Angry About ILEARN?

Angry About ILEARN? Write Your Legislators

Who do we trust? Our kids' teachers, or testing companies? Our kids' teachers, or the appointed State Board of Education? The educators who converse with, challenge, and listen to children, who celebrate their personal successes and spark their curiosity and love of learning--or a standardized test?

During the current legislative session, there have been a few bills that are being pushed through (HB 1001, HB 1002, SB 2) that hold schools and teachers harmless from ILEARN scores. HOWEVER, do they hold our children harmless from the hours lost from preparing and taking the test. The hours lost, which results in a narrowing of curriculum and endless drilling of material that does not cater to the whole child.

If you are angry about how ILEARN is used to paint a negative picture of schools, here is a possible template of a letter. Please feel free to use if you would like! And please, please, communicate with your legislators.

Here it is:

Dear <state senator or representative>,

I’m writing as a parent of <X number> of kids in public school in <Indiana county>. My kids and I are tired of ISTEP, ISTEP+, and now ILEARN. <Optional statement about child’s stress about the test.> I am offended by the inaccurate picture that this recent ILEARN test gives of what kids are learning.

This is what I value at my kids’ schools: <personalize with what you value...community? caring and knowledgeable teachers? interesting projects?>. My kids are learning <xxx> and <xxx>. They like <xxx> about school.

Standardized tests only measure a small portion of what my kids are learning, and the cut scores are arbitrary and demeaning. Enough with ranking and sorting children. The legislature has a responsibility to support our public schools equitably by providing a budget that ensures highly trained teachers, school librarians, counselors, speech therapists, social workers, and school nurses, with extra attention and staff for schools that serve high-need populations. I hope you agree that all our schools need resources to provide not just great staff, but also healthy food and extracurricular opportunities that deepen and extend classroom learning.

Indiana needs to stop wasting millions of taxpayer dollars on standardized tests. High-stakes tests give little useful data about individual children. They mainly reflect the degree of affluence or poverty in the communities served by schools. I call on you to put an end to the A-F grading system for schools, which punishes low-income communities and pressures all schools to narrow the curriculum.

I support my schools. I support my kids’ teachers. I reject the ILEARN results, and I ask you to reject the failed experiment of high-stakes testing.

Sincerely,
<parent name>
<optional: address>

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