This post was written by Don Batt, an English teacher in Colorado:
There is a monster waiting for your children in the spring. Its creators have fashioned it so that however children may prepare for it, they will be undone by its clever industry.
The children know it’s coming. They have encountered it every year since third grade, and every year it has taken parts of their souls. Not just in the spring. Everyday in class, the children are asked which answer is right although the smarter children realize that sometimes there are parts of several answers that could be right.
And they sit. And they write.
Not to express their understanding of the world. Or to even form their own opinions about ideas they have read. Instead, they must dance the steps that they have been told are important: first, build your writing with a certain number of words, sentences, paragraphs; second, make sure your writing contains the words in the question; third, begin each part with “first, second,” and “third.”
My wife sat with our ten-year-old grandson to write in their journals one summer afternoon, and he asked her, “What’s the prompt?”
I proctored a standardized test for “below average” freshmen one year. They read a writing prompt which asked them to “take a position. . .” One student asked me if he should sit or stand.
There are those who are so immersed in the sea of testing that they do not see the figurative nature of language and naively think that the monster they have created is helping children. Or maybe they just think they are helping the test publishers, who also happen to write the text books, “aligned to the standards,” that are sold to schools. Those test creators live in an ocean of adult assumptions about how children use language–about how children reason. They breathe in the water of their assumptions through the gills of their biases. But the children have no gills. They drown in the seas of preconceptions.
They are bound to a board, hooded, and then immersed in lessons that make them practice battling the monster. “How much do you know!” the interrogators scream. The children, gasping for air, try to tell them in the allotted time. “Not enough!” the interrogators cry. Back under the sea of assumptions to see if they can grow gills. “This is how you get to college!” the interrogators call. And on and on, year after year, the children are college-boarded into submission.
What do they learn? That school is torture. That learning is drudgery.
There are those who rebut these charges with platitudes of “accountability,” but, just as the fast food industry co-opted nutrition and convenience in the last century, the assessment industry is co-opting our children’s education now. As Albert Einstein [William Bruce Cameron*] said, “Not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted.” Would that the measurement advocates would measure the unintended consequences of their decisions.
Our political leaders–surprise–have bent under the pressure of businessmen wearing the masks of “rigor” and “accountability.” They have sacrificed our children’s joy of learning on the altar of expediency.
Here’s what should happen: teachers in their own classrooms, using multiple performance assessments where children apply their knowledge in the context of a given task, determine what their students know and what they need to learn, based on standards developed by that school, district, or possibly, state. Teachers should take students where they are and help them progress at their own developmental rates. And good teachers are doing that every day. Not because of standardized tests, but in spite of them.
Students’ abilities can be evaluated in many, creative ways. The idea that every student take the same test at the same time is nothing more than the warmed-over factory model of education used in the 1950’s, now, laughingly called “education reform.” As Oscar Wilde has observed, “Conformity is the last refuge of the unimaginative.”
Don Batt
English teacher
Cherry Creek Schools
Aurora, Colorado
*http://quoteinvestigator.com/2010/05/26/everything-counts-einstein/
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Beautifully written & absolutely true. This is the tragedy of of schools.
of OUR schools…
Brilliant! Hits the inhumanity of what is happening in our schools.
What goes around, comes around. What is old is new again.
If you live long enough, you see it all.
And this is what education has become – we have to teach in spite of the standards and find ways around it. That’s just plain wrong.
Standards should be a guideline, not a script. Tests should be used as a red flag to pinpoint weaknesses. These tests have been designed to create failure, not identify success. There are not enough red flags to help 2/3rds of the state reach mastery. New schools won’t help. New teachers won’t help. New principals won’t help. Different students will get the same results.
A new test? Maybe! No test at all? Opting out – That will send a red flag.
Right back at you!
Guidelines not scripts … absolutely true. This is what comes of building a for-profit system designed in such a away as to maximize them is the short term. It is also designed to kill public education and build systems without accountability.
I am curious about the age of these students and why these no stakes exams have such a profound impact on these students. As Dr. Ravitch has stated before, “we never figured out how to motivate 17-year-olds to care about their scores on a no-stakes test.” At what age do the students realize that these exams have no impact on them and start to answer all A or make some patterns?
Do you know absolutely nothing about child development? For instance, how children are naturally programmed (not the best word, I know) to please adults? How children’s identities are so largely formed by the judgment of the adults in their world and how test scores form such a large part of that judgment?
Anyway, at least some of these tests are not no-stakes. Some of them are used to determine whether kids will advance to the next level and some are used to determine whether kids get into “gifted”, “average” or “remedial” programs. And kids aren’t idiots – they are aware if and when the tests are used to evaluate their teachers – don’t you think that’s a rather hefty burden for a child?
And that’s not to even mention the fact that the tests guide curriculum throughout the school year. Almost everything kids are allowed to learn are geared toward the test in both form and content.
C’mon, TE, you’ve been around Diane’s blog too long and you’re too intelligent to play disingenuous games like this.
I am taking Dr. Ravitch as my authority here and the trouble the NAEP had in getting the 17 year olds to care about the test. As Dr. Ravitch said “They doodled on the answer sheets; some kids answered all A or B or C or D, or made patterns.” I find it hard to believe that exams that these students care so little about have the profound impact on students. I do believe that younger students can be convinced by teachers and or parents that no stakes exams are important and so might have a larger impact on the students.
“These tests have been designed to create failure, not identify success. There are not enough red flags to help 2/3rds of the state reach mastery. New schools won’t help. New teachers won’t help. New principals won’t help. Different students will get the same results.”
You missed one: New cut scores will work!
You do, of course, realize that 17 year olds make up a rather small percentage of K-12 graders, right?
And again, some of these exams are not no-stakes.
Dienne,
That is why I asked about the age of the students the poster was talking about and the age at which the students figure out that these are no stakes exams.
” I find it hard to believe that exams that these students care so little about have the profound impact on students.”
