Test Protection

[Harold Berlak <hberlak@yahoo.com>]

Below is a very different version of an earlier effort I circulated .  
I was aided by  feedback and suggestions from many sources including  
from arn-I and CalCARE correspondents. . . It is still only a single  
- back / front- page long.   Your critical reading is invited.  If  
you want the single sheet  WORD formatted version , email me  
directly. On the subject line please put 'test protection' .

versions in other languages are invited

Harold

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Why a Student and Parent Testing Protection Act?
(And what it should include)

There is a need to protect students, families and communities from  
abusive assessment practices that violate due process, civil rights  
and liberties.


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 (NLCB)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 poor children and children of color[,]  
narrows the curriculum, marginalizing crucial areas of children’s and  
adolescents’ development and growth. Among the casualties are music,  
the performing and graphic arts, bilingual education, 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 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. Forbid governments  
from imposing punitive consequences on students or schools; protect  
students 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.

JULY  2007. May be reproduced or posted without prior permission.  
Source: Harold Berlak hberlak@yahoo.com