On my trip to the Midwest this past week, I met the superintendents of 86 districts in Michigan who belong to the Tri-County Alliance, which enrolls almost half the children in the state. Every one I spoke to (and I had a private dinner with a dozen leaders of the group) told me of the state’s efforts to destroy public education and to create a free market of schools, where schools compete for “customers” (students). One of the members is already on the Honor Roll as a hero of public education, but as I looked around the room, I saw many potential members, because every one of those superintendents is a fighter for public education.
A reader sent this article written by another superintendent in Michigan, Rod Rock.
For speaking out against the misuse of testing, Rod Rock joins the Honor Roll of heroes of public education.
Stop using the MEAP test
Rod Rock
October 18, 2012
Over a period of three weeks each October, tens of thousands of Michigan’s school-aged children sit in their seats for several hours each day taking the MEAP tests. In these three weeks, teachers virtually stop teaching and kids stop learning. Three to five months later, the State of Michigan returns the results to schools and ranks them to determine teacher effectiveness, school effectiveness, principal effectiveness and per-pupil funding levels. All of this information is then reported to the press, and schools that do not achieve a designated level of advancement/achievement receive sanctions.
As a superintendent of schools, I am troubled that a single assessment carries this much weight. I am troubled that such young children are subject to long interruptions in their learning. I am troubled that this assessment is multiple-choice based and inconsistent with the philosophy of learning in our schools.
Even before the first #2 pencil is sharpened, the first test booklet is opened and the first instructions read to students by a teacher, I can tell you the results. I can tell you that the tests do not truly reflect the quality of learning in a school. I can tell you that a test score alone is not a reflection of the quality of the teacher. These tests will verify for us what we already know: Kids who come from middle- to high-income homes will do well on the MEAP. Kids whose parents have a bachelor’s degree or higher will meet achievement targets on the MEAP. Kids whose mothers can read well will demonstrate proficiency on the MEAP.
We already know the results. Why stop student learning and spend tens of millions of dollars to verify what we already know? We are already assessing our students’ learning on a regular basis and we are already providing support for students who struggle. The tests provide no useful information to teachers, largely because it takes three to five months to get the results.
I say we stop the MEAP and use more authentic measures to assess teacher, principal, school and school district effectiveness. I say that communities work across governmental, private and not-for-profit sectors to intervene shortly after conception on behalf of kids. I say that we offer parenting classes, child nutrition classes, and that every child is enrolled in a high quality preschool program. I say that we do not wait until the results of the tests come back or until the state tells schools they have not reached performance targets. I say we do it now in every community across Michigan. A switch from the current remediation/intervention model to a prevention model would prevent the proliferation of factors that largely determine scores on tests, such as poverty and learning disabilities. Eventually, a prevention system will alleviate failure, dropouts, special education and even prison time.
When educational policy one day reflects research instead of politics, our public schools will become authentic reflections of organic learning, and we will no longer need standardized tests to measure students’ knowledge or potential. Instead, the ability to think will emanate authentically from every child we educate.
We won’t be able to turn them off from telling us what they know and how they know it, and test scores will reflect it.
Rod Rock is superintendent of Clarkston Public Schools.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Any ideas when this might occur? I couldn’t have said it any better.
When educational policy one day reflects research instead of politics, our public schools will become authentic reflections of organic learning, and we will no longer need standardized tests to measure students’ knowledge or potential. Instead, the ability to think will emanate authentically from every child we educate.
Probably when we are mad enough to forget that we are afraid of the sanctions.
I made a presentation to the Middle Cities Education Association, an association of mostly urban superintendents, last summer.The bottom line of the talk was that “although some of you love the Mackinac Center’s anti-union work, they don’t love you either.” Public schools are the ultimate target, and school administrators are just getting clued-in to this fact.
A blog post I wrote on this last May, and tied it to the broader sources of this attack: http://bloggingformichigan.com/2012/05/18/why-are-public-schools-under-attack/
I feel like Bill Gates is Lord Voldemort, and you are Harry Potter. ; ) Maureen
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I prefer a Lord of the Rings analogy. Gates is Sauron, we know he wants the ring of power, we just haven’t found it yet. Mordor is all around us, but our courage will not fail regardless of the horde against us. Our era of education will not end without a fight, the truth is on our side. I do wish Frodo would hurry up with the ring though.
I exempted from fifth-grade son from the MEAP for all the reasons Mr. Rock mentions. Any Michigan parent can do the same with a signed paper letter to the principal.
Diane Ravitch,
Please don’t christen Rod Rock as a saint or as a member of the “Honor Roll of heroes of public education”. You don’t know enough about him to determine that. Please look into people further before calling people “heroes of public education”.
I believe that Rod Rock believes that the MEAP should not be used for several reasons. I believe that the key reason is that he does not want his performance to be measured on the MEAP scores of the students in his district because the changes to the district’s operations under his “management” (term used loosely) have resulted in LOWER MEAP scores after increases previously.
Rod Rock has attempted to put the taxpayers of the school district into an untenable over-taxation situation to provide unproven teaching methods and tools to the students. I believe that he intends to provide his unproven methods and tools to the school district, put his “successes at providing bleeding edge tools” on his resume and go on to another (higher paying) job elsewhere, leaving the district bankrupt and the taxpayers holding the bag. That does not make him a hero.
I don’t put much stock in the rise or fall of test scores. Neither should you. They are a good barometer of socioeconomic status.
Diane,
Do you believe that the socioeconomic statuses of most of the students of Rod Rock’s district have gone down in the last two years and is the cause of the lower MEAP scores? I don’t.
I don’t put much stock in test scores. You shouldn’t either.
Diane,
MEAP scores succeed in coming up with a standardized rating system to see what levels at which the students are performing at one point in time.
I agree that as it is just a snapshot in time. One particular year’s MEAP scores do not show how well teachers are teaching or students are learning. However, if used to compare scores year to year in the same district, it IS an excellent tool to evaluate changes in curriculum, teaching styles, etc. in the district. The key is to use the MEAP scores for that purpose and not to use it to compare two districts or to “teach to the test”.