On Monday, January 13, RVCTA Grievance Officer Michael
Maschio and I attended a limited engagement (one night on Long Island) showing
of “Standardized: Lies, Money and Civil Rights: How Testing is Ruining Public
Education” (Rockfish Productions) at South Side High School. Roughly 75 people from across the Island
attended this documentary’s viewing.
From IMDB: “For decades, standardized
testing has been a part of public education. Within the last ten years,
however, the testing has taken on a more important, and possibly more damaging,
role. Test scores, mistakenly viewed as effective assessments of student
ability and teacher/school effectiveness, are anything but. This film sheds
light on the invalid nature of these tests, the terrible consequences of
high-stakes testing, and the big money that's involved.”
An English teacher from Pennsylvania, Dan Hornberger opened
the showing with a brief presentation on the reasoning behind the creation of
“Standardized.” He focused on the
detrimental effects on our nation’s children as they were forced to take part
in state testing, and explained that this is why he commenced research on the
veritable plethora of data and writing on the topic. He videoed rallies, interviewed parents and
teachers and subsequently produced this informative documentary, aiming for the
country’s parents as the target audience in garnering support for the nation’s
Opt-Out movement.
While there was some mild anti-union sentiment in
“Standardized,” of note were clips from New York Opt-Out Movement leader
Jeannette Deutermann, Fordham professor Mark Naison, educational policy analyst
Diane Ravitch, and Florida school board member Rick Roach. The clip that best called out to me actually
came from a teen who spoke passionately at a rally about testing’s implications
on his peers.
Hornberger’s
premise for the documentary was developed after reading Todd Farley’s book, Making
the Grades: My Misadventures in the Standardized Testing Industry (Berrett-Koehler Publishers, 2009). This honest, yet quite humorous book is a
great read, providing insight into the high-stakes testing industry.
If
“Standardized” continues to reach families across the nation, Hornberger will
have succeeded in accomplishing his goal in promoting increased influence by
America’s parents on their children’s education.
