Re: Test Protection (revised)

[aburke5054@aol.com]

You can't have it both ways - you can't have government schools without 
government.  This should be dawning on you by now.

Art

-----Original Message-----
From: Harold Berlak <hberlak@yahoo.com>
To: arn-l@interversity.org
Sent: Mon, 14 Apr 2008 12:24 pm
Subject: Re: [arn-l] Test Protection (revised)


Protecting Students, Parents, and Communities from Test Abuse


Problem

Many students are being denied promotion, access to programs and 
schools, and barred from receiving high school diplomas or graduation 
certificates based solely or primarily on standardized test scores.  
These students are disproportionately poor, of color and from immigrant 
families whose home language is not English. Large numbers of competent 
students, including exceptionally talented students, and students with 
learning disabilities do not perform well on conventional standardized 
tests.


Problem

One consequence of No Child Left Behind  (NCLB) and state testing 
requirements is that schools and programs may be ‘restructured’ or 
dismantled based solely or primarily on standardized test scores. 
Numerous exemplary schools and programs have been closed or are under 
threat of closure.


Problem

The pressures on schools to raise standardized test scores particularly 
those that serve the poor, recent immigrants, and children of color 
narrows the curriculum, marginalizing crucial areas of children’s and 
adolescents’ development and growth. Among the major casualties are 
music, the performing and graphic arts, bilingual education, social 
studies, community internships, citizenship education, fitness and 
health education.


Problem

NCLB Act’s Reading First provisions are being used to dictate to 
states, school districts, and teachers how reading should be taught. 
Currently the US Department of Education approves funding for materials 
and programs that meet the government’s interpretation of the term 
‘scientifically based’. Federal approval of Reading First grant 
applications has become thoroughly politicized and corrupted. The head 
of the Reading First program was forced to resign after the Inspector 
General and a Congressional committee found gross violations of the 
USOE’s guidelines by Reading First officials who approved purchase of 
highly structured phonics reading programs and materials favored or 
produced by corporations and corporate executives who are major 
contributors to political campaigns.


Problem

School officials rarely inform parents or students of their legal 
rights with respect to testing and assessment. Information about 
available exemptions, test content, technical specifications, and 
methods of analyzing and reporting test results are often withheld from 
students, parents and the public. When parents or students attempt to 
challenge testing procedures and results, they are often denied access 
to information from test producers and government officials.



Proposed Parent and Student Testing Protections



1. Require an Educational Impact Report prior to the imposition of a 
system of high stakes assessment or a particular method of assessment 
by a governing authority. The report should address the immediate and 
longer-term effects on students, schools, and local communities 
(disaggregated by race, gender, and family wealth), and to assess the 
human and material resources required to fulfill the assessment 
requirements. Assessment goals or standards may not be instituted or 
modified if the resources required for meeting these standards are not 
provided by the government jurisdiction that set the standards.



2.  Prohibit the use of standardized tests as the sole or primary basis 
for determining promotion, student access to advanced programs or 
schools, and the awarding of certificates or diplomas. 
Non-standardized, qualitative modes of assessment must be available to 
students or particular groups of students whose education is better 
served by alternatives to standardized forms of testing and assessment.



3.  Prohibit the disestablishment or restructuring of a school or 
program within a school based solely or primarily on rankings of 
students on standardized tests. All standardized tests mandated for 
assessing individual, and institutional performance must be 
independently verified as meeting accepted national professional 
standards



4.  Grant parents the right to exempt their children from tests and 
assessments they deem harmful or inappropriate.  Prohibit governments 
from imposing punitive consequences on students or schools regardless 
of the percentage of students or parents within a school who have 
exercised their right to be exempted from taking a particular test or 
set of tests.



5.  Prohibit government officials and agencies from mandating school 
curriculum, setting local priorities or prescribing specific curriculum 
content and pedagogical methods. The determination of what constitutes 
appropriate practice should reside with teachers, local educational 
authorities, and communities While federal, state governments, and 
local educational authorities (LEAs) have the authority and 
responsibility to set general guidelines and standards, this may not be 
construed as granting governments the authority to direct teachers how 
to teach or mandate the specific body of skills and content that meet 
the broadly stated curriculum goals, guidelines, and/or standards. 
Government requirements for ‘efficacious’ or ‘scientifically-based’ 
materials and approaches may not be construed as granting government 
the authority to override the public interest, local community, parent, 
and student prerogatives by declaring what does and does not count as 
scientific truth.  It is an affront to the democratic commitment to an 
open society to grant elected or appointed public officials at any 
level the power to serve as the final arbiter of what is accepted as 
scientific truth.



 6.  Require transparency. Teachers and school officials should be 
required to fully inform students and families of their testing and 
assessment rights, the right to know in advance the competencies and/or 
the area or areas of knowledge the assessments cover; the technical 
specifications and limitations of assessments; standard error of 
measurement; on whom and how the tests were normed or scaled; and how 
cut scores or proficiency levels were established. When assessments are 
used for promotion, eligibility for a program or award of a diploma, 
parents and students should have the right to due process and prompt 
redress of grievances including access to test questions and answers.



May be revised, forwarded or posted  w/o permission  Source: Harold 
Berlak hberlak@yahoo.com 
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