Mercedes Schneider urges states to follow Montana’s example and ask for a waiver from the federally mandated standardized tests.
She writes:
This is a school year fraught with quarantine disruption, turnstile attendance, distancing and sanitizing burdens, and spotty internet capabilities.
The very idea of conducting tests in the midst of this chaos is “bureaucratic lunacy,” she says.
Lovers of standardized testing say it’s important to find out whether children have “fallen behind.”
It’s important to know how useless the annual tests are. I’ll say this again and again. The teacher is not allowed to seethe test questions or, if she does, to discuss them, even after the tests. The questions are proprietary materials that belong to the testing company. The teacher is not allowed to know how individual students did on specific questions. They learn nothing about what their students know or don’t know.
The scores are returned 4-6 months after the testis given. The students no longer have the same teacher. The new teacher finds out which students are “advanced, proficient, basic, or below basic.” These are subjective terms, subjectively defined. The students are ranked from best to worst. The scores are highly correlated with family income and education.
Some defenders of the tests say they are needed for “equity” or to “close the achievement gap.” This is nonsense. Tests measure gaps, they don’t close them.
Imagine going to a doctor with a severe pain in your stomach. The doctor gives you a series of tests and says he will get back to you in 4-6 months. When he does, you are either dead or cured. What he tells you is not what ailed you, but how you compared to other people with the same symptoms of your age and weight.
Useless! Absolutely useless.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Defenders of the tests are lying. Obviously. The tests are “needed” for the test makers to turn a profit. I hope our new Sec of Ed calls them out and puts a stop to this. The US Dept of Ed should create their own test if they want to compare students nation-wide. (That is the ONLY reason to use standardized tests. We teachers can create our own tests to assess our students and use the data to inform our teaching!) It is beyond me why this isn’t how it’s done. Can anyone explain this? I know that currently testing is a huge profit-making business. But what about in the past? Did the Dept. ever make the effort?
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The test you want already exists. It’s called the National Assessment of Educatuonal Progress, or NAEP. It’s funded by the federal government and overseen by an independent governing board. It has been offered to samples of students starting in 1969. It is no-stakes because there are no scores for individual students or schools. It provides a gauge of academic progress for states and the nation and about 20 urban districts.
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My superintendent, named Superintendent Shady Investment Banker Beutner or “Slim & Shady” for short, has us bending over backwards to use a credit recovery program called Edgenuity. I’m guessing the tech industry wants testing in 2021 in order to use the low test scores to close and privatize five percent of public schools, as is stated in the ESSA, and also to market shoddy, online credit recovery classes. Credit recovery programs do not involve teaching or learning. They are outright teacher replacements, completely automated. They grade the quantity of time spent rather than the quality of work done. They collect some student data and then slap a badge on the student’s record falsely claiming that minimum (commercial) competency has been achieved. Yes, the testing industry wants its billion dollars this year, but there is $-more-$ to it than that. The tech industry always wants more done online, regardless of the effects on students. When it comes to monetizing children, it’s ALL about $-quantity-$ over quality.
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The term “learning loss” comes from the language of test enthusiasts. For them, learning is a substance that’s poured into students over time. Plutarch famously wrote that minds are not vessels to be filled but fires to be kindled. Fires don’t leak. You don’t measure them in months. Learning loss is a calculation masquerading as a concept—a rather shallow, naïve, ridiculous concept.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/johnewing/2021/12/28/the-ridiculousness-of-learning-loss/
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NICELY said: Learning loss is a calculation masquerading as a concept.
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I thought this was an excellent, insightful comment. I copied it to answer another post. But I gave you credit!
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I was quoting from the article. Credit John Ewing. Sorry no””.
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I’ve come to believe it’s because they don’t have anything else to offer.
Ed reform consists of three things- charters, vouchers and testing. If they admit they place too much value on testing they have nothing at all to offer to public schools.
They had last year’s tests when the pandemic hit. Why weren’t they successful at pushing more resources and assistance to low income schools with the gaps shown by last years tests?
This is Ohio’s public school policy progress under the leadership of the ed reform movement:
“When the Cupp-Patterson plan was introduced in the spring of 2019, Ohio’s long-standing school funding debate took on new life. A pair of companion bills appeared before the House and Senate during their lame duck sessions, but nothing was signed into law. That means that, as budget talks gear up next year, debates over the school funding formula are going to be hotter than ever—especially since budget season will occur in the backdrop of an economic downturn, and the Cupp-Patterson plan would add a whopping $2 billion per year (if not more) to state spending.”
They didn’t get anything done for public schools before or during the pandemic. Why would another year of test scores mean they would get something done this year?
You know what they did manage to get done? A huge voucher expansion. That’s the sum total work completed since 2019. Test our kids, don’t test our kids, doesn’t matter. Either way they get nothing positive or productive out of ed reform governance.
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Utah had a survey about asking for a waiver and I hope they decide to ask for one. Even though we have been face to face, kids are in and out all of the time with quarantines and whatever. The continuity this year is a joke, and we need the money, and especially the TIME, for far more important things.
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