Driving Out the Drive to Learn

The men in Pod B of the GEO / ICE detention center in Aurora love to learn. More than twenty of them came to our final ESL class yesterday, and a good number earned a certificate for completing all of the classes and doing all assigned homework. On one of the homework assignments I graded yesterday, a detainee had written, "with my indurance i will someday learn all my inglish languge." I have no doubt that he will, despite the lack of opportunity, texts and teachers. Many detainees volunteered to read in English, which is difficult and involves a great deal of risk, considering the opportunity for making public mistakes. A few of the men were joking around before they read, letting off some nervous steam, which prompted a young man to rebuke them. He said, "en serio, man, en serio."  Take it seriously, man.

I wrote the words "En serio!" in my notes this morning as I listened to Ilana Spiegel from SPEAK for Cherry Creek. The Willow Creek Elementary PTO invited Ilana and Heidi Parish to come talk about their efforts to withdraw from PARCC and place a moratorium on high-stakes testing in Colorado. Here are some facts that I noted:

• 15 - 20 days of the school year for 3rd to 8th graders will be impacted by high stakes standardized testing, which will now determine 50% of teachers' evaluations
• if students underperform on the new tests for two consecutive years, districts may be allowed to fire teachers without further investigation or notice
• In New York state, which implemented PARCC in 2013, the achievement gap between black and white students grew from 12 to 19 points on average 3rd grade English Language Arts (ELA) scores and from 14 to 25 points in 8th grade ELA scores. Math scores showed a similar increase in the gap.
• Our district, CCSD, continues to lose $61.4 million in state aid every year, as the state funding is not adequate to cover the expenses - like testing - that the state has mandated by law

Our children have the desire to learn, just like the men in B pod. Unlike the detainees, they have teachers who want to teach, and districts who want to succeed. Unfunded mandates and high stakes testing are only setting up roadblocks on the road to student success, and parents need to speak up and let our legislators know that we take the success of our public schools very seriously. The public schools are not failing our kids - we are failing our public schools.