One of the blog’s readers left the following wise comment in response to the organizations who support the resumption of standardized testing as soon as possible:
I was a principal in Alabama for 8 years. In that time there were 4 different state tests administered with little in common. Meanwhile, our district gave 3 different tests that they used to judge the schools. The preponderance of standardized testing over the last 3 decades has done nothing to improve the public schools. While the education establishment uses above grade level instruments to incorrectly measure student performance at grade level we continue to serve the needs of the testing industrial complex over the developmental needs of students. In too many cases, states aspire to “rigorous” standards for students while setting no real standards for assessment quality. Floundering test results have been used as an excuse to defund education rather than a justification to garner more resources for the classroom. Yes, the pandemic is a good reason to delay testing. The failure of the Standards Movement is a good reason to end punitive state tests altogether.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Exactly, Mr. Bonner. And thank you!
https://bobshepherdonline.wordpress.com/2020/03/19/why-we-need-to-end-high-stakes-standardized-testing-now/
I finally got tired of writing, over and over, explanations of why the current standardized ELA tests are invalid–why they are a scam, why they are numerology, so I wrote one piece to summarize the major problems with them. Alas, there are so many that even a summary treatment runs to some length. The piece is about a three-minute read, more if it’s read closely.
The sad fact is that most journalists, politicians, and edupundits who write about these tests haven’t a clue what they are talking about. They simply assume that the standardized ELA tests validly measure what they purport to measure. They don’t. The owner of this salon, Dr. Ravitch, is that rare thing–someone who occasionally writes about these tests and actually does know something about them.
True dat. I heard a piece on NPR this morning quoting a test maker (NWEA) at length, like quoting Philip Morris about cigarettes.
Oh my Lord, that is so, so, so perfectly put, Diane.
Like quoting Philip Morris about cigarettes
“The sad fact is that most journalists, politicians, and edupundits who write about these tests haven’t a clue what they are talking about.” FOR YEARS, now.
Yeah, you would think that at least a few of them would bother to look at one of these tests. LOL. Of course, the testing companies make that hard to do.
When someone at, say, the Fordham Institute, or some other deformy organization writes about standardized-test-based “accountability” in the US today, he or she is literally writing about a subject he or she knows ALMOST NOTHING about, and it actually takes some work to learn enough about them to understand why the testing is pseudoscience.
Chester Finn Jr. had an opinion piece in the Washington Post last weekend about the importance of giving the spring tests. It’s for the kids, you know.
LOL. I read that piece. It’s interesting–I like his tone, usually. He sounds like a really lovely fellow. And he is so, so, so wrong so often about so much.
Wise words from someone that has first hand knowledge and experience with useless testing that has been misused by states and the federal government. “States aspire to “rigorous” standards for students while setting no real standards for assessment quality.”
The invalid measurements with high stakes consequences have been foist on public schools for purely a political agenda. There is zero evidence they benefit students, particularly when the poorest students see their schools close while they are sent to a separate and unequal privatized school. Imposed privatization is anti-democratic policy.
The testing movement appealed to those who wanted underfunded black schools brought up to a standard. But it also appealed to those who wanted to frack schools for profit, by showing most of them failing, then prescribing various snake-oil remedies–which they sold. It was also a movement to undercut unionization of teachers and school employees and the progressive education movement. In that sense the testing movement has worked very well. Unions are on the ropes, fortunes are being made in privatization, by the likes of Betsy De Vos. Testing has also undermined the actual teaching of functional social studies, which ALL children need if our democracy it so work. The forming Biden administration is on the right track in talking about funding PUBLIC education and basic colleges. As a history teacher I say if we must use the past as a guide, let’s look to FDR’s New Deal for guidance out of our educational, cultural, and political morass. Continuing to follow the failed business models of recent administrations will only hurt our children and our nation. Schools are not businesses and children are not interchangeable widgets.
“to frack schools for profit”! Great line, Mr. Burgess!
And yes, the emphasis on these tests in ELA and mathematics have been devastating for the rest of the curriculum, including civics and history.
“frack schools for profit”, love it when people add to my vocabulary.
You are right but for the fact that Biden will probably not have a Democratic Senate, unless Ossoff and Warnock win in Georgia. Biden can’t be another FDR if Mitch owns the Senate. He will do to Biden what he did to Obama. Obstruct.
“Drilling for Dollars in the Schools”
Testing is like fracking
Toxic the result
Wealthy is the backing
Local the revolt
Opting out of testing
In city and in town
Certainly the best thing
To shut the drilling down
From A Damthology of Deform
Wow. This is the Gettysburg Address of anti-testing screeds–a concise, perfect, really–piece of rhetoric. Thank you Mr. Bonner.
I’ll second that!
I always felt education should be fun. 🙂
We shouldn’t have tests and homework. Just let kids talk about current issues. 🙂
“Senator Patty Murray
Postponing NAEP this school year is unfortunate, but understandable. But parents, schools, educators & policymakers need to know how COVID-19 has hurt students’ academic progress in order to address it—so it’s critical that state level testing continues.”
What do policymakers plan that is informed by testing and how does it differ from what they plan without testing?
Just insisting it’s “critical” over and over isn’t an explanation.
“Policymakers” haven’t addressed anything regarding public schools and this pandemic other than holding political/campaign events criticizing public schools and promoting private schools. Will that change with testing? How will it change?
We’ll get a miraculous transformation where they start expending some actual effort on existing public schools if the scores are really bad? Isn’t it much more likely we’ll just get the same set of “reforms” we always get, no matter what the test scores say?
I don’t have the same objections others do to testing, but let’s not pretend scores inform “policymaking”.
There’s three parts of ed reform- charters, vouchers and tests. Public schools get the tests and that’s all we get.
My school is submitting its annual budget proposal soon. If we don’t meet artificial test score goals each year, we lose our funding. That’s the test obsessors’ idea of supporting students in need, by punishing them.
I began my teaching career in North Carolina where, in 1993, they enthusiastically adopted their “ABCs tests”. Many of us knew the schools that would struggle with these tests and there were no surprises. Our district then began the practice of laying off entire staffs who would be scattered to other parts of the district while a new staff would be formed. Much to their surprise, teachers didn’t knock themselves out to apply at these schools so most of the previous staff were brought back. The real sin here was that as struggling schools were identified resources were pulled away. Principals were often blamed and released once schools continued to score below “state standards.” It’s obvious now that we cannot fire ourselves toward improvement. Short principal tenure’s and inadequate instructional continuity is now a profound obstruction to progress. Worse, children are not being served. Tests should be a diagnostic tool that teachers can evaluate to enhance their pedagogy. Tests for individual students will never be an honest assessment of a school’s effectiveness. We’re wasting money, time, and, more significantly, people due to this 30 year fallacy.
Paul Bonner, right again! Thank you!