Calling for Change

Resistant to standardized testing is happening all over the country with parents, students, teachers and supporters of the movement calling for massive reforms. One Washington Post article has a list of reasons why it’s time to change the standardized test format. Among the reasons are those that create a divide among students based on their class and race.

Upper Manhattan Parents Leading Effort to Opt Kids Out of State Testing

It’s no secret that students who come from affluent families have more resources to their advantage and therefore it is who has more money that succeeds on these tests. Even measuring intelligence is trickier because of the varying ways students learn and the fact that many students taking these tests speak English as a second language. Teachers are forced to teach the material on the test leaving students with great memorization skills and actual knowledge to use later in life.

Some students are better equipped to take the exams than others and not necessarily because of how hard they study but by factors out of their control like finances.

 

Then there’s a matter of what students lose because so much funding has to go into standardized testing. Cuts to the arts and even sports programs are being made, extracurricular activities in general, meant to foster students learning and passions are being lost in favor of more testing expenses. Students are found crying, vomiting and the like because of stress and have no outlet to take this stress out on.   Those in favor of standardized testing have to know all these abuses and frankly, the scores we get from testing do not outweigh the suffering it causes. It’s time to start testing in ways that foster learning. It’s time to test in a way that doesn’t favor the rich; it’s time to start testing in a way that isn’t really testing at all but rather project based.

One possible alternative is “authentic” or “performance” testing. This is a testing which is structured around “doing” rather than “bubbling.” The fact is students aren’t going to build a career on filling in circles, they will be doing various actions in their field. Authentic/performance based testing is described as an assessment that “asks students to demonstrate their learning by making a product or by doing a task, performance, or exhibition to show what they know and can do.” This is a type of testing I can get behind because 1) it’s not about stressing a student, it’s allowing them to use what they’ve learn to create in a way that makes sense to them and 2) it’s not really “Testing” in a conventional sense, it’s more about the students than the scores and answers.

If we want our children to have good futures, we need to stop ruining the present for them and allow them to kids. Childhood shouldn’t be about fear and failure, futures shouldn’t be determined by how well a teacher can teach to the test. The nation is calling for change, the question now is will those in power listen?

Standardized Testing Leads to Increased Grade Retention

Many states employ test-based retention policies that prevent students from promoting to the next grade if they do not test at least proficient on state standardized exams. Not only does retaining a student because of standardized testing affect them emotionally, but it also hinders their academic career. According to research, retained students drop out more often than other students. The reason for this is that older students in lower grades have low self-confidence and become outcasts in school. A couple key states that implement these policies are Chicago and Baltimore.

Created by Veff Parker

Chicago reported having its highest-grade retention rate since implementing test-based retention policies in 1996. A study found that students who were retained for not scoring proficient on the standardized test continued to do poorly. In fact, students who struggled in the year that they repeated, had higher rates of special education placement and had no advantage over the students who were promoted. The 6^th grade students in the study had lower achievement growth due to being held back a year. Baltimore reported that more than 25 percent of its students would be retained this year mostly because of standardized testing.Because a high percentage of retained students dropout, they are less likely to enroll in a university and have lower education and employment status. These individuals tend to be paid less than those who aren’t retained.

Created by Dan Vasconcellos

With a lower achievement growth, students who were subjected to grade retention have a high chance of being delinquent. Studies mention a two-year achievement gap between youth who commit crime and those who don’t. Once students fall behind and separate themselves from other students, they begin skipping class and become involved in behaviors that lead to their suspension. Such behaviors are not only key indicators of juvenile delinquency, but also are linked to future criminality in adulthood. This could be a diect indicator for why Chicago and Baltimore are known for having high crime rates.

What started out as an attempt to make sure students had an equal chance at academic promotion, resulted in a policy that heightened dropout rates, lowered a student’s chance of career success and increased the chance of criminality within a student.

