My Child Works at the PSD Sweat Shop

Remember the good old days of child labor? Those were fun times. No pesky laws to keep kids from pulling their own weight. Even the tiniest tot could head on over to the factory and earn his penny a day wage. Good times. Good times. Sadly the days of children working away in factories is behind us here in America.

The good ol' days, back before them fancy schmancy internuts
and them fancy schmancy intelligent walkie phones.

If you're lucky you can travel to a third world country and catch a glimpse of one of these child-centric economies still at work. Most of us, however, will never get to experience this kind of "opportunity."

Bob learns a life skill instead of a word problem

Steve here is banking trade skills. What did your littl'un bank at school today?

Luckily we have an educational system that believes we can still find a way for these little moochers to pull their own weight. We don't let kids into the factory anymore, that would be too dangerous. Instead we've found some great "white color" jobs for them to do.

Roy Junior had a hard time with the commodities market, so he's trying a little standardized testing.

The testing industry is booming right now and they've got plenty of positions open in research and development. You don't even need to apply. In fact, it's likely your child has already been hired! Every day our kids are sitting behind desks typing away for hours at a time testing out the legitimacy of dozens of methods, models, and modes of education...

A little faster there, Franny. We only get the bonus bucks if you finish in 4 hours or less. 

Strangely, though, it turns out not every parent and teacher is thrilled with the idea that students are spending so much of their learning time taking tests. Apparently this white collar work isn't as harmless as it looks. Those who know children best are seeing all kinds of harmful side effects. Kids are becoming agitated and ill. More fighting and more vomiting (the two most oft cited reasons for joining the teaching profession I'm sure) are occurring. Kids aren't happy and they aren't healthy. Recently in Pasco (and nationally) there has been some push back against excessive testing. In fact, reduced testing is one of the stipulations teachers held out for before agreeing to this year's contract. Teachers demanded that the district cut back on the number of standardized tests given to students each year.

And it worked! Right? Didn't it?

Not exactly. It turns out there are a lot of reasons people like kids to take tests. The number one reason cited in Pasco for all the excess standardized testing..... MONEY.

Well, we SHOULD be limiting testing for the sake of the childrens' psychological and intellectual health
but there's this big old bucket of cash we want...

Every time a test has been brought to the chopping block, a district admin has been there to say we need this test for the simple reason that it's tied to funding.

Yup. Pasco School District gets paid money for the tests your child is taking.

Of course it's not all that black and white. There are a lot of complicated ways the district can make money off of testing. And most of them aren't even that nefarious. The government likes schools to prove they are doing a good job before they just hand over our tax dollars. This means that in order for a school to get the money from the government that we've already paid in taxes, our kids have to first take a test to prove they are actually getting an education.

Also some grants are based on proving that we are serving a particular demographic. In order to prove that, we need a test. Frequently, it's done in the name of accountability. We have to give kids a test to "prove" our kids are learning and then some cooperation or government entity will cut us a big fat check. It's the way the system works. So naturally, we should all be okay with this. Never-mind that the money tied to these tests isn't necessarily getting funneled back into learning. We must get our hands on all the dollars! ...mustn't we?

I don't know about you, but I'm not super thrilled with my children being turned into cash calves so that PSD can hire another assistant superintendent to oversee another experimental program.

Tests are never this tasty.

I mean, if we are going to make money off our kids, there are easier ways to do it. Let's just send them out to the fields to pick apples. They'd make a ton more money, learn a useful skill, and get plenty of exercise. It's a win-win-win!

Right?

The Cotton or Calculus school of education

This boy makes far more money picking carrots AND he doesn't have to break for P.E.

Um.... no.

No. No. No. NO!

Just as we wouldn't stand for the notion of hundreds of little children being marched out to the fields every day, we also shouldn't stand for those same children spending hours at a time hunched over computer screens, working as educational guinea pigs.

Last year the teachers and community in Pasco stood up for students. Twice! During the walk-out and the strike teachers said among other things, "We will not allow our kids to be over-tested. Our children will not take any more standardized tests than is absolutely mandated by law!"  It's in the teacher contract. It is legally binding.

I'm sorry. What is a computer? I don't know the answer to that question.

Now the task at hand is to find out which tests are required by law, and which are not. Unfortunately PSD doesn't seem to know which is which. During recent bargaining (yes, bargaining goes on year round) PAE asked PSD to provide a list of legally mandated tests, and PSD hasn't been able to do it. Why? Your guess is as good as mine.  Do these professional education managers not know which tests are mandated by the state and federal governments?  If that sounds like gross incompetence, it's because it kinda would be. It'd be akin to Mark Zuckerberg not knowing the difference between a hard drive and a USB port. It's not really his whole job description but it's an essential component of it.  

Hands off my tests! This is my
retirement you're talking about here!

I assume, therefore, that our administration at the Booth does, in fact, know which of the tests we're slogging through are mandated. Yet they seem reluctant to share that information with the rest of us. Do they not want to admit what tests aren't required? Why not? Why can't they even give a simple answer to the board at board meetings? That sounds like very shady behavior. At the very least it sounds like behavior that does not have the best interests of the kids at heart.

So what can we do? Two things.

Step 1: We can put our money where our mouth is. 

If we don't want our kids paying their own way through elementary school, then we need to make sure the funding is there for them. This includes the passing of school levies and bonds. If we expect the district to let go of funding tied to testing, we have to show them we are willing to make up the difference. And so far we have!!! Hooray for those who voted and helped to get the levy passed last month. Now lets keep our eye on next years bond.

Step 1: Complete!

Step 2: We can demand better.

Just complaining gets us no where. We need constructive action. We can call, write, or visit the school board and district administrators and let them know we aren't okay with all these tests. If you're a parent who signed a waver to opt your child out of testing last year, take an extra minute to write the school board and let them know you care about all of Pasco's kids. Encourage them to "opt-out" all of Pasco's students. Not every child is lucky enough to have parents who can advocate for them. While your child may have you in their corner, there are 30 other students in their class who are still sitting at a computer screen taking a painful test that has no influence on their actual learning. Not only is this unfair, but it is incredibly prejudicial. High poverty students, special education students, and non-native English students will spend the most time testing of any group of children. Does that seem right? Are you okay with that?

The school board meets every second and fourth Tuesday of the month. See you there.