Liz Rosenberg, New York City public school parent, has a
new idea about her daughter’s test scores: she ignores them. This
is what she wrote: Refusing our Daughter’s Test Scores Earlier this
month, New York state made headlines when it revealed how poorly
schools and districts had fared on the state’s new Common
Core-aligned standardized tests. Beginning August 26, families of
the roughly 400,000 New York City public school pupils who took the
tests can log into ARIS (the system that stores student records) to
see their children’s ELA and math scores. My partner and I,
however, have decided that we will not be joining our fellow
parents in this endeavor. Instead, we are sending our school a
letter asking that they not share this year’s scores with our
daughter nor send them home via backpack or snail mail. Why? In
order to trust the reliability of this year’s scores, we would need
to believe that the tests are valid instruments that can accurately
measure what our daughter knows and is able to do. But how can
we–or educational experts, for that matter–assess the tests when
we can’t even see them? When New York signed a contract allowing
Pearson LLC, the producer of the tests, to keep the actual tests
private, it enabled the for-profit testing behemoth to shield
itself from scrutiny–and to dominate the lucrative test-prep
market. Since only small fragments of the tests are being made
public, the only other state-condoned resource that we have to go
by are the curricula the state has purchased and posted online
(produced by Core Knowledge and Expeditionary Learning). Looking at
a series of lessons that focus on frogs, we find a text called
“Everything You Need to Know about Frogs and Other Slippery
Creatures (DK Publishing). Who wouldn’t want third graders to read
a book by this title? But reading a book in class with your teacher
is quite different than testing students on their ability to
analyze a particular text. Everything You Need to Know about Frogs
and Other Slippery Creatures has a Lexile score of 1040 (Lexile is
a well regarded system for mapping the complexity of texts), which
puts it in the 6-8th grade range of text complexity. The Lexile
“analyzer” predicts that an average 3rd grade reader will
comprehend 50% of this text. Assessing students using texts that
are 3-5 years above their grade level does not help teachers or
parents learn much of anything about what those students know and
are able to do. Many high profile ed reform advocates, like Arne
Duncan, have voiced their support of NY state Education
Commissioner John King’s choice to set the bar for proficiency on
the tests so high. “I think the only way you improve is to tell the
truth, and sometimes that’s a brutal truth….,” he commented.*
Aside from “telling the brutal truth,” is there something else to
be gained politically from King’s choice? Perhaps he (and by
extension, his boss, Governor Andrew Cuomo) want to use low
proficiency rates to justify some of the reforms they have put in
place. The more “trouble” our schools are in, the more we need the
state or city to move to fix them. The fixes range from assessment
driven “personalized learning environments” (part of the national
Race to the Top applications for this year) or commercially
produced curricula to closing district schools, opening more
charters, and placing more schools on the turnaround list. They
also include expanding standardized testing to even our youngest
students–those in kindergarten through 2nd grade. As money and
personnel are diverted to these “reforms,” the byproducts are
larger class sizes; curricula that have no ties to schools,
students, or communities; an exodus of talented teachers frustrated
by their loss of autonomy; a stronger argument for charter schools,
and a weakened union. Given all of this, the state has not given us
any reason to trust the scores our daughter (or anyone’s daughter
or son) received this year. So like Michelle Rhee, President Obama,
Commissioner King and federal Department of Education Secretary
Arne Duncan–all of whom send their children to private schools–my
partner and I will have to rely on factors other than the state’s
standardized test scores to evaluate our child’s learning and
progress towards the standards. Our faith will lie with our school,
our daughter’s teachers, and with our own ability to assess her
learning in relationship to the standards. For other parents who
question the content, methodology, and uses of NY State’s 3rd-8th
grade tests, please consider refusing the scores with us. Our hope
is that this action will not only be the best choice for our
family, but that it will help spur a conversation about these
issues among parents/guardians around the city and state.
*http://www.wnyc.org/blogs/schoolbook/2013/aug/06/lower-scores-expected-duncan-backs-ny-new-state-tests/
Liz Rosenberg is a co-founder of NYCpublic.org, an organization
that is creating more opportunities for public school parents to
learn, organize, and take action — together. She lives in Brooklyn
with her partner, Sue Schaffner and their two children.