At the end of the elections yesterday, there were two very bright spots.
First, Tom Torlakson was elected state superintendent of education in California with 52% of the vote, despite the accumulation of millions of dollars for his opponent from people like Eli Broad, Michael Bloomberg, the Walton family, and other billionaires. It was teachers that re-elected Tom.
Second, the proposal to enshrine value-added assessment of teachers into the state constitution in Missouri failed, and it wasn’t even close. Amendment 3 would have ended teacher tenure and put teachers on renewable contracts, with everything tied to test scores. It went down by about 75-25%. This vote showed enormous popular support for teachers.
There was not a lot to celebrate, but these were big victories.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Diane, I won my race for the Colorado Senate. Teachers will have a champion in the Colorado Senate. Senator Elect Michael Merrifield Date: Wed, 5 Nov 2014 14:08:46 +0000 To: vgmike@msn.com
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congrats!
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Thank you. I hope you do right by teachers. We just got a bright and talented teacher from Colorado in my California school. She left partly because of all the b.s. that is happening to teachers in Colorado.
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I hope so because we are going under or away.
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Nice work Mike.
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Dr. Ravitch, I am happy some good candidates won! However, I am very sad in AZ due to Ducey winning. He was backed by the Koch brothers and believes in school choice and charters. I fear AZ has taken an even bigger step backwards. I think your coming here to speak at ASU is timely. By the way, can I carry your things, so I will be allowed in to hear your speech?
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Diane, here in Michigan teachers took a beating, and will continue to take beatings. Snyder won, the Michigan House increased their Republican majority, two new members were elected to the State Board of Ed and they’re both extremely conservative (and replaced two Democrats), and all university trustee positions went to Republicans.
We’re hoping that Snyder’s less-than convincing win (51%-47%) will be enough to temper policies but that is a thin and ridiculous hope. Lame duck in Michigan this year has the possibilities of being nutty.
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I think Pennsylvania is a bright spot. He ran on public schools.
Unfortunately, OH, MI, WI and FL public schools will continue to get screwed at the state level and there’s no help at the federal level in either Party.
The Michigan and Ohio Republican governors are indistinguishable from the Obama Administration on public schools. They’re exactly the same.
I AM pleased for the Pennsylvania kids and parents who are in existing public schools, though. They were really getting hammered by federal AND state ed reformers in government. The double whammy is what kills those of us in states with anti-public school governors and state lawmakers.
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I agree. We are all glad Corbett got the boot, but unfortunately in my rural neck of the woods, we elected several anti public ed state reps.
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Chiara, Wolf’s wife was on the board of a charter school in York, Pa
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I didn’t know that- thanks. However, Corbett seemed to be openly opposed to public schools, so it’s probably a gain.
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The Ohio state school board picked up two pro-teacher candidates, but still remains a majority of anti education Republicans. Gov. Kasich was reelected along with the majority of far right conservatives even though Ohio has one of the worse job creation records and median income is dropping. The Dem Party fielded a weak candidate for governor at the top of the ticket. Look for even more testing, cuts to education, anti-teacher legislation, floundering policy from those never in front of a classroom.
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I’m to the point where I resent paying them. At some point it becomes personal. I don’t know why I’m paying these people to attack public schools.
I think at minimum they should do their jobs, and whether they support public schools or not, our schools EXIST and lawmakers and agency people in state government should do the job they’re paid to do.
I’m not paying them to harm public schools. They prefer charters, personally? Fabulous! That doesn’t mean they can just check out on public schools completely.
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The defeat of Tom Corbett in Pennsylvania was good news also. Louise Willis Sent from iCloud
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Cuomo limped to the finish, earning only 9% more than the rest of the field. He received ONE MILLION fewer votes than he got 2010. I’m sure he’ll just shake it off and pretend its some sort of mandate. Teachers and the “public school monopoly” are at the top of his agenda. Bring it on Andy!
Looking at this map, you’d never guess NY was “blue” state:
http://www.politico.com/2014-election/results/map/governor/new-york/#.VFo7U9KsiSo
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Turnout was down by more than a million votes from 2010, and yes, Astorino, whose signature accomplishment is saying he’d fight a very low-key affordable housing/integration ruling from HUD to the death, polled very well in rural/exurban and overwhelmingly white areas.
Cuomo destroyed Astorino and all other comers in cities that are hosts to charter schools. Interesting, that.