Because these tests are being used to threaten teachers, they now, in many classrooms, completely dominate the school year. They have twisted and deformed the culture of schools in a very negative way. The personal, psychological, emotional impact on students in grades 3 to 8 can vary significantly. Marginal to low end middle school students can pretty much blow them off without a care. I’ve seen many student with their head down after 15 or 20 minutes in a 90 minute test session.
It wasn’t that long ago that the mission statement of almost every school district included the notion of developing life-long learners.
We now should be re-writing these mission statements to, develop life-long test takers.
Let’s not forget that in NYS HS graduation will depend on success in CCSS aligned math and ELA, at which point the tests become true high stakes exams. Will be interesting to see if that positively affects results.
NY teacher,
I have no doubt that teachers can create high stress situations for younger students. I am curious about the age at which students learn they can ignore the results of the exams.
New York is among a minority of states where high school graduation depends on summative exam results. My state has no requirement or plans to implement such a requirement though it has adopted the CCSS.
TE
Students in NY have been “threatened” with remedial AIS classes if they scored below proficiency. For many marginal to low end students the threat of an extra English or math class was too long range to worry about. AIS classes are not graded and not required for promotion – so no-stakes tests lead to no-stakes remediation.
I’m in a state with high-stakes tests on which students must earn a passing score in order to graduate. Even so, whenever I have administered them, many students put their heads down within minutes of beginning the tests, which are untimed. This happens on every administration, including the retests, which are scheduled every 2-3 months. So many students here just give up almost as soon as they begin, after weeks of tutorial and even scheduling into special retest classes. Each year, about 20-30 of our students fail to graduate due to the inability to pass the tests.
Despite the fact that I do not teach a tested subject, my evaluation is now based on the scores of the students who take the tests. Despite the fact that I know only a minority of the students upon whose scores my evaluation depends, this is considered a valid appraisal of my work. Despite the impact on my professional evaluation, I am not allowed to know what is on the tests, nor what questions the students have missed. How I can possibly help students I don’t know pass a test that I don’t have access to. Any insights, teachingeconomist?
Once again I think it is usefull to distinguish between tests that are high stakes for the students like the ones in your state and no stakes for the students like the ones in my state and Aurora, Colorado.
LHP, you make a good case for teacher-made tests.
Not sure where this will end up, but am replying to the gist of this long thread. I’m remembering a jr yr hs history class (back in tracking days) when I ended up surrounded by ‘accelerated’ kids. I was an inconsistent test-taker, & too intimidated in class by my brilliant teacher & the superior speakers around me to say much, tho I was fascinated my 1st history class to move beyond facts, put them in play. (I was probably there because I was a thinker.) I was inspired to delve deep into a paper on ‘pragmatism’, & was devastated when the teacher took me aside to probe whether I’d had some sort of outside help to produce it. The message I got was that the teacher apparently judged me only from test results & ‘class participation’– didn’t know me, at all.
I shudder to imagine how today’s teacher, with far more students, forced to narrow focus to state standards & tests, can ever know & encourage students such as I was.
Freelancer – Isn’t it sad that only those identified as “smart” get to participate in classes that move “beyond the standards”. Obviously you responded to the challenge. Too bad the teacher didn’t recognize your potential. And it doesn’t help to know that this same scenario has been repeated with others on this blog.
A lesson in labeling students based on test scores and class participation.
The fact you have to ask that question should be an indication the tests are and always will be flawed. Tests, as any formalized system, are inconsistent and incomplete. The more precise, and by extension intrusive, the tests, the more the tests skew the results. What we see with Common Core is the emerging reality of the written standards being irrelevant and the true standards are the tests. These tests force conformity and contaminate education. Creativity and innovation rises from experimentation and non-conformance. That creativity requires teachers now take enourmous risks to correct a system seen as gone horribly wrong. Probably most telling is in our state, the children of our legislators and governor in private schools are exempt from the new testing regime.
*rise
I think that every method of assessment can give an inaccurate picture of a students ability. To use an example from my own family, my middle son earned a grade of B- in his sophomore year pre-calculus class but maxed out the math MAP exam he took in the fall. Which was a better assessment of his ability in math?
I can’t speak for your son, but that is the point. You know him. You tell me which assessment was a better indicator of his learning. Teachers know their students better than some faceless test developer in a far distant cubicle. I can develop an assessment reflecting my students’ progress that is far superior to any anonymous standardized test. In the obsession over measuring every aspect of learning and turning teachers and students into some experimental, multi-leveled statistcal model, we’ve lost sight of what we are trying to accomplish in education.
Luckily the school principal took the standardized exam score seriously and gave us the freedom to get him into the appropriate mathematics courses. By his senior year in high school he was taking an upper level graduate math class at the local university.
In his case the anonymous standardized exam seemed a better reflection of his ability than the teacher determined grades.
My middle daughter was good in math so she was placed in Algebra instead of Math 8 with the “smart” kids. She maintained a C average all year, but got a 100% on the Algebra Regents Exam. The teacher was very angry. She had only put in half the effort in class, we (her parents) made her actually “study” for the final (a known quantity) by taking former Regents exams over and over. (There is no known quantity on the current “assessments”.)
I’m not against high stakes testing. My three daughters were successful in all of their Regents Exams, and not one of them was (what I consider) “brilliant”.
The problem with the current high stakes testing is that the test questions are “stupid”. They are confusing with multiple choices for the right answer or no choice at all. They are often inappropriate for the given age level in content and interest. Creating a relevant testing measure is an art form, yet, once again, the powers that be feel “anyone” can do it.
If it was a good assessment I wouldn’t complain. Assessments should not be high stakes testing, they should be used to take a peek at how the child is progressing. That is all. Not as a basis to fire a teacher, but as a tool to help fill in any gaps in their background knowledge.
One year the Board of Regents thought to toughen up the algebra exam. The end result was more for a college student than a high school freshman. Almost everyone failed. A scapegoat was found, fired, and the test results were thrown out. Any exam, where 70% of the students fail, is not a valid assessment and should be tossed out.
