Confronting Oppressive Assessments: How Parents, Educators, and Policymakers Are Rethinking Current Educational Reforms

This book is about doing what’s right for public education in the United States in this age of intensive curriculum convergence, planned instructional standardization, and oppressive accountability procedures. Information is presented about why and how educators, parents, students, community members, and policy-makers have decided to protest against current state and federal educational policies and procedures. The practical experiences of parents, teachers, principals, school superintendents, school board members, and professors are analyzed in chapters of this book. Their first-hand experiences with the various components of the current reform movement are poignantly presented. Through their voices the frustrations with the serious flaws associated with this reform agenda are passionately and logically articulated. They comprehensively explain their personal and professional motivations for organizing and fomenting a rethinking in school reform implementation procedures and they advocate their “smarter approach” to school reforms in our country. The book includes key references that elucidate the need to seriously re-think the directions and strategies of contemporary schooling in order to maintain enlightened creative instruction based on exciting student-centered curriculum experiences and professional educational judgments.

Table of Contents:
Foreword Preface: Confronting Oppressive Assessments: How Parents, Educators, and Policy-Makers Are Rethinking Current Educational Reforms Walter S. Polka and John McKenna Chapter One: What Are We Really Doing to our Children? Rethinking Federal and State Education Reform Policies Walter S. Polka and John E. McKenna Chapter Two: Using an Industrial Age Paradigm for Education is Not Smart, Especially in the Digital Age John E. McKenna and Walter S. Polka Chapter Three:The Lack of Joy in Learning: Parents Want to Know Why Children Don’t Like School Anymore Douglas J. Regan and Mary Beth Carroll Chapter Four: Why Teachers Are Frustrated Ashli Dreher and Kathy Brown Chapter Five: High-Stakes Test Anxieties for All Children: Parents, Teachers, and Pscyhologists Voice Concerns Laura Stewart-Beach, Kathy Brown, and Greg Fabiano Chapter Six:Principals with Principles: The Dilemma of Implementing Destructive Polices Charles Smilinich, Mark Mambretti, Douglas Regan, and John McKenna Chapter Seven: Superintendents’ Perspectives: Fighting for Local Control and Justice in Education for All Jeffrey Robert Rabey Chapter Eight: Thoughts on What to Do Next at the Local Level John McKenna and Walter Polka Chapter Nine: A Dwindling Second Chance: High School Dropouts and the 2014 GED® Exam Rachael J. Rossi Chapter Ten: Everyone is Now a “Teacher of the Core”—Even Higher Education is Converged in This Reform Movement Susan Krickovich and Donna Phillips Chapter Eleven: Political Perspectives Regarding Changing the Current Educational Reform Agenda: The Winds of Change are Blowing Stronger Walter S. Polka and John E. McKenna Chapter Twelve: Why Not Create a Brighter Future for All of Our Students by Legislative Changes to the Educational Current Reforms? What If We Just Do It? John E. McKenna and Walter S. Polka Appendix About the Editors About the Contributors

About the Author :
Dr. Walter S. Polka is currently a tenured full professor in the Department of Professional Studies and Coordinator of the PhD Program in Leadership and Policy at Niagara University. Previously, he was an Associate Professor of Educational Administration and Coordinator of the Doctoral Program at Georgia Southern University, Statesboro, Georgia. He also served for over 35 years as a public school teacher, curriculum coordinator, school district administrator, and superintendent of schools in New York. He serves in leadership positions for several national and international professional organizations. He produced numerous publications and has presented his education research throughout the USA and in 25 countries worldwide. He has received several awards and recognitions during his career including the State University of New York at Buffalo Graduate School of Education 2013 Distinguished Alumni Award. Dr. John McKenna is an award winning principal and national speaker from western New York. For his contributions he has been honored as the New York State Outstanding Educator in 2012 by the School Administrators Association of New York State; The Presidential Distinguished Elementary Principal Award from the Buffalo/Niagara Chapter of Phi Delta Kappa International in 2013 and the prestigious Distinguished Alumni Award by the State University of New York at Buffalo in 2014. In 2015 he was elected to serve as the President of the School Administrators Association of New York State.

