Fwd: [arn2-strategy] Ore. students set to get grad test choice

[Susan Harman <susanharman@igc.org>]

Begin forwarded message:

  From: "Monty Neill" <monty@fairtest.org>

  Date: Mon Jun 23, 2008 4:14:22 PM US/Eastern

  To: "arn2-strategy" <arn2-strategy@yahoogroups.com>, "ARN-L"
  <arn-l@interversity.org>, <ARN-state@yahoogroups.com>,
  <ndsgroup@yahoogroups.com>

  Subject: [arn2-strategy] Ore. students set to get grad test choice

  Reply-To: arn2-strategy@yahoogroups.com

  Some excellent quotes in this article. Comment on PA however is misleading:
  in PA, state wants to impose simple a choice of 2 tests - the third option to
  be available in OR is missing. In any event, the more reasonable approach
  would be to devise means to ensure that course grades demonstrate reasonable
  amounts of learning, to hold the state accountable for providing the
  resources students need to do well, and then to decide if various sorts of
  additional projects make sense. The OR approach is more in terms of
  distrusting grades, not checking the system, then imposing some choices on
  top of coursework. It is certainly better in the range of tests. Finally, how
  can Ed Trust claim with a straight face that it "advocates for poor and
  minority youth" when it proposes policies that throw tens of thousands of
  youths on the street for no known gain (note Warren quote at end of article).
  Monty
  PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — When Oregon education officials set out to devise a
  graduation testing requirement for high school students, they looked to other
  states for inspiration — on what not to do.

  In neighboring California, dropout rates soared the first year the state
  required high schoolers to pass a test to get their diploma. In Texas, 40,000
  disgruntled students were dispatched to summer school in 2007 after not
  passing the state test. And in Washington state, lawmakers simply canceled
  plans to require exiting students to pass a single, comprehensive math test,
  after fears surfaced that thousands wouldn't measure up.

  "We didn't think any one test should determine whether someone gets a
  diploma," said Duncan Wyse, vice chairman of the Oregon Board of Education.

  So board members chose a different route. This week, they approved a a plan
  that lets students pick from three options: a national test, state
  assessments or a local version, such as a student portfolio, to show colleges
  and employers they have mastered reading, writing, applied math and speaking
  skills. Passage on any one of the three, along with fulfilling course
  requirements, would guarantee a diploma.

  The plan makes Oregon one of several states moving past the
  "one-size-fits-all" high-stakes testing that became commonplace in many U.S.
  high schools in the 1990s. In Pennsylvania, the Board of Education is
  considering a three-pronged approach similar to Oregon's plan, while in
  Maryland, students who can't pass the state tests could be allowed to do a
  senior project instead.

  But some say such choices allow some students — and states — to take the easy
  way out.

  Daria Hall, assistant director for K-12 policy at Education Trust, a
  Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit that advocates for poor and minority
  children, points to New Jersey, where up to 80% of students at high schools
  in poor cities like Newark and Camden receive alternative diplomas after not
  passing the state tests. The number falls to about 3% in wealthy areas like
  Princeton, N.J., she said.

  In most states, she said, the exit exams test skills students learned in
  ninth and tenth grades. That's basic enough, she said, that there should be
  no need for the safety net of alternate assessments, which can be put in
  place for political cover.

  "These young people want to walk across the stage with their friends and
  their classmates," she said. "But why isn't there the same level of outrage
  that students were not able to pass these basic competency assessments in the
  first place?"

  Oregon school board members, though, say they'll work hard to ensure that the
  local option, with local teachers judging their own students, doesn't become
  an easy way out.

  "We will provide a common scoring guide, and review students' work to make
  sure there is consistency," with periodic spot-checks, Wyse said.

  The trend is definitely moving away from a single, high-stakes test, said
  Jack Jennings, president of the Center for Education Policy in Washington,
  D.C., especially in states that have long traditions of local control for
  school districts.

  There's also the No Child Left Behind factor, he noted. That's the Bush
  administration's education reform law, which has required yearly testing from
  grades 3-8 and in grade 10, with consequences for schools where enough
  students don't make progress. The law is unpopular with many teachers and
  principals, and has sparked a backlash against testing that didn't exist a
  decade or so ago when most states were considering exit exams, he said.

  That's not to say that high stakes tests are totally out of fashion.
  Twenty-three states required the class of 2008 to pass tests to graduate from
  high school. Most states give students multiple chances to take the tests and
  many, including California, have set aside millions of dollars to pay for
  remedial coursework aimed at getting more students to pass the tests.

  Still, John Warren, an associate professor of sociology at the University of
  Minnesota, who has done extensive research on exit exams, said his research
  has proved few tangible benefits and suggested that testing requirements will
  result in more dropouts.

  "There is no empirical evidence about whether alternate formats will result
  in better outcomes than one-size-fits-all," he said. "Unless there are
  additional resources for things like summer school, you are still relying on
  motivation alone."

  Copyright 2008 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may
  not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
  
  Monty Neill, Ed.D.

  Deputy Director

  FairTest

  342 Broadway

  Cambridge, MA 02139

  617-864-4810 x 101;  fax 617-497-2224

  monty@fairtest.org

  http://www.fairtest.org

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