Finnish students almost never take a standardized test. They take tests written by their teachers.
There is one test, however, that students take at the end of high school. It is the same for all students but the quality of the questions is far more complex and interesting than the questions found on the SAT or the ACT.
Here Pasi Sahlberg explains the kinds of questions that Finnish students are expected to answer.
The structure of the exams sounds amazingly like the old essay-style “College Board examinations” that were offered from 1901-1941, when they were replaced by the SAT for the sake of efficiency and speed (the decision to make the switch was made on Pearl Harbor Day). The Finnish exams are written and scored by teachers and scholars, not computers.
There are no bias and sensitivity guidelines to screen out controversial topics. Indeed, the tests include controversial topics.
Here is a typical question:
“Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels predicted that a socialist revolution would first happen in countries like Great Britain. What made Marx and Engels claim that and why did a socialist revolution happen in Russia?”
Students don’t pick a box. It is not a multiple-choice question. Students have to know what they are writing about. No guessing. No SAT, no ACT, no Pearson. .
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Let me see if I understand. 1) They have to actually know the material. 2) They have to write coherent thoughts about the subject. 3) They can’t guess. 4) They have to put forth more than the minimum effort.
WOW…what a concept.
Wait…but we can’t hold the students accountable. If more than 20% fail your class then you will be on a corrective action plan and jeopardy of losing your job.
Imagine the pressure to pass the one test in your young life that decides your fate. Sort of like the O levels or the A levels in the UK. In this country we complain about the pressure on the children to pass two tests a year.
The sad thing is that statewide in North Carolina only 17.4% of ED or Economically Disadvantaged (poor) children passed their 2012/2013 End-of-Grade reading and math tests and only 49.8% of NED Not Economically Disadvantaged (not poor) students passed. They will get another chance.
Could you imagine if we asked that question of American students? Fox News would give it round the clock coverage. Of course, this is exactly the kind of question a college student should be able to answer. Not because we want to indoctrinate students into socialism but because this is intellectual history and knowing the answer to this question also indicates that they have the foundational knowledge for a variety of subjects.
So why can’t American students answer this question? Can’t possibly have anything to do with the state of public education in this country could it?
Who said they couldn’t answer it?
Are you suggesting that our top-end students could not?
Are you suggesting that the effects of generational poverty, dependence, hopelessness, and neglect can be overcome by an English teacher who has, at best 100 total hours in a school year? That that same teacher who gets ONE HOUR per student,per year to provide individual help, can put a serious dent in language deficiencies developed over a lifetime?
If you insist that every child must go to a public school then you have an obligation to teach that child. If you do not or cannot teach that child, let the child go to a charter school or private school that can and wants to teach every child.
@janinelargent… our title one students are so busy “studying” what is virtually mandated (the materials that will appear on the inane and endless battery of pre tests and high stakes tests) that students learn all about “gaming” the system.. learning to make “educated” guesses which are put forth in short sentences with an A/B/C/D answer or short passages. They don’t read full books but passages. Why? They have to learn to read literature excerpts and to fill in the correct bubble letter because this is what is stressed on these ridiculous high stakes tests! They are tested on math and English language arts and many regions dictate 90 minute math and English blocks (yes at the expense of social studies, music, art and PE). The secretary of ed made this mandatory when “reforms” were implemented and schools could be shut down based on this nonsense. Now to make sure everyone is on board… teachers can be fired based on the stats of these tests! There is no public education at this time. There is a corporate invasion of public education which is putting an awful lot of people who have no right or understanding of how one learns in the driver’s seat – Arne Duncan and Bill Gates are two of the most noteworthy or I should say.. notorious! So I would change your sarcastic comment (your last sentence to this ” Can’t possibly have anything to do with the state of CORPORATE ED REFORM’S INVASION OF PUBLIC EDUCATION COULD IT”?
Janinelargent,
Perhaps the problem with public school is 2 decades of school reform?
NCLB began when?
Catch a clue
My students could answer it. Quite easily. I teach in a public school by the way.
READ artseagal – he tells it like it IS.
Not the way teachers want it to be, but the coercion and threats are working against the best interest of your children!
Manufacture a crisis in public Ed with bad testing and then market the solution. Artseagal is dead on.
because this is intellectual history and knowing the answer to this question also indicates that they have the foundational knowledge for a variety of subjects
absolutely
These questions, and the questions on the French exam known as Le Bac actually require that students show that they have learned something, but they respect the uniqueness, the diversity, of students and of the learning paths that they take.
Why can they not understand this?
“but they respect the uniqueness, the diversity, of students and of the learning paths that they take”
Unique, Diverse…these words are so Refreshing but completely ignored by the Arne and his entourage of Robotic Entrepreneurs .
It is both hilarious and sad at the same time, Emmy, to think of that. Fox News would go NUTS. They would cover this 24/7 for a year.
The theory, I guess, is that you are supposed to hate Marxism but not know what it is you are hating. LOL.
Maybe they would change the motto from “Fair and balanced” to “Ignorance is strength.”
Book burning seems a little last century. But it is the same principle at work. One would think we would be a little more wary (and weary) of such people having meaningful influence over education policy.