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Amazing what one can accomplish with a $45 million war chest and a state full of low information voters.
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“Cuomo destroyed Astorino and all other comers in cities that are hosts to charter schools. Interesting, that.”
I think you are confusing causation with correlation. Surprising that.
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Our governor in Nevada will be running for Harry Reid’s senate seat in 2016. His agenda until then will be to finish “reforming” education. High on his list for the coming legislative session with an increased majority are a number of onerous proposals. First, he wants to eliminate all elected school boards, replacing them with governor appointed boards. Second, he wants to give generous tax breaks to companies that support charter schools and vouchers. He wants a parent trigger law and he wants more testing so he can fire teachers in months based on interim tests and not wait for a year. Folks, it’s going to be a long dark night. I would suggest getting out of Nevada if you can.
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It is a very, very sad day in New Mexico. Martinez (aka Governor) won re-election. This means Hanna Skandera, Secretary of Education Designee (still after four years) will remain. These two are the worse things to happen to education in New Mexico since we became a state in 1912. Neither of these individuals have ever spent a day as a Teacher in a classroom, as a Principal, or as a Administrator in the District Central Office. Yet both of them seem to think they have all the answer to the problems facing our educational system in New Mexico and the United States.
Their funding came from all the big corporations, Koch Brothers, education companies, etc. They are now free to move forward with further privatization of the public school system in New Mexico and the de-moralization of our Professional Educators.
My sympathies go out to all the Professional Educators in New Mexico. Your life is a living hell now but it will only get worse. Their lack of respect for the Professional Educators in this state is so profound it is to the point of heartbreaking. My sympathies go out the Students and Parents who have to endure all the standardized testing that does nothing to improve the educational level for all students. Students are being tested until they are numb and only learning how to be robots instead open free thinking individuals who will hopefully lead this country. One very bright High School Senior told me that Martinez and Skandera are STEALING her education with all the testing being force on them by these two.
Martinez is being suggested as high on the list to run for Vice-President of the United States in 2016. Is this the type of leader we want in Washington DC. I hope not. This could lead to Skandera as US Secretary of Education. What a joke on the American people that would be.
Have a better educational day — if that is possible.
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Corbett’s budget cuts caused several of my co-workers to lose their jobs. I am happy that he is gone. Hopefully, Wolf will be more willing to listen to teachers.
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What’s next, are they going to pass the “Hatch Act for Teachers”, preventing teachers from engaging in political activity? After all, there is an inherent conflict of interest between the economic and political self-interest of teachers and the education of their students, and they must be fully, purely, dedicated to the latter. Coming first to the Onion, then to ALEC, and onward to Republican state houses, hedge fund managers, David Boies, and Charley Rose. Enough with these pesky teachers interfering with educational progress, you can be a teacher, or be a politician, but you can’t be both.
I am stunned in this, my 6th decade, to see the greatest nation on earth dismantling its educational system and replacing it by a bubbling witches brew of politics, money, venality, testing lunacy, chaos and hate. Yesterday’s results do not help matters. I think of these lines from the famous “The Second Coming” by Yeats:
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
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I have learned through the years that the winner usually has to outspend and make more outrageous promises and lies than the loser. The danger of using that tactic is that by the next election many of the gullible and ignorant public discovers that they were fooled and used; then the pendulum swings the other way.
It might be impossible or at last difficult to change the minds of the die-hard extremists at either end of the political spectrum, but the much larger middle is where most elections are decided and this is where the anger of those who were fooled will get revenge.
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Another big victory was getting Tom Corbett out of PA governor’s office:)
Date: Wed, 5 Nov 2014 14:08:45 +0000 To: dpayne34@msn.com
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The Obama Administration must be thrilled with the new Senate make-up on education. Maybe Duncan can get an even bigger charter-building fund package thru next session! Increased economic sanctions on public schools who buck the testing regime!
We’ll go from abandoning public schools under Democratic ed reform leadership to actively opposing public schools under Republican ed reform leadership.
Either way public schools get screwed.
Is there some reason people who value and use public schools are paying these people in DC? I don’t know why I have to pay them. Can’t they get private funding from their donors?
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The people have spoken!
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Link to criticism of Rex Sinqufeld by a Missouri Republican officeholder.
