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Chicago Teachers Union: No More Standardized Testing, Thank You

Feb. 18, 2013 9:30pm Becket Adams

Surprise: Chicago Teachers Union Comes Out Against Standardized Testing

Chicago Teachers Union head Karen Lewis. (Scott Olson/Getty Images).

The Chicago Teachers Union in a recent report urged administrators across the country to do away with standardized testing, saying the process is the product of pro-corporate agendas, The Daily Caller reports.

“Corporate interests continue to push towards a test‐centered public education system that is clearly harmful to students,” the report reads.

The CTU also said standardized testing is a poor method for measuring a student’s proficiency in reading and arithmetic.

It would appear, as TheDC’s Robby Soave notes, that the CTU’s push to do away with standardized testing isn’t an isolated event. Indeed, it appears to be a part of a bigger trend.

“The union’s anti-testing push is part of a broader campaign by teachers unions nationwide. Teachers at one Seattle high school recently went on strike, refusing to administer a test that they feared would be used to hold them accountable,” he writes.

“Anti-testing efforts have also appeared in Providence, Rhode Island, and Portland, Oregon” he adds.

One reason, critics argue, teachers unions have increased their efforts to do away with standardized testing is because the drive to attach teacher pay to student achievement has picked up steam in more than a few states. Obviously, this poses a serious threat to those who have failed to teach their students basic reading, writing, and arithmetic skills. Removing standardized testing would make it more difficult to identify ineffective teachers, this protecting them from correction or removal.

“Opposition to standardized tests put teachers unions at odds with reformers on the left. Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel lost a merit pay battle with the CTU in September,” TheDC notes. “And President Obama has supported policies that reward states for evaluating teachers based on students’ test scores.”

Surprisingly enough, a number of students back the teachers unions in their crusade to do away with merit-based pay.

“In Portland, members of a group calling itself the Portland Student Union have urged fellow students to boycott the Oregon Assessment of Knowledge and Skills,” the report notes. “And in Seattle, many students have decided to stand in solidarity with teachers who refuse to administer the Measures of Academic Progress test.”

“We really think our teachers are making the right decision,” student body president at Seattle’s Garfield High School Obadiah Stephens-Terryin said a statement.

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Comments (114)

noslave
Posted on February 19, 2013 at 9:29am
teachers unions say “NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND”?? that must be true?THEY USE THEM AS HUMAN SHIELDS WHEN DEMANDING MORE MONEY,or in miss lewis case,she eats them not leaving a piece left to waste/behind??,the fat overpaid worthless cow,typical of all teachers unions??

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huey6367
Posted on February 19, 2013 at 8:27am
Enough of this crap from teacher’s unions. You help teach and shape our children and their future. Therefore, you should have a license to teach. Period. You wouldn’t let a daycare watch your child without the proper licenses would you? As part of that license, you are required to a certain amount of continuing education unit (CEUs) and report the completion of those CEUs to the licensing board every year. Lastly, you are required to retake the licensing exam every few years. Doctors have to do these things every year as do many professional disciplines.

If you teach and consider yourself a professional then this is requirement of being a professional. Failure to do so will result in you not being allowed to teach.

Unions will have issues with this. But it is not about the teacher. It is about the child.

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DTOM31
Posted on February 19, 2013 at 8:19am
Those who can’t do, teach.

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Shrugged
Posted on February 19, 2013 at 7:32am
Standardized tests have been the norm in education for decades because it measures aptitude and abilities. National scores have been dropping. The tests haven’t changed . . . . .Hmmmm . . . what could have changed??? Certainly not the quality of our teachers . . . .

Standardized tests can’t be “studied” for and can’t be “taught” to. Nobody “flunks” one. They simply show each test taker where they fall on the continuum of aptitude for a subject. They also provide a clear window of insight as to the effectivvness of our public education system. More specifically, how well the unionization of educators has eroded the quality of education in America.

Blaming the test for poor student performance is like blaming the gun for violence.

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steve-in-pa
Posted on February 19, 2013 at 7:11am
Unions know it’s easier to achieve production goals when there are no goals to achieve.

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OldGringo
Posted on February 19, 2013 at 7:00am
Time to end the dysfunctional UNION led ‘EDUCATION’ SYSTEM…our kids can’t compete with others even from 3rd rate countries

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enderwiggen
Posted on February 19, 2013 at 6:59am
We will tell you how and what your children will be taught, or not taught as the case may be. We will decide how it is determined if your child is learning or not. We will decide what school they go to, how long they go and who will teach them. That is the power of our union in our cities.