Tests should not be out to trick the test taker. We shouldn’t be treating students like lambs to be slaughtered. I’ve proctored those types of exams – and it is heartbreaking to watch. Have you ever seen a teenage boy cry?
And that’s just some of the reasons why parents and teachers are fighting the exams.
The failure rate is about the cut score than the exam. If you do not want to know how much the brightest students know, don’t ask questions that only the brightest students can answer.
Let me quote my middle son about his experience in public high school mathematics from another internet site:
I apologize if this seems like an offensive and long-winded diatribe. I don’t mean to say that mathematics is something most people cannot grasp, but simply something they were never taught. If I seem angry, it is because the material that passes for math in public schools nearly turned me off mathematics forever, and had it done so I would never have realized the sublime beauty of the subject and never felt the peace and joy that has come with understanding it.
He wrote that just after his seventeenth birthday. He graduated from high school at sixteen. I am familiar with a teenaged boy’s frustration with public education.
TE, gifted students, like your son, are a whole different playing field. That is why some districts offer special programs (even then, gifted education is an art form, not a series of extra assignments). They really need the brightest and the best teachers to relate to so they do not become jaded. I’m glad your son was able to figure it out. I hope he had or is having a successful college experience.
The hard part will be finding his niche. Good luck in guiding him towards a rewarding and successful career. Sometimes it’s tough being a parent. Actually, it’s tough all the time.
Public schools have always had a difficult time dealing with students out of the ordinary, yet they are a part of the “all” that this blog is supposed to be about. Because both his parents have doctorates and we live in a college town, we could, to some degree, protect our middle son from becoming too jaded. He left the public schools math classes at 15, sciences classes his senior year at 16. That helped a good deal.
It is much harder for bright students who do not have these opportunities. Most of the high schools in my state have less than 250 students. How many strong students became jaded about education before they had the opportunity to discover what it is really about?
The class grade isn’t just an assessment of his math ability. It also includes factors such as effort, participation, homework completion, etc., all of which are equally if not more predictive of future success.
Dienne @10:21,
Exactly!
I have had quite a few very capable test takers do very little outside of that ( homework, presentations, lab reports, etc.), but they easily aced the end of course (required by the state ) or the AP exam.
So final grade was not so hot.
And I also agree that in several cases the students unwillingness to complete other assignments was, indeed, a predictor of their future success.
Alas, they found out the hard way that very few adults get lives where they can ignore assignments they don’t want.
I disagree. Really smart kids don’t necessarily tow the line. They get by in class doing the minimum, but ace the finals because of their natural ability. I have seen this scenario over and over. The problem pops up when they actually discover a subject they have to work at, but this doesn’t usually occur until college.
It’s not that they can’t do the work, it’s that they don’t have to. Many brilliant students were perfectly satisfied with a B or even a C in high school. Probably one of the smartest students I ever met took AP Biology. She was frequently absent or late, but she was the only one in the class to get a five on the final exam. A perfect score.
I suspect this happens more frequently than teachers like to acknowledge. My middle son, at least, was extremely frustrated with his high school education and protested by not doing the busty work and acing the exams.
Ang@5:44
I think that grades can indicate many things. In my middle son’s case it was frustration with the way mathematics was being taught. Given the freedom to do mathematics, he has done quite well, completing an undergraduate math major with honors by the end of his sophomore year of college.
TE
When tests that are out of the ordinary – like the NEAP or NCLB tests or related field tests – the very first question we get asked is: __.
a) Can I borrow a pencil?
b) Can I go to the bathroom first?
c) Will we be done before recess?
d) Does it count?
NY Teacher,
Your list of questions students ask is why I am skeptical that these exams have the profound impact on, at least high school students, that are often described here.
In NYS, the two toughest Regents Exams are in Trigonometry and Physics. I worked in a Gifted and Talented School, and many of the students refused to take either of these exams. They refused to put themselves through the abuse for an exam they were not required to take (they only need to pass one Regents in Math and Science to graduate – a policy where the minimum requirement achieves minimum results). They voted against the exams with their feet.
When a child fidgets during the exam, it is in direct correlation to their ability to answer the questions. I have seen students turn in blank answer sheets – another form of protest.
TE
There is only ONE correct response, the other three are plausible distractors! If you get this wrong you will be assigned a remedial class in child/adolescent psychology.
” I am skeptical that these exams have the profound impact on, at least high school students”
TE
When it comes to (formerly) NCLB and now CCSS standardized tests,
high school student have been had no stake at all because they don’t take these exams. NCLB and CCSS under RTTT was legislated to include grades 3 to 8 only!
Some states that have high stakes testing requirements for graduation:
NYS (Regents), Massachusetts (MCAS), and N.J. (High School Proficiency)
The original post refers to sophomores, so I take it that the exam Don Batt is speaking about is one given in high school.
TE
I will not permit you to opt-out!
a? b? c? or d?
I just asked my youngest son, a high school junior. He would go with d.
“The original post refers to sophomores….”
What original post? Don Blatt’s? I see that it references 10 year olds (his wife sitting with their grandson) and freshmen (he proctored a test for “below average” freshman). Other than those references, I don’t see where he’s talking about any specific age/grade level. He’s talking about kids being constantly subjected to standardized tests – kids of pretty much all ages and grade levels.
Ding!
NY teacher– You write “high school student have been had no stake at all because they don’t take these exams. NCLB and CCSS under RTTT was legislated to include grades 3 to 8 only!”
WHAT?! The law also requires students to be tested once in grades 9-11. Or have I just been dreaming that I was proctoring those and losing countless classroom hours for the past 10 years??
TE, let’s keep in mind that high school students are less likely than youngsters to betray their stress level, often appearing ‘jaded’ as a defense mechanism against fear of failure. This does not mean that tests should never be administered, but does to my mind support a common-sense approach– once a year is more than enough.
pculliton
I was referring specifically to “No-stakes” exams. Regents exams required for HS graduation certainly wouldn’t qualify as “No-stakes” exams.
pculliton
I’ve been proctoring NCLB math and ELA exams since the beginning. The pressures for teachers and administrators to meet AYP on these grade 3 to 8 tests did not impact high schools at all.