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I blogged on this earlier this AM and didn’t see this as much of a victory. My post concluded with this thought: To paraphrase Al Shanker, when unions and school boards call each other names, the public believes them both. When school campaigns result in adults taking sides, and both sides spend heavily on “attack ads and nasty mailers“, the public believes what both sides are claiming and school children lose in the end. THAT is the MOST ominous result of the CA election.
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Bright spot news is in the eyes of the beholder. As a retired instructor of 40 years of which 27 years were teaching, effectively to a 90% black and Latino student population, Tom Torlakson’s re-election does not equate to “bright” news based upon California data. To me and K-12 research, “good news” in K-12 and post secondary education is a joke on students, parents, tax-payers, public, and even the news media. If you examine what the colleges, Khan Academy, and top performing K-12 schools suggest based upon experience and testing on what is most important is providing teachers and the schools with the “tools, programs, models, and expertise” to promote students from grade to grade by proficiency, just as the NCLB law mandates and is documented by NAEP, SAT, ACT and high school and college graduation results. The current and continuous solution to improve K-12 education is for more funding, smaller classes, and higher standards. As the Tables 1 and 2 document below, K-12 students can not even meet the current state STAR proficiency standards, so how are higher standards supposed to help?
In terms of increased spending, please explain the KC spending experiment results during the years 1986 to 1993, whereby an EXTRA $36,111 /student for the 36,000 students resulted in decrease in math scores and a drop out rate to a 60% level. To paraphrase Einstein: Insanity is defined as repeating the same thing over and over again and expecting the same result! By Einstein definition, are K-12 educators proposals and practices to improve K-12 education insane? Does anyone disagree with K-12’s past and current solution to improve K-12 education? Please explain with your data, if you disagree.
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Does the current vote and political decisions in California illustrate that any educator, parent, and student has few, if any, meaningful choices in terms of improving K-12 educational achievement?
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Tuesday, California’s re-elected the Democratic State Superintendent, Tom Torlakson, the governor, and majority of legislatures who all supported the termination of the state’s NCLB STAR evaluation model. In addition with this unlawful choice, California will have no outside evaluation of K-12 students. schools, nor districts for the next two years, which violates three state(1998) and the federal NCLB law. Tom’s opponent, Marshal Tuck, was equally a poor K-12 choice. Obviously, by the unlawful political decision on STAR, many California parents/voters have no effective K-12 leadership choices nor voice on how to effectively improve nor evaluate K-12 education.
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The two STAR data Tables 1,2 listed below are an example why the California STAR evaluation model defined the consequences of violating the three State and NCLB proficiency laws. A more complete, six page discussion of the tables with graphs is available from the researcher.
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The important point of the STAR data listed below is that unless the K-12 student is promoted by proficiency, especially in the math and English areas throughout the K-12 grades, the student may fail to graduate from high school, become involved in negative behaviors ending in incarceration, and will generally perform poorly on any standardized test that evaluates learning / achievement including the NAEP, SAT or ACT. Specifically, the California K-12 STAR data listed below suggests that the “rate determining step”, especially in the math discipline, BEGINS AT THE END OF FOURTH GRADE, since the percent of proficiency for ALL groups and the composite students declines from grade five through twelve. The State K-12 data also suggests that testing and school programs that do NOT empirically address via appropriate entry level placement with effective learning models, so that “sufficient direct instruction” on the material being taught occurs, student learning will be very limited on any valid test. Research documents that student placement by proficiency on the prerequisite skills on ENTRY to each course level maximizes student learning and achievement.
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Ironically, a very simple, inexpensive, and effective model to accomplish the proficiency goal for all K-12 students is to place and promote students by proficiency level INDEPENDENT of attendance. For example, a student could be in fourth grade by attendance, but could be placed, taught, and evaluated into levels 1,2,3,4,5 by achievement, based upon the teacher’s recommendation or testing. A useful start is to develop a pilot program beginning at a class or school level. Then, give the parents and the students the CHOICE of participating in the program that promotes students by proficiency level independent of grade or not. Each promotional level would not necessarily be equivalent to a yearly grade, but by grading period, testing, or teacher recommendation. In the model, the student would continue to be promoted by attendance each school year, as currently done in K-12. The model would place the responsibility of learning on the student( as in college) with the teacher, parent and others as a support system. The program would have no remedial, nor advanced courses, but only one series of courses in each discipline. In addition, the cost/student and discipline problems would decrease and the class size could increase, as the responsibility of learning is placed on the student instead of the teacher/school, as supported by the Glasser Learning Retention Pyramid model. Research suggests that the learning and achievement would significantly increase by the model regardless of social-economic- ethnic-age and gender conditions. Research claims and support available from ekangas@juno.com.
