Teacher Matt Jablonski writes that Ohio is about to hit a full crisis in its graduation rates: 30% or more of high school seniors will be denied diplomas, as will 60-70% of students in urban districts.
This is a crisis created by the state, which has changed its tests again and again and set unrealistic standards.
What will Ohio do about the kids who don’t graduate?
Diane Ravitch's blog 
People who believe in and, care about their fellow citizens, democracy and future prosperity for the nation, should move out of Ohio. The state is an oligarchy, where gerrymandering has robbed its citizens of the rights, for whom so many have made great sacrifices, through American history.
It is a sad situation. We moved to Ohio in 2002 because we thought it would be a good place to raise our children and we liked the progressive part of the state we chose. I escaped Louisiana in 1991.
We’re lucky because our community’s public schools have remained relatively (except for Pearson and testing) unscathed from all the other problems in the state. But my community has been gerrymandered into four congressional districts (from my front porch I can see three of them), despite being the most reliable Democratic part of the state outside of Cleveland proper.
What I’ve slowly noticed is that what I tried to leave behind in Louisiana is not-so-slowly catching up with me again.
We’re blaming you for being the vector!!
Duane, I should have focused on containment rather than escape!
Until all involved rise up against the standards and testing regime which is morphing into the even more insidious CBE, constant surveillance of students using very invalid indicators and the collection of personal data without the knowledge of the parents of exactly what is happening, we will continue to fight unsuccessfully the educational malpractices that are imposed upon the public school sector. It’s going to take a massive “Hell no, we’re not going to implement educational malpractices (those aforementioned) that discriminate against and harm the innocents of society, the children.
The first step in counteracting those malpractices is to understand just how completely invalid the standards and testing regime is due to the myriad errors and falsehoods and psychometric fudgings that are part and parcel of the standards and testing regime. Noel Wilson showed us these falsehoods and errors and psychometric fudgings in his never refuted nor rebutted seminal study: “Educational Standards and the Problem of Error” found at: http://epaa.asu.edu/ojs/article/view/577/700
Brief outline of Wilson’s “Educational Standards and the Problem of Error” and some comments of mine.
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1. A description of a quality can only be partially quantified. Quantity is almost always a very small aspect of quality. It is illogical to judge/assess a whole category only by a part of the whole. The assessment is, by definition, lacking in the sense that “assessments are always of multidimensional qualities. To quantify them as unidimensional quantities (numbers or grades) is to perpetuate a fundamental logical error” (per Wilson). The teaching and learning process falls in the logical realm of aesthetics/qualities of human interactions. In attempting to quantify educational standards and standardized testing the descriptive information about said interactions is inadequate, insufficient and inferior to the point of invalidity and unacceptability.
A major epistemological mistake is that we attach, with great importance, the “score” of the student, not only onto the student but also, by extension, the teacher, school and district. Any description of a testing event is only a description of an interaction, that of the student and the testing device at a given time and place. The only correct logical thing that we can attempt to do is to describe that interaction (how accurately or not is a whole other story). That description cannot, by logical thought, be “assigned/attached” to the student as it cannot be a description of the student but the interaction. And this error is probably one of the most egregious “errors” that occur with standardized testing (and even the “grading” of students by a teacher).
Wilson identifies four “frames of reference” each with distinct assumptions (epistemological basis) about the assessment process from which the “assessor” views the interactions of the teaching and learning process: the Judge (think college professor who “knows” the students capabilities and grades them accordingly), the General Frame-think standardized testing that claims to have a “scientific” basis, the Specific Frame-think of learning by objective like computer based learning, getting a correct answer before moving on to the next screen, and the Responsive Frame-think of an apprenticeship in a trade or a medical residency program where the learner interacts with the “teacher” with constant feedback. Each category has its own sources of error and more error in the process is caused when the assessor confuses and conflates the categories.
Wilson elucidates the notion of “error”: “Error is predicated on a notion of perfection; to allocate error is to imply what is without error; to know error it is necessary to determine what is true. And what is true is determined by what we define as true, theoretically by the assumptions of our epistemology, practically by the events and non-events, the discourses and silences, the world of surfaces and their interactions and interpretations; in short, the practices that permeate the field. . . Error is the uncertainty dimension of the statement; error is the band within which chaos reigns, in which anything can happen. Error comprises all of those eventful circumstances which make the assessment statement less than perfectly precise, the measure less than perfectly accurate, the rank order less than perfectly stable, the standard and its measurement less than absolute, and the communication of its truth less than impeccable.”