TE,
RE: “why these no stakes exams have such a profound impact on these students.”
I do not understand why you are assuming that all standardized tests are no stakes for the student.
SAT
ACT
AP exams…
Obvious stakes, but, yes..technically optional
In my state (and several other states I am aware of) we have corporate made, standardized end of course tests that count for 20% of the child’s final grade and count toward HS graduation.
Many states have corporate made graduation exams. Obvious stakes for student.
As others have pointed out, there are tests to get into gifted, out of ESOL, etc. These can have an impact.
Ang,
I am not assuming that all standardized exams are no-stakes for students, just suggesting that we might want to distinguish between standardized exams that are high stakes for students and those that are not.
Aurora, Colorado, for example, seems to require students earn enough credit to graduate (you can find the requirements here: http://instruction.aurorak12.org/parents-community/graduation-requirements/) . There are no exams required for graduation. The exams that the poster talks about giving to high school sophomores do not seem to have any impact on the students. The high stakes exams will be the ones the teachers give to determine final grades.
I am not aware of what goes on in Aurora, CO.
Perhaps someone who teaches there can speak to that.
I missed that this discussion was about that particular city.
The point of this post, IMHO, was the constant, incessant, drudge that is standardized testing and the effects for many students.
Regarding high stakes tests made by teachers;
No teacher I have ever known gives one exam to determine a student’s final grade.
In my district that is against board policy.
In addition the student ( and her family, if they wish) can review the questions and answers for all tests. Poor questions can be thrown out. Confusion can be addressed. There is always the possibility of a retake, or alternate assignment in some cases.
Teacher made tests are not what we are referring to when we discuss high stakes.
Apples and oranges.
Ang,
The author of the original post is a teacher in Aurora Colorado, that is why I looked up the graduation requirements for that school district.
As far as I can tell, no score on a standardized exam has any impact on the grade a student in Aurora will get, no score on a standardized exam will have an impact on a students ability to graduate from high school. Teacher constructed exams will influence grades, teacher constructed exams could prevent a student from graduating.
Clearly teacher constructed exams are high stakes for students. My youngest son came up with an interesting, but difficult to measure test of what causes student stress to go up. See if adderall sales go up more before students take state mandated MAP exams or if the go up more before students take final exams. He has no doubt which set of exams creates higher illegal sales.
I have to agree for the most part with teachingeconomist here– or perhaps say I had the exact same question. Even “high stakes” testing will matter only to those high school students who do care about graduating and/or being placed in higher-level classes and are not just putting in time till they turn 18 (attendance is mandated until then in NH unless of course a kid doesn’t attend public schools in the first place).
One teacher friend of mine had a HS student answer all Es. The choices were A to D.
My daughter drew a pattern with the bubbles on her math assessment in first grade and ended up in remediation in second. She didn’t do that again.
Did the teacher in second grade recognize that remediation was not required?
Obviously I can’t speak for Ellen, but if it’s like many schools these days, the teacher probably doesn’t have much if any say-so. If the test says the kid needs remediation, that’s what the kid needs. What would a teacher know anyway?
Maybe she did but no one listened. In our state, it would not matter what the teacher thought. In fact, she would probably be disciplined for even publicly questioning our “Third Grade Reading Guarantee”.
You know, TE, I pointed that out once I had discerned what she had done. She was the only second grader in the school to qualify for Math remediation (based solely on the test). The resource teacher told me she would benefit from the extra help, which I guess was true. A one on one tutoring math session 3x a week would only strengthen her skills. It was a lesson learned. (She was a hand full and needed lots of such “lessons”!)
She did pass all the Math Regents Exams in High School, plus took a year of Calculus in college. And now she has a successful career as a Project Manager. I’m not sure if extra help in Math at the age of seven was the catalyst, but it didn’t hurt.
DeBlasio selects Carmen Farina as the new NYC schools chancellor.
Excerpts from the article in today’s NYT:
“Ms. Fariña shares Mr. de Blasio’s skepticism of standardized testing and his focus on early education. As chancellor, she will help shape his proposal to expand access to preschool and after-school programs.”
” In 2004, she was named a deputy chancellor, but departed two years later, uneasy about the growing use of student test scores to evaluate schools. ”
“Since her retirement in 2006, Ms. Fariña has emerged as a critic of Mr. Bloomberg’s educational policies. “I want to see us have a system where people do things because they have a sense of joy about it, not because they have a sense of fear,” she said at a speech in November.”
Reblogged this on Roy F. McCampbell's Blog.
Reblogged this on Roy F. McCampbell's Blog.
people in the different states have to work together….
quote: “defending public education from the privatizers and the voucher vultures. We’ve created a new website, http://www.publicschoolshakedown.org, that pulls together the big picture of school privatization and connects local public school activists with people in communities nationwide who are fighting the same battle.”
With all of the great posts and conversations on this blog there are only a few that I post to my personal wall on FB. This is one that I am sharing.
You are right, I misremembered the freshman reference. Still high school students though, in my district it would mean 14 or 15 year olds.
You are still willfully overlooking the reference to his ten year old grandson. And this sentence: “They have encountered it every year since third grade, and every year it has taken parts of their souls.” He is clearly *not* just talking about high school students.
Dienne,
Again again, that is why I asked about the age when students stop caring about exams that do not count for them. Dr. Ravitch’s experience is that 17 year olds do not care, in conversations with my 16 year old he claims his friends used to care more about the exams, but are now much more stressed by teacher created exams that do count.
Do you have a sense of the age when students figure out that the exams do not matter?
By the time students reach whatever age that is, it no longer matters. They’ve been immersed in the testing environment since at least third grade if not earlier. The testing environment has already destroyed their love of learning. Whatever it is you’re trying to claim is utterly tangential to Blatt’s point, which is how testing destroys any intrinsic love of learning. Or do you think students somehow magically regain their love of learning once they reach this mythical age where the tests no longer matter?