And Dr. Sahlberg will be in Colorado this Saturday helping us to learn more about what we can be doing to take back our public schools. We are closer than this looks. Even if we were able to get $100, we’d be set.
http://www.gofundme.com/64kf90
Another excellent post, Diane. I was just reading a list of all the topics we’re not allowed to include on tests and therefore narrow the curriculum to pablum. No wonder so many people can’t see the slow ooze of Socialism/Communism/Corporatism,etc. as it seeps into every crevice of our lives. The question from Finland requires students to really think about historical events and their impact and would not be allowed in the United States Corporation…
Don’t be silly. It’s a solid, legit. question. Some good high school students here could answer it, but no respectable politically correct, “social studies” teacher would ever ask it because it would entail a critique of Mark and Engels, which is not allowed among we commie teachers.
I doubt anyone on this blog can write an acceptable answer, for that reason. If anyone here thinks they could, I’d sure like to see the thesis sentence of that essay.
Nonsense. I’ve asked almost that exact question. It’s a recommended essay in AP European History. Harlan, you have to let go of your socialist fantasies. Public schools aren’t Cal-Berkley in 1967.
I’ve also asked students to connect Adam Smith’s economic theories to the key ideas of the Enlightenment.
Synopsis / Intro paragraph: Marx and Engels based the theory of communism on the idea of the dialectic view of history that suggested that all societies experienced historical stages. With this in mind, they believed that societies that were more advanced, such as England with its Industrial Revolution of the early 19th century, would advance to the next stage first. Therefore, Russia would be among the last because it was not advanced in any capacity in comparison to Western European nations. The socialist revolution occurred in Russia occurred due to Lenin’s desire to telescope the revolution in order to create what he believed would be the best possible means of social political and economic organization for Russia. Therefore, Marx and Engels’ theory was altered to suit Lenin’s needs.
Nicely done, Steve K!
For these reasons Marx and Engels (had they had a say) might have preferred the term “Sovietism” for what occurred in Russia.
Hang on, Harlan. Have to go grab my little red book and see if the Chairman addresses this. LOL.
How I would love to see the day when our exam questions look like this!!!!
http://news.yahoo.com/jeb-bush-hillary-clinton-promote-172911314.html;_ylt=A0LEVi1kpDBTNw0AkzEPxQt.;_ylu=X3oDMTBsa3ZzMnBvBHNlYwNzYwRjb2xvA2JmMQR2dGlkAw–
Read the last paragraph of the article-“Clinton recalled when she took part in school reform in Arkansas in the early 1980’s”. I guess Hillary is teaming up with Jeb, Arne, and Friedman on the same educational bandwagon just like Obama. Hillary will be Obama part 2. Her daughter was part of a big propaganda show on NBC about the Detroit EAA. The EAA is a total disaster.
OMG…Dee, this is almost unbelievable. Billy’s playdate at Kenebunkport, and Hillary’s love fest with Jeb. Wow. She will be even worse than Obama.
Outstanding. These are people who understand what getting an education is about.
Common sense is more prevalent in people centered societies. Profit centered societies much less so, especially when you have the existence of “philanthrobullies” propagating their self-proclaimed expertise with a vengeance regarding issues running outside of their expertise. In the future, will we thank them for America the Stunted? Perhaps suggest these sorts stay with what they know best — software, etc. Charlotte might you speak out within this domain?
About a year and half ago I was at a small professional luncheon where the guest speaker was Pasi Sahlberg. He spoke about all of this and used power point and slides to expand his remarks. Although we cannot compare the US education system to Finland where most of the students are generally middle class and from a single ethnicity, not a poverty stricken population but one with universal health care, and the preponderance are native Finns, there are applications which would greatly enhance our system such as teacher training, teaching techniques, and testing.
However, the basics I took away from his presentation were that teachers in Finland are viewed by the public on the same level as doctors and lawyers, and their pay scale is similar. They are ALL unionized and are well respected in the community where parents are very involved with their children’s schools. These teachers have rigorous academic training and applicants to the profession are among their top university students.
Wow….not at all a picture of American schools and teachers where there is little respect for learning by many parents who stay uninvolved with the schools and with issues of truancy and behavior. Where many parents have been through the justice system themselves, are poor and often cannot supply their children with food and shelter.
We in Los Angeles have over 650,000 students in the LAUSD system (Finland’s total for all students in their nation is about 1/5 of Los Angeles alone), with 109 languages being spoken, and about half the students living at or below poverty level. About 1/6 are, or have been, homeless. The ethinic diversity is vast. So our challenges are beyond any that Finland has had to address.
When Sahlberg can tell us how to fix our broken country, where the watchword has always been, “give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to be free” and where these refugees have come in droves to find a better life, then I personally would find his lessons about Finnish education more valuable. BTW, Finland has stringent immigration policies….far more than the US.
I was astonished when I watched Dan Rather’s documentary “Finnish First.”
I think anyone who watches it will see understand that this is how learning works.
