Model Local Testing Op. Ed.

[Bob Schaeffer <bobschaeffer@earthlink.net>]

A very good job covering both local and national testing issues in 
easy-to-understand language

IT'S TIME TO SCRAP THE CSAP
Fort Collins Now Op. Ed. -- March 11, 2008
by Eric Fried

Last week my children came home with the annual notice about their 
school's upcoming Colorado Student Assessment Program (CSAP) tests, 
which steal valuable time from actual learning over many weeks. The most 
galling part is the recommendation that my kids get a good night's sleep 
and eat a good breakfast, so they can perform well on the tests. Since 
we don't get a notice to send them to school rested and well fed on 
normal school days, school administrators are telling us that testing 
matters more than learning.

Although the CSAP's predate the federal No Child Left Behind law, 
they've been folded into that wrong-headed national regimen of “teaching 
to the test” in the name of accountability. These standardized tests 
don't actually test students (we have plenty of better tests for that), 
they test their schools, and the penalty for failure can be 
institutional death. Therefore, nothing is more important to schools 
than doing well on CSAP's, and if frills like recess, foreign languages, 
art and music have to be kicked to the curb to allow more time for test 
prep, so be it.

What's wrong with CSAP's? Let me count the ways:

- This one-size-fits-all unfunded federal mandate focuses on rote 
memorization, superficial knowledge, and test-taking skills, rather than 
concept integration, reasoning strategies, and critical thinking. Is 
this really what we want the next generation to learn in this complex, 
changing world?

- Standardized test results are closely linked to socioeconomic factors. 
The bigger the parents' homes, the higher the scores. The more kids 
getting free school lunches, and the more with language barriers, the 
lower the scores. Poor kids going to underfunded schools do worse, but 
instead of their schools being helped with more resources, their schools 
face closure if low scores continue.

- CSAP and similar tests are not improving student performance, 
according to the National Center for Fair and Open Testing. However, the 
soul-deadening effects of these tests is driving more teachers from the 
profession and increasing student dropout rates.

No wonder a 2007 Gallup poll shows only one in four Americans believe No 
Child Left Behind is helping their schools, while the rest feel it is 
either hurting or has no effect. More states, school districts and 
congressional reps are demanding an end to (or major reform of) this law.

There's good reason for this growing skepticism: No Child Left Behind's 
real agenda was never to help, but to destroy public schools. Failing 
schools can have their plug pulled and converted to charter schools, 
with great political impetus given to the movement for school vouchers. 
Vouchers will help dissolve the great social glue of our democratic 
system—the unifying idea of free public education for all—and open the 
door for direct tax subsidies to religious and private schools, thereby 
demolishing the wall separating church and state and turning education 
into a marketable commodity.

Who has benefited from this bait-and-switch law? Consider the case of 
McGraw-Hill, publisher of textbooks and test materials, including the 
CSAPs. Their company profits were $49 million in 1993 (before CSAP's), 
but soared to over $300 million in one decade. CEO Harold McGraw III 
bragged, “Today's reform movement has been propelled from the beginning 
by powerful political and economic interests.” Another winner in the 
high-stakes curriculum/testing landscape is the much smaller Ignite! 
Learning, whose hyper-expensive Curriculum on Wheels (COW) modules do 
not meet rigorous Congressional standards, but are spreading nationwide 
nonetheless. I'm sure it's purely coincidental that Ignite! is run by 
First Brother Neil Bush, last seen looting Colorado taxpayers of $1.6 
billion in the Silverado Savings and Loan scandal.

Help stop this madness. Call your Congresswoman. Go to the Coalition for 
Better Education Web site at www.thecbe.org <http://www.thecbe.org> to 
download a CSAP opt-out form, and give it to your child's teacher or 
principal. Our children are unique, creative creatures, not McNuggets, 
and they need to be inspired, not standardized.

Eric Fried is peeling the UPC labels off his children's heads at 
eric@pvgreens.org <mailto:eric@pvgreens.org>

http://www.fortcollinsnow.com/article/20080311/GUEST/106173654