Jan Carr is a NYC public school parent and a children’s book author. I have met her at parent events in NYC.
Last week she posted about the harm done by standardized testing and other of the “reforms” of our time, and especially about the inability of teachers to focus on critical thinking.
At my invitation, Mike Petrilli responded.
That led to a good discussion.
Jan responded too. Here is what ahe said:
Diane, thanks for sending out my blog post. It’s interesting for me to read Mr. Petrilli’s response as well as the other responses posted. While it is certainly true that I cannot discern with certainty the motivations of the men I mentioned, I have to wonder about those motivations because their actions are so destructive. The endless testing is a scourge in so many ways. Here are some anecdotal accounts of experiences I have had:
• THE TESTS ARE FALLIBLE. Often, throughout my son’s public school career, he’s come home with practice tests in which he doesn’t understand why a question required a certain answer. Because I’m a professional writer and editor, I take a look to try to help figure out where he went wrong. Often, I find that I, TOO, would have chosen the “wrong” answer! And when I ask my son why he chose it, he has a very strong and articulate and defensible argument. So we’re “right,” the test is “wrong?” And I am put in the surreal position of having to teach my son how to suss out the right “wrong” answer so he will get a better score on the test!
• KIDS FEEL THAT THEY’RE DEFINED BY A MEANINGLESS NUMBER. Once, during the first week of school, I was standing outside my son’s school for pick up. That day, the kids had gotten scores for tests they had taken the previous spring. While I waited for my son to emerge, this is what I heard from the other kids: “I’m a 3.” “I’m a 2.” “I’m a 4.” In other words, DURING THE FIRST WEEK OF SCHOOL, WHEN THEY SHOULD BE EXCITED ABOUT THE CLASSES AND LEARNING THEY WOULD EXPERIENCE IN THE COMING YEAR, they were deadened by thinking that they were reduced to a number. Truly, it broke my heart. These were high stakes test scores that would determine which high schools they would eligible for. What a way to start the year!
• THE TESTS ARE DEADENING. Many teachers have told me that on test days, the kids have a flattened affect. I’ve definitely seen that in my son. His interest in learning flattens out the more tests that are piled on. He is an excellent student and has a curious intellect, but there’s only so much one can take.
• TEACHERS HAVE TO RESTRICT DISCUSSION IN ORDER TO GET THROUGH THE REQUIRED MATERIAL. My son has often reported that teachers had to cut off discussion in order to move on so that they could cover everything that was going to be on a test. As a teacher, does one want to dig in deeply, or cover a lot of surface ground? Does one want to encourage kids to think and discuss and provide supports for their answers, or does one want to teach kids to spit out a pat answer? I’m sure that teachers in the private schools attended by the kids of the men I cited are encouraged to have a deep and meaningful curriculum.
In my experience as a former teacher, I think the real key to keeping up the quality of the classroom is in the teachers.
• Provide the teachers with lots of staff development, so they, too, are constantly thinking and exploring and creating.
• Recruit smart, good teachers who will stick with the profession and pay them well so they stay. And of course the union is key to this.
• Have experienced teachers mentoring new teachers, which helps both, keeping the older teachers fresh as well as providing support for the newer teachers.
• And keep class size LOW so teachers can actually track and interact meaningfully with individual students. If a writing teacher is responsible for hundreds of students, how is s/he supposed to give meaningful feedback on papers?
All of these supports for teachers and the classroom are ones that that stem from educators themselves, not the business community. Whatever the motivation, an emphasis on data and accountability and testing is wrong-headed, completely missing the point.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Wow. Spoken with reason and sense. Hard to argue with anything said there. That some people do is indicative of enormous misunderstandings or alternative agendas, I’m afraid.
