Laura Chapman, retired arts educator, explains the goals of standardized testing:
She writes:
“Here is another reason to opt out.
Test scores are collected and then marketed by greatschools.org. This non-profit is a sophisticated and well-funded system for gathering test scores and other information about students and parents, then selling that information. The website literally sells ads and licenses for access to test scores and other data on schools–public, private, and charter–with expansions planned for pre-school and daycare-centers.
This national data hog is funded by billionaire foundations unfriendly to public schools. The logos of the Gates, Walton, Robertson, and Arnold Foundations are prominently displayed. A list of 19 other supporters includes the Friedman Foundation for Educational Choice, Bradley Foundation, Goldman Sachs Gives, and New Schools Venture Fund among others. All of these supporters want to make public schools an artifact from the past.
Parents, if you patronize the tests, you feed the data hogs, and this one is one of the biggest.
Do not be naïve. Test scores are worth a lot of money and they are grist for publicity campaigns for projects and policies within and beyond your state. Here is an introduction to how greatschools uses test scores.
“The overall GreatSchools Rating is an average of how well students at a given school do on each grade and subject test. For each test, ratings are assigned based on how well students perform relative to all other students in the state, and these ratings are averaged into an overall rating of 1 to 10.”
“The distribution of the GreatSchools Rating in a given state looks like a bell curve, with higher numbers of schools getting ratings in the “average” category, and fewer schools getting ratings in the “above average” or “below average” categories.”
For states where ratings can also include student growth and college readiness information, the overall GreatSchools Rating is an average of how well students do on each sub-rating.” There are three sub-ratings.
1. Test Scores: “The test score sub-rating examines how students at a school performed on standardized tests compared with other schools in the state. Specifically, this rating compares student proficiency rates for each grade and subject with all schools in the state. “ (Note that “proficiency” is not defined).
2. Student Growth: This “sub-rating looks at how much progress individual students have made on reading and math assessments during the past year or more. This sub-rating is based on student growth models, which can vary from state to state. (Greatschools recycles data from each state’s value-added measure, percentile growth calculation or comparable “growth” measure. Growth is a euphemism for a calculation that requires the test scores of individual students for more than one year. These calculations, based on gains in test scores, are notoriously misleading. They assume, for example, that there are no major differences in the math and reading tests that a student takes in the third and the fourth grade).
3. College Readiness: This sub-rating combines a high school graduation rate with data about the student scores on college entrance exams (SAT, ACT). These “are indicators of how well schools are preparing students for success in college and beyond.”
Now comes the “weighting” of these dubious measures derived from test scores. Here you go. Begin quote:
Sub-ratings are weighted equally, though actual weights depend on the amount of data available per school and what grades that school serves.
For instance, a K-5 school has no college readiness data, so the overall rating would be based 50% on student achievement and 50% on student growth.
In contrast, the rating for a high school with data for all three measures would be based 33% on student achievement, 33% on student growth, and 33% on college readiness.
Each sub-rating represents how a school compares to all other schools in the state on each measure, and these sub-ratings are averaged into an overall rating.” More detail is at http://www.greatschools.org/catalog/pdf/New_Ratings_Methodology_Report.pdf
It is not surprising that this system gives the highest possible rating to the notoriously test-driven Success Academy in NY. Take a look at some other ratings here http://www.greatschools.org/about/ratings.page
Poke around the greatschools website to see how this non-profit can operate as a mega for-profit operation serving big box stores, and multiple industries— financial, real estate, charter expansions, testing and text publishers.
The gigantic “partner” basket at this website offers eclectic fare: It includes Walmart, Target, Yale Center for Social Emotional Intelligence, Survey Monkey, Forbes, US Department of Housing and Urban Development, Dunn & Bradstreet, US Department of Education, Goldman Sachs, and more .
“The website says that “A range of partners have been critical to GreatSchools’ success. We are grateful to these partners, a sampling of which can be found here.”
Look at the list and remember this is JUST a sampling and notice how partners are categorized.
CONTENT: 321 Fast Draw; Algonquin Books; Ashoka Foundation; Bay Citizen; California Watch; College Board; Common Sense Media; DK Publishing; Film Sight Productions; IDEO; Learning Ally; Learning and Leadership Center; Mind/Shift; National Center for Learning Disabilities; Parenting.com; Reading Rockets; Scholastic; Treasure Bay, Inc.; UCLA Department of Psychology; US Department of Education; Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence.
