The Providence Student Union thought it was wrong that a single high-stakes exam should determine whether they graduate.
To prove their point, they invited legislators, educators, and community leaders to take the test. The test was made up of released items. The results will be released later this week.
Hats off to the brave adults who took the risk.
Here is the students’ press release:
March 16, 2013
CONTACT: Aaron Regunberg | Aaron@ProvidenceStudentUnion.org | 847-809-6039 (cell)
STUDENTS INVITE LEADERS, POLICY MAKERS TO “TAKE THE TEST” –
WOULD THEY GRADUATE UNDER NEW NECAP POLICY?
Providence, Rhode Island – March 16, 2013 – Youth in Providence turned the testing tables today with an event designed to lend a deeper perspective to the debate over Rhode Island’s new high-stakes NECAP diploma system. Members of the Providence Student Union (PSU), a high school student advocacy group, administered a shortened version of the test that is currently being used as a make-or-break graduation requirement for the Class of 2014 to over forty elected officials, nonprofit directors, attorneys, and other community leaders.
“We expect this event to prove that people are more than test scores,” said Leexammarie Nieves, a sophomore at Central High School and a member of PSU. “We also want these community leaders to get a sense of what students are going through with this new policy.”
The adults sat at tables in the basement of the Knight Memorial Library in Providence, no. 2 pencils in hand, as students passed out the test, read the official directions, and proctored the exam. “This is a shortened version of the Math NECAP,” explained Tamargejae Paris, a junior at Hope High School at the beginning of the event.
“We are focusing on the math portion because that is the test that is putting the overwhelming majority of students at risk of not graduating. The test we are using was put together from the items RIDE releases, and we did our best to estimate the same ratios of each kind of question as is used on the real NECAP. So, though it is not a statistically valid test, we believe it is a good general representation of the test Rhode Island juniors are required to take.”
The participating adults were there for numerous reasons. Teresa Tanzi, a State Representative from Wakefield, said before beginning her test, “I’m here because I think this is an important exploration. I’ve heard people say that adults taking the test isn’t a fair representation, because we have all been out of school for a long time.
But if this is a test that accomplished adults cannot perform well on, then exactly what is NECAP testing? The truth is, this is a test that was designed as a diagnostic tool to measure large populations – where many are expected to fail – not to make these high-stakes decisions for individual students.
Having said that, however, I am here to do as well as I can and really see what it is we’re asking of students.”
Ken Fish, a former Director of Middle School and High School Reform at RIDE, shook his head when asked how he think he did. “I doubt that I passed the Math test, but those skills have never been relevant in my life or in a successful career managing multimillion dollar budgets. I have other compensating abilities, just as kids do. But students are trapped in an unfair and rigid system that negates their strengths, ignores their accomplishments, and brands them a failure…because of one test! This is outrageous. I think it’s time for the members of the Board of Education to take this test themselves, and then to change the NECAP graduation policy.”
State Senator Adam Satchell agreed. “We’re trying to teach students twenty-first century skills—how to speak, how to use technology. That’s not what this test measures,” he said. “It’s not an accurate measurement of our students.”
Cauldierre McKay, a junior at Classical High School, summed up the spirit of the event when he told the crowd, “We will release your scores in the following week. However you may have scored, we are willing to hypothesize that your score will not be a meaningful representation of all of your academic and real world value and success. This room is filled with accomplished individuals –there are elected officials who are charged with representing thousands of their fellow citizens; nonprofit directors who have created organizations that help countless people every day; brilliant lawyers; even some people that create education policy for Rhode island students. How can you measure all of that success by a single, arbitrary test? You can’t.”
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Diane Ravitch's blog 
Here is more information on this: http://www.turnto10.com/story/21659786/adults-get-ready-for-neacap
As I said in the comments, this must have been slipped by Gist somehow because she would NEVER have allowed it if she could have stopped it. I imagine she put in a call to the Collective to figure out how best to respond — and her response was kind of lame.
Triple-Dare all legislators in 50 States to take similar tests and publish their results. Interesting, the comments from legislators after taking the math test. Gee, could it be that they may think twice in the future? Possibly! Need more experiences for them in the future. Only chance educators have to provide a reality-show experience for legislators, educators & others.
Remember, 49 states to go!
What a positive statement about these teens and the adults who put their neck out and practiced what they preach.
We will have to have Gov. Jindal’s forwarded to him where ever he is since he is never here in Louisiana.
Just make sure he can’t obtain an advanced copy.
Reblogged this on Kmareka.com and commented:
Diane Ravitch blogs on the experiment this weekend in Providence where adults took the NECAP to see what it measures. Yay!
Kudos to those RI students. We’ll see what happens once the results are released.
