Drawing and Painting students in grades 10-12 were asked to create art about how they FEEL about standardized tests. I gave the students some old scantron sheets and offered drawing and painting materials. This is the art that was created: Josephine Samarjian Alyssa Healey Jill Sullivan Sarah Iodice Laura Schissler Rachel Carlino and Emily Moreira Maddie Worob Lindsay Conley Samantha Lynch
53 Comments
Sonja
6/8/2015 04:07:43 pm
What have we done to our children?
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Charlotte
6/13/2015 10:04:07 am
Exactly. PLEASE everyone remove your children from the system and give them all the love and opportunities they need to thrive whilst under your parental care at home.
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Dave
6/13/2015 01:26:45 pm
Yeaaa offf tha grid
ruth
6/13/2015 04:10:41 pm
These are really really great and wow so expressive! Truth is standardized testing is a measure of the state of our educational system . That's why teachers hate them and the Teachers Union spends thousands advertising against it. Standardized testing can be applied in every class room without any doubt....Art obviously would have to opt out....or wait should it? Like I said these are wonderful expressive works of awesome art.
Ashley
6/18/2015 11:44:24 pm
Great thought but NOT all parents are cut out for home schooling! 6/8/2015 06:09:02 pm
Please consider submitting these works to Save Our Schools' Campaign for Artful Resistance.
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6/8/2015 06:49:23 pm
These are hauntingly powerful in expressiveness. Excellent work by the artists and thank you Ms. Chang for sharing... I have added the post to a collection on high-stakes testing at http://bit.ly/testing_testing
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Connie Jacavone
6/10/2015 03:37:27 pm
I am just a very concerned mom. I have my children leaving a great school system to attend private school for their high school years because the school system now needs to teach according to the tests and that's certainly not how are children should be taught. It's a shame what the kids need to put up with in order to try to learn.
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Mlophoto
6/12/2015 04:03:48 am
Same for us. After millions of $$ spent on standardized testing and the stress that the teachers and students go through to prepare, Florida threw out all FSA test scores this year. Bad management of public funds and a waste of a year academically.
S g
6/13/2015 08:33:17 am
It'll be coming to the private schools, soon. Don't you worry about that! 6/9/2015 01:14:44 am
Hello, how are you? This cultural art is really nice, I really appreciate the third and fourth
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6/9/2015 01:29:15 am
Powerful work! Thank you, artists, and sorry you had to go through the testing experience. We will be sharing this work widely as part of our efforts to end high stakes and cut the amount of testing way back. Monty Neill, FairTest
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rcb1960
6/13/2015 04:26:16 pm
These should help us .our school system is broken....hmm I wonder how that happened?
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6/9/2015 04:17:50 am
Wow...
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Gary Wesolowski
6/9/2015 07:48:19 am
this is a wonderful idea!
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Joanne Yatvin
6/9/2015 09:10:33 am
All these works are beautiful. But I can't understand why none of them included a "smiley face."
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kim
6/9/2015 03:34:17 pm
Sarcasm implied?
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Jane St.Pierre
6/9/2015 11:23:23 am
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6/9/2015 12:03:06 pm
So proud of your students for having the courage to put into their art their feelings about high stakes standardized assessments. The art works are haunting and a reminder of why we at www.unitedoptout.com are fighting to remove the high stakes and ties to funding for public schools that the standardized assessments currently hold hostage. Please know that we are fighting for you and future students/citizens.
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A. Samuelsen
6/9/2015 01:39:06 pm
The Seattle Opt Out Group will publicize these moving and thought-provoking images and, hopefully, encourage students in Seattle to generate art to tell their stories about high-stakes standardized tests as only they can. Thank you for this great idea, and please know that we are working to change things!
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Alan McRae
6/9/2015 02:00:27 pm
Excellent art and very telling about what we're doing to children!
