Blogger-teacher Steven M. Singer here reveals the veil of secrecy that testing corporations drape around their product.
He writes:
Warning!
What you are about to read may be a criminal act.
I may have broken the law by putting this information out there.
Edward Snowden leaked data about civilian surveillance. Chelsea Manning released top secret military documents.
And me? I’m leaking legal threats and intimidation students and teachers are subject to during standardized testing.
Not exactly a federal crime is it?
No. I’m asking. Is it?
Because teachers are being fired and jailed. Students are being threatened with litigation.
All because they talked about standardized tests.
The US government mandates public school children be subjected to standardized assessments in reading and math in grades 3-8 and once in high school. Most schools test much more than that – even as early as kindergarten.
And since all of these assessments are purchased from private corporations, the testing material is ideological property. The students taking these exams – regardless of age – are no longer treated as children. They are clients entering into a contract.
He cites the copyright warning that students are required to read before they take the Pennsylvania tests. If they photograph or reproduce or copy any part of the test they may be find no less than $750 or as much as $30,000. Wow! Not too many children have that kind of dough to pay for a copyright violation.
The state warns students that they are not allowed to discuss the test with others either during the test or after it.
Singer writes:
Sure kids shouldn’t talk about the test with classmates DURING the testing session. Obviously! But why can’t they discuss it after the test is over!?
Kids aren’t allowed to say to their friends, “Hey! Did you get the essay question about ‘The Tell-Tale Heart’?”
They aren’t allowed to discuss how difficult it was or compare how each of them answered the questions?
These are children. If you think they aren’t talking, then you just don’t know kids. You don’t know people!
And why shouldn’t they talk about it? They just shared a stressful, common experience. Who wouldn’t want to compare it to what others went through so as to decide how your experience rates? Did you answer the questions well or not? Did you get a more difficult question than others? Did the thing that struck you as odd also hit others the same way?
Personally, I do not consider talking like this to be cheating. It’s just human nature.
He goes on to discuss the constraints imposed on teachers.
He asks:
Therefore, I must ask an important question of you, dear reader: Did I violate these rules by writing this very article? Is the piece you are reading right now illegal?
And he wonders: Why is the state exercising its powers to protect the testing corporations? Wouldn’t it be nice if the state were protecting its students and teachers?
Diane Ravitch's blog 
When I taught undergrad math, I told my students that tests were simply a means of communication between student and teacher designed to guide the instruction process, that it was a matter of some inconvenience that third parties had taken it on themselves to intrude upon that two-way dialogue — but that was just the way the world was and we had to deal with it as best we could without losing sight of the main purpose of what we were about.
As things have turned out in today’s inverted world, corporations and corporate owned politicians have totally perverted the natural student-teacher relationship beyond all hope of recognition.
And it has to stop.
Or the nation will really be at risk …
2X’s TAGO!
All I can say is that: ALL this TESTING is a HUGE FARCE.
YEP!!
Not only is it human nature to discuss items of this nature, in this context there is actual educational value. Students reflecting on the subject matter, discussing their answers, alternative approaches, etc. all will help them become better students.
The kids can’t be held liable and they cannot legally sign a contract for anything as minors. This is all ludicrous nonsense. The testing industry will fail in this for both political and legal reasons. But the real culprits in all this are the departments of education who in their utter incompetence, agreed to such ridiculous and obviously unenforceble terms. Whats worse it makes no education sense to not have transparency with these tests. They should be made immediately available the day after the test: every year they must make a partially new test. This is tecnically possible – it just costs more for the testing industry. This would actually make both educational and political sense.
This is the answer- They are minors. They cannot be held to a contract, except in a few very specific instances, and those mosty apply to emanciapted minors. This is just a fear and intimidation tactic, and as you put it, nonsense!
A form of abuse – is it not – when you assume authority that you do not have?