When he went to Finland and witnessed a system where authentic methods for enabling and facilitating LEARNING and for assessing genuine performance, he filmed it. I recommend it. here is the address of the link. http://blip.tv/hdnet-news-and-documentaries/dan-rather-reports-finnish-first-6518828
Moreover, Diane, not only are you right on the money when you state that tests are for the USE OF THE TEACHER, IN ORDER TO INFORM BEST PRACTICE… you are not alone. Authentic assessment and genuine evaluation (gotta love the adjectives in the real standards language) of PERFORMANCE, was one of the “8 Principles of Learning, that ARE the actual NEW STANDARDS.– which do not appear anywhere in the media, by the way.
There REAL New Standards, the zillion dollar Pew funded New Standards research was crystal clear regarding the evaluation component in a genuine learning environment (i.e. classroom)!, “The Principles of Learning”, which was the actual thesis/theory by Dr Lauren Resnick BECAME the NEW Standards Research never mentioned standardized test… not once!
I know this because my practice was chosen and studied as the middle school cohort, in NYC, for the Harvard research, conducted by the LRDC (Univ. of Pittsburgh).
In the workshops that the cohorts (and the teachers in District 2) attended while the research was ongoing in NYC, it was CLEAR: Assessment of any kind– quizzes, tests, portfolio evaluations etc, were essential for the CLASSROOM teacher-practitioner, in order to plan to MEET THE NEEDS and learning styles of a diverse population of students.
What you say is the absolute truth which is proven by the REAL, GENUINE, standards research!
BUT Bush and company stole the word “standard”… translated it to mean standardized “tests”, and foisted it on the public, with help from the ‘experts’ such as Duncan and Eli Broad, and other self-proclaimed pundits who never spent a moment teaching our nation’s youth. The propaganda was also financed by the hoards of money from publishers and charter schools who saw dollar signs if they could wrest education from the hands of the classroom practitioners, silence their voices by slandering them in the media, and mandate everything that goes on in the classroom.
Standardized tests not only did not assess performance of skills, they did not in any way demonstrate the teacher’s role in the child’s learning, but thanks to the narrative shaped by those who own the media, like the Koch Brothers the whole country began to talk about evaluation and evaluating teacher performance by these bogus tests, and the PRINCIPLES THAT MAKE LEARNING POSSIBLE for the human brain, disappeared! Poof!
I saw it happen on my watch. I am the voice of the classroom teacher, the experienced, educated professional, MY credentials are on my author’s page at OPED.com, and I have THIS to say:
If I had not spent two years of my life as the cohort for the research, as they observed my practice and matched me TO THE GENINE NATIONAL STANDARDS, If I had not met EACH AND EVERY ONE OF The INDICATORS that show I used the principles of learning in my practice, I would not know the real National Standard research existed. Now, THAT is very, very telling!
One last thing, I met Dan Rather years ago– even before I was chosen as the NY State
English Council’s ‘Educator of Excellence’, — but he was incredulous at what happened to me.. that in the same year that I was a celebrated educator the DOE charged me with incompetence. He came to grasp as the years passed that what happened to me, had happened across the nation, and that , the top-down mandates were undermining public education., by removing the voice and the authority in the classroom, of the genuine professional who knows what ‘LEARNING LOOKS LIKE”… and that, too, is the lingo of the standards folks.
Suelee and all…this notice below just hit my mail box…showing what we in California, a vast state, are now subjected to…this notice from our State Supt. of Education who has become a cheer leader for CC as he runs for his second term of office.
—————————————————————————-
Smarter BalancedAs California gets ready to transition to a new assessment system, the state is set to rollout its Smarter Balanced Field Test starting tomorrow.
As part of the field test, the state will be examining technological capacity and the quality of test questions, while helping students and teachers prepare for next year’s first operational test, said Tom Torlakson, State Superintendent of Public Instruction in a press release.
“Over the next three months, students, teachers, and administrators will gain valuable hands-on experience in a new era of student assessments,” he said. “With more than 3 million students participating, this is the largest field test of its kind in the nation. It is a challenging transformation, but our schools are rising to that challenge with a great sense of excitement and determination.”
The “test of the test,” which runs through June 6, will serve multiple purposes—but mainly to gauge the accuracy and fairness of the test questions ahead of the new assessments that will become operational next year.
Across the nation, more than 20,000 assessment questions and performance tasks will be evaluated to determine which work well and which need to be improved. Test questions are aligned with the Common Core State Standards, adopted by California in 2010, to encourage critical thinking, complex problem solving, and deeper knowledge of subjects.
“I am particularly interested in hearing teachers’ views on the questions and their appropriateness for the students they work with every day,” Torlakson said.
The field test will also take into account computer availability and server capacity while at the same time, allowing teachers to observe their students’ computer skills.
“This field test gives us the opportunity to prepare our students for success,” he added. “The STAR program served us well for years, but the world has changed, and our schools also have to change the way they teach and test their students.”
The field test will cover English-language arts and mathematics for students in grades three through eight and a sampling of students in grades nine and 10.
>Across the nation, more than 20,000 assessment questions and performance tasks will be evaluated to determine which work well and which need to be improved.<
Please post the email you get when these field testing proves to be an unmitigated disaster.
