If test scores are the measure of education (and I don’t think they are or that they should be), then our present course of “reform” is a bust.
This is what FAIRTest had to say about the ACT scores, released today:
STAGNANT ACT RESULTS, GROWING RACIAL SCORE GAPS
MORE EVIDENCE THAT TEST-BASED SCHOOL “REFORM” IS ON WRONG TRACK;
“WHY ARE POLICY-MAKERS DOUBLING DOWN ON A FAILED STRATEGY?”
Flat ACT college admissions exam scores released today show, “The nation’s decade-long fixation on high-stakes testing as the primary tool to boost academic performance and narrow learning gaps is a sweeping, expensive failure,” according to FairTest, the National Center for Fair & Open Testing. ACT results, which claim to measure college readiness, are unchanged over the past five years. The test score gap between racial groups has risen slightly in the same period, according to ACT data.
“Rational policy-makers would look at the evidence and change course,” said FairTest public education director Bob Schaeffer. “Yet, instead of abandoning what is clearly the wrong track for improving U.S. schools, policy-makers are actually putting more weight on standardized tests.” Recent U.S. Department of Education waivers of the controversial “No Child Left Behind” (NCLB) law require states to use tests for more high-stakes purposes, including evaluating teachers. Many states have also increased standardized exam requirements.”
Schaeffer, concluded, “Why are policy-makers doubling down on a failed strategy? How much more data do they need to understand this approach is not working?”
Reports by the National Research Council of the National Academy of Sciences and other experts have also concluded that high-stakes testing programs have not raised student achievement. Results from the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) confirm that academic improvement has slowed under NCLB.
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2012 COLLEGE BOUND SENIORS AVERAGE ACT SCORES
Approximately 1.66 million test takers
COMPOSITE SCORE FIVE-YEAR SCORE TREND
(2008 – 2012)
ALL TEST-TAKERS 21.1 0.0
Asian 23.6 + 0.7
White 22.4 + 0.3
African-American 17.0 + 0.1
American Indian 18.4 – 0.6
Hispanic 18.9 + 0.2
source: ACT, The Condition of College & Career Readiness 2012
Now that the deformers have wormed their way into college entrance exam companies and college board rooms, the reported results on these ACT/SAT/etc. exams will most assuredly start to reflect great progress as the first Common Core graduates move through the system.
The more conversations I have about the entire “reform” movement, the more convinced I am that it’s really about disbanding teacher unions so that the majority of education programs will eventually be part of a private industry thus paving the way for the privatizing of all public systems.
The evidence just keeps mounting to show that standardized testing is a flawed way to judge the efficacy of the public schools, and the mere fact that charters and private/parochial schools do not have the same “rigorous” standards as public schools points to the idea that “standards” are not really important at all to the reformers who push for these kinds of alternate schools.
Utilizing standardized tests that the reformers know are flawed is a tactic to devalue the people who teach in public schools so that they can be fired and a private interest can take over.
It’s as if these policy-makers have found a way to rig the game: Create new rules that make for impossible goals and then watch a good system that serves the public fail under these new rules. They have set up the game so that the players will fail no matter what–IF you believe the rules are sound.
It’s pretty evident that the main goal is to disband two of the largest public unions in the country using children as pawns. Once the AFT and the NEA are toppled, so they must think, the rest will follow, and the privatization of public systems in America will ensue.
I would not put it past our policy-makers to be trying to sell the public a bill of goods by pretending they care about the children at all, when in reality, they care about getting rid of union teachers and privatizing education so their buddies can “invest” and continually get rich.
This isn’t about parent choice (unless legal segregation is what they’re after), this isn’t about success, and this isn’t about getting rid of “bad” teachers. It’s about getting rid of unions and privatizing. To me, the evidence points to these intentions no matter how anyone else wants to spin it.
I have another question about testing: Why, in the Common Core and many state testing regimens, is there so little focus on history and social studies? I do not think the only goals for our students are “college and career.” We must also prepare our young people for citizenship. I have 8th graders who don’t know what World War II was about, or the Civil Rights Movement, or the Cold War. Some cannot accurately identify states or the three branches of government. I find this very troubling.
I agree that there is little focus on teaching students to be informed voters and productive citizens. I also find it troubling that social studies has been swept under the rug.
That being said, it seems that the “solution” to this problem is to also make social studies a tested subject. The social studies teachers I know, and I am one of them, do not want to be pigeon-holed into this testing regime.
I am not saying other subjects DO want to participate in the farce of endless standardized testing, mind you. It just seems that social studies teachers are uniquely positioned to fight against these tests. We do not have “an oar” in, so to speak, but are still considered a “core” subject. We teach citizenship, which is (or used to be) one of the main purposes of public education. Our subject is being insanely cut to the point that students do not know about the subjects Middle school teacher listed above.
What can we do to fight against this? I have done as much as I know how, and I’m sure others have as well. What else needs to be done?
I absolutely do not believe we should add more subjects to the list of tested subjects. I completely agree with your comments. I do feel that the limited number of areas tested tends to shed light on how limited the “reformers” view of education has become. Our students NEED history and social studies; it is definitely a core subject. I am afraid that it will not get the attention it deserves because in the bizarre world of the “reformers” it has less importance than tested subjects. I have already seen some elementary schools cut back on social studies to spend more time doing test prep. Within my own area, Language Arts, I see a narrowing as well. We are being told that literature is not as important as nonfiction texts. The current testing scheme in Connecticut already places significantly more weight on informational and other nonfiction passages over literary ones. My fear is that an education that is narrow does a great disservice to our young people. When my students read Of Mice and Men we talk at length about the Great Depression. That way the true power of Steinbeck can be experienced. Thank you for your comments and for fighting the good fight!
By the way, thank you Diane for your leadership and this blog. It is a great source of support and insight!
Re ccss: i think they just haven’t rolled out the other subject areas yet. Re ACT scores: if I remember correctly that these are like the SAT, taken by students as part of college admission, then they can’t be used as an indicator of anything since they’re taken only by a selected population, not a random or universal one.
Let’s hope they leave the other subjects alone
Social studies is included in the appendix of the ELA standards, but we don’t have our “own” CCSS yet, and I hope we never do!
Sandra, sadly Louisiana has now added the ACT test to high school accountability. All high school students in Louisiana will be required to take the ACT and I believe the minimum score of 19 is required in order to be counted for the official School Performance Score. This is the score that is used to rate schools as failing vs high performing using criteria such as graduation rates, performance on end of course tests, ACT, etc. the ACT was never intended for this use. It has always been used for college entrance criteria. Leave it to Louisiana to come up with such a ridiculous use of this test!
Also, Louisiana includes social studies and science in our state high stakes tests for elementary and middle school.