The American public would be alarmed if they knew how often standardized tests are inaccurate. As a member of the National Assessment Governing Board, I saw questions whose wording was confusing. I saw questions that had more than one right answer. I even saw questions with no right answer. Sometimes the tests are scored incorrectly, but we seldom hear about it.
This reader shares her experience:
“This past week I got a letter from Pearson informing me that the MAT that I took three years ago to get into grad school had been scored incorrectly. They apologized, and lucky for me I had a higher score. But, what about the people who took the same test and were also scored lower and were not admitted into a program, or had to pay to take the test over again? Pearson’s tests and scores are riddled with errors that are having potentially life altering effects on more people than just our kids. They are a mega-monopoly that must be stopped from ruining people’s lives.”
Diane Ravitch's blog 
You’re right Diane. Check out this one. http://michaelklonsky.blogspot.com/2012/11/in-pearson-we-trust-really-but-our.html
Thanks for the share! Just another sad point in so many these days is that Pearson content can only be revealed in the moment of a test and by students only so that they are in effect not accountable for anything they do! Loved the part of your article that stated something like, “so for now, human non oxygenated blood is blue because Pearson says so…” If Pearson decides that 2 plus 2 equals 5… it will be correct because they say so and nobody can look at the test to tell them otherwise (except for our battered students who learn that if Pearson says so, IT IS)!
this was directed at Mike Klonsky for sharing “Pearson-we-trust…” such a revealing read!
These tests are given in the name of “accountability,” but
1. they are invalid measures of the higher-level reading and writing abilities that they supposedly measure, and so they cannot validly be used to hold people accountable for learning or teaching those abilities, and
2. the tests are kept secret, so the test makers themselves are not AT ALL accountable
So much for the accountability claims. The people who support using these tests for accountability reveal, by that support, near total ignorance of the facts.
It’s time to hold them accountable at the polls.
DEMAND TO SEE THE TESTS.
SPEAK UP AT EVERY OPPORTUNITY TO EXPLAIN TO PEOPLE WHY THESE TESTS, CONSTRUCTED AS THEY ARE, ARE INVALID MEASURES OF THE SOPHISTICATED READING AND WRITING ABILITIES THAT THEY PURPORT TO MEASURE.
VOTE THE CLUELESS POLITICIANS WHO SUPPORT THESE OUT OF OFFICE.
VOTE WITH YOUR ADOPTION CHOICES AGAINST THE COMPANIES THAT PERPETRATE THESE TESTS. MAKE IT CLEAR THAT YOU WILL NOT SUPPORT PURCHASING ANY OF THEIR PRODUCTS AS LONG AS THEY ARE IN THE CHILD ABUSE BUSINESS.
LET THE EDUCRATS AND EDUPUNDITS WHO ARE COLLABORATING WITH THE TESTING REGIME KNOW THAT YOU ARE HORRIFIED BY THEIR COLLABORATION.
OPT OUT.
Yes. DEMAND to see the COMPLETE tests,; the few sample items they release does not even begin to paint the picture.
The TESTS are EVERYTHING,
They are the only standards that matter
They are the de-facto curriculum
They are the pedagogy
They are the lever that forces the implementation of CCSS
They are the driving force behind most school activities
They are the reason money is wasted on consultants and coaches
They are the stressors in the system for students, parents, teachers
They are the reason kids hate school more than ever
They are the primary focus of attention
They are the educational money hole
They are a threat to the careers and reputations of good teachers
They are the point source for the Gates business plan
They are the wet dream of corporate reformers/profit makers
The TESTS are EVERYTHING
I agree with every statement you made.
Educators should DARE ALL LEGISLATORS to take certain standardized tests and publish their results…IMMEDIATELY!!!
They pretend to be SuperiorMensaBrains as they look down their Pinokkio noses at educators and public school students. DARE any of them to take the endless Pearson #ToxicTests before they vote on ANY EDUCATIONAL LEGISLATION!