Again this proves the exams aren’t for instructional purposes. Exams are always discussed after they are given. Student ask what the answer to a certain question was; did they get it right? The teacher looks at the test to decide how her students performed and where she needs to do a better job with instruction. Those of us in education understand what a valid exam is and what a valid exam isn’t. These exams are not examples of a valid assessment, but they never were meant to be.
The concept of standardized testing itself is awful. How can we take all the known knowledge of our reality and cram only a tiny figment of it into a test that is then used to judge the overall intelligence of the individual? I find this counter productive. I’ve also never taken a standardized test that tested the individuals ability to think critically.
I remember one time in elementary school, a teacher asked the class ” a well known corporation tests its latest product and gives it great reviews. What’s wrong with this picture?” I’m the only one in the class who knew the answer, “the corporation tested their own product”. The class didn’t understand why this was a big deal but I did.
When I took these tests, I had no clue they were the intellectual property of privatized corporate entities. I find it disturbing that a faceless institution based on profit has more power over a young students intellectual growth then the very teachers who are actually trying to help them.
Great article! Knowledge is power! And by knowledge, I mean all knowledge and not just corporate sanctioned knowledge!
Reblogged this on David R. Taylor-Thoughts on Texas Education.
This is an operant conditioning methodology. The tests aren’t about education, they are behavior modification devices. Much more effective than thumbscrews or waterboards.
michaellangford2012: your point is important.
Everything connected to giving and taking tests has an educational aspect to it. For those of us concerned with a “better education for all” it raises questions like—
“What are people learning from this experience?” and “Is what they are learning in line with our goals and aspirations?” and “Just what are worthy goals and aspirations?”
The leaders and enforcers and spin doctors of the self-proclaimed “education reform” movement can’t be bothered with such nonsense. They are all about public school staffs and students and parents developing the necessary grit and determination to endure the hazing ritual of standardized testing in order to conform to predetermined levels of homogenized mediocrity.
Not, of course, to be confused with what is happening in the schools THEIR OWN CHILDREN attend.
A Lakeside School education for all. No exceptions. No excuses. What’s good enough for Bill Gates and his children is good enough for everyone else.
“I reject that mind-set.” [Michelle Rhee]
We knew she would say that. Her children attend Harpeth Hall.
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“Standardized Testing
“Standardized tests are administered yearly in the fall to Middle School students for the purpose of gaining additional insight and knowledge into the ability and performance levels of students. This information contributes to the effective guidance of students’ learning. The Learning Specialist oversees all standardized testing. Any concerns raised as a result of testing will be shared with parents by the Director of the Middle School and the Learning Specialist.”
Source: Harpeth Hall Faculty Handbook. The middle school at Harpeth includes grades 5-8.
Click to access misc_133119.pdf
Sidwell Friends administers standardized tests. Lakeside and Harpeth—yes. Any others you’d like me to look up?
Have you read this: https://www.scribd.com/doc/36325362/The-Lost-Tools-of-Learning Maybe if we could spend more energy on educating children and less on fighting the Hydra of Reform…
My doctor gives me a standardized bloodwork. It comes back in a standardized form, online now. Every year, he tells me to lose weight and easy on the bad foods. Every year, I start a standardized diet. So far, no one has revoked my doctor’s license due to my beltline. That would be silly, right? Who would possibly punish a doctor for a patient’s checkup results? Hey, maybe that is Reformers next target when they finish destroying education.
The problem is not standardized tests. It is how they are being misused.
Tim, standardized tests are part of the process used for determining special education services. The difference is no high stakes decisions are made using the tests. They are to help the teacher (and team) design a program best suited to a student. They are not the only means of making those decisions either. Classroom observations, parent and teacher input, work samples, health history,… Even in this situation, tests are only sampling tools to aid in decision making.
While some people are convinced that all standardized tests are evil, I really found them helpful in guiding my thinking as a special educator. That being said, they were never used to make high stakes decisions. Although the private schools use standardized tests for a slightly different purpose, I seriously doubt that they are coupled with high stakes decisions. They are only sampling tools.
2old2teach, I disagree that the standardized tests at the private schools are low-stakes, but I’ll return to that in a minute.
