FAIRTEST: The Movement to Stop Test Mania Continues

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1. john a says:

   July 15, 2014 at 9:03 am

   Ah, the power of fear of losing reelection “…their hearts and minds will follow”.

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2. teachingeconomist says:

   July 15, 2014 at 9:08 am

   I don’t think the article on racial gaps remaining in gifted programs is an anti-testing article. It includes the following quote:

   Some researchers blame class and cultural bias in the selection process. Georgia uses a mix of standardized tests and more subjective ratings by teachers to identify gifted children.

   Donna Ford, a leading researcher of racial disproportion in gifted programs, said any subjective measure like a teacher rating is suspect.

   “The number one reason is teacher bias,” said Ford, a Vanderbilt professor who wrote a book last year about low minority participation in gifted programs. “I’m talking about prejudice and discrimination.”

   This is the link: http://www.myajc.com/news/news/local-education/racial-gaps-remain-in-gifted-programs-ajc-analysis/ngSBq/#237d8f5e.2767361.735417

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   • Stiles says:

     July 15, 2014 at 9:22 am

     I noticed that too. Somebody at FAIRTEST did not read the article before including it in the digest.

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   • FLERP! says:

     July 15, 2014 at 10:00 am

     Expunge!

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   • teachingeconomist says:

     July 15, 2014 at 10:46 am

     Expunging information that is contrary to the narrative is tempting, but ultimately does not lead to finding a better education for all.

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3. Arthur Camins says:

   July 15, 2014 at 9:18 am

   Growing opposition to over-testing is very encouraging. Frequent high-stakes testing and its misuse for teacher evaluation are poisoning the assessment waters. Assessment should not be the goal of learning. The word “assessment” should not make students, teachers, administrators and parents cringe. It does not have to be this way. For students and their teachers the most effective use of assessment is to guide next steps for learning.
   What if we shifted the balance of our assessment attention from the summative to the
   formative—assessment that can be used every day to support learning?
   What if we could more precisely identify where each student was along the pathway to
   learning?
   What if we could be more accurate at sorting out the nuances in his or her gaps in
   understanding?
   What if we focused most of our assessment attention on becoming better at interpreting daily data from regular class work and used that evidence to help students move their own learning forward?
   I think we would become better at seeing the whole student and responding to his or her individual needs.

   Read more here: http://www.arthurcamins.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/What-if-we-approached-testing-this-way_-_-The-Answer-Sheet.pdf

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4. revnancy says:

   July 15, 2014 at 9:22 am

   Love your passion and philosophy, but had to unsubscribe. Once or twice a week would be great. Four times a day is too much mail.

   Reclaim the promise of public education, the foundation for a just and prosperous society. Nancy Bean 817-688-7431 Candidate for Texas State Board of Education, District 11 http://www.NancyBeanforTexas.org http://www.Facebook.com/NancyBean.SBOE

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   • Duane Swacker says:

     July 16, 2014 at 8:42 am

     Come back and visit again!

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5. Michael V says:

   July 15, 2014 at 10:26 am

   The focus must shift away from the assessment results and instead be directed to a child’s comprehensive and holistic growth. Standards based testing has received so much attention because parents, teachers and finally politicians are realizing it is not used to assess a student’s needs. Instead testing determines where funding is allocated, what “good” teaching practice looks like and how our nation may compare to others living completely different lifestyles than we do.
   Regular formative assessments and utilization of teachers’ strengths must be used to tap into and develop student strengths. It is okay to be different. Differences will result in the continued enthusiasm and creativity needed for life successes. “But we persist in forcing teachers to abandon their natural interest in helping our students to develop many of the qualities that will spell the differences between success and failure in the workplace and in life. That is very foolish.” (Accountability v. What We Want for our Children.
   Involve ALL stakeholders. Explore what we deem to be important and how we all can work to achieve it.

   “It is possible to store the mind with a million facts and still be uneducated.” – Alec Bourne

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6. Laura H. Chapman says:

   July 15, 2014 at 12:24 pm

   This from Politco today.
   NEXT STEPS FOR TESTING CONSORTIA:
   “The federal funds that have sustained both the PARCC and Smarter Balanced consortia are running out,” BUT, ” both consortia expect to stay in business for many years to come.”

   Both have a business plan that includes charging member states fees for test administration, scoring, reporting, item development (probably on a per-test-basis) with other fee structures for related services including “consortium governance and research support for ongoing innovation.”

   At least one observer ( Bellwether Education) noted the
   “irony that the federal funding is winding down even as angry rhetoric about federal overreach ramps up.” The same observer noted that the optics and politics of testing are a problem but “The rhetoric should dial down over time as the federal government dials back its involvement.”

   So, the time to dial up the rhetoric and the optics is now, and it needs to be sharply focussed on the costs of underwriting the vast testing enterprise that was jump-started by federal policies, private and federal investments, but will now siphon off even more money for the institutional overhead and “research” for more and more “innovative” testing.

   I am among many who hope that any further roll-out of these tests will drive a nail in the coffin of this grand experiment, based on the unproven assumption that tests MUST be given every year, and that these tests MUST address all 1,620 deeply flawed “standards” marketed as if they are some sort of gold standard for public education.

   The standards and the testing of compliance with them in education this generation was WRONG from the get-go. It has been a stupid waste of talent and time from the get-go.

   Now is the time to make the optics and politics of this fiasco even more visible. It has been a terrible investment, waste of money, and distortion of what education should and must be.

   Policies and practices should not proceed from an ethos of unbridled testing and desire for “impacts,” always “impactful learning,” always constrained to strictly “academic” content stripped free of joy, interest, and wonderment– this to be achieved by “rigor,” ” more rigor,” and “the most rigorous”(of whatever).

   A start might be made by raising a red flag when those words are uttered in any speech, professional development workshop, and paragraph dealing with policy, in addition to the efforts aimed at a national boycotts of tests from these consortia.

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7. Linda says:

   July 15, 2014 at 9:29 pm

   Thanks to Dr. Ravitch for posting the Yellow Springs, Ohio, article about opting out of testing. A friend of a friend related the story of her 9 year old daughter, whose mother is undergoing chemo. As a result of testing, Avery had to enroll in 2 hours of remediation, each morning, for the month of July. Just as Chiara predicted, funding the private tutoring business, with tax dollars, was the next business opportunity.
   I forwarded the YS article to the family. Maybe, when the mother is well, she can summon the strength to fight amoral profit seekers. Or, she can look for a private school like the one Melinda Gates’ children attend.

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8. Educator of Great Students says:

   July 16, 2014 at 1:33 am

   Diane and fellow readers,

   There is a MUST-READ article on The Atlantic Monthly’s website about standardized testing. It’s an exposé.

   Why Poor Schools Can’t Win at Standardized Testing by Meredith Broussard
   http://www.theatlantic.com/features/archive/2014/07/why-poor-schools-can-t-win-at-standardized-testing/374287/.

   Educator of Great Students

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   • Duane Swacker says:

     July 16, 2014 at 9:16 am

     Thanks for that link, EoGS!

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   • Linda says:

     July 16, 2014 at 3:00 pm

     Thanks for the link.

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