In a recent interview, I predicted that what is now called (self-proclaimed) as “reform” would come tumbling down like a house of cards as the public realized the damage to children and to the quality of education.
This reader in Illinois picks up that theme, saying that the foundation of VAM (value-added assessment) rests on the standardized tests, and they are a weak foundation indeed. When the house of cards comes tumbling down, it will be apparent that they rested on a method of assessment that is flawed at its core. She responds here to the comment of another reader:
You nailed it in your next-to-last paragraph–“if my students understood pineapples and hare races a little better…”–it isn’t simply the VAMs that are junk, it’s the very TESTS that all this is based upon
that are junk! As a special ed. teacher who administered these tests for years (and IL uses Pearson), I was able to look at the tests (because we read the math and science from scripts), and I can tell you that there have been NUMEROUS faulty questions and answers (more than one correct answer, NO correct answer) over numerous years. This holds true for all the prep garbage we buy, as well. Last but not least, people who score the written portions of tests (extended response on Reading Comprehension selections) are often people not competent to do so–such as ESL adults, who did not understand the nuances of the English language.
(As I have before, I must reference Todd Farley’s must-read 2009 book,”Making the Grades: My Misadventures in the Standardized Testing Industry,” which will explain in detail).
Farley also wrote a Huffington Post article this year about COMPUTERS scoring written essays (another must-read).
When you factor this together–along with all the score-juking that goes on (again, read the book!), WHAT “valid,
reliable” basis is there upon which to base a VAM?
It is all a house of cards–just like the wall that Diane predicts will
collapse. This bodes well for us–public schools and teachers–as this is the basis of our fight. Lawyers, ready yourselves!
Diane Ravitch's blog 
This post drives home the message that we need to continue our relentless efforts to blow down this house of cards with our collective voices.
I don’t know much about the tests in Illinois, but in Idaho I have served on item review committees put together by one of the testing corporations that prepares our state tests. I’ve also been on sensitivity reviews that examine results for different kinds of bias. Both committees are comprised of teachers who make determinations about which test questions are ambiguous, need revising, or should be eliminated. At least it’s a way of trying to get rid of “junk.”
See Sharon’s video below.
I agree that people may be starting to realize what they have given up. One of my most reluctant to engage in edu-political discussions coworkers has told me this week — he is now quite alarmed by this thought — that he is scared that his children will only be taught how to prepare for tests. He’s not quite ready to join an organization, but he seems to be approaching that step as well.
I’m afraid it’s cards all the way down …
http://www.brookings.edu/research/papers/2009/08/education-gartner
You’ll need a Neo-Speak dictionary to read this.
Not only is the current educational deform movement a “house of cards” but multiple houses built on ever shifting sand dunes to make a veritable Potemkin village. And the educational deformers are standing naked within those houses of cards worrying that it will soon come crashing down exposing them for what they are–avaricious frauds.
Very insightful piece in Salon:
http://www.salon.com/2012/09/15/teaching_ate_me_alive/
It would be nice if Kristof, Brooks, Yglesias, Warren, et al read this – but they’ve already decided teachers are the problem and if we can just fire them, everything will be better.
It is indeed a house of cards. However, those who are profiting from the game–Mosocowitz, Rhee, Klein, Murdoch etc will play their hands, even as they are losing, until the bitter end.
And make a crazy amount of money doing it…
Which is the only thing that counts, not withstanding their rhetoric.
Here’s another metaphor for VAM: an inverted pyramid, with a mass of vested interests (finance, publishing, technology, real estate, “non-profits,” advocates, consultants, and the political class that is the recipient of their campaign money) teetering atop a narrow, structurally unsound base.
The inverted pyramid of VAM will collapse because it is pseudo/junk scientism attempting to mask what in reality is a political agenda of the so-called education reformers: the total restructuring of labor relations – and even the nature of teaching itself – in the public schools.
But I’d like to point out something even more insidious about VAM, something that reveals the fundamental profit-seeking at the heart of corporate reform: the implications of the term itself.
The term Value Added is defined on Investopia as, “The enhancement a company gives its product or service before offering the product to customers.” So, the kids are the “product” teachers “add value” to before they are sold to “customers,” aka employers. This corresponds closely to the way in which the public schools are being forced to conform their practices and content to the needs of employers, aka “the 21st century economy.”
While almost every public pronouncement of the so-called education reformers is a half-truth or outright deception, this term honestly reveals their worldview: children are products and commodities, and those who “produce” them are a factor production to be rigidly controlled, with scientistic mumbo-jumbo as a mask for reconfiguring the teaching force.
Everyone needs to ask themselves if these are the values we want underpinning our public education system.
Excellent analysis!