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6/9/2015 05:43:47 pm
Send these to Michelle Obama,,,,she early on said education would change...it has only been poisoned by the money talkers who ar buying public education. I taught 33 years in public education and am thankful I am retired as teachers are not allowed to educate anymore,
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Erin
6/10/2015 02:48:13 am
I graduated high school 2 years ago and am an education major in college. In response to what we would change as students: there are an immense amount of ways outside of standardized testing to see the growth of students. A final project that allows students to combine their talents and show what they've learned in the class is an option, as is a presentation. Taking a final test is an option, but if it's used in a different way, it would be less stressful. Taking the test at the beginning of the school year and then taking the final and using those purely as comparison points for how much the students have learned in the class would be better. These are just a few ideas among MANY that are out there. Learning then becomes a personal growth experience and not just something we are anxious about and have to do - it becomes fun when we aren't stressed. Students learn better when they aren't worrying about a final test for a grade, anyway. This would also give freedom back to the teachers to choose how they want their classroom structured, which will inspire a better education anyway. Standardized testing is such a gray cloud over everyone in schools that I don't feel much passionate learning is happening anymore.
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Pat
6/13/2015 09:58:01 am
Yes, there are many formative & summative ways teachers can assess their students' learning in the classroom, but those aren't used to calculate a school's API score. It's the standardized testing that is used & it is only one small snapshot of a student's learning. Too much weight is given to these tests to the detriment of many students, sp. ed. & ELL students in particular, and it isn't a true picture of their learning & growth.
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Amy
6/10/2015 09:08:10 am
A wise Special Ed teacher once told me that the only true thing that a standardized test tests is how well the one taking the test takes tests. I happen to do very well at tests, hence scoring so highly on all my standardized testing during my school years and achieving such a high ACT score, allowing me the pick of many colleges, despite the fact that I was faking my way through the math portion of every test. Yet I tested well, so I slipped through the cracks. I also knew I tested well, so the standardized tests never bothered me. I played a game of it each year, a "beat the clock" game to see if I could finish as fast or faster than the year before. * My son on the other hand does not test well. He has severe dyslexia, which comes with a nice big side of anxiety and depression that of course they forgot to warn us about when he was diagnosed with dyslexia in the first grade. So we were woefully unprepared for testing time. I had NO IDEA the stress and anxiety that could come with it, let alone how long it would last, how many different ways it could manifest or that it could end up taking over our lives for a few months each year. His districts opts in to additional testing beyond the state mandated testing, so we get to have oodles of fun riding the roller coaster of emotional Hell. Or at least we used to. * Two years ago the same wise teacher as the one above gave me the best gift any teacher has ever given me. They told me how to opt my son out of standardized testing. After years of fighting, kicking, screaming, tears and tantrums...we have peace. Instead of taking numerous practice tests and then finally the real one, he reads/listens to books/audio books. Or catches up on homework. * But most importantly, he no longer feels that he's "stupid". And we no longer receive a nice, pretty, full color pamphlet complete with different kinds of charts and grafts showing us how poorly our child tests compared with the statewide and national "average". Which is quite okay with us. Because we know our son is so much more than just a test. And he is definitely far from average. Actually he's a pretty amazing. They just don't make a test that measures "volunteers to shovel for arthritic neighbor all winter" or "stands up to bully at school and gets recognized by principal" or even academically "reads book for fun for the first time in life".
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Andros
6/10/2015 05:31:53 pm
Thank you for sharing, Amy!
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Pat
6/13/2015 10:00:57 am
You hit the nail on the head! I work in sp. ed. & wish ALL of our dear kids dudn't have to take these tests that set them up to fail.
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Andrea
6/15/2015 02:46:55 pm
Amy, thanks for sharing you son's story. My son also is severely dyxlexic. Sadly, reading your story made me cry because it brought back all the hurt, anger and frustration over the years that we endured. My son is kind and very intelligent yet as a young adult he continues to live with daily frustrations.
