Re: Test protection

[Marilyn Langlois <langlois-rine@comcast.net>]

Harold--
Thanks for sharing this document.  I support all of  your proposals.  Under
item #6 "require transparency", I would strongly urge you to add:

"After the administration of every state mandated test, the test questions
and student answers must be made available to teachers, students and
parents, so that all concerned can see precisely which questions the student
answered correctly and which questions the student answered incorrectly.
This must happen in a timely fashion."

Or something along those lines.  Of course we know that the current tests
and test preps are utterly counterproductive.  And, as a former teacher I
can say (along with many on this list) that a test has absolutely no
pedagogical value if you don't give it back to the students after it's been
graded.  Once people start to see patterns in the item analysis, it will
help the whole thing to fall apart.

Marilyn

> From: Harold Berlak <hberlak@yahoo.com>
> Reply-To: ca-resisters@interversity.org
> Date: Sun, 1 Jul 2007 18:03:41 -0700
> To: CalCare CalCare <ca-resisters@interversity.org>
> Subject: [ca-resisters] Test protection
> 
> 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
> 
> --------------------------------------------------------------------
> 
> 
> 
> 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 ?restructured¹ 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 children¹s and
> adolescents¹ 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 Act¹s 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 government¹s interpretation of
> the term ?scientifically based¹. 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 USOE¹s 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
> ?efficacious¹ or ?scientifically-based¹ 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, forwarded or posted without prior
> permission. Source: Harold Berlak hberlak@yahoo.com
>