on about testing, the clearer it becomes that systems accountability and compliance with an unprecedented and probably unconstitutional power grab by the US Secretary of Education in the form of "waivers" from the actual law is more important to ODE than what is good for individual children. While I understand that a balance is necessary between systems accountability and individuals, at this point that balance has tipped far, far away from what is good for individual children. If the state would settle on a reasonable assessment system that did not make school miserable for students, parents would not be opting their children out of the system. 

HB 2655 states: 

“ ‘Statewide summative assessment’ means a standardized summative assessment that is identified by the Department of Education for administration in all of the school districts and public charters of this state.” 

​That language is very clear. No clarification is needed. The bill is intended to apply to ANY summative standardized assessment, not just SBAC. That was the intent of the bill, and those of us who worked to get it passed are paying attention. ODE should be listening to parent concerns and honoring the resulting legislation, not trying to circumvent it, and ODE personnel should be spending their time working towards developing an appropriate assessment system that will not result in a desire to opt out.  

Yesterday on my blog I promised testimony from a second member of Oregon Save Our Schools  at the Oregon Board of Education meeting from October 22nd. Here is the testimony of Dr. Rex Hagans, retired educational researcher. (Full disclosure: he's also my dad.) 

Chair Summer; Vice Chair Martinez, members of the Board

My name is Rex Hagans, and I am a Co-founder of  Oregon Save Our Schools.

Oregon Save Our Schools is a a group of knowledgeable and committed volunteers, - concerned parents, grandparents, teachers, students, and community members.  We were founded in 2011 to fight for:

     -    An excellent, well-rounded, and engaging education for ALL of Oregon’s public school students. 
     -    An end to high-stakes testing for student, teacher, or school evaluation.
     -    Teacher, family, and community input that informs public education policy.
     -    Equitable and well-funded schools that support students and classrooms first.
     -     An end to corporate education models and top-down government mandates which threaten a strong, democratic, public education system.

Oregon Save Our Schools has no financial backers or interests.

Oregon is currently in the midst of the most massive and volatile educational policy debate in the history of our state. Conflict abounds; Confusion reigns.  And yet in the midst of this chaos, many sense unique opportunity. This Board is uniquely positioned to influence and direct actions that will take advantage of that opportunity.  Oregon Save Our Schools calls upon you to seize this moment and provide the type of strong leadership which smoothes and speeds the path to a new vision for our schools rather than leaving us mired in the mud of dispute. 

Oregonians are increasingly recognizing that the initial vision that drove us to this point, while well intentioned, was seriously flawed. Championed by an even more flawed national leadership, and with a structure built by an arrogant national power group with no real on the ground knowledge of teaching, it was sold to our state (and others) with a noxious combination of federal bribery and threat, against the will and the best judgment of tens of thousands of teachers and parents who believe that they know their children best and are best equipped to determine their educational needs.  All across the nation, grassroots groups, including OSOS, have pushed back hard against a literal tsunami of money and federal power, at first with little success, but now with ever growing impact.

The reason that these voices are increasingly being heard is really quite simple – the basic tenets of the reform leaders were wrong.

In spite of the beliefs of many reformers:

·Teachers are not the problem –they actually are both caring and highly effective professionals who know what is needed to truly serve all our children.

·Parents firmly believe teachers are their true and best partners in the quest for a quality education for their kids, and they trust the judgment of those teachers

·Changes in schools cannot be made by mandate – if teachers do not support them, they will always fail.

·The fact that the state has the legal power to change the way schools operate does not equate to the power to force change.

·High stakes testing is not the means to assure high quality education; it is in fact one of the biggest obstacles to achieving it.

·Money does matter and our schools have not had enough of it.

Given the increasing recognition of these facts, Oregon Save Our Schools is dismayed by the extent to which the ODE continues to behave as if the misguided policies and methods set in motion by the so-called reformers are the correct ones. We find the tactics in use to be far too similar to those long used nationally in order to prop up a fatally flawed strategy.  In just the last few weeks, we have encountered such tactics in ODE:  

 ·Explicitly discouraging parents from opting their children out of testing in direct contradiction of the intent of HB 2655 to make parents aware that they have the right to opt out and should feel free to use it. We have seen this in the wording of Dr. Noor’s Executive Order, and in drafts of proposed parent information.

