Archives for category: Testing
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A Rebuke to Testing Fanatics–Not That They Care

By dianeravitch
October 7, 2012 //
8

An interesting article in the Sunday New York Times about how test performance is affected by social and psychological factors.

Our public policy today seems built on the assumption that standardized tests accurately measure what was taught and learned. Teachers and most test experts know how fallible the tests are.

The author, Annie Murphy Paul, concludes:

This research has important implications for the way we educate our children. For one thing, we should replace high-stakes, one-shot tests with the kind of unobtrusive and ongoing assessments that give teachers and parents a more accurate sense of children’s true abilities. We should also put in place techniques for reducing anxiety and building self-confidence that take advantage of our social natures. And we should ensure that the social climate at our children’s schools is one of warmth and trust, not competition and exclusion.

Categories Education Reform, Testing

Should Students Rate Teachers?

By dianeravitch
October 7, 2012 //
36

Larry Ferlazzo reports on an interesting exchange about student ratings of teachers. Amanda Ripley, who is a cheerleader for corporate reform, loves the idea of trusting students to tell us which teachers are great and which stink.

Felix Salmon points out where she is wrong.

The Gates Foundation loves the idea of student surveys, of course, and several districts are already using them.

I personally have a lot of trouble with the idea of asking students to rate their teachers. It’s bad enough that teachers’ careers now hinge on their students’ test scores, but now they will be asked to win popularity contests. I don’t see this as a way to improve teaching but as a way to compel teachers to pander to students, to assign less homework, to inflate grades, and to seek student approval.

Why are so many people messing up teachers’ ability to teach?

Categories Accountability, Corporate Reformers, Education Industry, Education Reform, Gates Foundation, Bill Gates, Students, Teacher Evaluations, Teachers and Teaching, Testing

Spread the Word about October 17 Campaign for Our Public Schools!

By dianeravitch
October 6, 2012 //
77

I will write about this every single day from now until October 17.

Please write your thoughts about what needs to change in federal education policy and send a letter to President Obama by that date.

You can write it now and follow instructions here.

Anthony Cody, experienced middle school science teacher and fabulous blogger, has offered to coordinate our campaign to write President Obama on October 17.

We call it the Campaign for Our Public Schools.

Our campaign is meant to include everyone who cares about public education: students, parents, teachers, principals, school board members, and concerned citizens. We want everyone to write the President and tell him what needs to change in his education policies.

Tell your friends about the Campaign. If you have a blog, write about it. Wherever you are, spread the news. Join us.

Here are the instructions:

You can send your letter to Anthony Cody or to this blog.

Or you can send it directly to the White House, with a copy to me or Anthony.

Anthony will gather all the emails sent to him and me and forward them to the White House.

1. Email your letters to anthony_cody@hotmail.com.

2. Or submit them as comments to this blog. You can respond to this post or to any other post on this blog about the October 17 Campaign for Our Public Schools.

All letters collected through these two channels will be compiled into a single document, which will be sent to the White House on Oct. 18.

In ADDITION to this,

3. You can mail copies of your letters through US mail to The White House, 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. NW, 20500

4. You can send them by email from this page: http://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/submit-questions-and-comments

If you choose to write or email the White House, please send us a copy so we can keep track of how many letters were sent to the President.

One more thought: when you write to the President, also write to your Senators and Congressman or -woman and to your state legislator and Governor. Send the same letter to them all.

Let’s raise our voices NOW against privatization, against high-stakes testing, against teacher bashing, against profiteering.

Let’s advocate for policies that are good for students, that truly improve education, that respect the education profession, and that strengthen our democratic system of public education.

Let’s act. Start here. Start now.

Join our campaign. Speak out. Enough is enough.

Diane

Categories Accountability, Budget Cuts, Charter Schools, Education Industry, Education Reform, For-Profit, Obama, Parents, Privatization, Race to the Top, Students, Teachers and Teaching, Testing, US Education

What Race to the Top Has Accomplished

By dianeravitch
October 6, 2012 //
65

Let’s give credit where credit is due.

Because of Race to the Top, most states are now evaluating teachers based in significant part on student test scores. The American Educational Research Association and the National Academy of Education say that the methodology for doing this is inaccurate and unstable. The ratings bounce around from year to year. Such ratings reflect which students were in the class, not teacher quality.

Because of Race to the Top, more states are permitting privatization of public schools.

Because of No Child Left Behind and Race to the Top, all schools are labeled by their test scores.

Because of Race to the Top, there is more teaching to the test, more fear and anxiety associated with testing, more narrowing of the curriculum, more cheating.

Because of Race to the Top, many schools in poor and minority neighborhoods will be closed.

Because of Race to the Top, many principals and teachers will be fired.

Is this what President Obama meant when he referred to the “results” of his Race to the Top? It explains why Romney applauded it and specifically hailed Arne Duncan.

This reader has a different view of Race to the Top:

In addition to the intimidation and demoralization of teachers, Race to the Top is having its intended results: the destabilization, fragmentation and privatization of the public schools.

In their public utterances on education, Obama and Duncan are frauds, but the education reform complex is being managed by very intelligent and far seeking -venal, but far-seeking – people. They know exactly what they are doing, and more often than not are getting their way.

Categories Accountability, Charter Schools, Duncan, Arne, For-Profit, Obama, Privatization, Race to the Top, Romney, Mitt, Teacher Evaluations, Testing, US Education

Gary Rubinstein on VAM

By dianeravitch
October 6, 2012 //
5

You will enjoy reading this clear explanation of the flaws of value-added assessment. Gary Rubinstein takes down the conventional wisdom with eclat.