Many things can destroy intrinsic love of learning. I think that is important to distinguish between 1) high stakes exams for the students, 2) high stakes exams for the teachers but no stakes for the students, and 3) no stakes exams for either the teacher or the students.
“I asked about the age when students stop caring about exams that do not count for them.”
Very conscientious students are programmed to do their best at all times. However I think that students that do stop caring its probably 7th or 8th grade.
As always, this depends on the student. Some continue to care about the scores well into their high school years. At my school, the math and science state test scores are a test score for their fourth term grade. The idea was so that the students “would take the test seriously.” I’m not a fan of that, myself, but it does make the scores high stakes for students.
The biggest concern with many of these tests is that while they are technically, “no stakes,” students take pride in their teachers and schools in many cases. They know that these scores reflect on their schools and teachers. For some students, that means that they purposely “bomb” the test in order to get back at a teacher or school for some wrong. For many students, though, they stress out about it because they love their teachers and schools and they want to help them to look good.
It’s why my 8th and 9th graders suddenly settle down when the principal comes in the room. “We’ve got your back, Mrs. Louisiana Purchase!” they tell me after the principal leaves. They want to help me look good, and it’s the same for the tests.
That’s why my then 11-year-old didn’t sleep well for days before the state mandated writing test. He loved his teacher and wanted her to look good.
This question as to what age students stop caring about tests does not take into account anxiety-prone individuals for whom every test at any age is a stressor. Some are better than others at developing a thicker skin. Frequent testing for the rest of the kids do not build character, and do not in fact prepare them for the ‘real world’, they just make school a place to escape from as soon as possible.
I was an excellent test taker, but I still rejoiced when I realized I would never, ever have to take another test for the rest of my life.
Some more wonderful reporting from Plunderbund on Ohio’s cybercharter scam:
http://www.plunderbund.com/2013/12/29/ohios-first-public-school-hundred-millionaire-ecot-founder-william-lager/
Isn’t Fordham Institute located in Ohio? Why are they never asked about Ohio charters? These schools are in their back yard, yet all we hear about is how horrible public schools are.
Does the Fordham Institute back this big GOP donor ripping off Ohio taxpayers? Apparently the auditor is aware of it, because the numbers in the piece came from the auditor. Why is this one ed reform individual making millions off charter schools?
Chiara Duggan: your comment put me in mind of—
“It is not the answer that enlightens but the question.” [Eugene Ionesco]
We can’t even start looking for good and useful and practical answers unless we ask the right questions.
Thank you for your comments.
😎
Thanks.
I really don’t get it. If I were a state leader in Idaho and the Fordham Institute came to town, I think the first thing I would ask is “how is ed reform going in Ohio?”
Shouldn’t they have to defend their absolutely dismal record in Ohio’s urban areas before they expand to reform public schools in “America’s rural communities”? Where’s the merit-based hiring I was promised with this free market system? It’s like the same 17 people get hired over and over and over, just going from state to state.
You’ll notice they aren’t expanding into OHIO rural communities. Probably a reason for that 🙂
http://www.edexcellence.net/commentary/education-gadfly-daily/flypaper/america%E2%80%99s-rural-schools-and-communities
Chiara Duggan: you must not be on the right emailing list, hence didn’t get the memo.
Have to defend their record? Hey, when you can channel the spirit of Leona Helmsley the answer is obvious: “only the little people” are required to defend their words and deeds.
You’re too stuck in the past. Just take to heart the stirring words of Paul Vallas: “I go in, fix the system, I move on to something else.”
Link: http://www.nbcchicago.com/blogs/ward-room/Paul-Vallas–213999671.html
I am glad I cleared that up. Please feel free to call on my help again.
$tudent $uccess, anyone?
😎
There is a growing movement among universities, school counselors, and mental health specialists in Texas to declare this an environmental mental health crisis for elementary school children in our state.
This toxic environment for young children is causing
psychological damage of epidemic proportions. This obsession with
“performance”and the corrosive environment of chronic stress and anxiety are creating the perfect psychological storm for Narcissistic & Borderline PS. This is supported by research at UW, Harvard, UNC, and other major research universities in the US and UK. It also links with “pipeline to prison” studies. The movement in Texas is recommending that parents unite with teachers at their individual schools to sign a group petition together to Opt Out and refuse to test. Parents refuse to allow their children to be victimized and “used” for testing, and teachers refuse to allow themselves to be “used” to administer the tests or practice teat. The petition needs to note that they consider this harmful for their children, and their opinion is supported by mental health professionals and research. Solidarity is important. Principals and school administrators who still have some “human” qualities of empathy for children will support it. Principals who won’t support it are participating in “bullying” children and need to go. You can call this a Mutiny, A Vote of No Confidence, a Peasants Revolt, A Showdown, A Shot Heard around the World, or any other name that represents citizens who stand up to abusive authority!
We cannot continue to be bystanders to this abuse that is causing permanent damage to our children. In Texas, we call this group petition:
Don’t Mess With Texas Children!
I felt frustrated reading this post since it has some of the best insights we have but then mixes in an error or unclear writing and thus ends up losing the force of the argument (from the insights) in the weeds.
The first sentence of the 2nd to last paragraph is where a reasonable (and wrong) formulation of what-to-do wrecks the piece. If that sentence were deleted, the piece would be more helpful, and that means it isn’t written clearly or is just in error, one or the other.
To me, it is easy to imagine how to set up a school to do all the author wishes (except for that one sentence), and *also* use a national set of standards of what to learn. We simply need to allow students to have different tracks, and thus we’d need different standards tracks.
More — we need to see the standards as *only* a helpful guide, a suggestion. Only.
“We simply need to allow students to have different tracks, and thus we’d need different standards tracks.”
Couldn’t agree more. Unfortunately political correctness will probably prevent this from happening anytime soon.
There has been considerable opposition voiced to student tracking voiced on this blog in the past, not usually motivated by political correctness. But I agree that tracking is probably required if there is a large difference between students of different abilities.