I do not expect standardized tests to disappear, and a test that has some value could be developed, but when I read that “schools have to change the way they TEACH their students” I hear the same-old rant about reforming teaching. I want to hear the words LEARNING, so that the sentence becomes, “the schools have to RETURN to the authentic processes where LEARNING is enabled and facilitated.”
As for testing… I said it in my comment here… tests are for teachers, and if students need to be evaluated in language arts then PORTFOLIO assessment shows what they can do, and how they have grown as writers over a school year. I did it, and I know what it looks like. The standards research saw what the writers could do. No test, essay or otherwise demonstrates what genuine performance assessment does.
Agree, suelee. But we are about to see a nationalized bastardization of the whole notion of performance assessment, alas, one in which performance assessment becomes, are you ready for this,
paint-by-number writing
in response to a canned prompt
dealing with predetermined texts
to specs contained in a predetermined rubric
issued by the Common Core Curriculum Commissariat.
Doublespeak. That phrase is about to get the ed deform makeover.
When I worked for a major test writing company years ago, we were in the middle of the NCLB test development craze. I can clearly remember my supervisor commenting on how IMPOSSIBLE it was to write ELA tests that accurately measured proficiency at each grade level (3 to 8). With differences in age and wide ranging developmental abilities at any given grade, he lamented the fact they were required by NCLB to create tests that could distinguish between reading and writing readiness using very questionable metrics.
Don’t know if California still does this, but for a number of years (maybe decades) California had a competency writing essay test that was part of the requirement to graduate from high school.
In the beginning, teachers volunteered to be trained in using a rubric and work in teams to score this rddsy during the summer and get paid. I volunteered and, after an all day paid training session, spent several days reading and rating hundreds of essay with the team I was part of.
If the rubric scores from the team were not all close, a supervising teacher would be called over to read that essay and add her score as a tie breaker.
That was when California (or at least the district I taught in) launched writing across the curriculum and every teacher no matter what they taught had to have some sort of essay writing component.
After a few years, the state decided teachers cost too much so they switched to hiring graduate students from state universities to use the rubric and rate the essays.
If it’s anything like the state writing test in Utah, it is badly written and scored by computer.
Here’s a test question for our high school seniors:
Pretend you are in a country where everything can be reduced to its lowest denominator…money. And pretend you have more money than you know what to do with. And think about how you could use this money to make even more money…more money than imaginable. You could produce tests. And materials would be produced to correlate with the tests. And if kids didn’t do well on the tests, someone would have to be responsible. Suppose it was the teachers. In the next fifteen minutes, describe what this country would look like and what would be its place in the world of other nations.
That’s priceless!
It’s me suelee ( I now log in with my real name… so you can google me)
Speaking of price, at the bottom of the assault on public education is the huge profits that pour into the coffers of publishing companies, tech companies and suppliers of educational materials , when public schools are destroyed and snake -oil salesmen are sell their magic elixirs. I wore an essay at Oped News
on this subject after reading Daniel Wiilingham’s essay which makes it clear that democracy depends on shared knowledge.
http://www.opednews.com/articles/Magic-Elixir-No-Evidence-by-Susan-Lee-Schwartz-130312-433.html
He writes about magic elixirs and says: “In education, there are no federal or state laws protecting consumers from bad educational practices. And education researchers have never united as a field to agree on methods or curricula or practices that have sound scientific backing. That makes it very difficult for the non-expert simply to look to a panel of experts for the state of the art in education research. There are no universally acknowledged experts. Every parent, administrator, and teacher is on his or her own. ”
“The field of education is awash in conflicting goals, research “wars,” and profiteers” Unfortunately, distinguishing between good and bad science is not easy. evaluating whether or not a claim really is supported by good research is like buying a car. There’s an optimal solution to the problem, which is to read and digest all of the relevant research, but most of us don’t have time to execute the optimal solution” … it’s hardly news that an educational reform idea attracted serious attention despite the fact that there was no evidence supporting it.”
I taught in Italy for more than 20 years and every year I lead my students here in a New Jersey high school in a discussion comparing the Italian education system to ours in America. When students learn that the vast majority of student evaluation is done through oral exams as opposed written ones, their curiosity is piqued. They ask how this is done and I explain that if a student is being tested in, let’s say history, the student stands at the front of the class and the teacher asks questions to which the student must respond. The format of the questions starts out quite general (e.g. “Tell us what you know about the causes of World War II”) and the teacher can then explore topics, giving more pointed, specific questions, and can engage in a dialog with the students. Students are not instantly penalized for a “wrong” or slightly “off-topic” reply. Rather the teacher clarifies what she is looking for and the student may ask questions as well. My students are amazed at this process and often make comments like, “Wow, you really have to know what you’re talking about” which make me ask them things like, “Don’t you have to know your stuff to take/pass/do well on tests here in our system?” and they invariably laugh and go on to disparage multiple choice and standardized testing.
