The growing impact of the assessment reform movement is clear in this week’s clips, many of which reflect a critical perspective on test overuse and misuse. This fall’s elections will play a major role in determining whether new public officials will roll back standardized exam overkill or if the same old officials will continue discredited test-and-punish policies.
Arizona Why Is “D” Rated School Shamed Instead of Helped
https://www.azcentral.com/story/news/local/arizona-education/2018/05/29/arizona-low-performing-schools-notify-neighborhood-state-letter-grade/635073002/
Florida Test Score Fixation Causes Concerns for Parents
http://www.wflx.com/story/38282136/standardized-tests-causing-concern-for-parents
Florida Late Test Score Reports Delay Grade Promotion Decisions Before School Ends
http://www.tampabay.com/blogs/gradebook/2018/05/22/will-my-florida-third-grader-have-to-repeat-the-grade/
Georgia Are Test Scores Fair Way to Judge Charters . . . or Any Schools?
https://www.myajc.com/blog/get-schooled/are-test-scores-fair-way-judge-charter-schools-any-schools/SnON9X4GXVJMf1KbrBnzkL/
Georgia Poverty, Other Social Factors Best Ways to Predict Test Scores
https://www.ajc.com/news/local-education/students-took-their-milestones-tests-but-what-will-the-scores-reveal/Wz9Z4KkcN3eH18L2cQo0yK/
Illinois Test Scores Sunk After Chicago Closed 50 Public Schools
http://abc7chicago.com/education/test-scores-suffered-after-cps-closed-50-schools-in-2013-study-says/3506585/
Indiana Schools May Get Two Different Grades This Year
http://www.journalgazette.net/news/local/indiana/20180529/schools-to-get-2-separate-grades
Massachusetts Legislators Cut Exam Funding to Challenge Testing Status Quo
http://www.bostonglobe.com/opinion/letters/2018/05/27/with-tug-purse-strings-lawmakers-challenge-status-quo-standardized-tests/zV4zHCNovJbG3fnnSWycCP/story.html
Massachusetts Grading Essays with Computers Sends Wrong Message to Student Writers
https://www.bostonglobe.com/opinion/letters/2018/05/24/your-mcas-essay-may-scored-gorithm/h6rLmHOXy9Z55dJ3oHDAuK/story.html
New Jersey Due to PARCC Screw-Up, Students Will Be Forced to Take the Exam
http://www.myveronanj.com/2018/05/24/state-parcc-screw-up-will-force-sophomores-to-be-tested/
New Mexico Legal Action Filed Against Test-Based Teacher Evaluations
https://www.abqjournal.com/1176776/unions-file-new-motion-over-teacher-evals-usage.html
New York Schools Chief Criticizes Exam-Based Admission and Screening
https://nypost.com/2018/05/23/schools-chief-denounces-nycs-admission-policies/
New York Teachers Union Blasts Abusive “Tyranny of Testing”
https://www.wkbw.com/news/state-teachers-union-calls-2018-standardized-testing-abusive
New York Governor Candidate Takes on Test-and-Punish Policies
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/answer-sheet/wp/2018/05/25/u-s-education-department-warns-school-districts-to-protect-student-privacy-for-sat-and-act/
North Carolina Assess Students’ Knowledge, Not Test-Taking Skills
http://www.courier-tribune.com/news/20180526/measure-our-knowledge-not-our-ability-to-take-test
Ohio Governor’s Defense of Flawed School Grades Blocks Efforts to Kill Them
https://www.cleveland.com/metro/index.ssf/2018/05/kasich_support_of_a-f_grades_s.html
Tennessee Scores From Computer Test Foul Up Won’t Hurt Teachers
Texas Testing Service Fined for Computer Exam Glitches
http://www.kxan.com/news/texas/tea-levies-100k-fine-against-ets-for-staar-glitches/1196923819
Texas State Waives Test Passing Requirement for Grade Promotion Due to Computer Disruptions
https://www.chron.com/news/houston-texas/houston/article/TEA-waives-passing-requirement-for-students-hit-12941899.php
University Abolish Standardized Testing for Undergraduate Admission
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/abolish-standardized-testing-for-college-admissions_us_5b045869e4b003dc7e470ee3s
International Irish Teachers Letter Launches Discussion of What Tests Really Measure
https://www.irishtimes.com/news/education/these-tests-do-not-assess-what-makes-you-special-and-unique-1.3507488
Worth Reading Lessons From the Test Opt-Out Movement for Curbing School Violence
https://wtop.com/education/2018/05/could-protest-curb-school-violence-lessons-from-the-opt-out-movement/
Bob Schaeffer, Public Education Director
FairTest: National Center for Fair & Open Testing
office- (239) 395-6773 fax- (239) 395-6779
mobile- (239) 699-0468
web- http://www.fairtest.org
Diane Ravitch's blog 
From the article about the Irish teacher: “Prof O’Leary says a big advantage of standardised tests is that you can compare children from one place to another, and it gives you a sense of how they stand in comparison.”
