Newsweek

[Juanita Doyon <Jedoyon@AOL.COM>]

I was good and didn't steal the Newsweek from the Drs. office yesterday.  I 
bought one instead.  Sorry, if I've lost my mind and forgot someone else 
already posted this. In the Aug. 20th edition:

 <A HREF="http://www.msnbc.com/news/612855.asp#BODY";>What Can a Flawed Test 
Tell Us, Anyway?</A> 
http://www.msnbc.com/news/612855.asp#BODY
 
Many of my students won't even try to ace our state's mandated exams this 
year. I can't say I blame them 
 
By Hal Urban
NEWSWEEK 

 THE TEST WASN'T ONE OF MINE. It was part of the agonizing annual ritual that 
is mandated testing. Our school administration does an excellent job of 
working out the logistics of giving the six-day, multisubject test, and our 
teachers monitor it in a professional manner. We do everything we can to 
convince our students that the test is important. “Our scores will appear in 
the newspapers,” we tell them. “The public will judge us by what it sees,” 
we add. And we plead with them to do the best they can. Many do, but too many 
don't even try.   
 Students want to know two things when a teacher announces an assignment: 
“Does it count?,” and if it does, “How much is it worth?” 

         Students want to know two things when a teacher announces an 
assignment: “Does it count?,” and if it does, “How much is it worth?” 
They've grown up in a society that's founded on an incentive-reward system. 
They've been conditioned to ask, “What's in it for me?” In the case of state 
testing, at least in California, the answer is nothing. Test scores do not 
affect a student's grade and they have no bearing on graduation.
        To make matters worse, there are significant problems with the exam 
itself. I read over the test while my kids were taking it, and in a 
discussion afterward many students confirmed my belief that it hadn't 
measured the important things they'd learned in my class. There were 
questions about matters so trivial I hadn't bothered to teach them, questions 
that were poorly written, questions that had two correct answers with 
instructions to choose one. Then there were the questions about facts so 
obscure that I couldn't have answered them.
        One of my students called the test unfair. When I asked her to 
explain, she gave two reasons: “For one thing, we should only be tested on 
what we're taught. For another, there's no way to prepare for this thing.” 
While educators in some states are forced to follow rigid teaching “scripts” 
that cover only tested material, I wasn't given any guidelines. A few weeks 
before the exam, I asked the vice principal if I could obtain a list of 
concepts and facts my students should be familiar with. She said no. The 
reason? If I had the list I would “teach to the test.”
        I guess I've been doing it wrong for the past 35 years. I've always 
taught to the test. Let's say I'm teaching a unit on the Great Depression. I 
give a pretest to find out what my students already know. Then I give them a 
list of facts, terms, people and concepts they should be able to identify or 
explain at the end of the unit. In other words, I let them know what they're 
accountable for. No other system would be fair.
        Another major flaw with the test is that it's based on the assumption 
that “one size fits all.” Research in education theory suggests that 
effective teachers are those who understand their students’ different needs 
and learning styles. In our school there are hundreds of advanced-placement 
students who are headed to the top colleges. There are also hundreds of 
students who are still learning the English language. Why should they all 
take the same test?
        Because I'm active in the character-education movement (the push to 
teach students positive behavior traits as well as academics), I attend 
conferences and speak at schools in more than 20 states each year. It's the 
same everywhere. Educators under scrutiny from the public feel enormous 
pressure to get those test scores up. The days set aside for administering 
mandated tests (along with the accompanying paperwork and schedule changes) 
eat into valuable class time. And all this to give kids a poorly worded test 
that doesn't count? It's no wonder they're exasperated. 
        The politicians, of course, love the testing. They can say they're 
“holding schools accountable.” That has a nice ring to it, but it ignores a 
basic truth: no one test can measure what teachers do 180 days a year. Why 
not employ a more comprehensive method of evaluation—like sending in a panel 
of educators each year to rate academic programs and student progress? After 
all, teachers don't just help students learn facts, we help them learn to 
problem-solve, communicate more effectively and increase their sensitivity 
toward others.
        I think my colleagues and I do a pretty good job in all those areas. 
It's too bad that a standardized test will never show it.
       

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Urban lives in Redwood City, Calif.
       
       © 2001 Newsweek, Inc.
 

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