Same DARE for the BS level PoliSci majors who are running every foundation think-tank(¿ ;-0 ?) and play as advisors to CorporateEdreformer$! What the HE** do they know about education?
I live in Georgia and I can tell you that many GA legislators are not the Best & Brightest, but yet, they know exactly what needs to be done 4OtherPeoplesChildren and their teachers.
Legislators, show us, prove it, or SHUT UP!
Don’t ever let them think that if they happen to pass one of these tests that they are qualified to legislate education. We fall victim to their assertions if we take that tack.
Pearson virtually owns education in Texas as they administer all testing, STAAR and ESOL, which drives curriculum and instructions. Since all educators associated with the test are forbidden to read any part of the test under threat of being fired and politicians never actually look at the product taxpayers pay for, Pearson has no monitors on the quality or correctness of their tests. I am actually surprised Pearson admitted their mistake for the MAT.
Ironically, the tests now being created are among the most intensively thought-out standardized tests in history.
However, what that shows is that people can think a LOT about a task (assessing sophisticated reading and writing ability) and still utterly fail because their thinking are about the task was based, from the start, on faulty assumptions.
The big issue here is that there are critical problems with these tests at the level of their conceptualization. The tests are the wrong tool for the job that they are intended to do. They are like trying to use a yardstick to measure synaptic junctions or the Hubble Telescope to view an amoeba in some pond water.
Unfortunately, the problems with how these tests were conceptualized are technical, and understanding those problems requires sitting through detailed analyses and explanations, and very, very few ordinary citizens or politicians or plutocrats will do that. One has to get into the details of what people mean to be testing, what they are actually testing, and how these differ. To do that, one has to look at the actual tests in enormous detail.
Many people think that they understand what these tests are, how they work, and what they do, but THEY ARE WRONG ON ALL OF THESE COUNTS.
The devil is in the details.
That’s why we need hearings on these tests. Oh, for an opportunity to testify at such hearings!!! I would tell the Congressmen and Senators: “Order in some lunch. We are going to be here for awhile.”
The Pearson tests are deeply flawed.
Pearson is writing the PARCC tests that will be even worse because a significant part of the result depends on computer/keyboarding skill that the ELA and math people do not teach.
Even the flaws are flawed.
NY t,
This is in response to your requests below.
Cliff notes, like my summary really don’t do justice to Wilson’s work. There is so much there that even after having read it well over a dozen times I still get “new” ideas, thoughts from it.
So, in essence there is no boiling it down to a few highlights or main ideas and still do justice to it.
But here goes:
Epistemologically and ontologically speaking (fundamental concepts) a quality cannot be quantified.
Start with crap, end with crap.
Once a concept is proven invalid there is no “un-invalidating” it unless one proves the proof to be mistaken (and no one has done so with Wilson’s work that I nor Wilson knows of).
Any description of a “testing event” cannot be “attached” to either the test taker or the test itself, it is a description of a particular event at a particular time and place.
And to “numerize” and/or nominalize that description is so lacking in descriptive capabilities as to be risible.
Psychometricians attempt to minimalize error through statistical machinations that have no validity.
Once a test is proven invalid it is also, by defintion unreliable and vice versa.
Wilson identifies four frames of reference of differing epistemological and ontological basis and all have error components and then when we mix and match those frames, it compounds those error components.
All the logical errors involved in the process of making educational standards and standardized testing render any conclusions invalid.
Children “internalize” those marks/grades into their sense of being, of who they are, to the detriment of many.
The classifications of students into a “hierarchy of knowledge” rewarding some and sanctioning others are undemocratic, unethical and antithetical to fair and just teaching and learning processes.
I’m sure I could come up with more “bullet points”, “power points” or “talking points” but they lack in depth and breadth and do not do justice to Wilson’s work.
Would Wilson (or you) agree that an objective test of multiplication skills is valid? If not why not? I couldn’t think of a more objective example.
Good luck fishing. get the BIG one.