·Usurping the power to interpret the intent of the legislature in regard to which tests are actually subject to HB 2655, and attempting to severely limit the rights of parents. This seems to us to be directly contrary to the spirit, if not the law, of following legislative intent. 

·Making false and/or unsubstantiated claims about the value and usefulness of the SBAC.

·Foot dragging and passive resistance to our attempts to determine exactly the extent to which classroom teachers were involved in reviewing the SBAC.

While all of these examples are discouraging, by far the most serious are the recurring claims related to the as yet completely unknown benefits of the SBAC.  Oregon Save Our Schools asserts that most of these claims are either untrue or as yet unproven. Let me highlight just a few here:

Claim 1 – A major benefit of SBAC is that we can now directly compare Oregon results with those of other states. This is a promise that the SBAC cannot possibly keep.  Putting aside the very real technical difficulties even for states which are members of the SBA Consortium or members of its sister group, PARCC, the fact is that less than half of the 50 states are now even participating in either of these efforts.  Some states never joined in the beginning, and at least 15 joined but have now dropped out.  ODE knows this, yet as recently as a month ago, ODE staff at a public meeting repeated it again.

Claim 2 - Test results provide clear, meaningful and relevant feedback to students, parents and educators. It seems apparent that this claim is unfounded.  In my home school district of Canby, parents will not get the results of last Spring’s testing until the end of October, and teachers tell me these results are impossible to link to specific instructional questions and concerns that are discussed in parent-teacher conferences. One teacher told me that not a single parent of her 45 students asked about last year’s SBAC results.  Clearly these results do not provide any significant feedback that is useful for instructional planning.

Claim 3 - Test results Identify a student’s strengthens and areas of improvement to make sure they are on track to graduate ready for college and career.
Dr. Rick Stiggins, a nationally recognized expert in Assessment says: “The Smarter Balanced Assessment (SBA) is a new and untested product in Oregon. It's potential to contribute to the improvement of Oregon’s schools is completely unknown. Oregon should not invest millions of dollars in this (or any) test until its ability to provide meaningful information to support instruction is proven.”

Stiggins is an advocate of asking and answering the following questions before committing large amounts of public money to the long-term use of the SBA:
 
1. What specific instructional decisions and accountability functions are results capable of informing or serving?

2. What proportion of the common core standards do the exercises actually used on the assessment cover?  What ones are included and which are left out? 

3. What is the reliability of the evidence provided by SB for Oregon students? 

4. Do specific cases emerge in which local educators use results to revise instruction and are subsequently able to demonstrate that such revisions enhanced student learning?

5. Are there grade level or student population sampling procedures that could be carried out to reduce testing costs with no loss in the quality of the results for the state overall or for specific subsets of the student population?

6. Does SB math and language arts coverage provide enough content coverage and sufficiently precise results to permit Oregon high school students to demonstrate mastery of Essential Skills for graduation?

7. Are there alternative sources of the evidence of student achievement provided by SB, including other published assessments or locally-developed assessments that can provide better coverage of Oregon standards with cost savings?

8. Are the specific exercises used in SB assessments at each grade level developmental appropriate for students in those grades?

9. What is the emotional and learning impact on students and teachers of high levels of failure on SB?

As ODE staff continues to pursue a “marketing” approach to an unproven product and to push ahead on the testing itself, the public image of the Department is rapidly deteriorating.  A case in point was the September 23rd Public Forum  “The Big Idea -Test Anxiety” sponsored by the Oregonian. I invite the Board to inquire as to the impression left by the ODE staff on participants in that meeting.  During the panel discussions, they were unable to respond effectively to the points made by their critics, Rep. Lew Frederick chief among them.  Gasps and laughter from the crowd were the order of the day.  This unfortunate situation and others like it are bad for all of us – and especially so for our children, We all need respected leadership  from ODE. 

You have an opportunity to put all such damaging nonsense behind us. That opportunity lies in the work done by a group of educators assembled by ODE in cooperation with OEA. With the assistance of Dr. Stiggins, this group has produced the basic blueprint for moving forward – “A New Path for Oregon: System of Assessment to Empower Meaningful Student Learning.”

