Standardized Tests Are Bad

I really hope anybody who reads this blog takes the time to read this article, from 2000, entitled “Standardized Testing and Its Victims“.

I’ve often tried to convey how terrible standardized testing has made the current educational atmosphere.  This article shows how little progress has been made in the last decade.  In fact, I’d argue it’s much worse since there’s even more emphasis on tests, test scores and data.

It’s late and I’ve been dealing with quite a bit lately, so I won’t go over it point by point.  Here are the two main points in the article that I agree with most:

1. Norm-referenced tests were never intended to measure the quality of learning or teaching.
2. Standardized-test scores often measure superficial thinking.

Those two are tied together in an important way.  Even though the tests were not made to measure teaching, they are being used to rate teachers.  So teachers teach more and more test-taking skills and other low-level “skills” to prop up test scores at the expense of other material and higher-level skills.

Try going off topic for even one class period if you have an end-of-year subject test that all students MUST pass or else No Child Left Behind pulls funds.  How can you waste the time?  You have to spend at least a month (A MONTH!) reviewing for the test.  We are wasting weeks and weeks of class time preparing for one test.  Instead of doing that, why don’t we have time set aside so students can explore, do labs, ask questions, get off-topic and ultimately find something they are interested in?

Cultural Education

A friend sent me an excellent blog post from the Whole Child Blog.  The post is entitled Educating for Interculturality and the Right to Cultural Education.  The author, Alseta Gholston, makes the case for a multicultural approach to every curriculum and addresses the backlash currently happening in the US.  It’s a quick read and I recommend going over there and checking it out.

My own take on the subject is, of course, cynical with regards to the ability of public schools to take on this kind of approach without an extreme change in priorities.  I don’t want to argue the benefits of a more well-round curriculum here (although if you’d like to leave a comment explaining why learning about different cultures is bad, have at it).  The biggest issue here is the time issue.  There is so much material to get through in one school year as it is.  Then we have to make sure the students know it well enough to pass the state-created, NCLB-mandated standardized test.  Most teachers I know take a good 3 weeks to review for the test and those happen in May.  So the teachers have from September through April to teach the entire curriculum.  I don’t see how we can cram in any more material.

The blog post also makes mention of three states where multicultural education is under attack.  In Arizona…well, we all know what’s going on in Arizona with the new immigration law.  Hopefully you didn’t miss the other law that bans ethnic studies classes because they “promote resentment toward a race or class of people.”  The author of the law was apparently trying to eliminate Mexican-American Studies classes.  And he succeeded.  In Texas, the school board voted to change the social studies curriculum, “stressing the superiority of American capitalism, questioning the Founding Fathers’ commitment to a purely secular government and presenting Republican political philosophies in a more positive light.”  It was a strict Republican-Democrat party-line vote.  Lastly, in Idaho, people are protesting the IB (International Baccalaureate) Program, claiming that the international prospective approach to education is anti-American.

What do we do?  I believe the curriculum should be opened up to many other ideas and perspectives.  The people who are the best educated are the ones who can look at an issue, consider many different points of view and make an informed decision.  Are American schools stifling this ability?  Or is it important to teach from an American perspective, since that is where we live?  Is it detrimental for students to be exposed to ideas that may go against American values?  Or should students be taught different opinions and make those value judgments for themselves?

Cat Fights

Every day brings new and unmentionable joys while teaching.  So far this year we’ve had a student expelled for alcohol at school, two students suspended for 8 days for a huge fight (they had been friends before that) and another two girls suspended for 8 days for an all-out brawl in the cafeteria (also friends).

Today I was asked by a student in another class if there was “drama going on in 1st period.”  When I asked why, I was told there would be.  Of course, I come back to class and have two girls *Jane* and *Kate* come up and ask if they could, please, have a discussion with *Amy* outside the classroom.  No.  But we just want to talk and we don’t want to call her out in front of the whole class.  No.  Maybe towards the end of class when there’s only 5 minutes left?  No.

Apparently *Amy* made some comments to *Jane’s* boyfriend that she had been talking excessively about other guys.  The boyfriend did not like this one bit.  Now *Jane* wants to know what *Amy’s* problem is.