I agree. We must stop treating children like products. Have you noticed that CCSS talks about preparing children for college and career? What about preparing them for community and citizenship? We need to prepare our children to be kind friends, caring neighbors, energetic community volunteers, and thoughtful participants in our democracy.
Exactly right. http://sntp.net/education/obe_explained.htm
VAMpires …
VAMpires VAMping up a VAMped version of VAM-Value Added Madness!
(Sorry couldn’t resist.)
My kindergartener granddaughter brought home a spelling list in the first month of school. We all know it’s developmentally inappropriate to expect K’s to spell in their first three weeks of school. But in this climate, it flat doesn’t matter what we know is appropriate and not. We must all bow down to the almighty test scores.
If she doesn’t have spelling words in kindergarten, she might not be ‘ready’ for the test in third grade that will determine whether or not she’ll be promoted to fourth. Her teacher might be fired, and her school, a gem of multicultural education in our town, may be given a failing grade.
The inverted pyramid image described above is right…and who’s the tiny point of that pyramid, with all the pressure pushing down with focused ferocity? My five-year-old granddaughter.
I agree that this insanity will implode of its own weight…I just hope we can salvage my granddaughter’s education, and that of all her classmates.
Your comment reminded of the Dorothy Watson story (1989, p. 138-141) about her granddaughter Patty who wrote imaginative stories with invented spelling in kindergarten, only to find in first grade that spelling was the most important thing. Her story: The cat. The cat is a pet. Knowing it was bad, she crossed it out with a big X. I share that with my graduate students as a reminder that it’s not that hard to kill a child’s creativity and imagination, and it can have lasting consequences. (For a great read that mentions the Patty story, see http://www.alfiekohn.org/teaching/reading.htm).
Claudia, thank you for sharing your granddaughter’s story. Sometimes in all the discussion about the big picture we don’t focus on individual children. I shudder to think about 5-year-olds being given spelling lists.
Time to watch this story told by a conscientious Oakland teacher who reported errors on those tests.
Cue up Kafka please!
This made everything all better! What a laugh!
Now is absolutely the worst time possible to become overconfident and the most important time to press the attack even harder. The enemy has been shown up for what they are but has not been significantly weakened. Their pockets are still quite deep and their will has been sharpened by recent setbacks. We have yet to prevail in any large way on the battlefield of ideas in spite of our significant victories. They still own the political/media system while we have just begun to win back the public sphere, a task we must accelerate. We do have advantages and tools not available to them. We must continue to educate those in the MSM so more become fluent in the discussion, a new and overdue development that must be leveraged to the max. The battle has become more fluid making both sides vulnerable in different ways. Seek out and exploit their weakness’s and guard our successes. Our advantage is that they now have more territory to defend, a situation we must exacerbate. Take the satisfaction from our recent successes and store that energy for future actions. We will always know this enemy better than they know us. Press the attack.
We aren’t even claiming a draw, we have merely a hint that victory is possible. The truth is on our side and I believe that ultimately we will be able to have an open debate about what an education should be. Many people are being chewed up in the amoral maw of this monster called vulture capitalism. It really isn’t a way to build a sustainable society. We must define together what we expect from an education and be honest, the schools give opportunity and can not insure outcome. Our fears can bond us. I’ve lived in Scandinavia, the difference is that they sought to build equitable societies, their education systems reflect this and reinforce it. A child is not told what they must be, the school helps them become what they want to be. They are not seeking a living, they pursue a passion because their basic needs are assured. They are free to dream, not have nightmares about their survival.
Queue the Kafka indeed! I’ve worked in the educational publishing industry for years, and I have had occasion to read hundreds of state tests. Almost every test that I have read has been RIDDLED with errors–was so full of errors that it looked like some sort of rough draft. Often, the errors on the state tests are such that the officially correct answer is actually incorrect. Here’s an example:
“There are 8 apples on a table. If you take away 2 apples, how many apples do you have?”
The answer is supposed to be “six,” but, of course, the answer to the question that was actually asked is “two.”
I have a standing bet that I can take any one of these state standardized tests and find at least ten errors in it. It’s a bet I’ve never lost. These tests are really sloppily prepared, and as the experience of the teacher in this video indicates, there is little accountability for their quality.
However, the problem runs much deeper than the editorial vetting of the exams. The biggest problem with them is that the supposed research adduced by the testing companies to support the validity and reliability of their tests is a lot of smoke and mirrors. A test of reading ability is like a test on “ability to make one’s way in the world.” What’s being tested is extraordinarily vague, broad, and complex. Suppose that one tested driving ability by giving people an exam that looked at their ability to identify car parts–to distinguish, say, a hub cap from a windshield wiper. Such a test would be very like the state exams that we give to test reading ability.