[Winona Online Democracy]
Joliene,
Thanks for clarifying your comments about changing standardized tests. I'm
sure not an expert on the various criticisms of standardized testing.
Someone who heard Alfie Kohn's talk in Winona or who is more well versed on
the issue could no doubt give a better response. A few more thoughts, then
I have to get some sleep for a long day tomorrow with evening parent
conferences.
I do understand the public's desire for measuring student's educational
attainment. As you say, the question seems to be whether testing now taking
place actually delivers the accountability that test advocates and
publishers would claim. Some of the research by Kohn and others seems to
call those claims into question. So that gets into issues of test
reliability (are results consistent?), test validity (are results
meaningful, do they measure what they're supposed to measure) and test bias
(are results unintentionally reflecting cultural differences, gender
differences, fluency in English, etc.)
There's also a question of sheer quantity of testing. Personally, I don't
hear much concern about the MN basic skills testing that is part of the
Grad Rule, except in terms of being inequitable for students who are recent
arrivals and have limited English. But...I notice George Bush thinks we
should be testing on basic skills every year grades 3 through 8!! That
certainly sounds like the sort of situation about which Kohn is raising an
alarm. Sounds to me like the same Frankenstein's monster situation I
sometimes see in Special Education, where wonderful intentions lead to a
proliferation of mandated procedures that dangerously invade actual
teaching/learning/planning time, to the point that students' education is
hindered more than helped.
Finally, I think there's a big question about whether much of the whole hue
and cry for accountability isn't the result of a misleading analysis of
certain types of testing, like SAT scores. The public has been led to
believe that there are massive skill deficits among graduates, and that
many schools are not doing a good job. Is there much evidence? How much of
that perception is based on either firsthand experience or quality
research? Why do the majority of parents express confidence in their
schools, but not in the schools in general? Will accountability through
testing do anything to change our cultural norms that de-value reading and
intellectualism and instead encourage passivity and consumerism? When we
run into the employee who can't make change or the voter who can't identify
the Bill of Rights--is that because of what our schools aren't doing, or
because of what our culture isn't doing?
Good discussion, I hope it continues. I'm going to just listen for a while.
> Thank you Scott for your comments and questions. When I talk about
>changing the tests, I am assuming (that's probably what is wrong) that
>all the talk about what the tests do and don't measure, about
>how teachers must teach to the tests instead of the curriculum etc means
>that the tests are flawed. I truly don't know if they are or are not.
>That was one of my questions. Who knows? IF the tests are arbitrary,
>don't measure what we want measured etc then why are they given? Where
>does the problem start? With the tests, with the curriculum, or with
>what the teacher wants to teach, or with the ill informed opinion of
>someone who doesn't really know enough to make such criticisms? As far
>as the political side of it, I believe that political comments, rhetoric
>etc come about because someone finds a weakness somewhere, has a bias,
> doesn't really know the facts, or even want to know the facts, and then
>starts spouting. Since none of the rest of us know any different, don't
>take time to investigate or find the truth, or if what is said fits our
>own bias, we repeat it. I saw this happen frequently in the 18 years I
>was on the school board. There were (and are) people writing letters
>to the editor, editorials and making comments to friends, relatives
>etc about things based only on their bias or partial information or
>partial truth of the information. They don't investigate, ask questions
>or even talk to the people involved. They simply regurgitate what they
>have heard, or experienced without learning about the "rest of the story"
>and 'we' read it and pass it on as truth because it was written or spoken
>in a newspaper or a forum of some kind. The only answer to this is to
>hold people accountable for what they say. That is hard and time
>consuming to do. To go back to you question on changing the tests, I
>realize they are "standardized". BUT, someone writes them. Someone
>decides the questions or topics tested. Are the contents of these tests
>political also? Any thing can be changed. That is why I say, lets look
>at the whole picture. Lets determine first, what we want measured, then
>decide if the curriculum teaches it, and if the tests measure it. The
>Profiles of Learning were developed on a basic set of outcomes that were
>decided after a lot of study, discussion etc. They are good! No one can
>really argue the outcomes desired. Where it all breaks down is in the
>interpretation of how to implement and document. This whole things
>seems to me to be a matter of coordination of our teaching and our
>testing. I know this is long and a lot of you won't read it all the way
>through. However, I hope it answers at least some of your questions
>Scott. Thank you Joliene [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Scott Lowery
461 Sunnyview Drive, Rollingstone MN 55969
home phone: (507)689-4532
school phone: (507)453-3888
home email: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
school email: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
"Not everything that counts can be counted, and not everything that can be
counted counts." Albert Einstein
"You can fool too many of the people too much of the time." James Thurber
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