A co-worker came to me yesterday to ask about the best methods for protesting standardized testing in schools. I cautioned her that letter-writing campaigns to the Texas Education Agency (T.E.A.) and state legislators were ineffective - I was knee deep in those efforts fifteen years ago, to no avail. It compelled me to unschool my daughter instead.
The truth is, Public Schooling is the biggest corporation in any state. It was the original Obamacare. When you force the populace to purchase a product, you're in the money for good. Compulsory Education transferred the monetary responsibility and accountability of education from the parent to the State, creating the perfect environment for inflation. TESTING is the lazy way for state legislatures to hold the Education Administration accountable for the huge education expenditures. Nevermind that anytime the government gets involved in "quality", the standards reflect minimal expectations and outcomes.
"Between fiscal year (FY) 1950 and FY 2009, the number of K-12 public school students in the United States increased by 96 percent, while the number of full-time equivalent (FTE) school employees grew 386 percent. Public schools grew staffing at a rate four times faster than the increase in students over that time period. Of those personnel, teachers’ numbers increased 252 percent, while administrators and other non-teaching staff experienced growth of 702 percent, more than seven times the increase in students." http://www.edchoice.org/Research/Reports/The-School-Staffing-Surge--Decades-of-Employment-Growth-in-Americas-Public-Schools--Part-2.aspx
TESTING feeds the Public Education Machine, keeping legislators off the backs of state administrators while appropriating more tax dollars to hire teachers, aides, district and school administrators, architects, construction workers, curriculum and test writers, publishers, etc., let alone the latest greatest teaching model inventors and trainers that have to be rewritten every two or three years. Just imagine how many jobs depend on public education. Retailers LOVE Back to School season. Why, even the typical American's social calendar is based on the school year!
Public Education was a huge part of the economic revival plan for the U.S. after WWII, creating a need for women in the workforce as public school teachers, and instant "free" day care for other moms (so they could get jobs and pay income taxes too). The reason School Choice Week (this week, by the way) is hardly discussed is because our state and federal economy would literally collapse if a majority of parents chose private schooling for their children.
http://www2.ed.gov/about/overview/fed/role.html
To reduce TESTING, we must starve the Machine. You won't convince your representatives or administrators. You must convince Parents to take back their educational authority. After decades of parental dependence upon the "free" day care and abdication of their educational role, this will be difficult, especially now that so many active, dedicated parents have already transferred their children to private or home schooling. The majority of parents don't really care what their children are doing during school hours as long as they are safe and they make decent grades.
There are a few parents who are beginning to resent the repetitive testing because of the sour moods of their children and the pressure by the school to practice perfect attendance and tutoring (even this is provided "free" to low-achieving students, continuing to feed the Machine) so that the school can achieve or sustain high rankings in the district. These parents might be willing to demand changes if they knew how easy it is, merely by submitting a yearly letter stating: "In accordance with Texas Education Code, Title 2, Subtitle E, Chapter 26, I hereby exempt my child from all standardized tests for this school year." http://www.statutes.legis.state.tx.us/Docs/ED/htm/ED.26.htm
If enough parents choose to opt out of standardized tests for their children, the state education agency will find other ways to spend their billions, especially if parents stay engaged and demand things like school gardens, workshops, mentorships and field trips.
We won't succeed in dismantling the Machine, but we can choose what to feed it.
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