Categories Teacher Evaluations, Testing

When Teachers Said “NO” to Race to the Top

By dianeravitch
October 5, 2012 //
23

Anthony Cody reports that teachers in Sacramento and Fresno rejected participation in Race to the Top.

They reject the program’s heavy emphasis on testing and basing their evaluation on test scores.

Cody wonders why President Obama insists that Race to the Top is not “top down.” Of course, it is top down. It reflects what the Obama administration wants, not what teachers believe is right for their students.

Why does President Obama says he opposes “teach to the test” when his signature program compels teachers to teach to the test?

Why does President Obama claim that Race to the Top is “working” and getting results?

It is not working, it is being imposed. And it has no results other than demoralized teachers.

Categories Federal Waiver, Obama, Race to the Top, Teacher Evaluations, Testing

How to Raise Test Scores Easily and Quickly

By dianeravitch
October 5, 2012 //
22

This comes from Students Last. Satire alert!

Categories Humor, Testing

“High-Stakes Testing is Out of Control” UPDATE!

By dianeravitch
October 4, 2012 //
28

[Reposting because I forgot to add the link!!! A hazard of age.]

Peter DeWitt, principal of an elementary school in upstate New York, surveys the landscape and sees an educational system that is crushing principals, teachers and children with unreasonable mandates.

At the center of the mandates is the endless demands for test scores. Higher and higher…or die.

Complaints are rising. They are coming from all directions. The current course of “reform” is not sustainable when the object of the reforms reacts with sullen and suppressed rage. There is no joy in this Mudville.

Peter concludes:

“High stakes testing has gotten out of control. Policymakers, state and federal education departments aren’t on the sidelines. They are making decisions from remote locations. These decisions are coming from people who care more about money and shame than they care about children. Unfortunately, children are the collateral damage in this new test-taking era.

“Education should be about learning, educational resources and building relationships with students and families. It should not be about testing. So many stakeholders do not understand the amount of money that is given privately to companies creating high stakes tests. They hear about money coming from the lottery or from Race to the Top and truly believe that each school district shares in that pot when that is just not true. It takes millions of dollars to pay for tests made by companies and that money could be better invested where it is needed most, which is in our students.

“It’s time for policymakers, politicians and state education departments to wake up and see that the complaints about high stakes testing is not part of an implementation dip, it’s just bad practice. Many states have been giving high stakes testing for almost fifteen years and it has done little to help public education. To keep moving forward with so much collateral damage is educational malpractice on the part of those in charge.

Categories Testing

The Best Shanker Blog on Misuse of Testing

By dianeravitch
October 4, 2012 //
5

Matthew DiCarlo, the lead author of the Shanker Blog, is a smart social scientist who analyzes research and data with care, never with ideology or an axe to grind.

We have had one area of disagreement in recent years. I have become sick of the misuse of testing, I no longer believe in test-based accountability. Matt sees value in testing and accountability.

Today he has a blog that is very powerful on this very subject. He calls it “Assessing Ourselves to Death.” Read it.
It is outstanding.

I couldn’t have said it better myself (although he still leaves some room for test-based accountability, while I still maintain that TBA is unworthy and creates perverse incentives for score inflation, cheating, curriculum narrowing, etc., all of which destroy educational values).

Categories Accountability, Teacher Evaluations, Testing

The Wicked Spawn of NCLB

By dianeravitch
October 4, 2012 //
2

I hope that Sandy Kress reads this article about what happened in El Paso.

When I was in Austin, Texas, a few days ago, Kress wrote an article in the local newspaper extolling the virtues of No Child Left Behind. He boasted of dramatic test score increases since 1992 (ten years before NCLB was signed into law).

Since I am a well-known critic of that law, it may or may not have been coincidence that the article appeared on the day that I was scheduled to speak to the state’s school board members and administrators.

Sandy Kress was one of the architects of NCLB; he is currently a lobbyist for the testing giant Pearson. He was not identified as such in the newspaper.

The scandal in El Paso is shocking. Administrators pushed kids out of school to protect their test scores. In the instance described in the article, three brothers were told to drop out.

Here is an excerpt:

“In the short term, the strategy worked. Test scores improved at eight of 11 high schools. The district’s overall rating improved from “academically acceptable” in 2005 to “recognized” in 2010 – the second-highest rating possible.

“But the achievements came amid startling enrollment declines for sophomores.

“Austin High School, for instance, had 615 freshmen in 2005, but that number had dropped 40 percent by the time accountability tests were given the following school year. With the next batch of 571 freshmen, only about half were still enrolled by the time the tests were administered.

“Students with bad grades, low attendance or limited English proficiency would be held in the ninth grade and then promoted to the 11th grade. Or if they were old enough, they might be told to seek other options such as attending a charter school or obtaining their GED elsewhere. Many of them had recently transferred from nearby Juarez, Mexico.

“The whole idea, said former state Sen. Eliot Shapleigh, was to make those students ‘disappear’ so they would not be counted among the students who were tested.”

Should we celebrate cheating and gaming the system? Should we give bonuses to those who cheat and don’t get caught? Do we want more of this?

NCLB is a disaster. It should be repealed before more lives are damaged. High-stakes testing is warping education.

Categories Accountability, Education Reform, Testing, Texas
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