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welldoneson
Posted on February 19, 2013 at 3:42am
All teachers unions are against standardized testing despite its use going back generations. They for some reason favor internationally supervised tests, done every few years. Why? Because high level bureaucrats conduct those behind closed doors and can strictly control who sees the results.

Yes, it’s not the testing the teachers oppose, it’s the release of results to us scruffy parents and/or taxpayers they don’t like. Here in BC, the BC Teachers’ Federation says flat out they don’t want the Fraser Institute ranking schools with test results. They state that the results must be kept in house.

All the more reason to conduct the tests yearly and release ALL results to ALL!

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youshuthehellup
Posted on February 19, 2013 at 3:15am
Does anyone ever think of how selfish teachers really are when they strike? I used to have such high respect for teachers but not anymore. They have a forever pay job and get every holiday off and every summer they can live like kings and queens and they suck the public tax payers dry!!!!

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youshuthehellup
Posted on February 19, 2013 at 3:12am
I wish they would really care about the kids and ban the test! they just want to protect their own jobs as usual! my kids always used to get so nervous they would come out looking like super low intelligent kids when they tested. they looked like poor readers etc… but every night my kids would choose to read adult level history books before bed. They know more than most adults(lol). Finally-when the test scores would show up in the mail my husband and I would not even read them we would just promptly put the whole envelope unopened in the shredder.(LOL) They meant nothing to us because we knew they were all off. My kids are homeschooled now!!

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Witness1974
Posted on February 19, 2013 at 2:32am
I do not believe standardized testing works. The teachers end up teaching to the test in order to bolster their numbers. Whoever controls the test controls the curriculum. It’s going to take a lot more that testing to fix the mess we have in education. My daughter taught in a high school in Pasadena, CA during her internship. There was less than a 50% graduation rate there. Most of the students either wore ankle bracelets from the penal system or they were pregnant or both. Most had no parental support. Take the best teacher in America and put them in that environment and see how they do. Until there are revolutionary changes in American society, we can expect the same dismal education system. Which is why I sent my daugter to private school for all but 4 years. Two of those years were in public school and two were in home school. All through her schooling we watched her and her teachers like a couple of hawks. My advice is find a private school or a charter school or a reasonably good public school and don’t trust your child to any of them completely. Those of you who are all for standardized testing are forgetting that the people who make up the test are the same government mutton heads that are failing as teachers. Often they are “teachers” who hated the classroom and did anything they could to find a quiet niche where they could do as little as possible and still bring home the dough.

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JACKTHETOAD
Posted on February 19, 2013 at 2:13am
No education, no testing, no nothing. Thank you, Mrs. Hutt.

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shogun459
Posted on February 19, 2013 at 1:54am
I have one message to teacher’s unions and the teachers that support them as American children have sunk to the lowest levels of education.

**** YOU

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FugMan
Posted on February 19, 2013 at 12:58am
If teachers go on strike they should all be fired. Too lazy to teach your students well? You never should have been a teacher in the first place. Unions are for lazy people.

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TreeTrimmerJim
Posted on February 19, 2013 at 12:44am
How is mandatory attendance government education working in your area?

In rural America your community is going extinct at 1% population loss per year.

In urban America the number of people in your slums is growing because they have no place else to go.

In Detroit, recipient of Model City education funding from the 1964 Great Society program, they are fueling up the bulldozers to level the place and return it to production as farm land.

In Chicago, joined the Army its safer because more people are killed in Chicago than in Afghanistan.

We have more than a standardized test problem.

In America educating their children is nothing local parents, left to their own devices, can not solve.

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DarkCurrent
Posted on February 19, 2013 at 12:39am
Interesting how the teachers’ unions consistently fail to propose any alternative, objective metrics by which their performance can be evaluated.

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- shogun459
  Posted on February 19, 2013 at 2:04am
  Why is it that we let the people we need to monitor dictate the standards we use on them?
  
  Isn’t that like picking Thieves to judge the other thieves?
  
  Report this comment
54smom
Posted on February 19, 2013 at 12:14am
My mother in law taught for 36 years. She loved teaching , she wouldnt join a union, she said she could stand on her own. She took a lot of flak for it. But she was an excellent teacher. She loved her students and they loved her. She cared about how she looked and wanted her students to have pride in how they looked and how they did in school. There aren’t very many teachers like her anymore. And when we find them we should reward them. If I was a poor teacher, I would love to do away with testing too. If we do away with a good education there will be more americans willing to do jobs other americans just won’t do.