Standardized Tests are an Unreliable Measure of Student Performance

Most standardized tests’ objective is scoring, scoring being something a well programmed machine  does. Subjective people, people who are experts on the various  subject matters on the tests make all the uses of exam results. They decide what topics to include on the test, how questions are worded, which answers are marked correct. The wording of the questions can be made extremely complicated with attempts to throw students off with “distractor” questions and the like, all to prove they really know the answer to the question. Students taking standardized tests answer the same questions –usually in multiple-choice format- and are rewarded for answering quick answers to superficial questions. The standardized tests do not measure the ability to think deeply or creatively in any field, but rather measures test-taking abilities. A research study done by Carol Tittle, Kathy Kelly Benjamin, and Joanne Sacks of the City University of New York has revealed that the very educators of these students do not believe in the value of these tests,  “even teachers do not find standardized achievement tests score to be useful.” The tests usually do not provide teachers with “diagnostic information that helps redirect their teaching”. If teachers do not find these tests helpful, how can they be realiable?

“Not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted.” – Albert Einstein

http://article.wn.com/view/2013/05/10/Beware_of_Turning_Away_Immigrant_Einsteins/

A 2001 study published by the Brookings Institution found that 50 to 80% of year-over-year test score improvements were temporary and “caused by fluctuations that had nothing to do with long-term changes in learning,” which means that the standardization of tests is not a reliable source of measuring student performance. The use of standardized tests in schools, and at such young ages creates a very tense atmosphere for students when they do not perform well. Students then struggle to understand what they are being tested on, and why they perform poorly, when the wording of the tests clearly confuses them. As consequence of stress and underperformance, teachers are blamed for the situation, and consequently force students into studying more and more.

In other words, standardized tests are an unreliable measure of student performance, and therefore are not a great way to assess student’s understanding of the topics. Students gain knowledge by connecting what they are learning to what they have already learned in the past. However standardized tests makers create  questions so that students are tested by bits of information, and this differs with their learning style. We should not be measuring the intelligence of our students by tests that those who know best, the very teachers of these students, find to be unreliable. Our students, our children, shouldn’t be reduced to statistics or scores created by people who have never even met them.

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The Test as the Teacher

Perhaps the most alarming consequence of standardized testing is the idea of “teaching to the test” where educators focus on students passing the tests rather than ensuring a quality education. This approach to education can leave significant deficiencies in a child’s knowledge and performance later on in life. For example, in the state of Maryland the only subjects tested on the Maryland School Assessment (MSA), given to children in grades 3 through 8, are math, reading and science. This automatically resigns the other subjects such as history, art and physical education, all essential to a child’s growth and development, to a secondary priority status. According the Maryland Association for Health, Physical Education Recreation and Dance, not one jurisdiction in Maryland meets the minimum recommended 150 minutes of physical education per week for elementary school students. With the growing obesity epidemic facing America’s children, this statistic is extremely alarming.

http://www.nea.org

The high stakes associated with standardized test scores can also effect an educator’s teaching style and classroom priorities. Standardized test scores are used to determine funding for a school, evaluate teachers’ performance and decide whether to promote a student to the next grade. A teacher may choose to emphasize the basic skills found on standardized testing while neglecting the promotion of high-level analysis skills. “Teaching to the test” also tends to lend more to memorization than application of critical skills.

What can you do?

As citizens, we have a duty to ensure the next generation of Americans are independent thinkers prepared to take on the challenges of a rapidly changing world. Below are several steps you can take today to ensure a better education for tomorrow.

1. Ask questions

• Look at your local district and see if they are cutting arts, physical education and history classes. American for the Arts has a great questionnaire to get you started

 http://www.americansforthearts.org/by-program/promotion-and-recognition/strategic-partners/cause-marketing-partners/partnership-with-american-girl/questions-to-ask

2. Get Involved

• Join a local or national organization committed to improving education. One example is the National Association for Family and Community Education, find a local charter near you or join their national organization at

https://www.nafce.org/home-overview.html

3.  Tell Others

• Share what you have learned with your family, friends and other members of your community. Let us know what you’re community is doing to stem the harmful effects by posting on our facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/dmad14blogproject) or sending us a tweet @dmad14blog

Ultimately, teaching to the test hinders a child’s ability to receive a quality education and people should follow the aforementioned steps in order to combat teaching to the test and guarantee children a quality education.