Not sure if it was you that asked what we (my son and I) are fishing for-mainly trout (brown & rainbow) over 15 inches but we are happy when anything jumps on our line. We are not E3Fers. We’re just as happy catching bluegills, catfish, crappie, etc. . . . The boy has learned too well having outfished me all but one time the last 4-5 times we went. I’ll need all the luck I can get so thanks for saying so!
For the Acronym Impaired E3F stands for Elite Fu……Fly Fisherman, the kind that look down their noses at my $35 rod with a Zebco 33 Platinum spin cast reel with 4 lb hi vis yellow Stren mono with a 1/0 bait holder hook and a small split shot using worms or minnows. Most fly fishermen are not E3Fers but I’ve encountered too many over the years.
I am a fly fisherman, but not of the E3Fer ilk. Be proud of your son but especially yourself. Isn’t it the goal of every teacher to be taught by their student. I love it when my son out fishes me, not that I’d ever tell him. Gimme an F . . . gimme an I . . .gimme a S . . . gimme an H
As far as your question. It depends upon the classroom context. Although what your asking seems to me to be a simple question it actually can be complex: What kind of multiplication? What method of solving an equation is being assessed? Is it multiple guess, show your work, or some other format? Who determines the “grading scale”? What does the test “count” for?
Without context it is not possible to say “objective test of multiplication skills is valid”. So what at first seems simple many times it’s not.
I am not against assessment. If I were to draw a Venn diagram of assessment with the whole page being assessment, standardized supposedly objective tests would be the size of a period on the corner of the page.
can we write the headline now?
Duane Swacker Supports Standardized Testing! Period.
“. . . and still utterly fail because their thinking are about the task was based, from the start, on faulty assumptions.”
Faulty assumptions, indeed!
And when the foundation is riddled with cracks and not rebar and two sandy of a mix, it comes tumbling down when the earthquake hits but the builder still has his $$$ and immunity from prosecution for having paid off the politicians, prosecutors, and judges.
No different then these standardized test!
Wilson has shown that, indeed the epistemological and ontological assumptions are “faulty”. Actually the assumptions of those who push educational standards and standardized testing indeed are worse than “faulty”, they are completely bereft of logical analysis. To understand, see Wilson’s “Educational Standards and the Problem of Error” found at:
http://epaa.asu.edu/ojs/article/view/577/700
Brief outline of Wilson’s “Educational Standards and the Problem of Error” and some comments of mine. (updated 6/24/13 per Wilson email)
1. A quality cannot be quantified. Quantity is a sub-category of quality. It is illogical to judge/assess a whole category by only a part (sub-category) of the whole. The assessment is, by definition, lacking in the sense that “assessments are always of multidimensional qualities. To quantify them as one dimensional quantities (numbers or grades) is to perpetuate a fundamental logical error” (per Wilson). The teaching and learning process falls in the logical realm of aesthetics/qualities of human interactions. In attempting to quantify educational standards and standardized testing we are lacking much information about said interactions.
2. A major epistemological mistake is that we attach, with great importance, the “score” of the student, not only onto the student but also, by extension, the teacher, school and district. Any description of a testing event is only a description of an interaction, that of the student and the testing device at a given time and place. The only correct logical thing that we can attempt to do is to describe that interaction (how accurately or not is a whole other story). That description cannot, by logical thought, be “assigned/attached” to the student as it cannot be a description of the student but the interaction. And this error is probably one of the most egregious “errors” that occur with standardized testing (and even the “grading” of students by a teacher).
3. Wilson identifies four “frames of reference” each with distinct assumptions (epistemological basis) about the assessment process from which the “assessor” views the interactions of the teaching and learning process: the Judge (think college professor who “knows” the students capabilities and grades them accordingly), the General Frame-think standardized testing that claims to have a “scientific” basis, the Specific Frame-think of learning by objective like computer based learning, getting a correct answer before moving on to the next screen, and the Responsive Frame-think of an apprenticeship in a trade or a medical residency program where the learner interacts with the “teacher” with constant feedback. Each category has its own sources of error and more error in the process is caused when the assessor confuses and conflates the categories.
