In a time of much political divisiveness, there is a single issue where Republicans, Democrats, teachers, teachers unions, parents, and school administrators are finding common ground: the need to set aside, or at least reevaluate, high-stakes testing. The chorus of stakeholders calling for a pause and reassessment of this testing is resounding, and for good reason. Testing is threatening the opportunity for every child to receive a public education of their choosing.
Every parent deserves the right to choose the educational option that works best for their family. Choices in education – from public charter schools, to online schools, to magnet schools – offer families the opportunity to ensure a good education that fits the individual needs of the children and families.
Regrettably, high-stakes, standardized testing results, which are aggregated into school-wide averages and lump all children into the same category, have become the measure of a school’s success. Worse, these results ignore an individual student’s progression – or regression – yet are the basis for lawmakers, education officials and charter authorizers in determining which schools stay open and which close. That’s wrong and they are wrong. This accountability method fails students and families by forcing schools to close that may be serving well many students.
Here’s why testing can’t be the sole factor determining the future of schools.
Testing is sometimes fraught with delays and errors, as we witnessed in Tennessee this year. Students prepared all year for the tests to be taken on the computer, but the system crashed at the last minute, forcing schools to switch to paper and pencil. For many students, this caused unnecessary anxiety and stress. Some schools didn’t even receive the paper booklets in time and were forced to reschedule testing. There’s no question that Tennessee’s testing debacle negatively impacted student performance on the tests – one only needs to read the horror stories shared by those parents. Thankfully, state education officials are setting this year’s test scores aside.
School-wide testing results also don’t take into account the real life situations facing many students and families. For example, why should a school be punished for low test scores when some of their students enrolled far behind their peers because they suffered at the hands of bullies at their previous school; or what about the young Tennessee boy, Colton, with acute lymphoblastic leukemia whose prolonged hospital stays and bone marrow transplant put him behind; or the three sisters in North Carolina, Ashlyn, Savannah and Abigail, adopted from the foster care system who suffer from PTSD; or ShaiLyn, from Wyoming, who was diagnosed with autism and apraxia, which makes reading and speaking difficult?
Should this really be how we determine our children’s fate?
A school’s test scores don’t take into account individual students, so why should they take away choices from parents to choose the school where their child will learn best? Testing is important, and when done properly, should inform parents’ decisions about their children’s education and what school works best for them, not take away choice.
We’ve got to find another way. A school’s future – and a student’s future – can’t depend on tests that lump all children into an average category. Our children are not averages – they are individuals with individual learning needs. When we use impersonal and flawed test results to close public schools, testing becomes the real threat to public education.
With the passage of the Every Student Succeeds Act, which gives control back to states to determine testing and accountability systems, it’s time to put pressure on the decision makers to move toward student-centered accountability and away from school-wide, high-stakes testing averages as a measure of success. Doing so will improve individual student learning and increase their chance to succeed – and even excel – in their education.
Don’t let high-stakes testing get in the way of public education.
Tillie Elvrum is president of PublicSchoolOptions.org, a national alliance of parents that supports and defends parents’ rights to access the best public school options for their children.
