David Kirp, professor at the University of California at Berkeley and author of “Improbable Scholars,” describes here the ruinous consequences of high-stakes testing.
Everything associated with the corporate reform movement is failing. How much longer will the hedge fund managers and the federal government continue to fund failing strategies?
He begins:
“It’s a terrible time for advocates of market-driven reform in public education. For more than a decade, their strategy—which makes teachers’ careers turn on student gains in reading and math tests, and promotes competition through charter schools and vouchers—has been the dominant policy mantra. But now the cracks are showing. That’s a good thing because this isn’t a proven—or even a promising—way to make schools better.
“Here’s a litany of recent setbacks: In the latest Los Angeles school board election, a candidate who dared to question the overreliance on test results in evaluating teachers and the unseemly rush to approve charter schools won despite $4 million amassed to defeat him, including $1 million from New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg and $250,000 from Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp. Former Atlanta superintendent Beverly Hall, feted for boosting her students’ test scores at all costs, has been indicted in a massive cheating scandal. Michelle Rhee, the former Washington D.C. school chief who is the darling of the accountability crowd, faces accusations, based on a memo released by veteran PBS correspondent John Merrow, that she knew about, and did nothing to stop, widespread cheating. In a Washington Post op-ed, Bill Gates, who has spent hundreds of millions of dollars promoting high-stakes, test-driven teacher evaluation, did an about-face and urged a kinder, gentler approach that teachers could embrace. And parents in New York State staged a rebellion, telling their kids not to take a new and untested achievement exam.”
What I think these folks who want to get rid of public education didn’t count on, was the public.
The backlash is starting and boy ain’t it great.
Judy
Agree
As soon as parents and attorneys are informed about Gates, Murdoch, and Duncan mining their children’s personal information and test scores without permission the reform boondoggle will be over. Some NY and LA parents are following inBloom and lawsuits are about to be filed.
You are so right.
The parents do not understand ..yet..that their child’s personal data is out there for the taking……
Lawsuits to be filed on east coast as well..Guaranteed..
This TESTING is such a joke.
One southern state has designed an evaluation for teachers making it impossible to receive the highest points unless they teach teachers..hmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.
The good teachers do not have time to teach the teachers..
The teachers that teach he teachers deliver the most boring bunch of bull ever.
Most of the teachers that teach the teachers could not teach a class of low-performers.
Their scores are high because they teach the so-called best of the best at the so-called best schools or they teach the LOWEST PERFORMERS at the so-called best schools.
The so-called low-performers at the so-called best schools are sometimes the so-called best at the so-called low-performing schools.
When I say the best schools…I mean the richest…P-E-R-I-O-D
They do have excellent students at the low-performing schools but the numbers are quite low..
This entire Common Clown Corporate Testing is the biggest bunch of cr***p ever!