Re: Disaster: Rising Test Scores

[Karen Canty <kvscanty@PACBELL.NET>]

George,

I got an invitation from EIA to get their newsletter and after I read a
couple, I dropped it because I'm tired of this kind of c---!  Who are
these people anyway and who is supporting the effort?

Karen

-----Original Message-----
From: Assessment Reform Network Mailing List
[mailto:ARN-L@LISTS.CUA.EDU] On Behalf Of George Sheridan
Sent: Monday, December 02, 2002 6:44 PM
To: ARN-L@LISTS.CUA.EDU
Subject: Re: Disaster: Rising Test Scores

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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