From: Bob Schaeffer <bobschaeffer@earthlink.net>
Date: Sat Apr 28, 2007 6:19:25 AM US/Pacific
To: ARN Main List <arn-l@interversity.org>, arn2-strategy
<arn2-strategy@yahoogroups.com>, ARN State <ARN-state@yahoogroups.com>
Subject: [ARN-state] On-Line Chat -- High-Stakes Testing: Helping or
Hurting? -- Monday, April 30
Reply-To: ARN-state@yahoogroups.com
Live Chat
High-Stakes Testing: Helping or Hurting?
When: Monday, April 30, 1 p.m. to 2 p.m. Eastern time.
Where: Edweek-chat.org
<http://enews.edweek.org/GoNow/a15864a165432a95915577a3>
Submit questions in advance here
<http://enews.edweek.org/GoNow/a15864a165432a95915577a2>.
**************************************************
Please join us on Monday, April 30, at 1 p.m. for a live chat with
Sharon L. Nichols and David C. Berliner, the co-authors of Collateral
Damage: How High-Stakes Testing Corrupts America's Schools, a new book
from the Harvard Education Press.
<>In Collateral Damage, Nichols and Berliner make clear their disdain
for the way tests and 'accountability'ˇ have been imposed. They
repeatedly cite 'Campbell's law,' a social-science law that states that
'the more any quantitative social indicator is used for social
decision-making, the more subject it will be to corruption pressures
and
the more apt it will be to distort and corrupt the social processes it
was intended to monitor."
Nichols and Berliner show why they feel Campbell's law applies in the
case of high-stakes testing, particularly in light of the mandates of
the federal No Child Left Behind Act. They cite instances of teachers
and students being hurt, rather than helped, by the consequences of
testing and of cheating inspired by the pressures to post positive test
results.
Paul Houston, the executive director of the American Association of
School Administrators, calls the book a "must-read' for those concerned
about reform's unintended consequences. "Nichols and Berliner provide a
hard-hitting and thoughtful critique of today's over-reliance on
high-stakes testing,'" he says.
About the Guests:
Sharon Nichols is an assistant professor at the University of Texas at
San Antonio and a consulting editor for the Journal of Experimental
Education.
David Berliner is a Regents' Professor of Education at Arizona State
University.
Background:
For more on their views, read their recent Commentary, High-Stakes
Testing Is Putting the Nation at Risk,ˇ
<http://enews.edweek.org/GoNow/a15864a165432a95915577a1> March 12,
2007.
Ms. Nichols and Mr. Berliner will be online to answer your questions
about testing, reform, and their impact on children.
Submit questions in advance here
<http://www.edweek-chat.org/question.php3#question%20>.
**************************************************
No special equipment other than Internet access is needed to
participate
in this text-based chat. A transcript will be posted shortly after the
completion of the chat.
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