Standardized Testing: How to Stop the Testing Trend

Learning has arguably slowed across the United States as teachers and students have taken up number 3 pencils to take standardized tests. Standardized test scores have the power to make or break a child. Most parents and almost every teacher knows the process of standardized testing in our schools is emotionally damaging for their children, but what many may not realize is that it is also educationally unsound. While there are some good reasons for using standardized testing, many more factors make it an inadequate tool with which to formulate the educational policies of our nation. Most educators know this. Among teachers, the following items are common knowledge:

• It is a common misconception that what is taught in a classroom and what is tested are the same thing. Unfortunately, what students are tested on doesn't always match up with the instructional content and objectives of the classroom.

• Most standardized tests are multiple-choice. Multiple-choice tests most often test knowledge at the recall level. Recall is a function of memory. Even at their very best, multiple-choice formats limit the demonstration of problem solving and critical and creative thinking.

• High-stakes standardized testing has negative emotional effects on students and teachers. After doing poorly on a test, low-achieving students often become disillusioned and less motivated, which leads to a decreased desire to learn and starts a downward spiral that is very hard to halt.

• Being "test savvy" and being well educated are not the same thing. If someone is test savvy, he understands the strategies that help him do well on the test. These include little tricks such as skipping the questions on timed tests that will take up a lot of time and answering all the questions you know right away because you can always go back to the more difficult ones and they are worth the same amount of points. It is easy for teachers to raise test scores by teaching these strategies. However, if teaching test savviness achieves the needed gains in test scores, what are the tests really measuring?

The citizens of the United States have had enough. This week, Rethink Learning Now, in conjunction with Time Out From Testing and other organizations including Strong Planet and countless individuals from across the country are launching a postcard campaign to First Lady Michelle Obama asking that she encourage the President to put an end to the use of High Stakes Testing. When Mrs. Obama was on the campaign trail she had the following to say about the Bush Administration's No Child Left Behind Program:

"No Child Left Behind is strangling the life out of most schools ... If my future were determined by my performance on a standardized test, I wouldn't be here. I guarantee that."
Thousands of us agree with her criticism. We need her help to end the reliance on high stakes standardized tests.

Here is what YOU can do:
On May 29th send a postcard to Michelle Obama with this message:

Dear Michelle Obama:
We want the same education for our children that you provide for Malia and Sasha.
 Our child is not a test score.
 Encourage the President to end the use of high stakes standardized tests!
Sincerely,
Name:
Address:
Signature
Mail to: 
First Lady Michelle Obama
 White House,
 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue Northwest Washington, DC 20500

A flood of postcards at the White House is the effect that is needed for Mrs. Obama and her staff to take notice. This means that an actual physical postcard must be sent. If you want to help in this mass effort, we have designed some other ways to make sure we reach our goal of between 50,000-100,000 cards on May 29th.

Here are some suggestions how you can become involved:

1. Leave your name and address in the comment box on this article and our staff will mail a card out for you.
2. Set up tables in your schools when parents drop off and pick up their students and get them to sign a post card and leave you a quarter so you can mail it.
3. Ask teachers to have their classes of students fill out the cards and bring in a quarter and mail them as a class.
4. Have the students set up tables in front of a store and gather quarters, address and names and then write the postcards out later and use the money to mail them.
5. Take postcards to the office, sports events, etc. Anyone can sign the cards and write an address...parents, children, colleagues, relatives, friends, college students.

The important thing is that you keep a record of how many got sent due to your outreach. You can email the number of cards you sent out to jenifer to be included in the official count. Now you can do something to help end the culture of testing.

Partner organizations include: The Advancement Project, All Kinds of Minds, Alliance for Childhood, American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education, Antioch Center for School Renewal, Aspira, Center for Civic Education, Center for Collaborative Education, Center for Inspired Teaching, Coalition of Essential Schools, Education Law Center, EdVisions, FairTest, The Five Freedoms Project, The Forum for Education and Democracy,Foxfire, Justice MAtters, Knowledge Notebook, NAACP, National Alliance of Black Educators, NAtional Congress of American Indians, National Network for Educational Renewal, New York Performance Standards Consortium, National Learning Research Institute, The New Deel, The Orion Society, Plus Time NH, Public Education Network, Public Schools for Tomorrow, Rethinking Schools, Small Schools Workshop, Spark, Strong Planet/Strength Movement, The Teacher Salary Project, WorldBlu

 

 

 

Follow Jenifer Fox on Twitter: www.twitter.com/jeniferfox

Comments

[AndyatHP]

09:15 AM on 06/14/2010

These tests are nonsense, and just another plecebo to pacify people that something is being dont about education. Most students who even pass the test cannot read or write proficiently. Teachers are teaching to the test, rather than giving students a rich understanding of the subject, and an ability to understand Math and what they are reading. What we wont admit is that the system fails because parents are disengaged. Because of budget cuts, we want teachers to have larger class sizes (dont bother asking for help), , while the parents do nothing to support the students. In addition, we test kids in such a way that it does not produce learning, but is all about finding the answers. In many states teachers' tenure is dependent on test results, and nearly a dozenr states have plans to evaluate teachers partly on scores. From my own personal experience in many schools, this leads to teaching focused entirely on the test.

