At the conclusion of its first annual conference, the Network for Public Education announced a call for Congressional hearings on testing:
NPE Calls for Congressional Hearings – Full Text
March 2, 2014 NPE News
We are writing to request that the Health, Education, Labor and Pension Committee hold hearings to investigate the over-emphasis, misapplication, costs, and poor implementation of high-stakes standardized testing in the nation’s K-12 public schools.
Starting with No Child Left Behind legislation in 2001, which mandated standardized testing of every student in grades three through eight, many states have since rolled out testing in additional grades. This emphasis on testing has increased under policies of the Obama administration, such as Race to the Top and the NCLB waivers, that tie test scores to teacher and principal evaluations and school “turnarounds” and closures. There is a danger that tests now seem to have become the purpose of education, rather than a measure of education.
The tests were initiated to measure whether schools were delivering an education of high quality to every child. It makes sense to determine whether all students are achieving at a minimum level of proficiency in English and math, and standardized tests can help discern whether they are.
Our concern is that high-stakes testing in public schools has led to multiple unintended consequences that warrant federal scrutiny, including the following questions, among others.
Do the tests promote skills our children and our economy need? The most popular form of tests today are multiple-choice because they are easy and cheap to grade. But many educators and parents worry that teaching children how to take these tests doesn’t teach them how to think. The new standardized exams from the multi-state testing consortia do not appear to be significantly better, and will likely be scored by computers, which cannot gauge higher order thinking.. The challenges of the future and our nation’s economic success require the ability to solve and identify new problems, think creatively, and work collaboratively with others.
What is the purpose of these tests? Assessments should be used as diagnostic tools, to help teachers figure out where students are in their learning. But in most states, teachers are forbidden to see the actual test questions or provide feedback to students. Teachers do not see how their students answered specific test items and learn nothing about how their students are doing, other than a single score, which may arrive long after the student has left their classrooms. Thus, the tests have no diagnostic value for teachers or students, who do not have the opportunity to review and learn the material they got wrong.
How good are the tests? Problems with the actual content of tests have been extensively documented. There are numerous instances of flawed questions and design, including no right answer, more than one right answer, wording that is unclear or misleading, reading passages or problems that are developmentally inappropriate or contain product placements, test questions on material never taught, and items that border on bizarre, such as a famous example that asked students to read a passage about a race between a pineapple and a hare. Tests are not scientific instruments like barometers; they are commercial products that are subject to multiple errors.
Are tests being given to children who are too young? In many states, high-stakes standardized tests are required for even the youngest school children. In Chicago, for instance, Kindergarten students face four standardized tests two or three times a year and can spend up to a third of their time taking tests. Children of this age typically do not know how to read or even hold a pencil or use a keyboard. Subjecting 5-year-olds to a timed test is not only hopeless from a practical standpoint, but subject children to undue stress.
Are tests culturally biased? Every standardized test in the world is an accurate reflection of socioeconomic advantage and disadvantage. Thus, students from racial and ethnic-minorities, students with disabilities, and students of lower socioeconomic status tend to have lower scores than their more advantaged peers. Further, test results are often used as rationales for closing schools that serve low-income communities of color.
Are tests harmful to students with disabilities? Over the past few years, there have been numerous instances in which children with significant health situations, even undergoing life-saving procedures, were pressured to complete required tests – even from their hospital beds. Children with severe brain disorders have been compelled to take a state test. Recently in Florida, an eleven-your-old boy who was dying in hospice was expected to take a test. Such behavior defies common sense and common decency.
How has the frequency and quantity of testing increased? Testing is taking significant time away from instructional learning time. In Chicago, elementary school students take the REACH, the TRC, the MAP, the EXPLORE, the ISAT, and DIBELS every year. In North Carolina, third-grade students are tested in reading 36 times throughout the year – in addition to other standardized tests. Middle schools students in Pennsylvania may take over 20 standardized tests in a single school year. High school students in Florida can have their instruction disrupted 65 times out of 180 school days by testing. In New York, the time taken by state exams has increased by 128%. When so much time is devoted to testing instead of teaching, students have less time to learn.
Does testing harm teaching? Now that test scores are linked to principal and teacher evaluations in many states, teachers engage in more test prep because they are pressured and afraid, not because they think the assessments are educationally sound. Principals are nervous about their school’s scores. Many educators have admitted they are fearful of taking students on field trips, engaging them in independent projects, or spending time on untested subjects like science or history, art or music because it might take time away from test prep. As a result, the curriculum has narrowed and students have lost their opportunity for a well-rounded education.
How much money does it cost? It is difficult to calculate the entire costs of standardized testing – including the many classroom hours spent on test prep. But it is well known that nearly every state is spending hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars to develop more high-stakes tests for students, and requiring local districts to spend hundreds of millions more to get their students ready to take them. In addition to the cost of the tests and the interim tests, there are added costs of new curriculum, textbooks, hardware, software, and bandwidth that new tests require. There are also opportunity costs when money allocated for testing supersedes other education expenditures, such as libraries, art and music programs, social workers and guidance counselors, and extra-curricular activities.
Are there conflicts of interest in testing policies? In many states, a company that has a multi-million dollar contract to create tests for the state is also the same company that profits from producing curriculum and test prep materials. In some states, a single testing company has been able to win a contract worth many millions of dollars by lobbying and engaging in backdoor influencing of public officials. In other states, school districts buy textbooks from the same company that makes the tests so their students have an advantage on the tests.
