Test Revolt?

Central Bucks school district news, from the Intelligencer

Directors talk of state test revolt

By CHRISTINA KRISTOFIC
The Intelligencer

Everything about Tuesday night's school board meeting was pretty routine, including the school board's vote to approve the state testing schedule.

But the discussion school board members had before they approved the schedule was anything but routine.

School board members discussed protesting No Child Left Behind and the Pennsylvania System of School Assessment by refusing to administer the test to Central Bucks students. The discussion came soon after the state Department of Education decided to make schools administer the PSSA in May. School district administrators objected and the Department of Education retracted its order.

“What happens if we opt out of No Child Left Behind?” board Vice President Stephen Corr asked.

No one knew the answer.

Superintendent N. Robert Laws said the district would probably lose the $4 million in federal funding it gets each year, which adds up to only about 1.5 percent of the district's total budget.

“We can't do that,” Corr said. “But this is a total waste of our time. It seems more and more ridiculous.”

School board member Chris Asplen asked if Central Bucks students who are applying to colleges would suffer from not taking the PSSA.

Laws said he doesn't think colleges consider PSSA scores when they look at a student's application.

The PSSA is the state's tool for determining whether school districts are meeting the requirements of No Child Left Behind, Laws said. It's also the way the state measures Pennsylvania's 501 school districts against each other.

“Just for our own public relations, where we stand in the state appears good for us,” school board member Thomas Baldwin said. “If you don't have something else the state uses as a benchmark, where does that put us?”

Several school board members suggested getting other school districts in Southeastern Pennsylvania, which typically score well on the PSSA but get little state and federal funding, to join them in a protest of the state assessment test.

School board President Geryl McMullin said, “The people at the Department of Education are not in touch with reality.”

“We have to get serious,” she said. “I think what matters here is what we're doing to kids. We're taking away valuable instruction time ... it's absurd.”

Asplen said he thought a protest would mean a lot coming from Central Bucks.

“I think we'd be able to get other districts,” Corr said. “But we're too late in the cycle to stop that now.”

Corr suggested looking at the issue again next year.

Laws said he would study No Child Left Behind, the PSSA and the consequences for school districts that do not participate.

“Public education is a function of the state. I'm an officer of the state. I'm commissioned by the state. You're commissioned by the state. I don't know what the result of a mutiny is,” he said.

“The state takes over your school district,” Corr answered.

“But I thought they already did.”