Why is that Americans so often go to extremes? Either we’re beating our chests to say how what we do is the best and the envy of the world or we’re looking over our shoulders, paranoid that the Japanese, Chinese or whoever the we fear will replace us as the eminent super power in the world, spouting fear-tactics platitudes like, “We’re 46th in math and science in the world!”.
We run scared from the Finnish but we don’t seriously examine their educational system and learn from it.
Patti Grunther: please excuse my skepticism if you find it offensive, but sometimes people will make comments on this blog about teachers and students and a myriad other things about public education—and they write things that are obviously out of their experience and knowledge but make for what they think [or pretend in their comments to think] are good talking/debating points.
You got me at “they invariably laugh and go on to disparage multiple choice and standardized testing.” Yes, someone who has actually interacted with real students and speaks of them as people with brains and humor and good sense.
Thank you for your comments.
😎
Wonderful post, Patti! Thanks for sharing this!
https://www.commondreams.org/view/2014/03/21-3
This is off topic, but I liked FAIR (Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting) on my FB wall and they linked me to this article today. ARE CHARTERS SCHOOLS REALLY “HELPING POOR CHILDREN?”
How real and refreshing. Those far from the classroom have not a clue, though they act like they know somehing.
A friend of mine who was born in Russia, read this blog and the comments, and had this to say. I want to share it:
” I came from the country where standardization was a norm. A terrible injustice of mixing up equality with sameness leads to demoralization of an individual and decline of culture in general. To see my America, “the land of the free” turning into the land of the human cattle, does not only make me feel sad, it makes my heart fill with terror.
“This kind of change does not just effect education, it indicates moral and ethical changes within this society. When people are taught the so-called “norm” without the living force of ‘human” and ‘humane”, the inner, instinctual understanding of “right and wrong” ceases, and any kind of “..ism” can be force-fed to the crowd.
“Once teachers, doctors, or any creative professional are changed to slave-of-the-system robot-like copies, the greatest achievement of The United States, the Democracy, is lost. This is how Stalin began his reign, the destruction of intelligentsia.
“May God give us clarity and strength to stand against the darkness.”
Shulamith Bakhmutsky
That is deeply, deeply moving, suelee!!! Ms. Shulamith speaks a profound and terrible truth, a lesson that should have been learned there.
It doesn’t matter, folks, whether totalitarianism, standardization, and regimentation originates from the left or the right. It’s the same evil.
Please share this with your learned friend:
“I believe in standardizing automobiles. I do not believe in standardizing human beings. Standardization is a great peril which threatens American culture.”
—— Albert Einstein, Saturday Evening Post interview, 10/26/1929
cx: Ms. Bakhmutsky, of course. My apologies. I have saved her wise words to share with others.
For over a decade, I have read, argued, analyzed, and interpreted information, especially misinformation, regarding NCLB, RTTT, CCSS, TFA, charter schools, EMOs, high-stakes standardized testing, and teacher evaluation (using VAM). It is exhausting, depressing, and, at times, demoralizing work. However, I recently observed several teachers, parents, and students testify during a state (CT) hearing about bills related to temporarily stopping implementation of CCSS that caused me to ask myself, what is the outcome I want most to realize through my efforts to pushback the “de-form” movement in the US?
As I watched the hearing, the words “keep your eyes on the prize” kept coming to mind. So, I wondered, what’s the prize…THE prize? It’s not defeating CCSS, scaling back or even removing high-stakes standardized testing, ridding ourselves of poorly conceived teacher evaluation protocols, or sending TFA and EMOs packing. I will, of course, continue to collaborate with colleagues, parents, and community partners to dismantle these assaults on learning, the teaching profession, and public education. However, these are actions taken to clear a path to the prize. The prize is Democracy.
Observing that hearing, I kept returning to the realization that in “adopting” CCSS (and all that goes with it) our federal and state governments had intentionally circumvented our democratic process AND would continue to do so. Unfortunately, this is not new. It has happened before. But, this, something about this time, is terrifying to me. Why? Because, as citizens, if we do not stand firm against such action, we risk irreparable damage to the most vulnerable members of our society— our children. And, once such damage is done what becomes of our future as a nation? (BTW: Individuals currently using their immense (dare I say obscene) amounts of capital to influence policy and control those we’ve trusted to safeguard our Democracy are fools if they believe their own children will not be adversely affected by their hubris.)
Democracy is imperfect, messy, difficult, complex, and wonderfully suited to our species. It is an ongoing experiment that pushes us to reach beyond our individual selves and connect with each other and our environment in new and unexpected ways. It requires the input (not just at the polls) of a large, diverse collective of citizens. Without such input, it can devolve into a totalitarian state, which in time will destroy us all.
When speaking with immigrant parents, I have heard comments such as the one offered by suelee10901’s Russian friend. Democracy is THE prize. It is what they came to this country to experience. As an African American woman, I know first hand the flaws and injustices of our Democracy. However, as I look across history—in this land and others—I firmly believe that our democratic form of government is THE prize worth pursuing. As a teacher and citizen, it is my responsibility to join with others to do what is necessary to clear the path to it.
“Keep your eyes on the prize. Hold on!”
Beautiful, Elle!
