Chicago kids face testing orgy from now until June... 'The first day of a regular school day (without a testing window being open) after Spring Break is June 15th...'
Anyone who believed that overtesting in Chicago was over after the PARCC -- and the unprecedented PARCC Opt Out -- was not only wrong, but VERY VERY WRONG. Just as last year Chicago children had to endure the obsolete ISAT testing program (and during the 20 years before that, a dozen other testing programs that nobody except Substance staff can even name), the orgy of testing goes on, and CPS administrators are committed to forcing as many teachers, families and children to go through it as they can.
After pretending to have second thoughts about the overtesting required by corporate "school reform," Chicago Public Schools "Chief Executive Officer" Barbara Byrd Bennett (above at the March 25 Board of Education meeting) reaffirmed the rationalizations for the current orgy of testing which will end classroom instruction for hundreds of thousands of Chicago kids from the end of Spring Break until June 15. Among the many lies that Byrd Bennett continues to spout is that CPS will "lose money" if children Opt Out of the tests, as thousand (perhaps tens of thousands) did during the first round of PARCC. Substance photo by George N. Schmidt.If no one stops it, Chicago Public Schools will be subjecting the majority of its students all the way down to kindergarten to an orgy of testing -- and the destruction of teaching -- between Easter Vacation and June. Here is the testing schedule provided to Substance by an administrative source:
May 11 - June 12: K-2 NWEA MPG: Testing Dates
May 11 - June 12: TRC and DIBELS, mClass Math, IDEL: Testing Dates
April 27 - May 22: PARCC EOY: Testing Dates
May 11 - June 12: NWEA EOY: Testing Dates
May 11 - June 12: REACH Performance Tasks: Testing Dates
May 26 to June 5: Explore and PLAN: Testing Dates 5.26.15 - 6.5.15 Upon returning from Spring Break, CPS schools have ten school days before the testing window for PARCC EOY. Upon returning from Spring Break, CPS schools have have 20 school days before the testing window for NWEA EOY opens (10 days after PARCC). The first day of a regular school day (without a testing window being open) is June 15th.