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It’s rare to have the subject of why wrong answers are often equally (and sometimes even more) right–thanks Ms Carr. Every citizen should have an opportunity to take these tests and discuss their answers–it would shock many people. Doing that with third graders in the early 70s was what made me a life-time opponent of this kid of standardization. Along with other colleagues we published these questions and the explanations kids gave – but it’s time to do it again. Volunteers?
deb
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I tell you what, kids can be pretty convincing when explaining why they chose a certain answer, voiced a comment or wrote out an explanation. There were times when I would ask or write on a paper. Explain this. What made you think that way. They never hesitated in letting me know. Their thinking often made me see things differently. I always wanted both of us to be learning.
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Deb,
Come participate in my blog “Promoting Just Education for All” @ revivingwilson.org . I am summarizing and discussing Noel Wilson’s “Educational Standards and the Problem of Error” chapter by chapter. I firmly believe that all educators should read and understand what Wilson has to say about standards and standardized testing. Standards and standardized testing are a chimera, an illusion, a duende and any conclusions drawn from the process are invalid, “vain and illusory”.
Duane
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What a great article. I have said for a long time that children have been defining themselves as numbers even in essays that they write about their goals. No longer do we read “I want to be an astronaut or a fire fighter or a doctor. Instead, they write, my goal is to be a level 4. I’m a level 2 now but if I work hard and pay attention my teacher says I can be a 4. That is my goal. How sad is that?
A friend who is a teacher in a charter school in NC just posted to me that they are coming to the end of the 3 week testing period in her school. The first three weeks of school are devoted to testing and very little instruction.
All the evidence doesn’t seem to matter to those who are making the decisions.
What is it going to take to change the conversation?
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As heartbreaking as it is to read that kids define themselves by a number, I heard an even more horrific anecdote about a rookie first grade teacher who complained to colleagues that she had a class of “ones.” Imagine, those kids wouldn’t even take the stupid state test for another two years and they were already sentenced to failure. This is the toxic climate that the tests have created in our schools. We need more pineapple- gates, we need to expose the harm, the fraud, the fact that all a multiple choice tells you with any certainty is that a student knew how to guess and bubble in an answer.
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“We need more pineapple- gates, we need to expose the harm, the fraud. . . ”
Why do you think it is “unethical” and perhaps a breach of contract (if you sign an affidavit about following the “rules” before giving the test) to read and analyze the standardized test? Because they know if they had that many eyes looking at the garbage that are standardized tests the fraud would be exposed.
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I can empathize with her son. I was like that in elementary school many, many moons ago. Boy, did I have a passionate hatred of standardized tests. When assessing students in my class I opted to use short answer and essay type questions. When I had to give a ‘multiple choice’ exam I made sure there was only one correct answer.
Now, I’m not familiar with the type of books Ms Carr writes but I can see a market and need soon for children’s and teen books that deal with testing and test-anxiety. I can’t see them being published by an imprint of Pearson, Houghton or McGraw-Hill, but I’m sure some small or niche publisher might be willing to publish: “Mommy, Why Do I Need to Take this Test?” or “I Hear Mrs. Jones May Be Fired If We Don’t Do Well”. It’s just an idea. If I had the talent and skill I’d write it. I’m smart enough to defer to those who can and do. Take the idea please and good luck!
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I absolutely love Deb Meier’s idea of publishing the test questions and students’ explanations about the “wrong’ answers they chose, but now that testing has become so SECURE, I don’t know that we’d be able to get our hands on any of the test questions or answers – those considered ‘right’ or ‘wrong’. Teachers in NY have to sign some sort of ‘security document’ in which they agree to NOT discuss the test questions with anyone – not even teachers of the same grade! Since I teach first grade, and don’t have a state test for ELA and MATH (yet), I can’t imagine what that feels like. Talk about isolation!
And, if for one moment, we were to believe that a standardized test had any educational value, or use for instructional planning – the questions and answers would HAVE to be available to teachers for a close item analysis. So, sadly, while the kids this parent describes as naming themselves as 2’s or 1’s or any other number is exactly the way the teacher is forced to see them. Teachers are given no meaningful or useful DATA from the TESTS – just numbers. It’s a mad, mad world indeed!
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Tom Chapin performs an inspiring song, “Not on the Test.”
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