Eventually I had to pull *Jane* out of class and have a discussion with her about why she couldn’t talk to *Amy* during class, why she shouldn’t corner her or gang up on her with a group of people and what the proper way to handle it (maturely) would be.  I don’t know what happened after they left, but I overheard *Jane* ask *Amy* if she could talk to her for a second in the hallway.  I guess I’ll know soon enough if I receive the “this person has been suspended” e-mail.

My Shortcomings

No this will not be a list.  Just one thing.

I’ve often wondered why my students tend to do poorly on tests.  I know it’s a high-stress situation.  I know there’s a lot of material.  But I give lots of quizzes as well.  It’s not as if I dump a ton of material on them and then suddenly test them.  I give plenty  (usually a week) of advanced warning.  We review the equations and variables and main ideas the day before the test.  What’s the problem?

Well, since I don’t want to put all the onus on me, I have to say that my students definitely do not even try to study.  Not even an attempt.  I have students come in to a test not even knowing what the variables in an equation mean.  If you’ve gotten to the test not know that basic knowledge, I can’t help you and I’m not responsible for your confusion.

The flip-side of this is that I don’t know how to study either.  I barely ever studied for tests.  However, I definitely paid attention in class.  I knew the material from listening (I’m an auditory learner) to the teacher so I didn’t really have to do much studying.  When I did study, I just read over my notes a few times or went over some example problems.  That’s it.

My students aren’t like that unfortunately.  Many do not pay attention in class (difference between honors and regular?) and do not take (good) notes.  In my mind it isn’t that difficult.  Pay attention in class and then you’ll know what you’re doing.  I take most of the questions out of homework or quizzes or class examples.  So how do I help them study?

Just…Ouch

Best quote of the day comes from another teacher. She was telling me about teaching sex ed. last year and some of the questions she gets. “Ms. ________, if you don’t have a condom, could you use plastic wrap…or aluminum foil?”

Moral of the story: Never have sex with that kid.

The Problems With Grading

The issue of grading was at the forefront of my attempt to differentiate instruction in my class.  As I mentioned before, I graded everything equally, whether it was easier or harder.  However, on quizzes, they needed to show they could handle the harder material to receive a better grade.  We discussed grading extensively during the class.  I had the idea that the level 1 assignments be capped at a C, level 2 at a B and level 3 at an A.  This way the better students are rewarded for their skills and knowledge.  But I ran into a moral dilemma.  Was it fair to cap students’ grades in this way?  I guess if they wanted to do better they would try harder and start completing the more difficult material.

Actually, the more I write about it here, the more it seems completely logical and fair.  But I’m sure my original objection exists out there, especially by some people who may read this.  What do you think?

This class also focused on rubrics as a fair way to grade students’ assignments.  That is like the Holy Grail of grading.  Make the perfect rubric!  Share it with the class!  Get them involved!  Be specific!

I got an e-mail linking to the blog Ecology of Education regarding this topic.  Titled, “The Folly of Rubrics and Grades” the author makes the case that no rubric can be perfect and, in fact, the idea of a rubric is wholly misguided.  A few quotes:

For some reason, making these categories out of 4 or 5 or 10 seemed to be a popular way to go. But to this day, I have not reconciled some of the problems that developed from choosing the 4, 5 or 10 scale.

Most rubrics I’ve seen do not go beyond a 5 point scale.  I use a 4 point scale for my lab write-ups.

If I pick the four scale, there is nothing in between 75% and 100% which means that in order to get ‘honors’ (over 80%), I have to assign a perfect grade.

If I pick the four scale, there is nothing in between barely passing 50% and 75%. That’s a large leap.

If I pick the five scale, it is awfully tempting to just pick 60% as it is a pretty average grade that lots of kids might fit.

If I pick the five scale, there is nothing between 40% and 60%, so someone who I’m not comfortable with getting 80% will get the same 3/5 mark as someone I was not comfortable with giving a 40% failing grade.

Awfully good point there. In our grading scale, the only possible grades are F, B-, A. That’s a pretty big difference.

But if I start to go to a larger scale like the 10 or 100 point scale, can I really say with any certainty what is the difference between a 6/10 and 7/10 or a 67/100 or 68/100?

He can’t, and I certainly cannot. Can you imagine making a specific rubric with 10 different descriptions of performance? How about 100?

This starts getting really difficult at this point.  What’s the right call here?  I have no idea but it’s something that can be debated for a long, long time.