The Finnish miracle!
FLERP, no miracle. Just good schools with well-prepared teachers allowed to use their judgment by legislators who stay out of their way.
Are we reinventing the wheel?
I think we are . . . .
What was great in education was destroyed. What is lousy is in vogue. What was great is now being conjured up.
It just goes to show you that good is good and politicized is politicized, no?
The deformers are always asking, “What’s your alternative?” Well, Diane just articulated it in fourteen words:
“well-prepared teachers allowed to use their judgment by legislators who stay out of their way”
OK. She used fifteen words.
Even those vaunted Finnish (or Italian) “standardized” tests suffer from the errors inherent in attempting to quantify the quality of human interaction that is the teaching and learning process. The essay and verbal “exams” fall under the “Judges” category-one of the four identified by Noel Wilson in his epic study*-and that category is as rife with error as are the other categories, take your pick. “Judges”, even if a panel of them with rubrics, are notoriously unable to consistently grade essays (having been proven time and time again). To understand see: “Educational Standards and the Problem of Error” found at: http://epaa.asu.edu/ojs/article/view/577/700
Brief outline of Wilson’s “Educational Standards and the Problem of Error” and some comments of mine. (updated 6/24/13 per Wilson email)
1. A quality cannot be quantified. Quantity is a sub-category of quality. It is illogical to judge/assess a whole category by only a part (sub-category) of the whole. The assessment is, by definition, lacking in the sense that “assessments are always of multidimensional qualities. To quantify them as one dimensional quantities (numbers or grades) is to perpetuate a fundamental logical error” (per Wilson). The teaching and learning process falls in the logical realm of aesthetics/qualities of human interactions. In attempting to quantify educational standards and standardized testing we are lacking much information about said interactions.
2. A major epistemological mistake is that we attach, with great importance, the “score” of the student, not only onto the student but also, by extension, the teacher, school and district. Any description of a testing event is only a description of an interaction, that of the student and the testing device at a given time and place. The only correct logical thing that we can attempt to do is to describe that interaction (how accurately or not is a whole other story). That description cannot, by logical thought, be “assigned/attached” to the student as it cannot be a description of the student but the interaction. And this error is probably one of the most egregious “errors” that occur with standardized testing (and even the “grading” of students by a teacher).
3. Wilson identifies four “frames of reference” each with distinct assumptions (epistemological basis) about the assessment process from which the “assessor” views the interactions of the teaching and learning process: the Judge (think college professor who “knows” the students capabilities and grades them accordingly), the General Frame-think standardized testing that claims to have a “scientific” basis, the Specific Frame-think of learning by objective like computer based learning, getting a correct answer before moving on to the next screen, and the Responsive Frame-think of an apprenticeship in a trade or a medical residency program where the learner interacts with the “teacher” with constant feedback. Each category has its own sources of error and more error in the process is caused when the assessor confuses and conflates the categories.
4. Wilson elucidates the notion of “error”: “Error is predicated on a notion of perfection; to allocate error is to imply what is without error; to know error it is necessary to determine what is true. And what is true is determined by what we define as true, theoretically by the assumptions of our epistemology, practically by the events and non-events, the discourses and silences, the world of surfaces and their interactions and interpretations; in short, the practices that permeate the field. . . Error is the uncertainty dimension of the statement; error is the band within which chaos reigns, in which anything can happen. Error comprises all of those eventful circumstances which make the assessment statement less than perfectly precise, the measure less than perfectly accurate, the rank order less than perfectly stable, the standard and its measurement less than absolute, and the communication of its truth less than impeccable.”
In other word all the logical errors involved in the process render any conclusions invalid.
5. The test makers/psychometricians, through all sorts of mathematical machinations attempt to “prove” that these tests (based on standards) are valid-errorless or supposedly at least with minimal error [they aren’t]. Wilson turns the concept of validity on its head and focuses on just how invalid the machinations and the test and results are. He is an advocate for the test taker not the test maker. In doing so he identifies thirteen sources of “error”, any one of which renders the test making/giving/disseminating of results invalid. As a basic logical premise is that once something is shown to be invalid it is just that, invalid, and no amount of “fudging” by the psychometricians/test makers can alleviate that invalidity.
6. Having shown the invalidity, and therefore the unreliability, of the whole process Wilson concludes, rightly so, that any result/information gleaned from the process is “vain and illusory”. In other words start with an invalidity, end with an invalidity (except by sheer chance every once in a while, like a blind and anosmic squirrel who finds the occasional acorn, a result may be “true”) or to put in more mundane terms crap in-crap out.
7. And so what does this all mean? I’ll let Wilson have the second to last word: “So what does a test measure in our world? It measures what the person with the power to pay for the test says it measures. And the person who sets the test will name the test what the person who pays for the test wants the test to be named.”
In other words it measures “’something’ and we can specify some of the ‘errors’ in that ‘something’ but still don’t know [precisely] what the ‘something’ is.” The whole process harms many students as the social rewards for some are not available to others who “don’t make the grade (sic)” Should American public education have the function of sorting and separating students so that some may receive greater benefits than others, especially considering that the sorting and separating devices, educational standards and standardized testing, are so flawed not only in concept but in execution?