4. Wilson elucidates the notion of “error”: “Error is predicated on a notion of perfection; to allocate error is to imply what is without error; to know error it is necessary to determine what is true. And what is true is determined by what we define as true, theoretically by the assumptions of our epistemology, practically by the events and non-events, the discourses and silences, the world of surfaces and their interactions and interpretations; in short, the practices that permeate the field. . . Error is the uncertainty dimension of the statement; error is the band within which chaos reigns, in which anything can happen. Error comprises all of those eventful circumstances which make the assessment statement less than perfectly precise, the measure less than perfectly accurate, the rank order less than perfectly stable, the standard and its measurement less than absolute, and the communication of its truth less than impeccable.”
In other word all the logical errors involved in the process render any conclusions invalid.
5. The test makers/psychometricians, through all sorts of mathematical machinations attempt to “prove” that these tests (based on standards) are valid-errorless or supposedly at least with minimal error [they aren’t]. Wilson turns the concept of validity on its head and focuses on just how invalid the machinations and the test and results are. He is an advocate for the test taker not the test maker. In doing so he identifies thirteen sources of “error”, any one of which renders the test making/giving/disseminating of results invalid. As a basic logical premise is that once something is shown to be invalid it is just that, invalid, and no amount of “fudging” by the psychometricians/test makers can alleviate that invalidity.
6. Having shown the invalidity, and therefore the unreliability, of the whole process Wilson concludes, rightly so, that any result/information gleaned from the process is “vain and illusory”. In other words start with an invalidity, end with an invalidity (except by sheer chance every once in a while, like a blind and anosmic squirrel who finds the occasional acorn, a result may be “true”) or to put in more mundane terms crap in-crap out.
7. And so what does this all mean? I’ll let Wilson have the second to last word: “So what does a test measure in our world? It measures what the person with the power to pay for the test says it measures. And the person who sets the test will name the test what the person who pays for the test wants the test to be named.”
In other words it measures “’something’ and we can specify some of the ‘errors’ in that ‘something’ but still don’t know [precisely] what the ‘something’ is.” The whole process harms many students as the social rewards for some are not available to others who “don’t make the grade (sic)” Should American public education have the function of sorting and separating students so that some may receive greater benefits than others, especially considering that the sorting and separating devices, educational standards and standardized testing, are so flawed not only in concept but in execution?
My answer is NO!!!!!
One final note with Wilson channeling Foucault and his concept of subjectivization:
“So the mark [grade/test score] becomes part of the story about yourself and with sufficient repetitions becomes true: true because those who know, those in authority, say it is true; true because the society in which you live legitimates this authority; true because your cultural habitus makes it difficult for you to perceive, conceive and integrate those aspects of your experience that contradict the story; true because in acting out your story, which now includes the mark and its meaning, the social truth that created it is confirmed; true because if your mark is high you are consistently rewarded, so that your voice becomes a voice of authority in the power-knowledge discourses that reproduce the structure that helped to produce you; true because if your mark is low your voice becomes muted and confirms your lower position in the social hierarchy; true finally because that success or failure confirms that mark that implicitly predicted the now self-evident consequences. And so the circle is complete.”
In other words students “internalize” what those “marks” (grades/test scores) mean, and since the vast majority of the students have not developed the mental skills to counteract what the “authorities” say, they accept as “natural and normal” that “story/description” of them. Although paradoxical in a sense, the “I’m an “A” student” is almost as harmful as “I’m an ‘F’ student” in hindering students becoming independent, critical and free thinkers. And having independent, critical and free thinkers is a threat to the current socio-economic structure of society.
What took you so long?
Duane, no disrespect but could you give us the cliff notes in plain speak? What are the two or three main ideas here? Thanks.