Bravo! I believe this action, having adults take the test, is proof these students have a skill set worthy of the 21st century; they demonstrated problem solving and critical thinking! Again, hats off to all involved!
Before the other 49 state legislators take high stake exams, let’s give Arne Duncan exams in the 4 major subjects. Post his score and ask Obama if Duncan’s score will be used to rate him according to Danielson’s rubric and the new teacher evaluation where HEDI (Highly Effective, Effective, Developing, or Ineffective) determines the rating.
Kudos to those kids for their action. Many adults can learn from those kids on how to confront the deformers.
NO EXCUSES !!!
Although, in my judgement, this test taking event is just a publicity stunt irrelevant to the question of what students should know to graduate from high school, nevertheless, I shall be interested to see what the results are on this made up test. That the news report talks about statistically valid, suggests to me that the students don’t understand what I learned in education school, that the word “statistically” is correctly connected to reliability or repeatability, rather than to validity. Nor will it prove its point that school leaving should not be dependent on a test that adults can no longer pass. The skills of the adults, I hypothesize, were developed by studying exactly the kind of math that is on the test and that doing well enough on it helped to develop those rational skills that the test takers developed to succeed in doing their real world jobs.
Diane challenged me to take the 8th grade math test for my state. I responded by undertaking to take the 8th grade NYS Regents released exam for 2010, the test in HER state. There are three parts. I have only taken Part I so far, but I only got one question wrong out of 29, and that was a measurement question for which computer screen resolution may have provided me with faulty input. Even so, this particular superannuated geezer found the test a significant challenge and I was glad I was not under time pressure. It took some thought to dredge up some of the concepts from long ago 8th grade geometry, which I took in a public school from a really wonderful teacher named Miss Hooper. She was clear, kind, encouraging, and knew her stuff cold. A fond, fond memory.
Actually knowing the basic arithmetic, algebra and geometry tested so far on Part I, by the end of 8th grade would represent, in my opinion, a legitimate educational objective for all students in the country. Whether the CCSC thinks it can lift students higher sooner I do not know, but I suspect it does, and THAT would be a disaster, in my opinion. The released 2010 NY Regents test for eighth grade seemed to me to be about right for that level, yet not wimpy in the least. I doubt I would have done as well on it at the end of eighth grade as I did last week. Miss Hooper’s class was large. I’ll bet if she had had only 12 in the class, as happens at Phillips Exeter, I would have understood it even better then. But, of course, I really liked geometry, and remembered enough of common sense algebra to do OK some 60 years later.
I think the question that those organizing this exercise should ask is not really about the lasting relevance of the specific skills on the test. Would they prefer a different test that the adults could pass – given with the same conditions and high-stakes?
So the question is not, are the tested skills relevant? but rather, what is the purpose of testing?
While one would not want to waste time and energy of students and teachers on irrelevant skills, I don’t think that adults’ being out of touch with those skills necessarily means that it is irrelevant for students to have the intellectual workout of practicing them. The problem is that the workout itself may be useless if the pressure and high stakes interfere with students ability to engage meaningfully, ask questions that might have nothing to do with the test, and to feel supported to explore, make mistakes, i.e. learn.
Perhaps that should become a strategic talking point to counter the deformers. Demand that legislators and/or policy makers take the test. Parents opting out can insist they will only allow their child to take the test if state legislators take them. If successful adults cannot pass, then it becomes child abuse to expect our students to pass them.
Good idea: challenge legislators to take the HS tests. Parents could consider making this an issue. Since EdReformers think of testing as the ‘life depends on it’ issue, communicating to students an ‘all or nothing’ life option…it does change the outcome. If either group does poorly in these tests, then one can conclude that our students could, at least, grow up to be legislators? Since tests predict future success? Now, that is one scary idea, or not!
Talk about missing the point (namely, that one high stakes test may not accurately measure skills, rather than that the skills themselves — such as mathematics — aren’t that important):
I think the real lesson here is that we should abolish high school math. Schools should teach nothing beyond basic arithmetic. After all, why should we clutter their heads with skills that they’re just going to forget decades later? Kids can learn how to use “technology” (swiping at an iPhone, etc.), without having to learn all this fancy stuff about algebra and geometry.
Math is power. It’s a real toolset that can be used to better understand the world. Specific formulas and procedures may fade over time, but the underlying principles will always be with people who learn them, enabling a life grounded by logic and anchored by a world view that is a little less ephemeral.
Having adults take the test is an illusion. Instead, have other 11th graders take it, in New York, California, Japan, and Norway… Then you may have something remotely representative as a comparative score of what other people in the world have learned, and what will be expected of the next generation. The student union is certainly clever, but they aren’t necessarily right.