Testing expert Fred Smith first called attention to the mysterious disappearance of three questions from New York state’s Common Core tests last year. Then the New York Post published an article confirming the unexplained elimination of questions, but determined that four questions were dropped, not just three. When the scores were announced last fall, then-State Commissioner John King boasted that the scores were rising, confirming his belief that raising the bar would lead to higher achievement every year until one day all children would be proficient. Now we know that there was no score increase in ELA, that the reported “gains” resulted from the deletion of four questions that most students found confusing and either skipped or answered incorrectly. I spoke this morning to a high-level official in Albany, who told me that the scores last year did not increase, contrary to the Commissioner’s assertion. Now we know why. Had those missing questions been counted, my informant said, the scores would have declined or remained flat.
King now works directly for Arne Duncan at the U.S. Department of Education. One of Duncan’s favorite refrains is that “we have been lying to our children,” by telling them they are meeting grade-level expectations, when in reality, their performance is rotten. Why does he want parents to believe that their children are doing terribly and their public schools are no good? Why does he defend standards and tests that fail 70% of students? Well, he has made clear by his words and deeds that he prefers charter schools to public schools, and that he admires the policy of closing public schools and firing the entire staff to “turn around” schools, so the “failure” narrative serves his policy goals. Given the revelations about Common Core testing in New York, who is lying to our children?
At some point, the public will get wise and realize that the passing marks on standardized tests are arbitrary, the scoring on written responses is graded by temps hired from Craigs List, and government officials can spin the data to achieve rising scores or falling scores, whatever serves their political interest best.
The 3rd graders also very likely didn’t have time to finish that question. It was the last question on the last day of a test so long and confusing that schools in New York City staged protests the following day.
My own daughter did that question first, but ran out of time to finish two of the short answer questions. She walked out of the test so frustrated, she said to me, “How can they know what we know if they don’t give us enough time to show them.” The state might have bumped up the scores of students who took the test in order, but for those trying to manage their time thoughtfully and get their essay question out of the way, the state put them at a disadvantage.
I’ve been fighting standardized testing for a decade. Here’s more fodder.
The 3rd graders also very likely didn’t have time to finish that question. It was the last question on the last day of a test so long and confusing that schools in New York City staged protests the following day.
My own daughter did that question first, but ran out of time to finish two of the short answer questions. She walked out of the test so frustrated, she said to me, “How can they know what we know if they don’t give us enough time to show them.” The state might have bumped up the scores of students who took the test in order, but for those trying to manage their time thoughtfully and get their essay question out of the way, the state put them at a disadvantage.
I’ve been fighting standardized testing for a decade, because it turns education away from real learning. Here’s more fodder.
My daughters both work slow, careful, and methodical. They are constantly penalized by these arbitrary, timed tests. You would think reformers would value reasoned thought and correctness. Instead, these tests favor the opposite. It took Andrew Wiles 7 years to demonstrate Fermat’s Last Theorem in mathematics. Cervantes finished Don Quixote in a decade. Wonder how they would like being forced to adhere to Common Core and rushed to finish their work in two hours?
MathVale, Circa ’82 I realized that elementary students taking ITBS math test had to jump rapidly from place value to operations to fractions questions. Not a good scenario for reflective learners or meaningful when real-life problem solving allows for sustained thought.
BTW, I appreciate your thoughts on Dr Ravitch’s blog.
karisteeves & MathVale: please pardon the impertinence, but I urge you both to buy Banesh Hoffman’s THE TYRANNY OF TESTING.
You will find available the slim 2003 paperback [so it’s inexpensive!] version of the 1964 edition of the 1962 original.
Spoiler alert: you will find a lot of what he says very familiar. So what would be the point of reading what in large part you already know? First, perhaps you will find formulations or ways of approaching the topic that will be helpful. Second, and IMHO more important, you will have a very useful historical perspective on testolatry.
Just since Banesh Hoffman’s time the lame and smug excuses [from the no excuses folks themselves!] that tweaks and fixes are just around the corner, and that current problems with implementation will be resolved quickly, and that objections to standardized tests are trivial and uninformed and even harmful—
Are simply the same old same old.
😱
Think about it: over fifty years has passed since the first version of THE TYRANNY OF TESTING appeared and as I see it, perhaps frighteningly, the book is more relevant and timely TODAY than it was 50 YEARS AGO!
Time has not been kind to the High Holy Church of Testolatry and its current crop of $tudent $ucce$$ adherents. Not only has time not cured their hazing rituals of all that ails them, things have gotten significantly worse.
Time has proven them wrong again and again and again.
Time, then, to junk standardized testing and its associated junk sciences and get back to genuine teaching and learning and setting real fires.
¿?
“The mind is not a vessel to be filled but a fire to be kindled.” [Plutarch]
They had their faults, but what we do without some old dead Greek guys?
😎
Thanks, Diane!
This is EXACTLY correct. From the inside.
I’ll say it again, parents need to be taking a hard look at what is being done to their kids. They need to ask questions and demand answers. As teachers, we have been trying to get to the truth about high-stakes testing, charter schools and big-money ed. corporations. But we were marginalized and dismissed as bad teachers and union thugs.
Parents and the public, please step up for our kid’s sake.
I remember when NYSED and US Dept of Education were on the side of teachers, not companies. Oddly enough, that’s when most of the kids met standards and graduated on time. Hmmmmm…..
kids’
Since King was caught cheating, he should be given a ‘zero’ and sent home.
When will this change occur – Before or after a whole generation of children have been tainted by Common Core and senseless Assessments?
Ellen #WatchingTheChikdrenCrashAndBurn
After. Because the CC, while awful, is not the first itineration of this nonsense. Ever since NCLB was spawned, I have seen, every year, kids get less and less curious about the world and more and more dependent on finding “the right answer.” Every year, their writing gets more and more formulaic. Today, most of my 8th graders won’t even start on something without a detailed outline or rubric telling them what to do. They are paralyzed if I give them an open-ended assignment. This insane focus on standardized tests has stunted these kids’ growth. I am a parent of an 11th grader and an 8th grader, so I even see it in my own children. My oldest, for example, has not read a novel in class in almost three years, in the name of “informational text.”
Actually, the Young Teachers Collective that Dr Ravitch posted about today noted that they have been subjects of NCLB.
At least in NCLB they had a fighting chance. With CC – the instruction is scripted and the tests are designed to fail.
Duncan is the liar. Funny how the yahoos say something that tells who they really are!
Hi everyone,
Please see http://www.refusecommoncore.com for New York Assemblyman Jim Tedisco’s proposed legislation about refusing common core tests.