From the little (form-letter) correspondence I’ve exchanged, I really wonder how much Members of Congress are affected by anything we say (not at all meaning to say we should stop trying). The one powerful thing I’ve seen in our movement against paper-wise (if that), reality-foolish “reform” is the massive parent revolt.
Thanks to Citizens United and other recent court decisions, they are not affected by much of anything we say. The Oligarchs can open their wallets and pour millions into campaigns and offer lucrative phony jobs after a politicians term, We can not. Money has truly become speech, and it speaks loudly and sings sweetly to our elected class.
They will listen to parents who vote. Its a very large block of constituents.
Bob Shepherd: what you said.
Several brief additions.
First, it is not a question of ‘giving them more time to work out the kinks and flaws’ or ‘if they only had more time to tweak and perfect’ we would get the tests ‘we need and want.’
This year is the 50th anniversary of the 1964 edition [original 1962] of Banesh Hoffman’s THE TYRANNY OF TESTING (available in a 2003 paperback edition). He was critiquing a standardized testing tradition already decades old. It is not for lack of time or talent or money that standardized tests haven’t ‘fulfilled their original promise.’
An old dead Greek guy nailed this over two thousand years:
“A good decision is based on knowledge and not on numbers.” [Plato]
Second, egregious and ludicrous mistakes are the true “never-ending story.” Just one example. Google “pineapple” and “hare” and “Daniel Pinkwater.” To help, a few of many links:
Link: http://blogs.wsj.com/metropolis/2012/04/20/daniel-pinkwater-on-pineapple-exam-nonsense-on-top-of-nonsense/
Link: http://www.pinkwater.com/the-story-behind-the-pineapple-and-the-hare/
Link: http://www.newyorker.com/talk/2012/05/07/120507ta_talk_mcgrath
Third, the “tail” of testing is wagging the “dog” of learning. One of the biggest selling points of high-stakes standardized testing is that they help teachers and students, well, teach and learn better. Leaving aside the powerful incentives of standardized testing to increasingly narrow public school curricula and activities, how does secrecy [not to mention results coming in too late to be of any use to particular teachers and students] help in those endeavors? The diagnostic purpose of such tests has been eviscerated.
But this is exactly what a “business plan” that is not an “education model” is all about. You don’t tip your hand to rivals and competitors that could put you out of business. Secrecy or strong attempts at such: in testing, when it comes to charter school books and data, when it comes to enacting laws and policies that greatly impact public schools, when it comes to figuring out how and why CCSS was designed and produced—lack of transparency is a hallmark of the self-styled “education reformers” aka “free-market fundamentalists.”
That is why this blog is so important. Like the undead creatures of the night that populate horror films, the edupreneurs and their edubully enforcers and educrat enablers and accountabully underlings can’t stand the light of day.
Now all we need is a stake to finish the job. Van Helsing, got a spare?
😎
I loved reading, Krazy, the “tail wagging the dog” comment. If ever there was a situation where that expression applied, it’s to the tests driving curricula and pedagogy.
Yes, time to put a stake into the undead Son of NCLB.
Looking for some first hand feedback from teachers that scored the written portions of the Pearson ELA. the stories I’ve heard are nothing short of embarrassing for Pearson.
Inter-rater reliability near zero.
Rubrics changed while scoring
Rubrics eliminated while scoring
The motto was: speed not accuracy
Bob Shepard you are right. So, too, NYteacher. I did scoring and signed the gag order. I felt gagged the entire time. I wanted to jump on the table and scream “This is nuts.We should all refuse to do this. What is happening to us supposedly intelligent people being fed gobbledygook and simply carrying on this charade?” So , afraid to lose their jobs, afraid of who else my be brought in and paid minimum wage to score in their place (at least they care about the kids and even if not scoring their own buildings test….conflict of interest?……want to err in the kid’ s favor), demoralized..just look at their faces and listen to their classroom reality the teachers soldiered on. It was very interesting to observe and still be a part of. Trust me these tests AND the scoring-all aspects of it-need to be transparent. Also state audit results for reliability, too. We need to get to the politicians. They have to listen to our best teachers, education leaders and see through to all the ramifications. I have long seen the pendulum swing and have uttered more times than I care to recall “this, too, shall pass” as every bandwagon was jumped on and off…the meaningful as well as those that were basically a waste of time. This deform mission is different and pervasive and worrisome, bit it should not stand. And we need to speak up and out and create whistleblower laws to ” let our teachers speak” what has happened to free speech? Honestly there’s the rub. It is a slippery slope to condemn any speech. Even that which we find highly offensive. That’s how we silence those except the ones in power. And beware of who has the power, who is seeking it and what they are doing. We need at every turn to support our right to free speech. Tom Jefferson must be rolling in his grave. We need to learn from history.