I meant not “tracks” as tracking (different pace and end results) — though perhaps that has some merit — but instead I meant fundamentally different tracks, like “artist” vs “math” vs “musical” vs “performance” etc., as in different career tracks, and let kids switch between them at will, and throw out graduation standards entirely, etc. A radically different version of school.
I don’t think choosing a tract is that revolutionary. That’s what a student does in college. Why can’t high school students do the same? When I went to HS we had majors – 5 years in a certain subject area – mine was social studies. Other students had different choices, including vocational ed. Of course, that was when there were still electives (including Home Ec and Industrial Arts – obviously I graduated in the 70s). I even took a sociology class in summer school (for fun).
And I don’t think we had any standards in those days. How did we ever graduate from high school, let alone be college ready? It must have been a fluke I graduated Magna Cum Laude from UB with no standards to back me up. Sigh!
Academic and vocational tracks would be supported by many teachers and administrators.
That would be a step in the right direction, but we need to go much further. We need both many tracks — “artist”, “math” “science” “music”, etc. — and also individualized learning, which is workable actually in a large school with many teachers. Having many teachers means you can have many levels of math, art, music, etc., and then you can individualize.
You just need to throw out the kind of graduation requirements we are accustomed to, and replace them with only a requirement to complete a certain number of classes. We need to radically revise what we see as successful education. See my other comment just above also.
At what age would these “tracks” start?
A four-track system (STEM, Humanities, Arts, Vocational) starting at grade 9. This is one very progressive idea that unfortunately will go nowhere.
My state made an attempt to start a STEM high school. Because we are a sparsely populated state (NYC has about twice as many students in public education as there are in our state) it would have been a boarding school.
My family lost interest when we realized they were not planning to have some basic things like foreign language instruction. We were able to accommodate some of our middle son’s needs by having him take STEM classes at the university, an option not open to many in the state because of location or expense.
The 3-5 track system of STEM, vocational, etc. actually sounds somewhat familiar, and many people would recognize a version of that from their own experience, where a vocational track was in widespread use, such as in the 1970s and 1980s.
I can imagine this becoming the new trend just as easily as our current fads/trends arose, but since these kinds of tracks fit human nature better they could endure.
Perhaps we should start advocating for them.
But instead of “grade 9” I’d like to see a precursor begin at age 9!
It depends on how these “tracks” would work. The high school where my oldest son is had “academies” that almost require students to choose a major at age 14 (9th grade). Sure, they can move between “academies,” technically, but it’s hard to do and only certain classes, such as debate, are hard to take unless one is in the “right” academy. It makes it really hard for students to explore new passions, and it nearly killed the debate program. My son, who is still exploring what he wants to do “when he grows up,” wanted to be “undeclared,” but that wasn’t even an option.
What Louisiana Purchase said. I’m all in favor of kids getting extra focus on areas that interest them and/or that they seem to have a natural talent for, but the idea of pigeon-holing children at age nine (or even 14) and making it difficult for them to do anything else smacks of Red China and leaves me cold.
Sounds like we 3 agree that there should be an easy way to switch around to different tracks, and that lacking such an easy option is a big negative. Further I definitely think we need undecided tracks, which can be just like in an University, where a student can take an eclectic mix. In fact, once you point that out, you don’t even need “academies” per se, or simply make an academy optional. Choice is the key part.
What I advocate is a little further in this direction: that graduation standards should not be restricted to the type of classes taken, but instead the number successfully completed.
For example a particular student might have mostly math and music, and only a handful of other courses that are not math or music, during high school. *That’s* individualization.
Reblogged this on The Digital Realist and commented:
I wish I would have written this… Greg
I just realized I’ve been advocating that CC is useful if treated only as a guide (not a requirement), but also that progressively as student age they should have more freedom to choose their classes.
Combining these points implies less and less Common Core over time.
After around grade 6, there should be progressively less and less that *every* student is required to learn in common with all others.
CC for grades 9-12 should *shrink*.
Starting at grade 9, students should be choosing most of their classes I think, with only 2 classes as common core requirements for *all* students. Instead, high school would be a time of exploring and pursuing an *individual* direction, similar to college.
That seems reasonable. How much freedom would you give to a high school student to choose who provides the class and who would pay for it? Could a student choose a class provided by K-12 or taught at another institution? Should a student be allowed to take all their classes at an alternative institution at public expense?
The answers to these questions drive much of the debate between those that support traditional public schools and those that support broader choices for students.
That’s why we have had advanced placement classes …
The median sized high school in my state has a little under 250 students, so the number of AP classes is very limited. In the smaller high schools, there are none.
Even in the large local high school, a little under 1,500, the number of AP classes is limited. Admittedly I live in a college town, so if the parents can afford it and the students have enough regular hours to graduate from high school, students can take classes at the university as special students.
I worked at a small high school which was limited in their AP offerings, but the linked up with another school to offer AP Literature via Tanburg (a two way Skype system) for the three students who were interested. They also offered a Saturday Statistics class run at a local university for school credit. (This was done through a Partnership – the students would get school credit, but would also get college credit if they attended that university).
TE – I’ve thought about this issue. But we don’t have to reinvent the wheel. The SUNY schools allow you to take classes at other universities, they’ll even accept credits from community colleges, but the core of a major must be from the assigned school.
So, a certain basic curriculum must be at the local high school, but additional course work can be from supplemental sources. Almost the reverse of the college requirements – the major could be a combination of internships and classes from local colleges or vocational centers. Maybe even an apprenticeship. If a variance is needed, then it would be reviewed by a committee made up of an administrator, the guidance counselor, and two teachers, one in the subject area and the other outside. Perhaps a fifth individual, the tiebreaker, could be someone outside the school – either from the community or from the board or the superintendent’s office.
I would like to see the student involved as one of your committee members so they might feel more of a sense of ownership of their own education.
The student would be the focal point. They would be the one presenting their vision. The committee would help him find the right path to success. (The parents would also be present as well as any supporters).
