One by one that morning, his students came to his office at the charter school in the Iron Range community of Warba and handed him the same thing: a form, signed by a parent, opting them out of taking the Minnesota Comprehensive Assessments, or MCAs.“I had a line of kids out the door, just [handing in] the forms,” he said.By the time he reached the end of the line, Hamernick had excused nearly all the school’s students from testing: Out of about 50 students eligible to take the exams, only 10 sat for the math test and four for reading. The rest were put on a bus and sent to the town’s community center, where teachers scrambled to put together an impromptu day of classes...Around the state, the rate of students choosing to bypass the state’s largest standardized exams has been steadily rising for more than a decade. Though the overall number of students opting out statewide remains low — just under 2% declined to take the math test last year, and about 1.5% opted out of reading — there are a growing number of schools where more than half the students don’t take the MCAs...And perhaps of greater concern: When opt outs reach a certain level, the usefulness of the test score data becomes a serious question. Minneapolis has already reached that threshold, at least in some schools. A 2017 report from the Office of the Legislative Auditor found that the rate of opt-outs among Minneapolis high school students had already “reached the point where it is no longer appropriate to endorse the test results as a valid measure of districtwide student learning.”
22 September 2019
Students opting out of standardized testing
As reported by the StarTribune:
link?
ReplyDeleteFixed. Thanks for the heads-up.
DeleteFrom what I've seen of the obssesive degree of standardized testing going on at the scool I work at I hope this trend grows and spreads. There is far too much 'teaching to the test' as the singular priority... and too many days spent testing.
ReplyDeleteWhat metrics would you prefer be used to determine whether your school's curriculum is effective?
DeleteAll the time spent focusing on testing makes the curriculum less important. Curricula don't help you pas the tests, that often have glaring errors and questions nobody on earth could answer.
DeleteEver been in a school where young children are testing? Lots of tears. For what? So Minnesotastan can compare something meaningless?
I'm not arguing with you regarding its uselessness for the students themselves, but what other instrument would you suggest for comparing the performance of schools with one another, or their improvement or deterioration from year to year?
ReplyDelete"What other instrument would you suggest..."
ReplyDeleteIt really is a tough question. The use of standardized tests have led to a bad result -- teaching to the test, and the tendency to cut/denigrate of everything that's not on the rest. But yes, in an ideal world we'd like some way to know whether a school is teaching its students well or teaching them badly. What, in an ideal world, would that be?
In an ideal world, maybe we'd do it with outside examiners. We'd hired and train people who would travel from school to school, and randomly select students from random classes. Have those students read to them. Have those students write essays for them. Have those students translate French (or whatever) for them. Have those student do some math for them. Maybe also sit in on some random classes. Watch a play. Visit the shop class. Spend several days in the community, asking parents what they think of the school, asking kids what they think.
Granted, this would be expensive. It would also be subject to human failings. We'd have to build in some checks and balances.
Might be worth a try, though.
In the meantime...?
DeleteAll the tests show is the poverty level of the school. Not sure why people feel we need to compare schools, as if by doing so we would discover what we could do to the schools to improve outcomes.
ReplyDeleteSchools reflect the community. Great teachers don't make much difference when the kids are addled by poverty, violence, and crime. Schools don't create that, nor can they make it go away.
The test shows us, probably better than anything else, where our poorest kids go to school, as if we didn't already know.
And, there are benchmark tests, practice tests, test prep, all at the expense of actual learning. The powers that be (NOT us regular folks) have decided to test our kids into stupidity. They are of no use. They do more harm than good.
I'm going to sound like a broken record here. I'll agree with everything you have said above.
DeleteNow XYZ school makes changes - new teaching staff, revised curriculum, changed lighting and meals and eleven other things - and they want to know if the outcomes are better. What do they measure?
How about we return to an era when grades meant something? How about colleges return to a time when you had to actually meet certain qualifications to gain entry? How about we return to a time when students could choose to be mechanics, carpenters, plumbers, electricians and such during high school, instead of waiting until they get out of school? All I heard during the last several years of my teaching career was CCR. We have to get students college and career ready.
DeleteFrom the period following WW II until perhaps the early 80s, the USA was regarded as having one of the best educational systems in the world. We did not have state mandated tests during that time. Think about it... What changed?
Teachers know if students are learning. Why aren't we trusted and treated as professionals, as we were decades ago?
DeleteGo ahead and change everything inside a school. If the same kids are going there, you can expect the same outcomes. The variation in student outcomes is based on their life at home, not the school. We know this. Every measure shows this.
DeleteFor 40 years, the NAEP has shown an achievement gap between white and black students. For 40 years the gap has persisted even though ALL scores have risen. Why hasn't the gap closed? Because schools cannot close it, and it's a fool's errand to ask them to.
Also, teachers actually know what they're doing. Want to know what kids need and what the school needs? Ask the teachers, who never get asked. Instead, we have people who've not been in school since they were children making all kinds of prescriptions and then demanding data to prove their prescriptions did anything. Of course, they didn't run anything by the teachers. And the prescriptions do nothing because they can't do anything -- the problems come from home.
We know how to teach kids. We know what they need. The testing regime stifles that, and teachers have no voice and get blamed for things totally out of their control.
You don't need to compare schools. We know what best practices are, and the testing regime defies best practices.
Also, when a school changes its staff and curriculum, they likely did it because they got dinged for low test scores and were made to do it by some non educator type. Guess which schools have this kind of thing happen to them. Right, schools that serve impoverished communities. It never happens to affluent schools. And, the changes are always futile, but someone makes a ton of money doing it ("turnaround specialists," curriculum directors, testing coordinators, and the rest of the leeches who prey on our least fortunate.)
DeleteTeachers don't create poor student outcomes. Poverty does. That's our education problem -- POVERTY. Generational poverty, and maybe rampant anti-intellectualism that seems to be who we Americans are these days.
Tests do nothing for the children. Nothing FOR them. The test do something TO them, however, and that is make them feel shitty about themselves. Unless they're rich, then the tests are pretty easy. Oh, and if you're rich and white, well, that test is for you! Easy peasy!
I've been a public school teacher for 20 years. Still at it. I am telling the truth.
Why do you feel the comparison is needed? To what end? You do realize educated adults work in these schools, and would probably know if something needed fixing. Oh, right, they're never consulted. EVER.
ReplyDelete