I have long seen the pendulum swing and have uttered more times than I care to recall “this, too, shall pass” as every bandwagon was jumped on and off…the meaningful as well as those that were basically a waste of time.
This deform mission is different and pervasive and worrisome, but it should not stand.
I completely agree. The other movements, good or bad were, I think fundamentally well intentioned. This is a nefarious, devious, and deceptive plan to profit from public money. Sickening.
Scoring for this year’s tests should be under way or occuring next week. I would love to see feedback as well. One important point that must be made to parents and others is that the questions on these tests are asked using the actual wording of the standards themselves, and what they measure is a student’s knowledge of the standards NOT curriculum or content taught. Too many people erroneously believe the tests measure knowledge of content. They don’t. that’s why the NY modules teach Shakespeare in excerpts, a non-traditional short story for 17 days, and random non-fiction passages that don’t appear in Appendix B. The “free” modules do not align with the Pearson tests on which teachers are being evaluated. And the technical report on LAST year’s tests, which informs VAM scores, have not yet been released. Talk about a disconnect!
Scoring is complete in my region
Great postings, which get to ‘the heart’ of the matter: the core conceptual foundation of the Pearson/PARCC tests are flawed. These conceptual flaws have had major policy implications: funding, implementation. federal, state, local foundation commitments regardless of their dangerous lack of worth: the can of worms has been opened.
Given the highly conceptual ( and wrong-headed) nature of the ‘product’, the counter attack must be on two fronts: continual public denunciations from educational and policy ‘experts and community based political-electoral-lobbying-demonstration approach to keep the heat on any elected or appointed official who has aligned himself with Pearson/PARCC.
Once again, counter measures must be organized and coordinated on an inter state level. Only via large scale resistance will a critical mass opposition have a chance to win back the public schools.
Yes John. There is a reason that they refuse to publish the tests, even after administering and scoring them
Its not about test SECURITY – its all about TEST SCRUTINY
they relish the fact that teachers who rail against these exams are viewed as whiners, complainers, or who are afraid to be evaluated using the results.
That is why, like Mitt Romney’s tax returns, they will NEVER be released.
“These conceptual flaws have had major policy implications: funding, implementation. federal, state, local foundation commitments regardless of their dangerous lack of worth: the can of worms has been opened.”
No doubt, john a. At the same time those fundamental conceptual flaws (the epistemological and ontological flaws/fallacies) have a far more damaging, insidious effect, that of harming the most innocent of society through a labelling of the student whether proficient, advanced, not proficient, etc. . . (and it doesn’t matter the exact wording of these labels that are wrongly “attached” to the student). Students intermalize these labels and “become” what they have been told by the powers that be, the educational authorities say they supposedly are. (see above post’s last couple of paragraphs).
Yes, Duane, the long lasting, perhaps permanent, deleterious effects on the lives of children are tragic and makes more urgent the urgent need to attack the ‘deformers’ on all fronts. I say this with all due respect to our allies: the ‘deformers’ and soul killers must be confronted and unmasked at every opportunity; they are THAT dangerous.
Quite correct, john a!
They are that dangerous!