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TITLE: California K-12 STAR 2012 data, graphs and equations for four ethnic groups and composite.
DISCUSSION: California’s K-12 NCLB evaluation system titled, STAR, provides students, parents, educators and the public a comprehensive, five level performance view of student, class, school, district and state achievement for all grades 2 to11 in many academic areas including the required math, English, and science areas, as mandated by the NCLB law. The STAR test results were readily available to teachers, administration and school board members directly and to the general public via the Internet. Unfortunately, the promotion by proficiency requirement for each student in math and English has been largely ignored by the K-12 administrations, counselors, teachers, news media, politicians and the public. Although the NCLB law and the NAEP( our nation’s report card) have five levels of evaluation from high to low of advanced, proficient, basic, below basic, and far below basic**, the major requirement standard focus of the law is that student must be promoted from grade to grade by the proficiency standard on an increasing incrementally yearly scale resulting in that all students would be promoted by proficiency in math and English disciplines by the 2013-2014 time line or face punitive actions. Unfortunately, the state department of education, legislature, and the governor terminated the STAR evaluation model in 2014 to avoid the NCLB punitive law consequences.
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Several traditional public schools at the elementary and middle school have come close to achieving this promotion by proficiency goal for all students such as Deer Canyon Elementary and Mesa Verde Middle School in Poway School district in 2012 with the percent of students at proficiency values and higher in the mid 90 % area in both the math and English disciplines. Obviously then, the high rate of school proficiency performance of these schools suggests that the NCLB proficiency requirement of the law is possible in the public schools, independent of the proposed model. However, the STATE data tables # 1 and # 2 for both math and English strongly documents that the actual percent of students achieving proficiency is not occurring and actually incrementally decreasing for grades 5-12. The decrease in the percent of students for grades five and above suggests that no student will achieve proficiency without effective intervention, which defines grade four as a rate determining step for proficiency in the K-12 schools. Since the applied pre-requisite skills in math increases with the complexity of the discipline, the resulting decrease in student’s proficiency percentage with increasing grades are reasonable. In K-12 education, three(1998) California State and one federal(NCLB 2002) proficiency laws are being violated and possibly subject to legal, punitive actions.
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Listed below are the Tables 1 (math) and 2(English) that evaluate California‘s NCLB students for the 2012 year.
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TABLE 1: Math proficiency rate and above in 2012 in California’s STAR test for various ethnic groups.
Note: The last five rows evaluate the desired grade PROFICIENCY GAP and not the racial achievement gap!
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Note: All students by the 2014 school year are mandated to be proficient by three State & the NCLB law.
**Grade 12 values were projected from K-4 to K-11 data to meet the NAEP evaluation criteria for graduation.
Grades 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12**
Composite 64% 69% 71% 65% 55% 55% 46% 39% 27% 24% 17.4%
Asians 85% 89% 90% 87% 83% 83% 78% 67% 59% 54% 51.4%
White 77% 81% 80% 75% 69% 69% 58% 46% 36% 32% 25.5%
Latino 55% 62% 63% 57% 44% 45% 46% 26% 16% 13% 6.6%
Black 49% 56% 56% 50% 38% 39% 30% 19% 13% 11% 1.6%
Composite Gap to Proficiency 36% 31% 29% 35% 45% 45% 54% 61% 73% 76% 82.6%
Asians Gap to Proficiency 15% 11% 10% 13% 17% 17% 22% 33% 41% 46% 48.5%
White Gap to Proficiency 23% 19% 20% 25% 31% 31% 42% 54% 64% 68% 74.5%
Latino Gap to Proficiency 45% 38% 37% 43% 56% 55% 54% 74% 84% 87% 93.4%
Black Gap to Proficiency 51% 54% 54% 50% 62% 61% 70% 81% 87% 89% 98.4%
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.TABLE 2: English proficiency rate in 2012 in California’s STAR test for various ethnic groups. Note: All students by the 2013- 2014 school year are mandated to be proficient by three State & NCLB law.
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Note: The last five rows evaluate the desired grade PROFICIENCY GAP and not the racial achievement gap!