I don’t think the primary function of these tests is to assess special education status. The elite private schools admit only very small numbers of children with the very mildest disabilities to begin with. It also wouldn’t make sense to wait until fifth grade to screen, and then to screen for three or four years in a row. The ERB is administered to see how a child is stacking up against other elite students nationwide: https://www.erblearn.org/services/ctp-overview
Sally Selby, the middle school principal at Sidwell Friends, has written what I think is the best summary of how the elite private schools use standardized testing: “It is important to remember that standardized test scores are only one measure of a student’s academic profile, a snapshot if you will. A more complete and accurate picture emerges when the scores are combined with classwork, daily performance, regular assignments, projects, and other tests. Still, the ERB/CTP’s can help parents and teachers understand more clearly and completely a child’s balance of strengths and needs. Teachers may review the scores in detail, looking for patterns that emerge from one year to the next, and then use that information to be more effective in the classroom.”
However, at many elite privates, there is a dark side to testing: the results are used as evidence that a child is no longer a “good fit” for the school. These kids are admitted to elementary school largely on the basis of an IQ test taken when they are four, when results are noisy, even if they are impressive and the parents have a strong academic pedigree. As the academic intensity ramps up in middle school, it becomes clear that some kids can’t hack it. Since college placement is what allows these schools to charge 30 to almost 50 thousand dollars a year, children who are not on a trajectory to attend at least a halfway decent four-year college are a threat to the ecosystem. Kids and parents know about this aspect of the test, which is why there are conferences and soothing notes and no homework the weeks the tests are given. In schools where ERB results are used in such a fashion, I don’t know how you can say that they aren’t high-stakes for the kids.
The tests arguably aren’t as high-stakes for the teachers, but there’s a good reason for that. When you demand for “Sidwell/Lakeshore/Harpeth for all,” by definition you are asking for faculty to be employed on an at-will basis. Teachers aren’t in unions and they don’t have any tenure rights; they are covered by the same employment laws as the rest of us working stiffs. It isn’t necessary for the schools to make the tests “high stakes” because in a sense every single day is “high stakes” for an elite private school teacher.
Sally Selby’s summary is essentially the same as what I was saying with special ed assessment. I used special ed only as an example of sound assessment philosophy. It made sense to draw from my own experience in trying to outline sound practice. I understand your point about the possible high stakes nature of testing at Sidwell’s. While I am sure certain students may be counciled out of their program, if you have enough money and clout to send your child there, there is going to have to be a major and obvious misfit before your child is asked to leave. I rather suspect that an effort might be made to find another expensive match for your child although I am drawing on very little knowledge. Children of the elite do not end up in “failing” public schools. Whatever happened to the concept of the gentleman’s C?
michaellangford2012, MathVale, and 2old2teach: thank you for giving thoughtful and considerate responses that reflect what others have actually said.
And then there’s the odd commenter or two or three on this blog that don’t actually read what people write and have imaginary arguments with straw men. I let them be…
It reminds me of my teenage years. Detroit’s skid row was not far away from my “all-city” HS [combined a local neighborhood school with a what might be called a magnet school nowadays]. One of its denizens lived in his own reality, in this case he was a homeless man who thought he was Jesus Christ. Some of the HS students who wandered the area after school let out in pursuit of Thunderbird wine would scout out the homeless, hoping to bribe someone to go into a liquor store to buy them what they couldn’t because they were underage. They would ridicule and taunt this man: when he sneezed and coughed, he would literally say “I bless Myself” because he—well, I assume y’all get the point. I didn’t join in the “merriment”: I thought it was cruel and cowardly and pointless; being a teenager was no excuse.
IMHO, there are times when one has to exercise restrain because decency and compassion should make it obvious that by not doing so, one is just piling on for no good reason.
Just my dos centavitos worth…
Keep writing. I’ll keep reading.
😎
This posting underscores that high-stakes standardized testing doesn’t prepare people for, or reflect what people are required to do, in the real world.