The guidance counselor would meet with the parent/child team in advance to lay out a preliminary plan of action.
Does this sound similar to an IEP? Fine tuned? This would really individualize education – hopefully for the better.
We don’t want common – we want uncommon or unique.
. The joy of learning is so important when we come to the conclusion that kids will memorize when we tell them only to be left with little knowledge. However, they will only learn when they are ready. They still control their minds as much as we have tried to control them and will open them and close them based on THEIR PERCEPTION of the value of the incoming information.
North Carolina legislators, are you reading this????
My hope is that teachers would speak out and support Don Batt. Continuing this does nothing but stifle student’s ability to be creat
ive.
Arne Duncan and those that support his decisions, know nothing about education and in my opinion, are doing a disservice to students.
Thank you Mr. Batt!
If a student is being asked to “take a position,” this belies the statement that students are “Not to express their understanding of the world. Or to even form their own opinions about ideas they have read.” A freshman in high school (and I teach plenty of them) should know that “position” here does not mean a physical stance of some sort.
I, too, am very much opposed to standardized testing and agree with the author that it is “fashioned it so that however children may prepare for it, they will be undone by its clever industry.” This is such a crucial issue that must be careful not to make self-contradictory arguments such as the above!
While emotionally moving, it’s not hard to see the obvious fallacies of this argument.
If, in fact, most educated adults believe that students should develop “critical reasoning” skills” and the ability to “think deeply” or “express their ideas,” or all those other good-sounding platitudes, it’s hard to think that essay exams, the sine qua non of collegiate assessment are this great evil.
The fact that so many bad teachers, dull and unimaginative concrete-thinking adults, and so many overly-fear-driven administrators do not have a grounding in liberal education, the basic tools of argumentation, or the understanding of the purposes behind essay tests is not an argument against testing. It is an argument for it, albeit not in the dull and dehumanizing way it’s being practiced.
The common core, and the coming changes to the SAT have begun the vital step of moving the assessment mountain towards things that actually do matter for young people. We cannot use the sloppy execution of the goals, however, as an argument against the goals.
The canard that we are “teaching to the test” has been rebutted by over a century of good teachers “teaching to the test” every week in their own classes, to their goals, to their tests.
Improving the way we do this as a system will only happen if we stop confusing the issue of how to test with whether to test in the first place. Progressive and essentialist teachers alike who care about the humanity of our students must press to be involved with the tests’ development, delivery, and salesmanship (frankly), not continue to throw the baby out with the bathwater.
I guarantee that no educated adult takes any teacher seriously when they complain about “teaching to the test” even as their students shed tears around their collective dining room tables about the quiz this Friday.
Peng, can you explain why our elite private schools do not use standardized tests to judge students or teachers?
Professor Ravitch:
you’re loading the question. If by standardized tests, you mean “academic challenges in the traditional domains of reading, writing, and problem-solving, (i.e., tests) referenced to clear criteria of accomplishment in engaging and utilizing material being studied (“standards”) as measured by shared norms and values (“standardized”) then show me a private school in this country that DOESN’T use them almost daily.
My point is that warring against these inhumane, poorly-conceived, unaligned activities that some in the education-industrial complex call “standardized tests” is obviously necessary by all thinking people. Turning around and then campaigning against “standardized tests” in toto, however, is a dangerous confusion of the issues.
I will not pretend for a minute that these private schools aren’t doing the right thing by utilizing such assessments. I struggle to bring this level of rigor to my classroom (in the face of pressures to deflate expectations across the board.) The general line of argument you’re engaged in makes it much more difficult, not easier, for teachers like me to bring the best of what private schools can offer to students in public schools.
Peng,
I don’t know of any private elite school that uses standardized tests daily. I don’t. Know of any that uses them weekly or monthly. Can you name one such school?
Again, you’re missing it. Writ broadly, all the assessments used at such schools, whether it’s essays, problems in math, lab reports, oral presentations and examinations are all “standardized tests” and always have been. Are you unable to see that? Of course, again, I reiterate, that the particular paper-and-pencil tests being used in most states AREN’T standardized, nor are they good tests. That’s the point.
In a country with high crime, with corrupt police, the logical solution is to improve the police and justice system, not abolish the police and pretend that crime has magically disappeared. All the argument you need for my position comes from what you yourself laid out in “Left Back”–as bad as the current tests are, the deeper, entrenched anti-intellectualism of the ed-ocracy remains an equally important threat to whatever the robber barons running the public policy debate around accountability are doing. The complacency of the “know-nothings” in our schools of education who got us here remain just as invidious regardless of the presence of bad tests which we must lobby to make better.
Penh – I see your lips moving but all I hear is gibberish. I have worked with hundreds of teachers over the years and only a handful had chosen the wrong profession. Your premise is invalid. If almost ALL the teachers are dissatisfied with the current state of affairs and if so many teachers are pulling their OWN children to opt out of the testing, then perhaps there is a problem which they see, and YOU don’t.
Perhaps, Penguin, you need to take off your rose colored glasses so you can recognize some truths. Right now it sounds like you’ve drunk the Kool Aid being served to the masses.
Peng or Dr P – first of all, I find your reference to dull, unimaginative teachers offensive. I don’t know where you went to school or what teachers you worked with, but most of my colleagues are dedicated to their careers and the students in their classes. Especially in the inner city, they needed to be creative since traditional teaching materials are scarce.
Blaming the teachers, essentially calling them ignorant or unqualified, skirts the issue.
You seem to think they are too lazy to grade an essay. It is not the idea of an essay, but the configuration of the essay. And should there be six or more hours of essays?
And we are talking about elementary (K-8) and high school students, not college coeds.
And please share how the common core is moving towards things that kids do care about?
And we have discussed on numerous posts that the CC Standards are substandard to the previously held standards in many states.
And you misconstrue the idea of teaching to the test. Teacher made tests are written to determine what the child has learned to match what has been taught in an individual class. The standardized test determines the content or lessons to be learned. It is the reverse of what education should be.