**Grade 12 values were projected from K-4 to K-11 data to meet the NAEP evaluation criteria upon graduation.
Grades 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12**
Composite 58% 48% 67% 63% 59% 62% 59% 57% 50% 48% 46%
Asians 81% 71% 75% 82% 81% 82% 81% 79% 74% 69% 66%
White 73% 66% 82% 76% 77% 79% 75% 74% 67% 63% 59%
Latino 48% 35% 37% 50% 48% 50% 48% 45% 39% 36% 33%
Black 48% 37% 56% 50% 48% 50% 47% 43% 37% 33% 29%
Composite Gap to Proficiency 42% 52% 33% 37% 41% 38% 41% 43% 50% 52% 54%
Asians Gap to Proficiency 19% 29% 25% 18% 19% 18% 19% 21% 26% 31% 34 %
White Gap to Proficiency 27% 34% 18% 24% 23% 21% 25% 26% 33% 37% 31%
Latino Gap to Proficiency 52% 65% 63% 42% 52% 50% 52% 55% 61% 64% 67%
Black Gap to Proficiency 52% 63% 44% 42% 52% 50% 53% 57% 63% 67% 71%
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Baffle em with bountiful bullshit, eh!?!?!?!?!?!
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Duane: Since when is documented state data, BS?
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Since at least 1997 when Wilson proved that any results from standardized testing are COMPLETELY INVALID. The data you are using is from the results of standardized testing, therefore it is INVALID or as my crude & rude mind puts it bullshit.
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The reported results of standardized tests are also invalid when they cherry pick the facts that are published through the media.
For instance, the OECD’s international PISA test only reports the overall average comparison between countries—the same average the corporate pub-ed IED’s use to make their fraudulent case that the public schools are failing and must be reformed/replaced.
If you have an open minded that is not closed by bias and foolish ignorance, I suggest reading “What do international tests really show about U.S. student performance?” from a study out of Stanford that has been vetted by the Economic Policy Institute.
“Because social class inequality is greater in the United States than in any of the countries with which we can reasonably be compared, the relative performance of U.S. adolescents is better than it appears when countries’ national average performance is conventionally compared.”
http://www.epi.org/publication/us-student-performance-testing/
A sampling error in the U.S. administration of the most recent international (PISA) test resulted in students from the most disadvantaged schools being over-represented in the overall U.S. test-taker sample. This error further depressed the reported average U.S. test score.
If U.S. adolescents had a social class distribution that was similar to the distribution in countries to which the United States is frequently compared, average reading scores in the United States would be higher than average reading scores in the similar post-industrial countries we examined (France, Germany, and the United Kingdom), and average math scores in the United States would be about the same as average math scores in similar post-industrial countries.
A re-estimated U.S. average PISA score that adjusted for a student population in the United States that is more disadvantaged than populations in otherwise similar post-industrial countries, and for the over-sampling of students from the most-disadvantaged schools in a recent U.S. international assessment sample, finds that the U.S. average score in both reading and mathematics would be higher than official reports indicate (in the case of mathematics, substantially higher).
This re-estimate would also improve the U.S. place in the international ranking of all OECD countries, bringing the U.S. average score to sixth in reading and 13th in math. Conventional ranking reports based on PISA, which make no adjustments for social class composition or for sampling errors, and which rank countries irrespective of whether score differences are large enough to be meaningful, report that the U.S. average score is 14th in reading and 25th in math.
Disadvantaged and lower-middle-class U.S. students perform better (and in most cases, substantially better) than comparable students in similar post-industrial countries in reading. In math, disadvantaged and lower-middle-class U.S. students perform about the same as comparable students in similar post-industrial countries.
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On average, and for almost every social class group, U.S. students do relatively better in reading than in math, compared to students in both the top-scoring and the similar post-industrial countries.