In other words all the logical errors involved in the process render any conclusions invalid.
The test makers/psychometricians, through all sorts of mathematical machinations attempt to “prove” that these tests (based on standards) are valid-errorless or supposedly at least with minimal error [they aren’t]. Wilson turns the concept of validity on its head and focuses on just how invalid the machinations and the test and results are. He is an advocate for the test taker not the test maker. In doing so he identifies thirteen sources of “error”, any one of which renders the test making/giving/disseminating of results invalid. And a basic logical premise is that once something is shown to be invalid it is just that, invalid, and no amount of “fudging” by the psychometricians/test makers can alleviate that invalidity.
Having shown the invalidity, and therefore the unreliability, of the whole process Wilson concludes, rightly so, that any result/information gleaned from the process is “vain and illusory”. In other words start with an invalidity, end with an invalidity (except by sheer chance every once in a while, like a blind and anosmic squirrel who finds the occasional acorn, a result may be “true”) or to put in more mundane terms crap in-crap out.
And so what does this all mean? I’ll let Wilson have the second to last word: “So what does a test measure in our world? It measures what the person with the power to pay for the test says it measures. And the person who sets the test will name the test what the person who pays for the test wants the test to be named.”
In other words it attempts to measure “’something’ and we can specify some of the ‘errors’ in that ‘something’ but still don’t know [precisely] what the ‘something’ is.” The whole process harms many students as the social rewards for some are not available to others who “don’t make the grade (sic)” Should American public education have the function of sorting and separating students so that some may receive greater benefits than others, especially considering that the sorting and separating devices, educational standards and standardized testing, are so flawed not only in concept but in execution?
My answer is NO!!!!!
One final note with Wilson channeling Foucault and his concept of subjectivization:
“So the mark [grade/test score] becomes part of the story about yourself and with sufficient repetitions becomes true: true because those who know, those in authority, say it is true; true because the society in which you live legitimates this authority; true because your cultural habitus makes it difficult for you to perceive, conceive and integrate those aspects of your experience that contradict the story; true because in acting out your story, which now includes the mark and its meaning, the social truth that created it is confirmed; true because if your mark is high you are consistently rewarded, so that your voice becomes a voice of authority in the power-knowledge discourses that reproduce the structure that helped to produce you; true because if your mark is low your voice becomes muted and confirms your lower position in the social hierarchy; true finally because that success or failure confirms that mark that implicitly predicted the now self-evident consequences. And so the circle is complete.”
In other words students “internalize” what those “marks” (grades/test scores) mean, and since the vast majority of the students have not developed the mental skills to counteract what the “authorities” say, they accept as “natural and normal” that “story/description” of them. Although paradoxical in a sense, the “I’m an “A” student” is almost as harmful as “I’m an ‘F’ student” in hindering students becoming independent, critical and free thinkers. And having independent, critical and free thinkers is a threat to the current socio-economic structure of society.
Many of these tests came about when the government was seduced into the theory created by money-seeking reformers that “kids are not graduating ON TIME.” Many poor and immigrant kids have traditionally been allowed more than four years to get a diploma, but when ed. leaders started to hear that these schools were “drop out factories,” they then began to push money for graduating ON TIME…and guess what that’s done to our kids. http://www.ciedieaech.wordpress.com/2015/10/10/fabricating-fabrication-factories
“Splitting the Difference”
The 70-30 split
Is rampant with Reform
In Bible it is writ
And often is the norm
From test to Common Core
Proportion does appear
But really isn’t more
Than vacuous, I fear
Until teachers, adminimals and board members quit being GAGA* Good Germans and realize that using the students in the fashion in which the educational malpractices do, when those malpractices discriminate against so many students causing much harm, and when those malpractices are unjust (even though legally mandated, as was segregation legally mandated) the students are being violated on a daily basis. “But, but, but we are just following the legal mandates” cry out those teachers, adminimals and board members, “we can’t go against the law”.
HOGWASH!