First of all, no, you really can’t compare children from one place to another. You don’t know what each of those kids was taught. You don’t know which of those kids come from safe, loving homes and which ones go to bed hungry at night or don’t sleep much because Mom and Dad fight all night. You don’t know which ones were up at 5:00 a.m. helping younger siblings and which ones stayed up until midnight working the job that feeds their family. You don’t know which ones have already learned that they are “failures” and, hence, don’t even try.
But second and more importantly, even if you could do that, why on earth would you want to???
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Perfectly said
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So now Indiana is going to have two test grades for at least one and possibly two years. Why not keep trying out stuff on kids and ruin their lives in the process of finding the ‘perfect test’. Such a thing will never be found but politicians and state officials keep trying.
Isn’t two test results better than just one? Good grief, how much class time was spent on this boondoggle?
Why not work three tests for next year and four for the year after? The perfect test is out there demanding to be found. Why not forget about teaching and just do tests?
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California uses two tests currently: NWEA MAP and CAASPP.
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MILLIONS going off to the Corporations For Endless Testing.
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I usually post my comments into respective thread, but this time I am posting this link here because this entry is the most recent and as such will get the most attention. I apologize for hijacking the thread.
Diane, may I ask you to re-post it as a separate entry like you do with other favorite blogs of yours. If you do that, feel free to delete this message.
Dienne77, SDP, Duane, Charles, please read, the link is below.
Some quotes:
“When we returned to school in August [after Columbine massacre in 1999], this time to a brand new multimillion-dollar campus, things were different. Teachers ran metal detectors at the entrance. Armed police officers roamed the halls, which were outfitted with security cameras. Teachers and cops stopped kids at random and searched their bags; there were no lockers, and kids had to wear mesh or clear backpacks so they couldn’t smuggle in guns or drugs. School didn’t feel safe; it felt like a guarded fortress.”
“If you want to know what the whole thing looked like, there’s a clip of it in Michael Moore’s Bowling for Columbine at the 41-minute mark. In the footage, kids filter through the metal detector. A bald man waves a wand over a kid’s back while a cop watches. “It still sucks being a teenager,” Moore says on voice-over. “After Columbine, it really sucked being a student in America.” ”
“Almost 20 years later, it feels like history is repeating itself. After the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School this February reignited the debate around gun control and school safety, some politicians are using the same logic as my school district did: Just outfit schools with cops, cameras, and metal detectors, and everything will go away.”
“Trust me. It won’t work. High school already sucks. Believe me when I tell you that a massive uptick in security makes it worse.”
“Heather Schwartz, an education and policy researcher for the RAND Corporation, co-authored a study that looked to find out if technology such as metal detectors and cameras made schools safer. There wasn’t much proof that they did.”
“In New York City, around 100,000 public school students move through metal detectors and x-ray machines to get to class. Airport-style security is a fact of everyday life. There are a lot of things that are done in the name of student safety that don’t view the students as the people who need to be protected, but view the students as the people somebody else needs to be protected from.”