Was it legal for the U.S. Department of Education to fund two testing consortia for the Common Core State Standards? According to federal law and regulations, the U.S. Department of education is not allowed to supervise, direct, or control curriculum or instruction. Yet the funding of testing consortia directly intervenes in the curriculum or instruction of almost every public school in the nation, as the tests will determine what is taught and how it is taught.
We believe that every child in the United States deserves a sound education. Every child deserves a full curriculum in a school with adequate resources. We are deeply concerned that the current overemphasis on standardized testing is harming children, public schools, and our nation’s economic and civic future. It’s our conclusion that the over-emphasis, misapplication, costs, and poor implementation of high-stakes standardized tests may now warrant federal intervention. We urge you to pursue the questions we have raised.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Well done! Now be prepared to move forward http://savingstudents-caplee.blogspot.com/2013/12/accountability-with-honor-and-yes-we.html we must not stop with what’s wrong but say what’s right. And that means accountability also
A strong and true statement, but federal action to correct illegal federal action? If substance alone mattered, this reasoning would prevail. However, he who lives by federal subsidy, dies by federal control.
Beware of Duncans bearing gifts.
Is the only way to stop a juggernaut is to get out of its path?
Yes, and then blow it up from behind!
Reblogged this on Middletown Voice.
Diane,
Here is one bloggers response to the call for Congressional hearings on the over use of standardized tests. What teachers can and should do. Thanks to you and NPE for taking up this fight.
http://russonreading.blogspot.com/2014/03/fighting-back-at-standardized-tests.html
Russ,
Not only is there an “over use of standardized tests” but, for the most part, a comprehensive misunderstanding of the invalidities involved in using such tests. Until we understand and repudiate any usage of standardized tests in the classroom we will continue to harm many students through mislabeling, miscategorizing them as they “internalize” these labels.
short summary version of the letter here: http://bit.ly/1mSla0Q
Is there an online petition set up somewhere so parents and educators can let their representatives in Congress know they support this?
This is wonderful news, we have more accountability of our hard work than the book companies. Can we start our own online petition.
Questions, questions, questions, sooooo many questions and, perhaps, not enough time.
I want to address some basic questions that this call on Congress has caused me to ponder.
So I was sitting there in the auditorium on Sunday after the morning’s activities when it was brought up that out of this conference, the NPE was calling on Congress to investigate “the over-emphasis, misapplication, costs, and poor implementation of high-stakes standardized testing in the nation’s K-12 public schools.” (Not a bad idea at all but it does not address the complete invalidity of the standards-not a mention of CCSS?-and standardized testing, thereby reinforcing the edudeformers’ meme that this testing is a valid measuring instrument)
Was a “call on Congress” the stated goal of the conference?
Who determined that this particular call would be made?
How did it come about?
Was there a vote made by the participants of the conference as to this particular call?
Who wrote the call?
Who participated in the decision to do this?
Was there more than one idea for a call or just this one?
Where and when were the open discussions about this particular call?
Why wasn’t there a vote on it by the participants?
It seems to me that the process of, the making of and the decision to do this was less than open. As an organization devoted to the survival of public education, the NPE should commit itself to open, democratic discussions with appropriate mechanisms to ensure (some type of vote?) the buy in of the participants in these types of public pronouncements.
I understand that managing the process and getting consensus of the participants is not an easy task but I believe that a more open and democratic means would have been appropriate and could have been accomplished.
Duane, the board of directors of NPE wrote and approved the resolution to call for Congressional hearings on the misuse and cost of standardized testing in US public schools.
Diane,
Thanks for that information. I would have liked to have seen a more open and public discussion of the statement and its content as I see wording and ideas that need fine tuning (and I know that it was put together quite quickly and with all good intentions), that’s all. Otherwise, it can easily appear to be a “corporate” type decision where the “board” makes all the decisions. I prefer the power of many minds working in conjunction to come up with these types of statements.
And then my suggestion is to ask the board how NPE could, in the future, become a more democratically oriented organization?
“There is a danger that tests now seem to have become the purpose of education, rather than a measure of education.”
No doubt that that is true if the word “public” is inserted before the first “education” as many of the bestest and finest children of the bestest and finest adults attend schools that don’t hypertest.
“The tests were initiated to measure whether schools were delivering an education of high quality to every child.”
NO, the tests were not “initiated to measure. . . ” even though they are UNETHICALLY being used for that purpose.
The tests “measure” nothing. They are not measuring devices. These tests attempt to assess student’s learning but fall woefully short of even that purpose.
“It makes sense to determine whether all students are achieving at a minimum level of proficiency in English and math, and standardized tests can help discern whether they are.”
NO, those standardized tests can’t “help determine. . .” as the myriad errors involved in the process, as Wilson has shown, render the results “vain and illusory” and INVALID. And who is most qualified to determine that “minimal level”? None other than each individual classroom teacher in conjunction with the parents and student.
By agreeing with the edudeformers that these tests “measure” something we have waved the white flag and ceded the linguistic battle before the fighting has started. Where and what was the process at NPE to determine the language of the “call to Congress” and prevent the loss???
Duane,
Honestly – who’s side are you on? This is a very large and complex issue. Throwing darts at NPE’s “process” on this forum is not constructive. Congress and the legislatures of each state have bought into RTTT and much more. Hold them responsible.
Fabulous! Yea! Now what? Sit back and let Congress decide what to do (she said sarcastically) or is there some sort of petition or other action we fellow Grassrooters need to take to make sure Congress hears us and takes us seriously?