http://www.epi.org/publication/us-student-performance-testing/
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Duane: If Wilson’s so called “proof” that standardized tests are invalid, Wilson and others are therefore suggesting all “standardized” tests are invalid including the SAT, ACT, NAEP, military ASVAB and all university and other tests. You are either kidding or hopelessly naïve. The STAR tests given in California and elsewhere are broken down into many specific areas based upon what should be discussed and mastered at each level. Five levels of mastery are evaluated for each student, class, school, district and the state on these specific areas. The tests are diagnostic and somewhat prescriptive on whether or not the student, group, etc. has mastered each topic. If the test results are used appropriately, deficient areas can be empirically identified and corrected. I do not understand providing students, classes or school with this type of information is racist or invalid. In my classes, some blacks and Latino score higher than many other students regardless of race. In our four level math program- levels 7 to algebra 2- our six test system evaluates pre-post what students learn in ten different areas and the composite. Before each of the tests we could predict the exact score of each student +/- 6 % to a value of 55% in algebra 1; 45 % in algebra 2; and 35% in general math. The reason the predictability increases with levels is that the complexity and the number of prep-requisite skills increases with level that allows the prediction to become more accurate with level. Based on sample size of 10,000 students, 400 sections, and 22 years, the mean learning value of all students( 90% of which were black or Latino) was 7-9 times the value of the K-12 Stanford math norm value of 9.1% year. The individual score increase was independent of social- economic, ethnic gender nor age considerations. The mean learning rate was linear among all ten skills and the composite, homework completed, and quiz,, midterm and final exam scores. All this information- data, equations and graphs is documented and available from the researcher.
Based upon this research and 40 years of teaching experience, most standardized tests, which are also separated into specific areas that measures the skills the student, class, ethnic group, etc has at the time the test is given. If the student enters the class or takes a standardized test, the student’s score just represents the skills the students has at that time, regardless of social-economic- gender condition has the appropriate skills. The research also documents that the students entering the class( especially in the STEM disciplines) generally earn the A and B grades for the course and can move successfully to the next level. The students who enter the class without the appropriate skills either earn low grades, repeat the course, or fail and generally longer continue in the discipline(STEM courses at least). If Wilson “proves” that standardized tests are i invalid, what does he suggest to replace with to improve the achievement level of students including higher K-12 and college graduation rates, employment possibilities, and a decrease in negatives, such as incarceration rates. teen age pregnancy, and poverty.
However, Wilson and the like may want to return to a norm reference testing model in which in 1990 NAEP documents that ONLY 14% of ALL of our nation’s 8th grade students were proficient on 6-7th grade decimals, fractions and percent. The percent rose to 48% on the same competencies for the USA 12th grade students. Finally only 5% of the USA 12th grade students were prepared to enter an entry level college math course,
I think most of my critics miss the main point of my discussion, which is that students must master the pre-requisite skills at each level in many disciplines such as the STEM, before the next level can be learned effectively. The obvious reason is this pre-requisite skills are applied at the new level, so mastery of the new level is not possible without the mastery. In addition. educators must have an empirical, effective methods to ascertain at each level what those skills are in a fair and appropriate method. Possibly my critics have not taught in the STEM disciplines nor have completed pre-post testing to ascertain why placement by appropriate skills determines students academic success. The success nor failure in STEM courses has little to nothing to do with social-economic- gender-age of the student. Obviously, if a student is poor, has no family support and encouragement, no place to study, family problems, etc. the ability
to learn is much more difficult, but the K-12 schools can do little to improve these outside factors. However, the K-12 schools can at least provide a more effective model that gives the student and parents a meaning choice to be promoted by proficiency, as Identified my original blog message. Currently in K-12 promoting students by attendance and without proficiency is as I mentioned before is a form of “academic abuse” of the student, teacher, parent and tax-paying public. Finally, it is easy to criticize, but this does little to address and resolve the problem. Standardized tests have their limitations and their value can be increase by(1) making the tests diagnostic-prescriptive keyed to the student’s textbook; (2) with printouts available to the teacher within a week; and (3) placing students into the appropriate course, so that the testing process is relevant to the student, teacher, parent and others.
By the way, I think of a standardized test, as simply the same test given to a large number of students based upon a set criteria of content and standards. I just do not understand why such a test is invalid. Obviously, if a student does not have the skills being evaluated, the test results mean little. Possibly this is what Wilson means by standardized tests are invalid. For example, It makes no sense to give am algebra 1 test to first grade students.- the test is invalid, as the test can not be effectively learned by the students at that level.
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ekangas2014,
“If Wilson’s so called “proof” that standardized tests are invalid, Wilson and others are therefore suggesting all “standardized” tests are invalid including the SAT, ACT, NAEP, military ASVAB and all university and other tests. You are either kidding or hopelessly naïve.”
Yes, standardized tests especially those such as SAT, ACT, and NAEP are COMPLETELY INVALID, and no I am not “kidding or hopelessly naïve”. I’ll admit to being hopelessly quixotic in my quest to rid the world of these educational malpractices.