And, in order to meet all the assessment requirements 1) there is a pretest in EVERY subject each Fall, 2) there are sample assessment tests taken in class and as homework throughout the school year (replacing time which could be spent learning other subjects, such as social studies, science, or the arts), 3) there are the assessments, 4) there is the final exam in June (to see what has been learned since the pretest). And the teachers are forced to teach to goals set by others, not what is relevant to their students in their class.
So, don’t confuse a teacher made test or quiz to determine the class’ progress with a standardized test imposed by an outside agency.
Nobody is saying all testing should be eliminated. Instead, we want the standardized assessments to be relevant, shorter, fairly graded in a timely manner with usable results, and not given each year to each grade, and not used to chastise or fire a teacher. (4th, 8th, and high school (depending on the subject) seems good to me – if, and only if, assessments are deemed necessary.
Teachers can continue to create their own tests at will. Their way of evaluating students varies widely depending upon the teacher and the subject. After all, they are creative that way.
Mysterious; except for one point, you just agreed with exactly my point. Tests=useful. Tests to satisfy the public=unavoidable.
Making tests better and non-idiotic?=NECESSARY. Using tests of students to measure teachers? illogical to anyone who has studied economic theory at all. (look up “principal-agent problem”)
Having agreed on the broad strokes, we only disagree on one point–teachers must recognize that this notion that you repeat here, namely that teachers should not be concerned with certain uniform expectations that all students should be measured against, is simply not taken seriously by most members of the educated public. It’s a sacred cow pretty much unique to k-12 and schools of education. Consider every other profession and you’ll see that broadly-shared standards are necessary. It’s not unreasonable to believe that the baby steps to various proficiencies that function in higher ed and the professions get built in the public schools.
Sorry, I tried to write your name, Peng, but my auto spell check chose different words.
Ellen:
It’s frustrating to rebut what you’re putting forward as an argument. If you had a background in some introductory philosophy or critical thinking, you’d recognize all of the following: THREE ad hominem attacks: The first comes in the rather rude opening, completely unsubstantiated, that what I was saying was gibberish. Your refusal to understand my argument is a naked “appeal to ignorance,” that is, the assumption that because I can’t prove that my point is “not gibberish” then it can’t possibly be valid. I can’t help you here, save your willingness to reread it.
You let fly with a second in accusing me of “drinking the Kool-aid” –also a rather interesting case of special pleading, as you contradict the previous point that I’m the contrarian being rebutted by a majority. Which is it?
Of course, this appeal to the crowd is a classic ad populi: do you assume that simply because many people are doing something, they are doing so for a good reason? At the very least, this is a clear causal fallacy–you’re assuming that they ARE doing so for a good reason, then using their assent as evidence that the reason must be good. (note “tautology”) What if they’re drinking the kool-aid? You may want to review the “affirming the consequent” fallacy here.
You say that my premise is wrong, but don’t indicate which one you mean–i advanced as premises only that:
+teachers all teach to tests
+all good schools use testing
+like TE above argued, the high-stakes tests ARE these tests, not the crap being peddled by states like CA, where I work on statewide exams.
It seems that you may have meant that you disagree with my CONCLUSIONS–namely that we should keep the issue of whether to test separately from how to do so, and that teachers need to embrace leadership of this issue before we lose all our credibility. I’m wondering why.
On top of all this, you leave with another crude parting shot, accusing me of wearing “rose colored” (sic) glasses, yet another ad hominem attack. Ironically you yourself earlier posted the substantively impractical scheme of an IEP-equivalent program for everyone, essentially denigrating any value for a “common” education for all students. You’re being pragmatic and I’m being Pollyannish?
I urge you to check your attitude and assumptions before you flame a colleague in public; at the very least, please propose a clear position, back it up with evidence, and explain it (exactly what the common core asks of our students).
Touché dr-pohlmann. I apologize for my snarky remarks. A more thorough response tomorrow.
And Dr P – my course in psychology has been life itself. I’m more into applications than theories.
I realize that our experiences vary, but there are always some simple common truths – such as a mother’s love for her children and the way a teacher cares for the students in their class. There are always exceptions, but this does not take away from certain universal truths.
Oh, one question! What is your background as relates to education – are you a teacher, an administrator, a parent, a former student, a . . .?
Me: 20+ years of college and secondary school experience teaching music; 18 years of experience as a high school english teacher in a Los Angeles public high school. Parent of two: younger in 4th grade in a public school dual language program, and local parks and rec. sports leagues. My older is in 9th grade, home schooling and taking ala carte classes from junior college and a charter school.
currently department chair of my small english department trying to unify curricular focus with our social studies department around cc skills. I guess I love theory to explore in my classes, and classes to ground the theory in real problems and questions.
Dr. P – we must all find our personal focal point in raising and educating our children. Obviously, our experiences differ.
I have seen it all – the good, the bad, and the ugly. Right now I fear the ugly is overtaking the good which is within our public education system in the name of eliminating the bad.
Although I respect your viewpoint, please be open to the cries of others like myself who are horrified at the current direction our leadership is pursuing at the expense of our children’s psyche.
They are using psychology to fool the ignorant majority, trying to leverage our foolish, arrogant pride at being number one to mold public opinion in favor of expensive, yet worthless testing models. Worthless because they are not used to further the education of the child, but as a tool to tear down the entire system.
It is good you can take advantage of the system to provide the education you feel best fits the needs of your children. Unfortunately, that opportunity is not available to everyone.
My question remains: what happens to those who are left behind?
Dr P – in an attempt to clarify:
There is a difference between testing what you teach (the role of the classroom teacher) and teaching to the test (an imposed test placed upon a class by an outside source).
Sometimes these imposed exams are considered high stakes, because there is some repercussion either for the student, the teacher, or the school – other times these standardized tests, such as NAEP, have no true value to the test taker other than a score or a statistic used by others. They may or may not take these exams seriously.
I find, in general, people are not motivated to do their best unless there is something in it for them personally.