COMMUNITY AND FAMILY ENGAGEMENT: Families Empowered; Hillsborough County Public Schools; Iridescent Learning; KIPP; Magnet Schools of America; Miami Dade County Public Schools; Rocketship Education; Stand Up for Students; Step Up for Students; US Department of Housing and Urban Development
RESEARCH: Gallup Education; SurveyMonkey (see also Licensees); SRI; Rockman Et Al.
MARKETING & OUTBOUND MEDIA: Care2.com; Common Sense Media; Forbes; NBC News Education; The Bully Project; Univision.
LICENSEES: Apartments.com, Brain Pop; Digital Map Products; Dunn & Bradstreet; Fannie Mae; Maponics; Michael & Susan Dell Foundation; Military Child Education Coalition; Move Sales, Inc.; National Association of Charter School Authorizers; National Housing Trust; Onboard Informatics; Policy Map; Realtors Property Resource; SurveyMonkey; Target, US Department of Housing and Urban Development; Walmart; WolfNet; Zillow.
What do these “partners get” for signing on? At minimum, it is the opportunity to become an advertiser or license holder who can gain access to your student’s test scores—for a fee.
The greatschools website gives you some ad rates that direct you to https://selfserve.rubiconproject.com/advertise3/products/29619
At the bottom of the great schools rate page you can see that these advertising packages are offered via the Rubicon Project (bottom right of the page. Click on Rubicon Project to see what this “project “is.)
The Rubicon Project is the name for a company that scoops all of greatschools data and ratings and comments and personal information from users of the greatschools website and puts them in Rubicon’s “Advertising Automation Cloud.”
This data warehousing operation “brings buyers and sellers closer together on a robust advertising technology platform. One of the largest cloud and Big Data computing systems in the world, the Automation Cloud leverages over 50,000 algorithms and analyzes billions of data points in real-time to deliver the best results for sellers and buyers,” with 300 real-time data-driven decisions per transaction.”
Follow the money. The billionaire foundations gather the test scores and other information about schools. They are notoriously in favor of market-based education. The scores are translated into their dubious but “custom” rating scheme with direct links to Zillow (who has paid for a high end license).
The data and ratings and user data from the website migrate out from the greatschools website to Rubicon. For a fee, Rubicon facilitates rapid and custom access to the data and ratings from their “cloud,” (a data warehouse), promising clients they can “Efficiently find your target audience;” “build brand awareness,” “acquire new customers, and re-engage existing customers.”
https://selfserve.rubiconproject.com/advertise3/products/29619
I hope that this information gives parents another reason to opt out of the tests.
Greatschools has test data from every state, has a map of district boundaries searchable by zip codes, and it is seeking data well beyond that required by state or federal regulation such as such as schools safety, cleanliness, and parent involvement.
Do not feed the data hog. Do not make the billionaires smile. Opt of the tests.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
The purpose of Teacher-Evaluating Standardized Testing (TEST) is to transfer control of public education from professional teachers to anyone but, especially the corporate and financial sectors. When that is done, there will no longer be a teaching profession.
Read all about the scape-goating of teachers in this excellent piece by Steven Singer.
https://gadflyonthewallblog.wordpress.com/2016/04/08/high-stakes-testing-holds-the-most-powerful-the-least-accountable/
This is succinct, clear — and absolutely true. Well said.
RageAgainstTheTestocracy: the linked piece is excellent.
Thank you very much.
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“Mace to the Top”
The purpose of the test?
Put teachers in their place
Forget about the rest
The test’s a form of mace
“Achille’s VAM Boot”
VAM’s a steel-heeled boot
To guard against an arrow
From teachers who won’t root
For testing straight and narrow
This post points out how data mining and computer tracking can lead to false assumptions and misinformation. I have looked at the great school information. My conclusion is that the schools with the highest scores are those in affluent areas. There are plenty of schools with lower scores that may be better, but they receive a lower score due to the diverse composition of the students. Number crunching does not always lead to fact, and it can often be misleading and sometime wrong. People misuse or misinterpret data, and the same goes for standardized testing. Many claims of “reform” are built on cherry picking data or misinterpretation as so many of Jersey Jazzman’s blogs point out.
We’ve got to get a beat under that, SomeDAM Poet! It would be sweet!
Who was it who said, “The greatest lies are statistics”? I think it was Mark Twain
Lies, damn lies, and statistics.
“There are lies, damned lies, and statistics.”