The only driving need it fulfills is to squeeze $tudent $ucce$$ out of a huge number of students for the benefit of a very few adults.
Opt out. Starve the testing best of its profits and numbers.
Then we can try to get back to genuine teaching and learning.
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@Tim – Do Sidwell Friends etc use Pearson tests? And do they administer them in second grade? And does the teacher get fired if the student doesn’t do well? And do the students get the benefit of a careful review of the test, or some random number?
All schools give tests. That’s hardly news.
I wonder what would happen if some kid showed up for the test with an attorney – to check out the test before the kid takes it.
Now THAT would be something. Kids coming into school all lawyered up for the state test!
Or bring Frank Slade with them.
Now that’s the kind of creative critical thinking that all this testing doesn’t and can’t develop.
In NYS we gave Regents Exams in high school, which had to be passed in order to graduate. The tests were used afterward as diagnostic tools for both the students and teachers. The teachers were allowed to read the tests and students were allowed to speak about them after the tests were taken.
Why the change so suddenly to sworn secrecy? This is obviously a rhetorical question.
Another example of corporations infringing on our constitutional rights of free speech. It is bad enough that some teachers are forced to sign a confidentiality agreement as a condition of continued employment. Why do we allow the erosion of our civil liberties in favor of the rights of the almighty dollar?????
Can students under the age 18 be held accountable in a contract?
As the old adage goes: You are as sick as your secrets
I’ve always found it ridiculous that we have to focus so much time and energy preparing for these tests, and then when they are over, we must essentially pretend it never happened. “The first rule of testing club…
Ach, this is so dopey – the “secret” test I mean. I went to school in the UK and in high school we took “O” levels and “A” levels, standardized exams (not tests, you had to do actual essays) which were created by local boards and administered on site at the schools. So yes, it was important not to see the questions in advance. But no, once the thing was finished, everyone – EVERYONE – talked about it. Of course they did! That’s half the point of an exam.
If they had a serious assessment purpose, the tests would be administered at the same time, OR Pearson et al would come up with different tests for different regions.
It takes fanatical mind control (like we have in Dallas, Broad-trained superintendent Mike Miles) to have an entire large urban school district teachers and administration to buy into reform movement, the obsession with testing, the outrageous demands of testing companies. It is comparable to cultish ideals. Read this excellent article.
http://www.disdblog.com/2015/04/21/this-disd-teacher-remembers-jim-jones/
Related information
http://trueschoolreform.org/2015/03/pearson-global-educational-reform-movement-germ/
The testing industry is set up to protect its “intellectual property.” The industry has built the narrative that test integrity is absolutely essential for “objective” results, “reliable” measures, and “valid” reports of X,Y,Z. The narrative makes “sacred” the need for the highest levels of security so the results of tests are not contaminated. The narrative keeps alive the idea that tests disclose truths that cannot be disputed.
Educational and psychological tests are the product of human judgment. They are not objective. The tests being foisted on schools by federal and state officials, including legislators, are the work of hired hands who are posing as experts in education, and who are engaging in fraud at the technical level.
Who on earth thinks that a testing window that begins in early March can be measuring anything like a full academic year of instruction? Who assumed that you just shove on-line test into schools and they will “get ready” and put everything else aside for this fiasco?
This is a roundup from Politico today of errors often dismissed as “glitches” in the “delivery” of tests. It shows the rank amateur performance of testing companies and the FALSE assumption by state and federal officials that schools are tech-ready. The havoc and the stress of reframing all in-school programming ito accomodate “glitches” is treated as if kids and teachers and parents, and the process of education should just stop because the testing pirates of educational time and money are not ready.
Minnesota temporarily suspended its statewide assessment from Pearson. Students could not log on. The testing “window” has been open since March 9. That phrase “testing window,” refers to time stolen from coherent instruction.
Nevada has problems with Smarter Balanced testing delivered by vendor Measured Progress. The state superintendent notified both that they are in “breach of contract.” .
