LETTER: Union President Says Parents Need To Be Aware of 'Cumbersome' Assessment

The following is the remarks by Sarah McKeon, the co-president of the Framingham Teachers Association, who is also a kindergarten teacher at Brophy Elementary School, before the School Committee Tuesday night.

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I am here tonight to speak to you about some common goals I believe we share, and ways we can work together to achieve them.

We had great success last year working together to create new contracts for 2 of our 3 units, and the other unit’s negotiations are ongoing in a positive and productive manner.

I know I speak for my FTA colleagues when I say that I hope we can continue to work together collegially this year as well.

Many members left last week’s convocation with a feeling of optimism. Dr. Scott, we were thrilled to hear you acknowledge what we have been saying for quite some time: that standardized testing has become problematic and needs some reorganization.

Many FTA members, myself included, have signed petitions or spoken before this school committee, and I have also spoken before the state legislature in favor of House Bill 340, which calls for a 3-year moratorium on standardized testing.

Our kids are more than a score, and we are excited to work with you to spread information regarding the appropriate use of testing.

In the meantime, please check out #LessTestingMoreLearning on Facebook or Twitter, or you may further research House Bill 340 by reading through these copies I have left for you. Other districts have come out in support of this bill, and we hope you will do the same.

It feels like I approach this podium multiple times a year—and you must get sick of me!!—and often I discuss testing. I have shared statistics and information regarding the stress and other negative results felt by our students and staff, and most of the information has been about the PARCC test.

However, tonight I would like to share my concern about another assessment tool, one that is used with our youngest learners: preschoolers and kindergarteners. It is an online assessment called Teaching Strategies Gold that educators have expressed concern over for many reasons: it is time consuming, the data is not used in future grades and is not compared with anything, time is lost on learning and teaching, and students’ privacy, among others.

We are responsible for observing and documenting our students’ progress across 4 domains this year: literacy, math, social emotional, and cognitive.

The previous 2 years we documented only under literacy and math. It is pretty simple: teachers are not comfortable uploading students’ personal developmental progress into an online database. It is difficult enough being told we are required to upload academic information, but it is troubling to think we now have to share students’ personal information into the anonymous cloud, when this information can and should be shared personally with parents.

It is especially questionable given that whatever data we do upload does not go anywhere and is not used for any future progress reporting, as this assessment is currently only in existence for preschool and Kindergarten.

What exactly is the point? Furthermore, do we want this sensitive information ending up in the wrong hands, or being sold to corporations like Pearson?

I cannot pretend to understand the financial decisions you need to make, or how state money is shared and earmarked for certain programs, but what I can tell you is that this assessment is not appropriate for students or staff, and I have serious concerns about implementing it.

Parents need to know how cumbersome this assessment is, and they should know that all of the information about their children is shared online. While we are not required to use photo or video, the information we are sharing is still highly personal. I ask that you please reconsider the requirement to implement this assessment.

Many districts across the state have done so, and I hope we can become one of them.