My answer is NO!!!!!
One final note with Wilson channeling Foucault and his concept of subjectivization:
“So the mark [grade/test score] becomes part of the story about yourself and with sufficient repetitions becomes true: true because those who know, those in authority, say it is true; true because the society in which you live legitimates this authority; true because your cultural habitus makes it difficult for you to perceive, conceive and integrate those aspects of your experience that contradict the story; true because in acting out your story, which now includes the mark and its meaning, the social truth that created it is confirmed; true because if your mark is high you are consistently rewarded, so that your voice becomes a voice of authority in the power-knowledge discourses that reproduce the structure that helped to produce you; true because if your mark is low your voice becomes muted and confirms your lower position in the social hierarchy; true finally because that success or failure confirms that mark that implicitly predicted the now self evident consequences. And so the circle is complete.”
In other words students “internalize” what those “marks” (grades/test scores) mean, and since the vast majority of the students have not developed the mental skills to counteract what the “authorities” say, they accept as “natural and normal” that “story/description” of them. Although paradoxical in a sense, the “I’m an “A” student” is almost as harmful as “I’m an ‘F’ student” in hindering students becoming independent, critical and free thinkers. And having independent, critical and free thinkers is a threat to the current socio-economic structure of society.
*Each frame has its own assumptions as to a “true” assessment of the individual. And those assumptions are not compatible. When one mixes up, confuses and conflates one category or more one causes “error” in the assessing process. The fundamental purpose of one frame can’t be used in another frame. It’s kind of like using a cake batter to make a pie crust, it doesn’t work!
Reblogged this on 21st Century Theater.
I’d like to comment on essay topics on State mandated test. The AZ AIMS test has non-controversial topics. My husband challenged our son-If he could get the exceeding standards on all three parts of the HS test, he would give him his Mustang convertible. My smart son had no problem doing that on the Reading and Math parts (most kids struggled with the math. My son was tutoring students on the basketball team in Algebra and Calculus in his Junior Year) He took the test twice,passing it, but refused the third chance. His reason- “Mom, it was just too boring to think of anything to write about.”And this comment is to Harlan- The Tuscon Unified School District had a Mexican American Studies Program that motivated many Hispanic students to read and study. It was shut down by the State Supt. because he thought it taught the kids to hate Anglos. Heaven forbid they learn about how Jim Crow laws were used against brown people as well a black.
…used against brown people as well as black people.
You mean they have to take a test that requires they actually know something? What other radical ideas do they have in Lappland?
LOL. Exactly.
Something worth noting, students can retake the exam, they also have choices with regard to the questions they answer. The goal of the tests is to gain a well rounded picture of the student. They also select the subject areas and languages they will test in, they are not required to test in all test areas. They can continue to study at a polytechnic institute if they do not gain admission to a university, they can then continue to seek admission to the university. They do offer access to all.www15.uta.fi/FAST/FIN/A14PAPS/th-exam.pdf
Students can retake the exam. They also have choices with regard to the questions they answer.
Both key.
Students differ. The Common Core College and Career Ready Assessment Program (C.C.C.C.R.A.P) tests, and the standardized state tests that preceded them, do not.
The Finnish ask kids to explain why it wasn’t according to Marxist theory that the revolution happened in agrarian Russia rather than in industrial, capitalist Great Britain.
Here are a few ACTUAL essay questions from U.S. state standardized tests (I am not making these up):
Write about a time when you discovered you were good at something.
Write a personal narrative about a time when you had to make a decision. Be sure to write about the choice you made and describe what happened as a result of your decision.
Write an essay explaining whether it is better to work by yourself or with a group.
Write an essay stating your position on which is more important: what a person thinks or what a person does.
The last two are high-school exit exam questions.
Seriously. I am not kidding.
And the new C.C.C.C.R.A.P. tests will be only marginally better. They will give kid a short piece to read and then write about, or perhaps a couple short pieces to read and then write about, as if the way to approach a text is to glance it over for a few minutes and then write about it and to do this under pressure in an exam setting and as if the way to approach writing about literature is to say something inane about something you’ve put ten minutes into thinking about.
Here’s what our tests won’t do: They won’t require that the kid articulate and support a thesis based upon a LARGE, COHERENT BODY OF KNOWLEDGE acquired over time.
The new ELA assessments will be “skills” tests of the CC$$ skills bullet list. They kids won’t have to know anything or what it means to write about something they know, but hey, they will be “higher order.”
That “higher order” phrase, used to describe what’s done there, kills me. It really does.
cx: The new ELA assessments will be skills tests of the CC$$ skills bullet list. The kids won’t have to have acquired a substantive body of knowledge and understanding of ANYTHING; nor will they have to demonstrate any part of that body of knowledge and understanding in speech or in writing.
And they won’t be asked to choose to make such a demonstration in some subject areas that they have specialized in.
But, hey, they will be using “higher order thinking skills” in an encounter with a text.
What utter rot.
That “higher order” phrase, used to describe what’s done there, kills me. It really does.
