Re: Growing Political Backlash to High-Stakes Testing

[CMWUNCHEEL@aol.com]

And then there's VA, where both the Repub. (Geo. "Macacawitz with a ham 
sandwich" Allen) and the "Dem." (Jim "I'm a Dem, no, wait, an R, no, wait, a D"   
Webb) candidates for Senate - in one of the unexpectedly hottest, closest races 
in the country -   LOVE test-based "accountability" - their main disagreement 
being over whether "NCLB" is a problem b/c it conflicts with and is far 
inferior to VA's own FABulous system (Geo. the Giant Pillsbury Doughboy) or b/c 
it's underfunded (Jim the Reagan lover). Sigh.
Roxie


In a message dated 10/23/06 9:34:37 AM, bobschaeffer@earthlink.net writes:


> POLITICAL BACKLASH BUILDS OVER HIGH-STATES TESTING
> Public Support Wanes for Tests Seen as Punitive
> 
> Washington Post -- October 23, 2006
> by Peter Whoriskey
> 
> Lauderhill, Florida -- School exams may be detested by students
> everywhere, but in this state at the forefront of the testing and
> accountability movement in the United States, the backlash against them
> has become far broader, and politically potent.
> 
> The role of the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test, or FCAT, has
> become central to the race to succeed Gov. Jeb Bush (R), with polls
> showing a growing discontent over the exams, which he has championed and
> which are used to determine many aspects of the school system, including
> teacher pay, budgets and who flunks third grade.
> 
> Republican Charlie Crist is offering to push forward with the testing
> regime, but Democrat Jim Davis has condemned what he calls its
> "punitive" nature, arguing that exam pressures have transformed schools
> into "dreary test-taking factories."
> 
> "Couple years ago one of my sons brought this quiz home, and the first
> question was 'What does the FCAT stand for?' " Davis told a meeting of
> clergy here Saturday. "I won't repeat to you what I said because I used
> words I'm teaching my boys not to use. . . . We're going to stop using
> the FCAT to punish children, teachers and schools."
> 
> This election season may be the first in which the growing use of
> high-stakes school testing, embodied in the No Child Left Behind
> legislation, has reached this level of political prominence.
> 
> A similar exam revolt has become a key issue in the race for governor in
> Texas, another state in the vanguard of the testing movement, and the
> issue has roiled the Ohio gubernatorial contest as well.
> 
> High-stakes testing -- using standardized test scores to impose
> consequences affecting teachers and students -- has been embraced widely
> in recent years as a way to hold educators and students accountable for
> their performance. Experts say the movement is one of the most
> significant shifts in U.S. education in decades.
> 
> Texas and Florida were among the states that adopted high-stakes testing
> early, and each has pushed its program beyond what is required in No
> Child Left Behind.
> 
> Advocates say that under the pressure of the exams, students in Florida,
> Texas and elsewhere have shown significant improvements. The testing
> systems include the public release of schools' results and test-based
> financial incentives for educators, and determine which third-graders
> can be promoted and which high school students can graduate.
> 
> But teachers unions and some parents groups have argued that an
> overemphasis on the tests has reduced education to rote drills and
> needlessly heightened stresses on elementary students, and that the
> reported test gains have been illusory, overstated or short-lived.
> 
> Many opponents say they do not object to the testing but to the high
> stakes attached to the results, which they say force schools to develop
> a myopic curriculum focused on the test.
> 
> In Florida, as many as 14 percent of 200,000 public school third-graders
> in some years have been held back, most for failing to make an adequate
> score on the reading test.
> 
> In Texas, an inspector general is investigating possible cheating and
> other testing irregularities at almost 700 schools.
> 
> While many past education debates have dissolved into intangible issues
> of school finance, the testing critics believe that the issue may sway
> larger numbers of voters because the tests are having such pronounced
> and immediate effects on children.
> 
> "We have third-grade children who have been retained so many times they
> are wearing brassieres in the third grade," said Florida state Sen.
> Frederica Wilson, one of the leaders of the anti-testing movement here.
> 
> "When parents are dealing with children vomiting on the morning of the
> tests and seeing other signs of test stress, they're going to be
> motivated at the voting booth," said Gloria Pipkin, the president of a
> testing watchdog group, the Florida Coalition for Assessment Reform.
> "Texas and Florida are the poster children for excessive testing, and
> we're seeing an enormous backlash."
> 
> Polls are also registering growing voter discontent over tests.
> 
> A Zogby International poll for the Miami Herald last month showed that
> 61 percent of voters disagreed with grading and funding schools based on
> their test scores, and almost half said schools were allocating too much
> time for test preparation. A poll by the Florida Times-Union and the
> South Florida Sun-Sentinel showed similar results.
> 
> In Texas, a survey drafted by two polling firms, one Democratic and one
> Republican, and paid for by the Texas State Teachers Association,
> indicated that 56 percent of voters thought there was too much emphasis
> on state testing in their schools.
> 
> A national poll by a pro-testing group, the Teaching Commission, showed
> that 52 percent of respondents thought that standardized tests do not
> accurately measure student achievement; 35 percent thought they do.
> 
> "Our kids should be leading the world, and they're not going to get
> there by filling in little ovals all day long," Chris Bell, the
> Democratic challenger for Texas governor, says in a television ad.
> 
> Gov. Rick Perry, however, is sticking to the program.
> 
> "I won't dismiss the idea that there are a lot of folks out there --
> maybe a large number -- who don't like testing," said Robert Black, a
> spokesman for Perry. "But the governor has never been one to follow
> polls. If you want to hold schools accountable and make sure they are
> learning, you have to test."
> 
> Opposition to the tests has been building over several years.
> 
> At first, Wilson said, opposition was considered a "minority issue"
> because many of the students being held back in third grade or denied
> diplomas were African American or Hispanic. But with children in many
> schools taking on more homework and rote drills, she said, enough
> parents have complained that the candidates "could see that the FCAT was
> devastating Florida families."
> 
> Crist, who as Florida education commissioner supported the pro-testing
> agenda of the Bush administration, began the race offering to move ahead
> with the program. But more recently, noting that the test has become "a
> pejorative," he has indicated that his position on testing is more flexible.
> 
> The polls aside, Crist sees support for the FCAT.
> 
> "Residents across the state have said that the FCAT is making a
> difference," according to Erin Isaac, deputy press secretary for the
> Crist campaign, in response to e-mailed questions. "Charlie Crist
> believes that if we don't measure every student's progress every year,
> we don't care."
> 
> His opponent expressed a different view. "Parents in this state are
> outraged," Davis said Saturday. "They're seeing the rote drills and the
> pressure. But they're not seeing their children learn."
> 
>     
> http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/22/AR20061022009
> 98.htm
> 
> ------------------------------------------------
> Direct list questions to listmom@interversity.net
> 
>