Re: Disaster: Rising Test Scores

[George Sheridan <learn@JPS.NET>]

Karen Canty wrote:
Wow...drop by drop, person by person, who knows....the world might
actually change if we have the "left coast" and the Midwest in agreement
about teachers, etc!!!!

Yes, Karen. Yet the ignorant, the foolish and the evil will continue to
oppose us every step of the way. Following is a response to the article
that began this thread. This is from an e-mail newsletter called EIA
Communique, which focuses primarily on reporting negative news about
teacher unions:

Next Argument for Anti-Test Crowd: High Scores Are Bad. The claims that
standardized test scores are overemphasized and that the tests are being
misapplied are arguable, but at least rational, responses to the latest
emphasis on school accountability. But faced with an American public that
seems to be committed to extensive use of standardized tests, opponents are
introducing more radical arguments that cross into the irrational. For some
reason, in the last week a number of columnists decided to take up the
position that higher test scores are not only crowding out a deeper and
more meaningful education, but that they are actually indicators of a
decline in American education. The baldest statement of this idea appeared
in my local newspaper.

In a special column for the Sacramento Bee, Anthony Ralston, professor
emeritus of computer science and mathematics at the State University of New
York at Buffalo, termed rising test scores the "next disaster in American
education." Ralston claims that higher scores reflect "the learning of
particular skills, often unrelated to the further study of mathematics and
often at the expense of a broader curriculum that would really prepare
students for the further study of mathematics." Worst of all, Ralston says,
higher scores "give parents a false sense that the learning of their
children is improving when it is not."

Ralston even embraces the internal logic of his own thesis: "Interestingly,
just as rising test scores are sure to mask deepening problems in American
education, falling test scores may be a good thing although few will
recognize this."
He's got that right. But among those few are the kids themselves, who will
be sure to try out Ralston's theory when they get an "F" on their next math
test. "Really, Mom, it means I'm getting a broad curriculum that will
really prepare me for the further study of mathematics." Mom will readily
accept this reasoning and enroll Junior in the DC Public Schools, whose
abominably low test scores must indicate a veritable Renaissance of true
learning. As Junior considers Harvard, he will attend weekend seminars to
learn techniques of lowering his SAT scores. One method will be to read 30
Days to a More Limited Vocabulary (Publishers' Weekly calls it "double-plus
good!").

Ralston's Law (as it will be later enshrined in college textbooks) will
catch on in other aspects of American life. The Postal Service will hire
only those who can't remember zip codes on its standardized test. The FBI
will hire only those who can't identify suspects on its standardized test.
The state will instead certify lawyers who fail the bar exam. Knowing the
location of molars will disqualify dentists. Contractors' licenses will be
given to those who think "roof" is something a dog says.

The New American Order will culminate in the endowment of the Ralston Chair
for Applied Mathematics at the State University of New York at Bizarro. Me
so happy, me want to cry.

# # #

The Education Intelligence Agency conducts public education research,
analysis and investigations. Director: Mike Antonucci. PO Box 580007, Elk
Grove, CA 95758. Ph: 916-422-4373. Fax: 916-392-1482. E-Mail:
EducationIntel@aol.com

George Sheridan

Hope isn't a choice, it's a moral obligation, a human obligation, an
obligation to the cells in your body....Hope is not naive, hope grapples
endlessly with despair.  Real, vivid, powerful, thunderclap hope, like the
soul, is at home in darkness, is divided; but lose your hope and you lose
your soul....Will the world end if you act? Who can say? Will you lose your
soul . . . if you don't act, if you don't organize? I guarantee it. And you
will feel really embarrassed at your ten-year class reunion.

Tony Kushner, May 26, 2002 commencement speech at Vassar College

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