Spineless self serving Good German thinking to preserve one’s own little piece of the American pie all the while taking from the children, HARMING MANY, that which does not belong to those takers. Self-expediency CANNOT, MUST NOT, SHOULD NOT trump justice for the most innocent in society the children who are supposed to be under the protection of the adults in schools. As Andre Comte-Sponville puts it:
“Should we therefore forgo our self-interest? Of course not. But it [self-interest] must be subordinate to justice, not the other way around. . . . To take advantage of a child’s naivete. . . in order to extract from them something [test scores, personal information] that is contrary to their interests, or intentions, without their knowledge [or consent of parents] or through coercion [state mandated testing], is always and everywhere unjust even if in some places and under certain circumstances it is not illegal. . . . Justice is superior to and more valuable than well-being or efficiency; it cannot be sacrificed to them, not even for the happiness of the greatest number [quoting Rawls]. To what could justice legitimately be sacrificed, since without justice there would be no legitimacy or illegitimacy? And in the name of what, since without justice even humanity, happiness and love could have no absolute value?. . . Without justice, values would be nothing more than (self) interests or motives; they would cease to be values or would become values without worth.”—Comte-Sponville [my additions]
When will YOU, yes YOU teachers and others truly stand up for the children?
WHEN?!?!
*Going Along to Get Along (GAGA): Nefarious practice of most educators who implement the edudeformers agenda even though the educators know that those educational malpractices will cause harm to the students and defile the teaching and learning process
A similar question should be asked here: What will Washington State legislators do when the newly enacted 24 credit rule in 2014 comes into law in 2019? Gonna cost a bundle. It was a punitive Senate bill back in 2014 to require every student to finish 24 credits to graduate from high school even if they were sick or homeless for some period of time, or had special education needs that were not met, and couldn’t complete courses.
Gonna drive up the dropout rate when students who are behind discover there is no way to make up and graduate with their classmates.
State and districts (like Seattle) don’t even provide for free make-up, summer and remedial courses. The state does not fund any credit recovery.
It will be harder for many to get a GED if the Pearson test is used to rank and sort. Fewer students can pass the test that many poor students need to move forward with their lives.
“Recipe for Success”
Gates dropped out
Which bred success
Little doubt
That droput’s best
Design a test
That none can pass
And Gates’ success
Is theirs at last
Matt Jablonski is a thoughtful Ohio public education activist and edu-blogger who continues to tell it like it is. http://testingwindow.blogspot.com/
THANK YOU, Matt!
I’d like to thank Diane Ravitch for posting the link to this op-ed I wrote for the Cleveland Plain Dealer. My interest is in increasing awareness of this issue. The Ohio Department of Education, state school board, Superintendent Paolo DeMaria, and state legislators insist on educational policy based on test and punish.
I have heard since I wrote the op-ed that DeMaria has refused to allow the Workgroup to discuss the assessments, or solutions to the overall problem, and only a short term fix for the class of 2018. They will punish thousands of students by refusing a diploma while refusing to recognize the reason is their own flawed system. As all data from standardized tests has shown us, disproportionate numbers of low income students score poorly, so a disproportionate number of those who will go without a diploma will be impoverished children.
There have to be some state leaders who are able to see this situation for what it is, a legislative failure, an affront to sound education policy, and willing to stand up for these marginalized students. Right?
Thanks for writing Matt. From an Ohio immigrant who didn’t want to get lost in the hateful comment section of cleveland.com.
Matt, There have to be some state leaders who are able to see this situation for what it is, a legislative failure, an affront to sound education policy, and willing to stand up for these marginalized students. Right?
I wish those leaders could be found, if they exist. The most absurd new bill in the works is HB 628. It is a draconian bill that would create a new system of funding schools where the “state pays a specified amount per student that each student may use to attend the public or chartered nonpublic school of the student’s choice, without the requirement of a local contribution.”
This is a “money follows the child” bill and more.
As I understand it, HB 628 means no more local property taxes (but likely an increase in state taxes).
It also means that federal funds for vouchers are likely to be merged with state funds and distributed to “authorized vendors of education services” determined by 16 existing regional Educational Service Centers” (ESC).
ESCs have no taxing authority. They are run by an elected governing board with members who represent smaller districts in several counties or several large districts. That board will typically serve multiple counties as shown here.
http://www.oesca.org/vnews/display.v/SEC/ESCs%7CEducational%20Regional%20Service%20Centers
ESCs are “multipurpose stores” (my analogy) where districts can buy a number of services through contracts for vendors. about 65% of ESC funding comes from these sales, the rest from state funds (about 23%) and federal funds (about 9%).
