gutstein@uic.edu<\/a><\/p>\nThank you for your solidarity.<\/p>\n
Pauline<\/p>\n
Pauline Lipman
\nProfessor, Educational Policy Studies
\nCollege of Education
\nUniversity of Illinois-Chicago
\n1040 W. Harrison, MC 147
\nChicago IL 60607-7133
\n312-413-4413<\/p>\n
BACKGROUND
\nCPS has announced that this year the ISAT test has no impact on students\u2019
\ngrade promotion or admission into selective programs. The ISAT is no
\nlonger part of the \u201cschool performance policy\u201d nor will it be used to
\nevaluate teachers. CPS\u2019s claim that the ISAT is aligned to Common Core
\nstandards is dubious at best since the PARCC exam, which is being designed
\nto measure performance on those standards, has been years in the making
\nand has yet to be released. The ISAT will not help teachers understand
\ntheir students or improve instruction for them. Because CPS has not
\nprovided any valid reason to give this test hundreds of parents have opted
\ntheir children out of this test.<\/p>\n
LETTER
\nFebruary 28, 2014<\/p>\n
STATEMENT OF SUPPORT FOR CHICAGO TEACHERS REFUSING TO ADMINISTER THE ILLINOIS STANDARD ACHIEVEMENT TEST<\/p>\n
FROM UNIVERSITY EDUCATION FACULTY<\/p>\n
As university faculty whose responsibilities include preparing future educators, we support the action of teachers at the Saucedo Elementary School in Chicago who are refusing to administer the Illinois Standard Achievement Test (ISAT). Over a decade of research shows that an over emphasis on high-stakes standardized tests narrows curriculum, creates social and emotional stress for students and families, drives committed teachers out of the profession, and turns schools into test-prep factories with principals forced to comply as overseers\u2014especially in low-scoring schools. We understand assessment as the process of gathering evidence about learning, from multiple sources, so that teachers can better support student learning. The ISAT, in contrast, contributes virtually nothing. CPS no longer uses the ISAT for promotion, graduation, or eligibility for selective-enrollment schools and is phasing it out after this year. It is not aligned with Common Core State Standards\u2014which, regardless of how one sees them, Illinois has already adopted\u2014and does not help teachers improve student learning. The pre-service teachers with whom we work are demoralized about a future of teaching in such a test-driven atmosphere. We teach our students\u2014future educators\u2014to stand up for their students, families and communities, and to take principled stands for social justice. That’s what the Saucedo teachers are doing. We applaud them and stand with them.<\/p>\n
Signed<\/p>\n
Pauline Lipman, University of Illinois at Chicago, College of Education
\nRico Gutstein, University of Illinois at Chicago, College of Education<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
[via Pauline Lipman] Colleagues, Please sign attached letter of support for Chicago teachers refusing to give the ISAT standardized test. Teachers at Saucedo elementary school in Little Village (serving mainly Mexican children) took the courageous stand to support parents who are opting out of the test by refusing to administer it. CEO Barbara Byrd Bennet […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":17,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[148],"tags":[7780,844519,540478,844518,2270,540479,844517],"class_list":["post-4252","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-testing","tag-chicago-public-schools","tag-isat","tag-opt-out","tag-saucedo-elementary-school","tag-solidarity","tag-test-boycott","tag-uic"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/ross\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4252","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/ross\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/ross\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/ross\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/17"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/ross\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4252"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/ross\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4252\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4257,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/ross\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4252\/revisions\/4257"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/ross\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4252"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/ross\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4252"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/ross\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4252"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}