The Case Against Standardized Testing

[teacher gal]

The award winning article I'm going to provide a link to here is well worth the read for anyone who cares about our nation's children. It was recently published in the Minnesota English Journal.

http://www.mcte.org/journal/mej07/3Henry.pdf

[madfloridian]

1. Hi. going to keep an eye out for your education posts.

I just posted some stuff I had written in another thread you posted.

[teacher gal]

2. thank you

It sure is hard to get education the attention it deserves isn't it? Thank you for your response retired teacher! The conditions have gotten so stressful I don't see how I can last to retirement.

[madfloridian]

3. You do it one day at a time....

and just tune out the ugly stuff. I walked out of the school that day and a guidance counselor on the sidewalk said why aren't you stopping by the classrooms and office to say good bye. I said I had been saying good by for months.

They were short on substitutes that year, and an old principal called to get me to sign up. I not only said no, I said hell no.

I have not set foot back on any school campus. And I loved teaching and the kids. But I can not bear to see what they have done.

[Catsbrains]

4. You guys are scaring me....

I am currently in the graduate licensure program to become a K-8 teacher. I only have one year left. I hate my current job and have always wanted to be a teacher but the pay sucks. Now that I am married, I can afford to do what I want. Am I going to hate teaching? I keep hearing horror stories.

[LWolf]

5. It's great to see another voice for education on the board.

I sometimes feel like I'm posting in a vacuum.

This is an excellent piece, and I'm happy to give it a :kick: and recommend it.

Here's a <snip> for those who don't click on the link:

It must be said at the outset: standardized testing has
muscled its way onto the educational stage in very short order.
In little more than a decade, the frequency and number of stan-dardized tests has doubled and redoubled in response to public
concern about the quality of high school graduates, and thus, the
effectiveness of public schools. In 2005, 11 million exams were
added in elementary and middle schools; another 11 million
tests for high school science are expected to bring the national
total to near 50 million by 2008, amid signs that the quality,
reliability and validity of exams are eroding.4 (Fairtest puts the
total of all tests—including I.Q., screening and readiness at 100
million; that does not include the ACT or SAT college entrance
exams.5) The rapidity of standardized testing’s ascent means that
few teachers are well-versed in its language, terms or accepted
uses as most teachers’ educational programs did not include such
coursework.6
Ignorance, however, is not a defense; not in legal venues,
nor should it be in education circles. It is my thesis that teachers’
collective ignorance around standardized testing must change—
and change quickly—if we are to preserve our autonomy and
professional status as educators. The entire gestalt of the “accountability” movement holds that teachers are not to be trusted
or believed when it comes to student learning. Even grades,
acquired over the length of a semester are presumed suspect:
subjective, inadequate measures which do not allow direct comparison
across the domain in a cohort.7
For many outside critics of education, only a standard
test can reveal the “truth” about what transpires in classrooms,
and, thus, successful teaching is reduced to a single, narrow
measure on a multiple choice instrument. Ultimately, such a
system makes teaching the provision of defined information inputs—
synonymous to a functionary responsible for conducting
transactions on behalf of some distant monolith. And when the
numbers rolling off the computer print-out appear unsatisfactory
to those in authority? They will have their justification to take
public education private8, where due process, labor agreements
and unions are not barriers to the prerogatives of management.
If that dystopic future alarms you as much as it does me,
then I urge that you learn more about standardized testing (start
by reading this article) and commit to sharing it with students, parents and the larger community. At this point in education history,
teachers are the last best hope for preserving not only the
autonomy of local schools, but the very meaning and essence of
American democracy.9

I will say that while my teacher education program did not include classes on standardized testing, my BA in social sciences did. Just one course in Psychological Measurement, but it was enough. When high-stakes testing came to my state, pre-NCLB, I took my concerns to my professor, who also happened to be the psychologist for the district I was teaching in. He confirmed my concerns about the high-stakes attached to our norm-referenced tests. When I brought the concerns up with admins and school board members, they patted me on the head and told me that I didn't understand the complicated stuff the "experts" were doing with formulas to guarantee us a reliable result. When I persisted, my principle said, if you can believe it, "But even if the results aren't reliable and valid, they will still be consistent and can still be used as a measure of accountability." :wow:

My colleagues were silent. Peter Henry is correct; they were not well-versed in the language, terms, or accepted uses of standardized tests. They did, however, see clearly that the test scores would be a weapon used against them. They were, frankly, intimidated.

[BootinUp]

6. very well written argument. nt