Confronting Oppressive Assessments

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.

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.

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