Currently 614 Ohio districts can receive these services from ESCs…and under HB628 would be required to go to an ESC for many services. A sample here:
….Special Education Services: employ occupational and physical therapists, provide school psychology services, operate classroom cooperatives for students with emotional and multiple disabilities, operate preschool special education programs
….Student Programs, operate gifted and talented programs; operate public preschools; operate Head Start programs, operate Alternative Schools; coordinate Dual Credit programs in partnership with districts, higher education and the state.
….Cooperative Endeavors: establish insurance consortia on behalf of their districts; employ teachers, administrators and paraprofessionals in cooperation with school districts; administer state grants and federal title programs on behalf of school districts
…Professional Development: provide professional development services; conduct leadership development; offer professional development for school improvement and for …Curriculum, Instruction and Assessment
…Implement Federal and State Regulations: provide Bus …Driver Certification and Physicals; operate the state’s 7 school bus driver training programs; assist districts and the state with teacher licensure; conduct FBI and other background checks; oversee homeschooling; provide school attendance officers; provide Child Abuse Awareness and ….Prevention Training
…Community Partnerships may: participate in Regional P-16 Councils; be members of Family and Children First Councils; operate and/or serve on Business Advisory Councils; participate in Workforce Development Boards; become involved with Community Foundations
…ESCs can also provide customized services for: School Safety and Crisis Planning; Extended School Year Programs; Professional Learning Communities; Alternative Teacher Licensure for Foreign Languages; Behavior Intervention and Mental Health Services; Juvenile Court Liaisons; Educational Services to Juvenile Detention Centers and DYS Facilities; Summer and After School Enrichment Programs; School Nursing Programs; Social Work Services; Substitute Teacher and Substitute Aid Recruiting and Licensure; Adult Basic Education Programs.
So far, there has not been much publicity for HB 628. It could be an easy sell and become law by virtue of the convoluted stack of state laws and regulations in Ohio. The anti-tax groups and school choicers will probably love it.
Laura, I have heard of the funding plan to which you’re referring. Rep Brenner said he’d brought it up to start a discussion, and he didn’t plan to reintroduce it this year. With that said, I wouldn’t be surprised to see it included as a part of the budget bill when it comes out this week. From what I understand, a similar plan decimated funding for public schools in Indiana.
As much as I hate using the phrase, “we must remain vigilant,” we must remain vigilant.
What will the corporate pirates who are waging an all-out war against America’s arguably highly successful community-based, democratic, transparent, nonprofit traditional public schools do?
I think they will get their Malignant Narcissist in Chief to pass laws that make it a crime to not graduate from high school on time, and the children that don’t graduate will be arrested and end up in prison/concentration camps for years at a time. The only way to get parole will be to take on-line high school classes and repeatedly take the same tests. If they don’t pass and graduate, the will not get out of prison.
There’s also a heroine addiction problem in Ohio, too. Glad I don’t live and teach in Ohio anymore. Where can I move where sanity, morality, and intelligence are the norm? Help!
Canada, Iceland or Norway. In the meantime, a statement from the real leader of the Western world: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/angela-merkel-theresa-may_us_588f6c97e4b08a14f7e72886?j28ieb648l4n29&
Both Ohio Senators, Portman and Brown, have gotten mileage out of, the Repub-crafted PR campaign, politicians against dope.
One has to wonder how bad Ohio’s record would be (currently, the state holds the position, as tops in, drug-related deaths), if the senators stopped their efforts.
But, it’s such a low risk, catchy campaign topic. It’s unlikely that too many drug addicts vote.
The other political PR that works in the buckeye state is against “human trafficking”. How many voters would be on the other side of that issue?
So true, Linda. You are beginning to convert me. I also think there’s a linkage that most of the heroin problem is in white communities. If it were predominantly in minority communities, we’d be funding another “War on…”
“Moving to a sane place”
The moon is sane (so far)
But get your ticket fast
Or better yet, a star
Cuz sanity won’t last
To make matters worse, the GED is now aligned with the Common Core so that road to an alternative to a high school diploma is also out the of reach to many of those same students.
The proportion of people passing the GED dropped dramatically after Pearson took over.
I’m just grateful my son was a Pre-Pearson GED Graduate.
I’m disgusted that our generation allowed rampant greed to reach every facet of American life.
“Generally Evil Doers” (GED)
The Pearson GED
Is harder than before
Cuz test-repeats, you see
Mean mega-bucks, for sure
Chances are Ohio will try to blame their teachers for the low graduation rate.