It is way past time for a counter attack on the “whiners” (and the like) defenses, which marginalizes and delegitimatizes democratic opposition to test tyranny. I have come to believe that the proper response to the lack of transparency and honesty are acts of educator and community resistance that make public and unveil the nature of the tyranny. We have to make known to the larger public that which has remain veiled in regressive ideology. We must up the stakes and recapture the ‘narrative’ (lord, how i dislike that word). To continue down the same liberal path is to ensure the victory of the ‘deformers’. I wish that I felt differently, but, despite, moments of hope, I do not.
John, I love what you have to say! Wonderful. Exactly. Exactly right. There must be an active resistance to Education Deform.
Anything less is inappropriate. The greatest institution for social mobility in the history of the world–the public school system–is being viciously attacked by the very people in charge of it on behalf of a bunch of plutocrats, and children are being horrifically abused.
No quarter for the abusers!
And remember the ones who collaborated with the abuse–the Edupundits and union “leaders” who went along because of the great river of green running from the plutocrats’ pockets and from Washington, DC.
Vive la résistance!
Plutôt mourir debout que vivre à genoux!
” yes, Bob. You understand my pov. “No Paseron” I fervently hope for a different outcome than which befell the Loyalists. We remember the larger outcome of this tragic loss. Remember the International and Lincoln Brigades !
Indeed!
¡No pasarán! Love that!
This is a fight against an insidious, pernicious tyranny–insidious and pernicious because like a cancer, it has metastasized throughout our K-12 educational system.
You really do ‘get it’. Thes time are THAT serious. The situation THAT dire. The ‘deformers’ are marching forward as did the Fascists in Spain.
The Resistance.
Saying NO to punitive, test-based reform
Working together to stop the madness.
This is an invasion of the public school system. What was once a cornerstone of our democracy and way of life is now under attack and for sale. Stay fierce and fearless.
It’s will be amusing to read, in ten years’ time, the earnest columns by Edupundits about the bad old days when people were ignorant enough to think
that extrinsic punishment and rewards (e.g., test scores) were motivating to learners;
that sophisticated, complex, varied skills in a wide variety of highly distinct domains of English could be summed up in a single test score;
that standardized tests were useful for measuring anything beyond low-level knowledge of concrete facts;
that invariant standards were appropriate for kids, who, after all, vary, and appropriate for either for preparing them for the extraordinarily varied roles that they will take on a complex, highly diverse, highly pluralistic society or for preparing them for a future that would be very different from today;
that standards for the highly varied activities in the English language arts should be identically conceptualized or formulated as abstract descriptions of formal skills; and
that testing to find out where to plop a student down in a predetermined skills matrix in a computer-adaptive learning programs could be legitimately called “personalization.”
ALL THESE NOTIONS WILL IN THE FUTURE BE CONSIDERED LAUGHABLE.
In the 1960s and 1970s, Educrats and Edupundits across the United States INSISTED that it was “unscientific” to talk about to talk about students’ minds, thought processes, or, god forbid, emotions. We were all supposed to formulate all our discussion and activity in terms of descriptions of behavior. Every state department mandated the use of “behavioral objectives.” Hundreds of millions of tons of ink were spilled to explain why this was necessary and important and to castigate those benighted, backward fools who refused to get with the program.
So it is with Education “Reforms.” Standards-and-testing is just the latest of idiotic magic elixirs, the new attraction on the education midway this carnival season.
A couple years ago, I read an article by George Will in which he mentioned, in passing, that of course everyone knew, back during the Reagan era, that Ron was aware of the arms for hostages deal with Iran. And of course, no one now defends the actions that the U.S. took in Vietnam, costing millions of lives and billions of dollars to accomplish absolutely NOTHING.
But oh, go back to those days, and how CERTAIN pundits were that Reagan wasn’t involved in Iran-Contra and, before that, that if we didn’t stop the Commies in Vietnam, the would soon be in Tallahassee and Cedar Rapids. Imagine trying to tell one of those pundits, back then, that the received opinion would be entirely on the other side a few short years later.
Pundits, politicians, and their certainties.
When will they ever learn?