This is so obvious. When I have my students write stories or essay questions it becomes very evident if they know the material or not. Anyone with half a brain can master most multiple choice tests.
Part of the problem in American education is that we teach a mile wide and an inch deep. No time for deep understanding of anything.
Duane: You say: “And having independent, critical and free thinkers is a threat to the current socio-economic structure of society.” I agree with your words, but probably I apply them differently than you do.
What other names might you give to identify the “current socio-economic” structure of society, with the implication that that structure depends on thoughtless citizens.
I suspect you mean “market capitalism,” and that critical and free thinkers would conclude to do away with it.
From my point of view I think the opposite. I think we need more market capitalism and less government regulation.
What I think we need is critical and free thinkers who object to the current over extended debt structure of the federal government, who object to the administration’s and the Democrat effort to have the government take over and manage health care, who object to the confiscatory tax rates, who object to the neutering of the U.S. military, who object to the fundamental transformation of America which our President announced was his agenda and in which he is succeeding to the damage of the country.
Education policy is or should be linked politically with its perpetrators. I notice that the creeping testing effort is supported by the liberal elites, the politically correct (Nancy Pelosi, Diane Feinstein, DeBlasio, etc. ad infinitum), and a good number of the working public school teachers in the nation.
But, that isn’t what you meant is it?
When spring comes, I hope you can get out on the river to think about this. Capitalism is your daddy. It gave you everything you have. It’s downright ungrateful to disrespect it. Ted Cruz could use your contribution.
HU,
If I may respond to some of your statements.
“I suspect you mean “market capitalism,” and that critical and free thinkers would conclude to do away with it.”
Your suspicion is not confirmed nor the conclusion drawn necessarily correct. The current socio-economic (S-E) structure has many antecedents and causes one of which I would characterize as that there is not and never will be a “free market” without a government that “allows” it to happen through the various laws that have been/are propagated. Also, I believe that A. Smith conceived of the “free hand of the marketplace” to occur when both sides in an exchange have equal standing in knowledge of the exchange. Very few exchanges meet that criteria due to such things as one’s S-E status, which is mainly determined by one’s place of birth (that is the parents’ S-E status).
This critical free thinker concludes that, due to the above, we need to have a regulated (which it always has been) “marketplace” to a different degree than currently regulated. Whether that regulation is more rules/policies, less or somewhere in between would need to be determined on an individual basis in conjunction with what society believes to be “proper” behaviour on the part of individuals and corporations. For example without regulations many more Exxon Valdez spills probably would have occurred by now; many more Hudson River ecosystem damage as done by GE (pcb’s and other toxic chemicals) over the years; and/or many more Corvair type deaths due to the “market”, i.e., profit making, being a greater concern than human life and/or ecosystem integrity
More market capitalism with fewer “government” (remember that in the US, the government is made of all, you and I included) will result only, yes only, more human and ecological disasters as history has shown.
I agree with your in reducing the debt, but to do that I would get rid of the Fed or open it up to more democratic means of choosing those who are a part of it. Our current system where banks and the feds make money out of thin air needs to be addressed.
“who object to the neutering of the U.S. military”.
As an independent critical free thinker there is no doubt in my mind that the military, but more importantly, the military industrial complex-so astutely pointed out by Eisenhower-needs to be reigned in. But first it would take the political will to quit engaging (especially illegal and inmoral invasions of sovereign countries) in the affairs of foreign countries through military muscle maneuvers. Washington rolls over in his grave everyday in seeing what we as a nation do in the realm of foreign affairs. What an ultimate waste of resources on the death and destruction that is the US military.
“Education policy is linked. . . ”
No doubt what you say is true but you must add all the Rethuglican supporters also. . . .
“. . . a good number of the working public school teachers in the nation.”
I think you know what I have to say about the GAGAers who implement educational policies and malpractices that, no doubt, cause much harm to many students-to be nice: God damn them!
Don’t need spring to come to be on the river. I actually do most of my floating, fishing and camping from Sept to May-a lot less bugs and people to deal with. But thanks for thinking about it. And I make a point to not think about these things while I’m on the river as I prefer to take everything in that I experience while out in the mostly non human realm. You should come and visit and I’ll show you some great rivers, although I would love to go up Michigan and float, fish and camp on some of your all’s beautiful rivers!
Take care!
Interesting to read that a rogue’s gallery of perpetrators of runaway high-stakes standardized testing like George W. Bush Jr. and Margaret Spellings and Rod Paige and Scott Walker and Chris Christie and Bobby Jindal and Jeb Bush and on and on…
Are part of the liberal elites and the politically correct.
And that a good number of public school teachers—maybe that 1/3 to 1/2 of the educators in public schools that are deadwood?—are also in favor of the same testing regimen that is driving them out of the profession.
Wow! Even on the MSM you can’t get stuff like this…
“Truth is strange than fiction, but it is because Fiction is obliged to stick to possibilities; Truth isn’t.” [Mark Twain]
😎
I think people are missing the point. Education in Finland is more personable and they get more time for play and interaction which is needed to grow properly. Not work work work like the american ethic