Variously attributed, perhaps most often to Mark Twain and Benjamin Disraeli. How slippery is the attribution? The Wikipedia entry reads in small part:
[start]
Mark Twain popularized the saying in Chapters from My Autobiography, published in the North American Review in 1906. “Figures often beguile me,” he wrote, “particularly when I have the arranging of them myself; in which case the remark attributed to Disraeli would often apply with justice and force: ‘There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics.'”
[end]
Link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lies,_damned_lies,_and_statistics
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Reblogged this on Crazy Normal – the Classroom Exposé and commented:
Discover how billionaires like Bill Gates supports selling information on our children gathered through test scores. This is data slavery and servitude to corporations.
The Post, blame the parents game.
http://nypost.com/2016/04/10/common-core-opt-out-movement-is-parents-who-cant-handle-their-kids-failing/
Stacking and ranking is a disservice to both disadvantaged and gifted students. It only makes sense for kids cut perfectly out of cookie dough.
The reliance on data and rubrics that diminish intuitive capacity for both teachers and admin does everyone a disservice by wasting precious time and sending people on misguided hunts and endless endeavors of CYA.
How stupid. What unbelievable waste. And this is supposed to be a fix? Congrats on breaking what was never broken, only some parts neglected and mired. To channel Mrs. Black, ‘Can we have a little neglect here?!’
Sarcasm alert.
Greatschools.org is a great idea! So is apartments.com. And hotels.com. And surveymonkey.com… all those survey websites gathering “data”, they’re all great!!! I’m gonna startup a website called globalthermonuclearwar.com. You can log in and rate your favorite military-industrial complexes with 1 to 5 stars. With all of the data my new website will provide, you can decide what piece of land is REALLY worth investing in.
That “. . . what piece of land is REALLY worth investing in” would be my white sand ocean front (at least it will be when the polar ice and the Greenland ice melt from global warming) beach for sale over at Lake of the Ozarks in Central Missouri. Operators standing by, call now!
The purpose of standardized testing is to “baffle em with bullshit” with the “em” being students and teachers but especially adminimals for they know no better.
The purpose in brief: KA-CHING for Pear$on.
There is no such thing as “$tandardized” te$ting.
And what Duane said.
Y’all haven’t even looked at the educational background of the greatschools senior staff
http://www.greatschools.org/about/senior-management.page
How many of the board members were teachers?
http://www.greatschools.org/about/boardOfDirectors.page
How many of the advisors have K-12 teaching experience?
http://www.greatschools.org/about/advisors.page
Also take a look at the job openings.
Most of my experience with Greatschools.org is from parents who are moving and reviewing their options. They might call directly to ask about the data or a realtor might connect them with us. Sometimes it’s a two household situation where one parent sets a Greatschools threshold to approve the relocation. It’s surprising how much credence the simplistic ratings of this site have with some individuals.
The founder and CEO of Great Schools is Bill Jackson, who was in the 4th class of the Pahara Aspen Institute’s “Entrepreneurial Leaders for Public Education Programs”. In 2010 and 2011, Fellows of the Program included Jean-Claude Brizard, Supt. of Rochester City Schools, Lillian Lowery, Delaware Secretary of Education, Sally Bachofer, associated with the New York Dept. of Education, Tia Elena Martinez, associated with the U.S. Dept. of Education, Andrew Smarick, New Jersey Deputy Commissioner of Education, Jason Kamras, associated with District of Columbia Public Schools…. In 2012, the first dean of a college of education, Karen Symms Gallagher, of USC Rossier, was announced as a Fellow.
The Aspen Institute Board includes David Koch, Katie Couric and Clinton friend, Madelyn Albright.
The Board of Directors of Great Schools includes Eric Hanushek, (a graduate of MIT’s Economics Dept.- both Koch Bros. are MIT grads and one is a lifetime board member) Peter Cunningham, Exec. Director of Education Post, formerly Ass’t Secretary for Communications and Outreach in Obama’s Dept. of Ed., Matt Hill, Supt. of the Burbank Unified School District….
Kim Smith is CEO and Founder of the Pahara Aspen Institute. She is a co-founder of Bellwether, a Board member of Rocketship, founding team member of TFA and, co-founder/former CEO of New Schools Venture Fund. Her MBA is from Stanford. In a 2010 interview, she said, “Education is a huge market with great potential for return…”. In the interview, derivatives of the word, “invest” appeared 10 times. “Entrepreneur”, was spoken an equal number of times to students/kids. The words, “capital”, “money”. “market”, “sales”, “products”, “business”, and “for-profit” were sprinkled throughout the article.
Linda, Thanks for the supplement on the cast of characters.