Bob Shepherd: what you said.
And it is well written.
But it won’t be amusing. At least not the “hah-hah funny” kind of amusing.
Quite literally, you have put it bluntly and succinctly: they not only don’t learn from their mistakes, they don’t want to learn from their mistakes.
Remember Ms. “Mushroom Cloud” Rice? Mr. “1% Doctrine” Cheney? Mr. “We Won’t Know Until Ten Years If Ed Reform Works” Gates? And not least of all, masking tapes’ best friend, the incomparable Michelle “No Regrets” Rhee?
They literally pride themselves on being wrong. Even when they were, and are, being proven wrong while they’re in the middle of their creative destruction—of us.
And that, I submit, ain’t funny…
😒
as the pathological rumsfeld said to erroll morris, re wrong decision:”history will tell”. and yes, that “aiint funny” . that is tragic.
I stand corrected.
This stuff is as funny as colorectal cancer is.
Side note: I debated about adding the “is” at the end. The line is better without it, but traditional grammarians will insist that the is is necessary (even though elision of repeated constructions is one of the most widespread phenomena in grammar). And that is what the scoop on the is there is.
Ya lost me, Bob, but dontcha know that accomplished writers such as yourself can write whatever you damn well please?
“But oh, go back to those days, and how CERTAIN pundits were that Reagan wasn’t involved in Iran-Contra and, before that, that if we didn’t stop the Commies in Vietnam, the would soon be in Tallahassee and Cedar Rapids.”
Or to the days that certain pundits maintain that three modern skyscrapers can fall into their own footprints after having two jets hit two of them.
See:http: //www.ae911truth.org/
The “a” stands for architects and the “e” for engineers.
That’s: http://www.ae911truth.org/
I was of Chomsky’s opinion that the 911 truthers were just nuts until I saw a film in which engineers from a number of highly respected technical universities discussed this in detail. What these experts said was shocking. So, I am now in the ignostic category, there.
“ignostic”
I like that. It goes along with “idiology”.
Yes, ignosticism is a very different stance from agnosticism. I appreciate, Don Duane, Hidalgo, your care with the language, your observation of these subtle distinctions.
Sorry about the typos in that hasty note.
We will be subjected to smarter balance testing next year here in Michigan. Is Pearson associated with this test also? If not, what is the company writing ,publishing and scoring it?
All of you–right you are. As a teacher who gave the IL assessments & read Pear$on mistakes day after day, time after time, for years, there’s never been any quality control & there never will be. Field testing? Don’t make me (bitterly) laugh. More torture for our kids, less learning time. Field tests coming up–parents, OPT OUT–field tests are certainly not mandatory. (I wonder how much the states are spending for those?!) As I’ve stated before on this blog, I have teacher friends who helped w/Pear$on’s alternative assessments (for sped kids) for YEARS. All reported that it was all for show, for Pear$on to say they had “teacher input” or “teacher developed” tests. B.S.!!! The Pear$on people didn’t listen to/take seriously ANY suggestions &/or ideas offered by the teachers. My friends stopped working for them. After having given tests for years (actually, even at the beginning), I knew & predicted that there would be tightened “test security,” especially after the publicity garnered by the “Pineapple Question.” All of us know the ed. reform movement is a cancer, and the tumor that started it all is Pear$on and the dreck they sell to the states, paid for with our tax $$$ & the blood of our children. Stop the testing, excise the tumor and the movement will collapse. Krazy T.A., you got it–put the stake in the vampire’s heart & stop the bloodletting. And not one bit funny.
It should be known that Pearson does not make heinous errors on testing alone. They entered into a contract with a start-up company that I used to work for that had good intentions of doing positive things for education and somehow got away with not paying that company for their work for HALF A YEAR. It nearly brought that company to its knees, and it no doubt forever soured their interest in entering into any more endeavors that would have made a positive impact in communities that need it most.
So know that Pearson not only exploits schools, teachers, and students, but the world of entrepreneurs and business as well.