Students -- and schools -- sweating high-stakes tests as critics seek better ways to measure results
They don't call them high-stakes tests for nothing. This week, tens of
thousands of students are bent over their desks, No. 2 pencils sharpened and
brows furrowed, sweating — really sweating — the Minnesota Comprehensive
Assessments.
For a shocking number of them, the point of anxiety isn't
whether they can fill in the right bubble to demonstrate proficiency at reading,
math and science. It's what's at stake for their school or, worse, a beloved
teacher.
The tests, popularly known as the MCAs, are Minnesota's way of
complying with the controversial federal No Child Left Behind Act, which
mandates that schools show continual progress in test scores. If enough kids
meet minimum standards, their school will escape unscathed. If too many do
poorly, it could face sanctions.
Also, lots of Minnesota pupils have learned to expect an additional battery
of exams delivered in the fall and again right before school gets out. That's
because the MCAs in the past haven't measured other needed data, such as how
much individual children learn each year, where they excel or what they need
help with.
For some schools, tests eat up full two
weeks
For some kids, this means two full weeks of each school year
are spent taking tests. And that's not counting prep time which, in struggling
schools, can go on for months and yet result in nary an uptick in scores.
Educators, pupils and parents alike are to be forgiven, then, for the
ripple of disappointment that has greeted the news that the Obama
administration's keenly awaited fix for the mess is … another test.
The
U.S. Department of Education has promised $350 million to up to two groups of
states to develop computerized "growth-model" tests that would measure
individual students' year-over-year learning and yield data that could be used
to gauge how well teachers, schools and even teacher-training programs are
performing. In addition, the tests must show whether student learning meets "Common Core Standards" that 48 states are working to
establish.
Under the terms of the competitive grants, "consortia" of 15 or more states
have until June 23 to apply. The Education Department hopes to award two
"comprehensive assessment systems" grants of $160 million each, as well as a $30
million grant for the creation of so-called end-of-course tests for
high-schoolers. Potential applicants from across the country will meet in
Minneapolis on Thursday to hear details.
Seven years after NCLB's
implementation, however, there are plenty of people who don't care what those
details are. Increased use of standardized testing has failed to spark broad
improvement in student performance or stimulate progress in struggling schools,
they say.
The Bush administration reform called for every student in the
nation to demonstrate proficiency in reading and math by 2014. Obama's proposed
overhaul of the law would essentially eliminate that deadline but would keep the
emphasis on tying teacher pay and school autonomy to test results.
One principal fights back
Steve DeLapp is the
principal of Barton Open, one of Minneapolis' most sought-after schools, where
students consistently post great tests scores. Irked that his staff had to stop
their normal lessons several times a year to prepare kids for testing, he
started needling district brass a few years ago for permission to drop some of
the tests.
"The state tests are enough," said DeLapp. "I mean, they take
up four different days for kids."
All school districts are bound by state
law to administer the MCAs, so DeLapp proposed dropping the second test, which
is known by different acronyms in different locales. In Bloomington, where it
was developed, it's known as the CALT. In Minneapolis, and most other districts,
it's called the MAP.
Students take the tests on computers, which are
programmed to respond to correct answers by making problems harder. In this way,
instead of determining, say, whether they have mastered a list of things
third-graders should know, as the MCA does, teachers and parents get specific
information about where each pupil is.
The so-called growth-model tests
have a number of advantages. Most notably, they deliver thorough data on the
highest- and lowest-achieving students, whose needs and particular challenges
don't show up on more conventional tests.
DeLapp, though, is unmoved.
"The best teachers, they don't need that test to know which kids are struggling
as readers and which ones aren't," he said. "If they are looking at a
standardized test to tell them what a kid knows, they are in
trouble."
Better, in his view, to concentrate on the school's own
curriculum. "Our stance as a school has been that the best preparation we can
give our kids for whatever standardized test they encounter throughout their
lives is a good, authentic, rigorous education," said DeLapp.
He stopped
administering the MAP — and the sky didn't fall.
His criticism — that
"teaching to the test" is a poor substitute for good instruction — is a common
one.
"I always grind my teeth when I hear about anyone prepping for the
test," said Jim Angermeyer, director of research and assessment for Bloomington
Public Schools and the person who developed the CALT.
He agrees with
critics who say it shouldn't be used to evaluate teachers and schools. "On the
surface, it seems more fair," he said. "But really, the truth is some kids grow
more than others. If you have a class with two or three particularly unruly
kids, that's going to affect everyone's score."
Critics not
pleased with reform plan
Like other critics, Angermeyer is concerned
that the reform plan touted by Obama and Secretary of Education Arne Duncan
replaces sticks with carrots without addressing fundamental issues raised by
NCLB's failure, such as the appropriateness of using student tests to rate
teachers. Just as George W. Bush modeled NCLB on a supposed miracle reform in
Houston schools, Obama is basing his on Duncan's successes in overhauling
Chicago schools.
"The testing part of it isn't the evil entity — it's the political pressure,"
he added.
If different tests are going to be the order of the day,
Minnesota is ahead of the curve. Under state law, the MCAs must be revised every
few years. When Duncan announced the testing grants, the Minnesota Department of
Education was already starting to revamp them.
This year, for the first
time, the tests track individual student growth from one year to another.
Another shift under way is toward replacing paper tests with interactive
versions. In 2008, Minnesota became the first state to administer an online
science exam.
Creating a test takes at least two years, according to
Dirk Mattson, director of testing and assessment at the state Department of
Education. There's plenty for Minnesota's test developers to do, but they can
only go so far forward until they know what the feds will require and what new
unified standards states are now devising look like.
"We are always
making judicious decisions about how far into the future we go," said Mattson.
"We are always the caboose."
Right now, plans call for Minnesota
students to take standardized tests up to three times and submit only the best
score starting in 2012.
That might be welcome news for failing schools
desperate to escape wholesale restructuring, but it's doubtless unpleasant news
for kids, and for teachers trying to cram their regular lesson plans in around
testing seasons.
DeLapp plans to maintain Barton's insistence on
teaching its curriculum and assuming its students will do just fine on whatever
tests he is forced to administer. "That's been the culture of this school," he
said. "Keeping the focus on learning — it gets harder and hard to do that in a
testing culture."
For his part, Angermeyer hopes parents realize that in
a political system, they have some power. "Schools can only push back so much,"
he said. "Parents are going to have to say, 'Enough!' at some
point."
Beth Hawkins writes about schools, criminal justice and other
topics.
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