But for this work to have real value, it cannot be treated as some distant goal, while we continue to spend $27 million per biennium on an unproven SBA. Oregon Save Our Schools strongly urges the Board to declare a moratorium on further SBA testing and divert the savings to “kick starting” work on the new system. 
​
We recognize there will be challenges in taking that path, but we believe the benefits of bringing us all together again in a common and inspiring work to give new life to our schools and make them joyful places of learning again will provide great benefits to Oregon’s children.  It is the right thing to do, and leaders do the right things.

On October 22 the Oregon State Board of Education, an appointed body, met. One of their agenda items was a proposed rule amendment from the Oregon Department of Education to remove the Smarter Balanced Assessment from the existing rule (OAR 581-022-1910). According to this rule, Oregon students could be excused from testing, a "state required learning activity" for reasons of disability or religion. It was the unequal application of this rule, including some school districts questioning and/or requiring proof of parents' religious beliefs that resulted in passage of this bill. 

Those of us who worked to have this bill passed were extremely unhappy with ODE's attempt to narrow the scope of this bill to include only the SBAC assessment. I was unable to attend the BOE meeting as I am working in my classroom during that time, but I submitted written testimony to the board in which I restated what many of us have said before: this bill did not "grant" parents the right to opt out of testing. It merely clarified the procedures for doing so. Additionally, I stated that there was no need to "clarify" language about statewide summative assessments, as that language was already very clear in the bill. I will post my testimony later. 

I would like to present also testimony given by two of my fellow members of Oregon Save Our Schools and Oregon BATs. Their testimony was not submitted in writing prior to the meeting but rather given in person. I thank them for taking time out of their day to show up at this meeting and defend Oregon students, parents, teachers, and schools from corporate education "reform". I lament the fact that our Department of Education continues to push the corporate agenda. 

This first testimony is from Lisa Schultz, an electrical engineer with over 30 years working in high tech industry and a former member of the Beaverton School Board: 

Members of the State Board of Education:

My name is Lisa Shultz.  I am resident of Washington County and a former member of the Beaverton School Board.  I am here today to comment on the proposed change to OAR 581-022-1910 resulting from passage of HB 2655 Section 3 know as the Student Assessment Bill of Rights.  

The proposal as listed in your agenda materials seeks to limit the requirements outlined by the bill to the Smarter Balanced Assessments.  I urge you to reject this limitation and implement the Student Assessment Bill of Rights as intended by the legislature.  The bill clearly defines the scope of assessments that the bill should cover: 

SECTION 3 (1)(c) “Statewide summative assessment” means a standardized summative assessment that is identified by the Department of Education for administration in all of the school districts and public charter schools of this state.”   The legislature had the ability to limit the scope of the bill to just the SBAC as they did in HB 2713, but they did not. 

Including all statewide summative assessments is important for reasons of equity and fairness to all students.  I call your attention to the testimony of Imelda Cortez, Eugene parent and teacher.  Ms. Cortez rightly points out that HB 2655 creates a more equitable system for parents needing to advocate for their children because not all parents have the education or tools necessary to successfully opt their children out of an assessment that is not appropriate for their child.  HB 2655 seeks to establish parents as partners in their children’s education instead of merely expecting blind compliance to a system that may not be in the best interest of their child, or may even be harmful.  Parents with concerns about the Kindergarten Assessment (KA) this school year have asked districts about the procedure to opt their child out. Because of the delay in implementing HB 2655, parents were told they had to continue to use the Oregon rule requiring a religious or medical reason.  However, parents are expecting HB2655 to include the KA and since there is no question the KA is being used by State as a summative assessment and should be included in the scope of assessments outlined in HB 2655.  Sound statistical sampling methodologies do not require that every student participate.  In the unlikely event that a large enough percentage of students are opting out of an assessment, it should prompt an investigation of the appropriateness and validity of the assessment.

Parents absolutely have both the right and the moral obligation to act in the best interest of their children. The right to opt out is not in question.   What is in question is the procedure by which they do so, and HB 2655 sets a fair and equitable system for all parents.   Parents don’t deviate from the standard school program unless there is a compelling need to do so.  I urge you again to honor the intent of the legislation and include ALL statewide summative assessments the in Student Assessment Bill of Rights.

Sincerely,

Lisa Shultz

Testimony from a second member of Oregon Save Our Schools on my blog soon.