Re: what can be next steps in battle over grad and promo tests?

[ABurke5054@aol.com]

In a message dated 6/9/2006 12:45:02 PM Pacific Standard Time,  
monty@fairtest.org writes:

The most important question is what can now be done to counter the  steadily, 
though not rapidly, increasing use of grade promo and graduation  tests, and 
to roll back their use. ,,,. But assuming we do not want to quit the field, we 
need to ask  ourselves, how, at this time, do we best contribute to winning 
more than the  right to appeals (useful as that can be, both for itself and as 
a persistent  reminder that the test is not always right)? 

_____________________________________________________
Why is countering the use of promotion and graduation tests most  important?  
And to whom is it most important?  If it's true, for  example, what the 
Harvard Civil Rights Project says -- that the average  African-American 12th grader 
achieves at the level of the average White 8th  grader -- then it seems to me 
that the quality of tests or the ways  they are used are way, way down on the 
list of what is  important to African-American parents and students and to 
the society of  which they are a part.
 
Tests don't have the magically controlling and destructive properties that  
FairTest claims and fixing them or getting around them are far from the most  
pressing educational problems facing parents, kids,  and schools.  If you want 
to continue to focus your  mission on fighting graduation and promotion tests, 
go for it, but  don't expect many others to go along for the ride and when 
they don't,  don't pretend that the reason is that you are "out-resourced."  The 
reason  is that you are not at all where the real needs of parents, kids, and 
schools  are.  Instead of fighting rearguard actions agains graduation and  
promotion tests, a more constructive focus would be on making sure that kids 
get  the help they need.  When they do everybody wins.   Build bridges from test 
results to help for kids, instead of burning them  down.       
 
Art