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MeMyselfandThree
Posted on February 18, 2013 at 11:48pm
Thank Heaven for Catholic schools. Even though we aren’t RC, I’m glad my kiddos are in an environment not run by unions and where religion is NOT a forbidden topic.

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puravida56
Posted on February 18, 2013 at 11:36pm
Don’t think that all teachers and all teacher’s unions are like those in Chicago. Chicago is the hell hole of extreme liberalism and their teacher’s union reflects that. In my state the teacher’s union is nothing like that.

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- TreeTrimmerJim
  Posted on February 19, 2013 at 2:08am
  Who decides your curriculum? $6,800 per student?
  
  Or the local community for the purpose of growing their community?
  
  Rural America is going extinct at 1% population loss per year.
  
  Urban America is growing their slums.
  
  Which government department knows the proper curriculum for your children in your community? $6,800 per student?
  
  The golden rule, decides the curriculum. Those with the gold decide.
  
  Report this comment
Xanderson
Posted on February 18, 2013 at 11:13pm
A very quick search of Chicago Public Schools reveals that they spend over $21,000 per student per year to achieve almost nothing! A whopping 21% of 11th graders scored even a proficient grade on college-ready reading tests while only 19% passed the math portion!! Sounds like an enormous amount of waste is occurring in CPS. I doubt that even the most prestigious private high schools in the nation get this much tuition money per student. Sounds like an honest discussion about vouchers is needed here!

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- puravida56
  Posted on February 18, 2013 at 11:39pm
  My local school district gets 6800 per student. There are some awful teacher’s unions out there, but there are some decent ones as well.
  
  Report this comment
- Xanderson
  Posted on February 19, 2013 at 12:55am
  Hi Puravida– I have no idea where you live but I would be willing to bet your students out-perform the CPS students in ALL categories! Where I live, our per-student spending is about $8000.00 and our test scores trounce Chicago’s!!
  
  Report this comment
barber2
Posted on February 18, 2013 at 11:10pm
No grade standards to achieve + No grading curve + No discipline = Obama’s voting base…. God help us.

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tipicanoe
Posted on February 18, 2013 at 11:03pm
Well they have to find some way to hide how poorly they are not doing their job.

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dmforman
Posted on February 18, 2013 at 10:44pm
As a former teacher who has taught for CPS as well as for other districts around the country, I have mixed feelings about the subject of testing. I have watched kids bubble in their test score sheet without reading a single question. I have had kids get physically sick because of the pressure. I have watched teachers give children answers trying to improve their classes scores. I have watched struggling children “fail” & be held back, only to fail again. I have watched children work hard & succeed. I have watched teaching to a test instead of giving a quality education become the norm.

Everyone needs to be accountable for a child’s education. Parents, teachers, student, & administrators. One should not have more accountability than the rest. Sadly in poor areas teachers are to blame for poor schools, when the parent/s at home could give care less if their child is reading, writing, or can do math, as long as she has a few hours to herself each day to catch up on sleep, enjoy boyfriends, or just hang out in the hood.

I am not making excuses, but as my BFF who teaches in Chicago says, when a child begins school on Jan 21 & by Feb. 14 has already been absent five days, how can she be held accountable for his learning? This same child was late several times, & the mama demanded her child eat when he finally arrived. This friend was sad to overhear her assistant tell the children that they need to straighten up because this lady cares about them. One can’t win in this s

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- pissantno.10
  Posted on February 18, 2013 at 11:07pm
  yes you are right and most all of us get mad when we see stories like this . and we do forget there are good teachers out there. good teachers are heros and do not get much thanks
  
  Report this comment
COFemale
Posted on February 18, 2013 at 10:42pm
I can see both sides of this issue. As a college instructor, I can say I have students who have learning disabilities. They mix these students in with average and above average students who do not need extra guidance. If my pay depended on how well the students did, I would never work. Now I realize college students are a bit different than elementary, middle and high school students as they can chose how well they do in class, so they don’t determine my pay.

Put those college age students back into elementary, middle or high school where they were glossed over or were not identified with learning disabilities and mix them with students who have no trouble learning, how is it fair to the teacher if some of those students do poorly? By the same token if those children are assigned to their own teaching group and the teacher deals with average to above average, they should have no problem passing standardized test.

Having said all this, children also learn at different levels; some by doing, some by listening, and some by step-by-step guidance. Therefore, one teaching style won’t work in all classes. Also, some children do not do well on test, but are quite intelligent.

Standardized Testing needs to be revamped to be fair to teachers.

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neverending
Posted on February 18, 2013 at 10:42pm
First things first – get rid of the freakin teachers union and then you can work on the next biggest problem.

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