Testing Mania and Testing Abuse, from Ed in the Apple

[Monty Neill <monty@fairtest.org>]

http://mets2006.wordpress.com/2012/01/03/testing-mania-and-testing-abuse-when-will-we-realize-that-testing-gone-wild-does-not-a-better-school-system-make/ 



 Testing Mania and Testing Abuse: When Will We Realize That Testing
 Gone Wild Does Not a Better School System Make.

Posted on January 3, 2012 
<http://mets2006.wordpress.com/2012/01/03/testing-mania-and-testing-abuse-when-will-we-realize-that-testing-gone-wild-does-not-a-better-school-system-make/> 
| 1 Comment 
<http://mets2006.wordpress.com/2012/01/03/testing-mania-and-testing-abuse-when-will-we-realize-that-testing-gone-wild-does-not-a-better-school-system-make/#comments> 


In the world of sports teams win or lose and millions of dollars are on 
the line. A winning team means bowl games and fan/alumni support. In the 
private sector profit equals rising stock prices. In the world of 
education success or failure is determined by student test scores on 
standardized tests.

For decades students in one elementary grade and one middle school grade 
were tested in English and Mathematics and high school students either 
by an exit exam or graduation rates.

It all changed in 2002.

No Child Left Behind (NCLB), a federal statute, required testing in 
grades 3-8 each year. States set goals called Adequate Yearly Progress 
(See US Dept of Ed guidelines here 
<http://www2.ed.gov/policy/elsec/guid/secletter/020724.html>) and 
failure to reach AYP goals results in Schools in Need of Improvement 
(SINI) status and eventually direct state intervention.

The carrot (or, according to your politics, pieces of silver) dangled 
billions in the Race to the Top competition and forced states to 
institute teacher evaluation regulations that required the use of 
student achievement data -- ignoring the growing research that student 
achievement data massaged by a value-added algorithm is a flawed system 
for teacher assessment.. (See Linda Darling-Hammond and others 
researchers here <http://gse.berkeley.edu/admin/events/docs/epaa.pdf>)

After a testing schedule kerfuffle that resulted in the firing of the 
NYS Director of Testing the State Education Department released new 
testing dates and hours of testing. Test days were increased from five 
to six and the testing time increased for each day. The additional 
questions are required to validate test items for future exams, not for 
student assessment.

Two or so years down the road the 24-state coalition, Partnership for 
Assessment of Readiness for College and Career (PARCC) 
assessmentswill  replace current state assessments. New York State 
belongs to the consortium that will administer four, that right four 
tests a year in grades 3-11 in the range of content areas (see chart 
detailing plans here 
<http://www.ets.org/s/commonassessments/pdf/PARCC_illustration.pdf>)

As test mania engulfs our education system the highest functioning 
education systems in the world -- Finland and South Korea and Singapore 
give scant attention to testing, except as a gateway to post secondary 
education.(See descriptions of the Finnish education system here 
<http://www.businessinsider.com/finland-education-school-2011-12#> 
andhere 
<http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/13/education/from-finland-an-intriguing-school-reform-model.html?pagewanted=all>). 
And, BTW, Finnish teachers are wholly unionized and have a 200-page 
contract -- longer than the UFT contract.

The PARCC website <http://www.parcconline.org/>  lauds the upcoming 
testing regimen,

/PARCC is a 24-state consortium working together to develop 
next-generation K-12 assessments in English and math. /*/PARCC benefits:/*

*/Students /*/who will know if they are on track to graduate ready for 
college and careers/

/T/*/eachers /*/with regular results available to guide learning and 
instruction/

*/Parents /*/with clear and timely information about the progress of 
their children/

/S/*/tates /*/with valid results that are comparable across the member 
states/

*/The nation /*/as it is based on college- and career-ready, 
internationally-benchmarked CCSS./

With Acuity 
<http://www.ctb.com/ctb.com/control/productFamilyViewAction?productFamilyId=444&p=products>  
the McGraw-Hill interim testing tool and other predictive assessments 
teachers are overwhelmed with data -- data that tells them what they 
already know. Some students struggle -- what Acuity or the 
PARCC assessments don't divine is how you make Juan and Mary do their 
homework, read at home, pay attention and make progress. PARCC 
assessments won't make parents more involved in their children's education.

In June, 2006 Senator Obama said,

/"There's a saying in Illinois I learned when I was down in a lot of 
rural communities. They said, 'Just weighing a pig doesn't fatten it.' 
You can weigh it all the time, but it's not making the hog fatter./

/"So the point being, if all we're doing is testing and then teaching to 
the test, that doesn't assure that we're actually improving educational 
outcomes./

/"We do need to have accountability, however. We do need to measure 
progress with our kids./

/"Maybe it's just one standardized test, plus portfolios of work that 
kids are doing, plus observing the classroom./

Unfortunately President Obama didn't listen to Senator Obama.

Test mania is running wild.

Although the PARCC website is silent on the question of the use of new 
assessments to evaluate and remunerate teachers you better bet that 
testing is irrevocably tied to teacher assessment. Just because you're 
paranoid doesn't mean people aren't plotting against you!!

Have hope.

Somewhere in some laboratory a wonky scientist is finishing up work on a 
knowledge chip that can be stapled into a kid's earlobe and download 
learnings day by day and some venture capitalist is figuring out how to 
monetize the chip.

Or, maybe, just maybe, we'll learn from the Finns.


--
Monty Neill, Ed.D.; Executive Director, FairTest; P.O. Box 300204, 
Jamaica Plain, MA 02130; 617-477-9792; http://www.fairtest.org; Donate 
to FairTest: https://secure.entango.com/donate/MnrXjT8MQqk