Review :
'I fought the law, and the law won.' So declares the Bobby Fuller Four in their 1960’s hit song. Many teachers, parents, and friends of public education have felt this sense of hopelessness and loss of power since the beginning of the No Child Left Behind and Race to the Top era as they faced a seemingly insurmountable force of political and corporate support of so-called 'educational reform,' which focuses on standardized testing, a narrowed curriculum, and hyper-criticism of teachers and schools. Polka and McKenna have accomplished the unlikely task of putting together a book that is both cathartic and empowering as readers hear from those in the trenches: parents, teachers, administrators, and university teacher educators who are fighting for what is best for children, and in many cases winning the battle. Read, be inspired, and then engage: There is much yet to be done, but this volume gives evidence that it can be done! This book provides the first-hand perspective of several accomplished educators on the impact of recent education reforms. Its timely analysis demonstrates the source of the motivation of thousands of parents and practitioners to challenge the rationale for high stakes testing and offers an alternative vision for a child-centered education system. Amid growing concerns over educational reforms that run counter to sound, evidence-based education, Polka and McKenna have exposed the dangers of complacency. They have provided a compelling argument and now urge us to step forward onto the path they have laid out to do what is right for our children. All it will take now is courage. The authors in this book present a strong case for all of us — parents, teachers, educators, concerned citizens, and policy-makers — to stand firm in advocating for schools where every child has the opportunity to flourish rather than flounder. I really appreciate the work, the passion, and the rationale that they have created for stopping the testing madness. Let's hope it spreads. This book entails innovative and relative ideas and practices of the trends in education that are beneficial to programs all over the nation. The knowledge gained can be an asset to program modification in education. Polka and McKenna unite readers in a quest for doing what is right — right for children, right for teachers, and right for our educational system. Chapter authors rally readers against one-size-fits-all assessments with logic, theory, and personal accounts of how over testing of students undermines creativity, divergent thinking, and motivation to learn. This book is a must-read for all who seek to understand the impact of No Child Left Behind, Race to the Top, and commercial assessments. It comprehensively acknowledges the significance of designing education with respect for individual differences and needs within children. This book is so interesting and reader-friendly that it captivates the reader to truly reflect about what should be the direction of education in America today! In today's interdependent global society, every individual depends on all other individuals to express both experienced wisdom and heart-felt appreciation of all peoples and the world. This insightful and inspiration text offers readers with guidance and hope for transforming education to an inviting and exciting system built on authentic interactions advancing individuals and societies. As advocates for the future, the authors of this text equip and empower readers to 'be the change they want to see in the world.' In today’s fast-paced digital age reading a book may seem archaic. But if you want to challenge your comfort zone on the current state of education reforms, then this book is a must-read. Confronting Oppressive Assessments is a clarion call for an honest examination of current education 'reforms' and offers a path for those who believe in a child-centered curriculum that places evaluation in its proper perspective. The authors have done a great service not only for practitioners, but the general public by piercing the polemics of the reformers and offering a logical, cliché-free pathway to educational growth. Great teachers have two criteria for appropriate use of assessments: (1) Does the assessment improve our efficacy as teachers? and (2) Do we use the results of the assessment in ways that are humane? A good test should help us become better teachers and our students become better learners. Everyone should benefit from the process. Our current system of test, rank, and punish does not meet these criteria. And kids get harmed in the process. This book offers a rational, compassionate alternative to our current system. I hope that policymakers will read and learn from these outstanding authors. This book lays out how education should be viewed through a child-centered, individualized approach as opposed to the current one-standard-fits-all approach. Through the history of CCLS development, its implementation and its connection to high stakes testing, the authors expertly guide readers on a journey of how public education is on the verge of becoming privatized. It calls out NYSED for 'building the plane in the air' and offers grounded solutions on how we can get back the love of learning, as well as the joy of teaching.