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Elaine Mackee
6/10/2015 01:04:46 pm
Thank you for offering your young people their voice through art!! As an art teacher in a Waldorf school for 25 years, I considered it my task to give them their voice of protest!!!
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Beth
6/10/2015 02:27:07 pm
These are beautiful and heartbreaking. Fantastic assignment, amazing results. Know that students and teachers all over the US see these and understand their power.
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cay
6/10/2015 03:03:20 pm
Some of these strike me as a true visual for me as a scorer of these standardized tests too. Stressful having to score according to what each state decides is acceptable.
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Maureen
6/10/2015 11:15:48 pm
Wow, just wow! Seeing what they feel, what an amazing gift. Thank you. We are truly damaging our students with these tests.
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Sona Merlin
6/11/2015 02:23:38 am
standardized testing-
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Erleuchten
6/30/2015 06:49:07 am
What makes no sense is my generation and beyond know our schools feed the young nothing but crap,teach them how to blend in and accept slavery as a future. Its instilled they must earn alot of money to be successful and whether they destroy our planet or exploit the sick or old to so,as long as theyre paying taxes its ok! Then theyre killing themselves because they feel they dont fit in. Thier world is either shrunk down or over before it ever began. I think some ppl dont have what it takes but why shouldnt they look at it like they too are going back to school. Your never too old yo learn, and what theyre teaching in schools isnt what you need to be teaching anyway! Most people are accepting of the bull theyre fed, if you feel youre too set in ypur ays and its just easier or safer to keep on believing the lies at least give your children and thier children the option to know. Freedom is an illusion up until you arm yourself with knowledge!
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6/11/2015 03:05:17 am
This is exactly how my son felt!(graduated 2014), one in jr high and high school!! Extremely way to stressful for kids!!!
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Rev. Sylvia Falconer
6/11/2015 04:22:09 pm
Vivid, powerful art and difficult to see. Let's give these tests to the politicians who are demanding them. How many would pass?
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Mlophoto
6/12/2015 04:08:41 am
Art is the first language. It is not easily quantifiable and doesn't fit in with the standardization of public education, yet it can create powerful cultural changes. Thanks for posting a thoughtful response to a national crisis.
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3rd grade teacher
6/13/2015 08:44:14 am
Wow...the first one is breathtaking. All the color is gone....makes me cry.
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Unschooling mum
6/13/2015 10:01:59 am
How any parent can look at these and still send their child to school is beyond me. Schools are destroying children. No wonder more and more people are choosing to homeschool / unschool.
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6/17/2015 04:40:38 am
this is powerful stuff. more examples of how art can overcome oppression and save lives at the same time
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Erleuchten
6/30/2015 06:36:04 am
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B Star
7/12/2015 05:39:27 pm
i am soooo happy I coukd homeschool ly daughters (31 and 28 now) and they are homeschooling their children now. The results are evident. I am an advocate for Conscious Parenting and Free Range Learning.
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ARTest
9/4/2015 07:31:26 pm
In the 1980s, I was apparently ahead of my time when I wrote a "persuasian paper" for senior AP English arguing against the PSAT and SAT: although mathematics indicate one kind of intelligence, REAL math tests are not multiple choice. Also, writing essay questions is a much better predictor of verbal skills than selecting between multiple-choice vocabulary words; writing also gives students the opportunity to display critical-thinking and creative abilities. Alas, these are not traits corporatism wants to encourage in future employees! Unfortunately, my teacher was NOT persuaded by my paper, which I think she graded B-/C+. . .my lowest grade from her all year.
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hina
12/21/2015 11:09:11 am
nice
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janny
1/9/2016 05:51:23 pm
cool idea
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3/9/2016 06:49:19 am
Really nice arts and i read this article and its tell me good info about first grade student thanks for share it .
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AuthorChristina Chang teaches art and design to students in grades 9-12. Burlington Public Schools
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