North Dakota has some districts using paper and pencil tests because they have had on-line test delivery problems with Measured Progress.
Montana had Measured Progress problems so severe that some schools canceled the test, causing worry that their federal funding may be withheld.
Florida had problems with its vendor for on-line tests: American Institutes for Research.
Testing in this manner equates to being blindfolded, spun in circles, given a broken bow and told to shoot the apple off a child’s head.
Everything is a cloak and dagger secret. It is really hard to teach what is tested if we don’t know what is tested!!
I think I am going to tell my students to tweet AIR and Pearson asking if their tests are scored yet. The more often they tweet, the faster they get their scores. The kids should be encouraged to also direct any questions they have about the tests to these companies via twitter.
Superlative, incisive logic. Let us hope that you cannot “fool all the people all the time” and just as the mothers talked about on this blog are “taking up arms”, maybe the madness will stop before any more damage is done.
Steven M. Singer is a brave person and I commend him for speaking the truth. More teachers should be following his example.
Thank you so much for including my article on your blog, Diane. It made my day. Teacher-bloggers like me put ourselves at risk by speaking truth to power, but I cannot remain silent. Thanks again for amplifying my voice. And please accept my heart-felt gratitude to everyone adding to the conversation in the comments. I learn so much when I hear people talk about what I’ve written.
“These are children. If you think they aren’t talking, then you just don’t know kids. You don’t know people!” Exactly!! And with that conversation goes the testing reliability when other students write the same essay two weeks later.
At our SBAC “training” staff meeting, our assistant principal actually bragged about the fact that during our pilot testing last year, it only took two hours to catch a student who had shared info (i.e. venting about how hard it was) about the test (after it was over) via social media. I was horrified. They really are spying on the students.
Cross posted at http://www.opednews.com/Quicklink/This-Article-May-Be-Illega-in-Best_Web_OpEds-Crime_Criminal_Information_Intimidation-150423-692.html#comment542360
with this comment which has embedded links to the articles taken from this site:
From the Ravitch blog where you can follow the TRUTH: “A letter was circulated to all principals in the Rochester, New York, school system, advising them to identify teachers who had encouraged parents or students to opt out and to report teachers who were absent on testing day”.
Also this one: ” Last year, Jeff Nichols and his wife Ann Stone wrote an article that appeared in the New York Times about taking the “practice” version of the third-grade English language arts test. The test was sent home with one of their children as “vacation homework,” an oxymoron in itself.Both college professors, they did it for fun with two friends. All have Ph.D.s. they couldn’t agree on the right answers and concluded the test was ridiculous. They became activists in the opt-out movement. Recently, Jeff wrote a high-ranking official at the New York City Department of Education to inform him that his children will not be taking the tests this spring. The official (who was once an anti-testing activist when he was a teacher long ago) replied that parents have the right to t out but their school may be punished if the participation rate falls below 95%. Is this not a profile in courage? By the way, there is no risk that anyone at the DOE will see this blog, because the computers are set to block all WordPress sites.”
These tests are not even authentic evaluators of student progress let alone teacher competence, but there is big money there, and the privateers intimidate teachers and anyone they can…. only th parents do not care…they know the reality… how it hurts the kids.
“Donn Esmonde of the Buffalo News sat down to talk with three of the parent leaders of the historic Opt Out movement in New York state. Although the mainstream media has trouble understanding that the movement is led by parents, Esmonde got it.”
TRUTH WILL OUT! FOR EXAMPLE:
Jon Pelto: Common Core Test Designed to Fail Most Students
Children in New Jersey Will Have 10-11 Hours of Testing (linked at oped)
Ohio Superintendent: Testing Is Out of Control(linked at oped
And the lies just pour out in the media:
“In a story published in the New York Times, Kate Taylor and Motoko Rich describe test refusal as an effort by teachers’ unions to reassert their relevance. This is ridiculous. Nearly 200,000 students opted out. They were not taking orders from the union. They were acting in the way that either they wanted to act or their parents wanted them to act.”