The ASVAB is different in that it is part of the military’s means of determining where to supposedly best use a recruit and it doesn’t matter whether it’s valid or not (even though it still suffers all the errors in construction, usage and disseminating of results that Wilson identifies). It just needs to perform a sorting and separating function and it does that. Whether that usage is unethical, illogical and invalid doesn’t come into play-a recruit has already signed away his life to the military. However, when, as at my school this week, they give the ASVAB to all the sophomores, its usage then does have those concerns and legal ones also, like “can a 15-6 year legally sign away their FERPA rights to educational privacy to the military?”
“I do not understand providing students, classes or school with this type of information is racist or invalid. . . I just do not understand why such a test is invalid.” And “Possibly this is what Wilson means by standardized tests are invalid”
Well, no that is not what Wilson means and neither Wilson nor I have said anything about any kind “of information [that] is racist”. That is a strawman argument. If you want to understand the invalidities involved in the educational standards and standardized testing regime then read Wilson’s work. Until you read and understand Wilson’s work, which addresses all your concerns/thoughts above I don’t have much more to say as it would take pages and pages to rebut what you have written. Read Wilson first and then get back to me: dswacker@centurytel.net .
But I will address a couple of your comments.
“If the student enters the class or takes a standardized test, the student’s score just represents the skills the students has at that time, regardless of social-economic- gender condition has the appropriate skills.”
No, the score doesn’t “represent the skills the student has at that time”. That is one of the logical falsehoods Wilson identifies. Read Wilson!
“In addition. educators must have an empirical, effective methods to ascertain at each level what those skills are in a fair and appropriate method.”
Says who??? When did empiricism win the eons old philosophy battles in epistemology and ontology??
“However, Wilson and the like may want to return to a norm reference testing model. . . “
No, there is no desire to do such. And all the standardized tests today are still norm referenced, norm referenced by each question. If all testers get an answer right or wrong they are thrown out, only those that supposedly have good “discriminating abilities” are used. That is part of the norm referencing process.
“I think most of my critics miss the main point of my discussion, which is that students must master the pre-requisite skills at each level in many disciplines such as the STEM, before the next level can be learned effectively.”
Your “main point” does not obtain in many instances in the teaching and learning process. The teaching and learning process is not some simple step by step by step process. It is far more complicated than that and to not recognize the complexity is one of the major logical epistemological and ontological errors in the educational standards and standardized testing regime as shown by Wilson. READ WILSON!!!!
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Is the goal of education in California really to help students achieve proficiency on a standardize, fallible, and often racist test?
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One of the goals of K-12 grade level evaluation is to promote students by proficiency as students are promoted from grade to grade by providing meaningful academic “Choices” and prevent “academic abuse” of the student, parent, teacher, schools, tax-payers and society. Well developed diagnostic-prescriptive standardized tests that include five choice multiple choice exams with a none correct choice, as one of the choices provides all the above vested parties valuable specific information to ascertain correct proficiency areas and define corrective action for non-proficient students, classes, and schools.
Students may be required to work out procedures for selected problems on these tests to ascertain the student’s thinking processes. Both of these procedures were applied very successfully at SDSU chemistry department for decades and a where I taught at several community colleges over a three decade period. As former contract high school and a part time middle school school teacher at public and a private schools, all of these models could be applied to the public K-12 system easily and inexpensively.
In ALL cases mentioned above, social-economic, ethnic, and gender conditions were independent of student performance regardless if the performance was high or low. In our program that involved a 90% black and Latino student population, the six test /semester model was the same from year to year and was standardized to national math content. The charge that our tests and other well developed standardized tests are racists is just a political excuse for low performance by local and state administrations and others. Many of these “racist” critics have never taught In high educationally disadvantaged enrollment schools AND have applied pre-post testing with diagnostic-prescriptive tests to ascertain why students score high or low on these evaluations. For your information high and low student test information matches linearly other student class work including homework, quizzes, mid term and final exams. In other words, well developed and administered standardized tests is a uniform method to evaluate student, class, school , district, and state performance in a systematic, empirical, meaningful and comparative way The documentation is available if desired, but a fax # is required. to demonstrate graphically the R & D.
By the way, how do critics suggest we should evaluate and promote students in a fair, honest and meaningful way to prepare students for a college education. For example, The public, CSU , SDSU had 80,000 applications this year, but had spots for only 5,000 students. How do you fairly select students for the university without some form of standardized evaluation?
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