Read it and laugh.
Then ask yourself why the writers at the Onion are so much smarter than every major newspaper, TV channel, and other mainstream media.
Archives for category: Standardized Testing
Our blog poet writes a poem for Pearson:
Pearson cares deeply…
about what’s in their pocketses
“Stopping by schools on a doughy evening’ (with apologies to Robert Frost)
Whose schools these are I think I know
Their houses are in the village though
They will not see the Pearson test
And see their schools farmed out for dough
The classroom teacher thinks I jest
Reform without an expert guest
Between the test and Common Core
And iPads, VAMs and all the rest
She spots her pink slip on the door
And curses her value-added score
The only other sounds the sweep
Of janitor broom on hallway floor
The pockets are lovely, dark and deep
And I have promi$e$ to keep
And million$ to make before I sleep
And million$ to make before I sleep
At its annual meeting, the Massachusetts Teachers Association endorsed the right of parents to opt their child out of state testing.
“Delegates to the 2015 MTA Annual Meeting have voted to support the right of parents to opt their children out of high-stakes standardized testing.
“The Annual Meeting, which drew more than 1,100 delegates from all over Massachusetts to the Hynes Convention Center in Boston on May 8 and May 9, also featured wide-ranging discussion of education issues, including the state takeover of the Holyoke Public Schools. The delegates heard speeches by award recipients and a keynote address by Seattle educator and social activist Jesse Hagopian.
“On Friday, the delegates passed a new business item that requires MTA President Barbara Madeloni and Vice President Janet Anderson to send a letter to Education Commissioner Mitchell Chester and state legislators stating the following MTA positions:
“That parents in Massachusetts deserve the choice to opt their public school students out of high-stakes standardized assessments.
“That districts should be required to provide all parents with yearly written information explaining their right to opt students out of assessments.
“That students who opt out should not be included in data used by state or federal entities in “grading” schools.
That no parent or student should be penalized because of a parental decision to opt out.
“That no educator should be disciplined for discussing with students, parents or community members the options for opting students out of high-stakes tests.
“Madeloni said the opt-out vote by the delegates representing more than 110,000 educators in Massachusetts — including preK-12 educators, educators in the public higher education system and retired educators — is indicative of the growing consensus around the country that standardized high-stakes testing is out of control.
“Supporting the right to opt out is one of the strongest statements we can make as educators against standardized testing,” Madeloni said.
“We need to support the parents and students who decide to do this. The MTA will vigorously defend any educator who is disciplined for supporting the right of parents and students to opt out. The more people step up and speak out, the clearer will be the message to our legislators that the people of Massachusetts want to put a stop to the madness of standardized testing,” she said.
“Standardized testing is distorting the goals of public education and choking the creativity and joy that should be at the center of teaching and learning,” Madeloni added.”
Have you heard complaints about the validity of Pearson tests? Have you heard complaints that test questions may have more one correct answer?
If so, listen to the other side as “The Bald Piano Guy” Defends Pearson.
(Joke. Laugh. Humor conquers all.)
Mary King, a teacher in Pittsburgh, will not give the tests to her English language learners. She is a conscientious objector. She believes the tests hurt her students.
She writes:
“I am an English as a second language teacher in grades four to eight at Pittsburgh Colfax K-8. The other day one of my ESL students passed me a note with a shy smile as he left our classroom: “Learn English is the best thinks a never have in my life.” My heart melted. This student arrived just last spring with absolutely no English. He is finally starting to speak above a whisper.
“But this student is being crushed, intellectually and emotionally. Despite the fact that he is still so new to English, he is in the midst of his scheduled 16 hours of PSSA testing; my other ESL students are scheduled for between seven and 20 hours.
“It is my professional opinion that this experience will set my student back, that it will hurt his progress, but my professional opinion will never be weighed against the many requirements — federal, state and district-wide —which demand that these tests be given.”
Her professional judgment doesn’t count. The civil rights groups that demand these tests should visit her classroom.
I have often written that the Pearson Common Core tests are written and scored to fail most students. Not only are the reading levels two grade levels above the students’ actual grade, but the cut score is set artificially high.
Here is confirmation from a teacher who graded essay answers:
“When teachers score state tests, they are given formal training before they score actual student tests. Teachers are trained using student anchor answers that are culled from random field tests. Each student answer is used as an example and compared to the rubric to show how to score accordingly. There is always an anchor answer for each rubric score, meaning an answer that demonstrates a 1, another serves as an example of a 2 and so on and so forth. Teachers must then take a quiz using more student samples in order to gauge their preparation level before they move on to scoring actual exams.
“This year’s 5th(?) grade training guides DO NOT have anchor answers for the highest score on the essay. That has never happened before. That means that during the random field testing NO STUDENT was able to achieve an answer that would have met the highest criteria of the rubric. Pearson filled in this gap with their own mock version of an answer that would meet the highest score on the rubric. In other words, the test was too hard for even the most accomplished students to achieve full credit and therefore way beyond their ability.
“The training guides are embargoed and teachers are prevented from removing them from the scoring site.”
Peter Greene read the defense of standardized testing by civil rights groups. He asks, after more than a dozen years of testing, who has been saved?
In Seattle, teachers explained that the Smarter Balanced Assessment did not count. Not a single 11th grade student at Nathan Hale High School took the test.
They were acting in the same independent and revolutionary spirit as their schools’ namesake.
Kevin Welner, head of the National Education Policy Center, debates Patricia Levesque, Jeb Bush’s chief education aide.
Welner cites research to show that 13 years of high-stakes testing has had little or no benefit. Levesque maintains that testing is the key to academic progress.
It is a good exchange.
But I am reminded of what I call the Ravitch challenge. To those who advocate for the benefits of testing, take the 8th grade math test (released items) and publish your score.
I double dare you.
Russ Walsh reflects on the high test scores of the students at New York City’s celebrated Success Academy (originally known as Harlem Success Academy).
He has a different definition of success from the charter chain.
Diane Ravitch's blog 