“Making a school feel like a jail isn’t conducive to learning.”
“Amanda Klonsky — an education researcher and doctoral candidate at the Harvard Graduate School of Education — said that treating students as criminals has far worse consequences for students in low-income communities than it does for ones in affluent suburbs.”
“Adults panic and institute policies that kids have to live with. Those of us who went to Allen High School in 1999 know security theater doesn’t work. We don’t remember safety. We remember fear, foolishness, and the start of a fever that still grips the entire country. It’s a fever that motivates politicians to add more cops, install more metal detectors, and arm teachers — with the result of making kids feel less safe, in the name of making them safer.”
https://theoutline.com/post/4739/allen-texas-high-school-arming-teachers-metal-detectors-columbine-school-shooting
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This article really isn’t supporting your position. I get it in a way – the aftermath of school shootings is in kids’ and families’ faces practically every minute at schools, what with the ridiculous “security” display and all. It’s traumatizing, I understand.
But this ridiculous security theater is made possible by overreactions to school shootings. When parents/communities run around with their hair on fire calling schools “death traps”, it provides a giant opening for “security” firms to move in with their metal detectors, bullet-proof glass, facial recognition software, etc., because no price is too high to pay to keep our kids “safe”.
It’s what we hear about airport “security” all the time. If it saves even one life, it’s worth it. Except that kabuki security theater doesn’t save lives. It makes us less safe. As you’ve indicated, it’s traumatizing, and humans react to trauma in ways that increase the trauma.
The only way to fight terrorism or school shootings or airline hijackings or any sensationalist but extremely rare events is to take a deep breath and accept that life isn’t safe. Neither the government nor any “security” company can keep you safe. Accept that risk is a part of life. On any given day, you could be the victim of a school shooting or a terrorist attack, yes, but it’s far more likely that when your time comes, it will come by way of something prosaic like a car crash or a heart attack. Keep yourself safe in ways that make sense, like eating healthy and wearing your seat belt, but don’t obsess about safety. Live your life to the fullest while you can. Let your loved ones know that you love them early and often. Get right with your higher power if you have one. And stop calling schools “death traps”.
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Read it. Interesting read. Thanks for sharing!
A new high school-Battle HS, was built in Columbia, MO in the last few years. I drove by to see it a couple of months ago. It looks like a prison. Hardly any windows, fencing around the perimeter, security cameras everywhere, ugly as sin. It certainly doesn’t look “inviting”, it doesn’t open its arms welcoming the students, it’s downright depressing. Oh, I’m sure it’s brand new spic and span inside and perhaps with time and a lot of work by the teachers can be more inviting once one is on the inside but. . . . .
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A message to the New Hampshire teacher with whose California daughter I just spoke, who I think will soon read this: stick it out. Don’t give in. Keep teaching in New Hampshire. The funding problems you’re experiencing are nationwide. There’s no escaping, only fighting for what’s right. Keep keeping kids off screens and in the real world. There is a light at the end of the tunnel. Read this blog daily. Get involved in the fight. I appreciate you. I am with you. You are with me.
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Does anyone realize that CA is missing on this list? That’s because oddly the CA Democrats are to blame for the huge investment in testing for Common Core. And created billions in contracts with Rupert Murdoch, Achieve, ETS, SBAC, etc.
Billions that could go to classrooms are being doled out to big business.
Doesn’t matter who the next Superintendent of Public Ed is going to be in CA.
All candidates favor big business in educational testing.
They’ve all been bought and paid for-
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I noticed that too. Seconded.
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Other than classroom assessments developed locally by the teacher and/or his/her colleagues there is no such thing as a “fair test”, especially standardized tests. They can’t be improved, enhanced or made better because when something is onto-epistemologically unsound, based on errors and falsehoods, throwing in a little psychometric fudging, well let’s just say, it ends up being a bunch of mental masturbation producing bovine excrement.
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