The federal No Child Left Behind law failed source of pressure. Like a high jump bar set low in the beginning, the bar is notched higher annually, and the penalties for failure to get over it rise: Teachers and administrators can lose jobs and see their school taken over. This leads to widespread cheating in order to get kids to pass these tests. Guess what, the tests are administered by the same supposedly failed teachers. Our education system is a joke. Its based on statistics and not true learning

[structurequity]

01:20 AM on 06/20/2010

Tell all this to the ones who have hijacked the name called "Free Public Education" those who have privatized all learning assessment and delivery into for profit programs, never to be cut budget wise but institutionalized to the point of legitimacy beyond question while our children die from this invasive mental process called production line widgetry. By bubblelicious testing responder

[bronxite]

06:59 PM on 05/25/2010

My child, who is in advanced math placement in middle school and getting excellent grades was just subjected to something called the ADP End of Course exam for Algebra 1. Apparently this ADP (American Diploma Project) is a consortium of business leaders, politicians and educational bureaucrats who successfully persuaded 35 states that today's high school diploma is not worth the paper it is written on. As such, they developed their "own" tests to duplicate the tests already given by teachers and the state. After all, why trust the teacher who actually taught the coursework to judge a child's progress?

A scanning of their website reveals ADP's board members include current and former CEO's of State Farm, Prudential, IBM, and Intel. So now, students must not only prove their competency to their teachers and their state, now they must prove it to the icons of big business.

[Jenifer Fox]

09:33 PM on 05/25/2010

And then there are those who are producing the tests and getting paid for this...let's not forget someone also profits from this.

[Jenifer Fox]

02:33 PM on 05/25/2010

A national standard for learning would involve developing creativity, strengths and abilities, desire to learn, critical thinking skills etc. I am not opposed to a national learning experience that is equitable. Currently, the standardized testing culture does none of this. One of the big problems is that teachers are teaching to the test...their jobs depend on the scores. As it is, teachers are frustrated, burned out and many of the best are leaving the profession because they are not able to exercise the passion and creativity which brought them to the profession in the first place. As far as students are concerned, it is not merely a matter of soft self esteem. Students are not being tested on what they know. They are failing based on single scores and single measurements. They do not simply "feel bad", they are shut out of opportunities. What we are asking is for an end to this current testing climate, not a renunciation of any standards in the future or any qualitative assessments. Thanks for entering the dialog.

[bronxite]

02:24 PM on 05/25/2010

The relentless testing of our children is something that has to be seen to be believed. These fill in the blank tests do nothing to measure the skills most employers need- like communicating and listening. These tests simply measure the ability to take a test, and in the process, subject our kids to continual stress and anxiety for political ends. And yes, standardized testing is BIG business.
I seriously doubt most adults in their professions could hold up to the kind of scrutiny we seem to think is acceptable for our children. The verdict is in for No Child Left Behind and it hasn't worked.
Michelle Obama's statement about standardized tests is correct and I hope this postcard campaign has some effect on the President's decisions regarding high stakes testing.

[Jenifer Fox]

04:38 PM on 05/25/2010

I will personally send your postcards for you, pay for your stamps and all if you tell me your name and address--either here in the comments, or at my email address at [e-mail].

[bronxite]

07:17 PM on 05/25/2010

I'll be happy to mail them myself and have made others aware of your campaign via email.
You can count on 5 from individuals on my end and I'll let you know if I hear of any more.

[rjvg50]

02:21 PM on 05/25/2010

The standardized test deniers are starting to sound like climate change deniers. These tests are very easy to pass and are almost completely binary - if a student has average competency their score will be 95% or higher. The students who do poorly are completely and totally poor students. They do not have esteem issues about test taking they have esteem issues about being poor students. Their bad results do not surprise or frighten them.

If you really want to help the poor performers - help them. They will pass the tests if they improve their competency by whatever means necessary. You can put the goal post anywhere on the field and the better student will have a higher score than the poor student.

[Jenifer Fox]

04:44 PM on 05/25/2010

It would be better if it were that simple. The fact is that very intelligent children often do poorly on standardized tests no matter their income level. The real problem with passing tests is that kids, poor and otherwise are taking time out from learning to take days of tests. If you think intelligence and economic status are related, have a look at this on article on Huffington:
Victor Cardenas, Homeless Student Taken In By Teacher, Becomes Valedictorian

[rjvg50]

08:52 PM on 05/27/2010

This does not pass my sniff test. I have three very different children that are all intellegent in their own way. They do well on these tests because the tests are not normative. They are designed to measure a baseline of competence. I was from a poor family and I was a valedictorian but that is as much of a distraction as your single counterpoint - and it is not my point at all. Students are asked to provide a measure of basic proficiency in the curriculum. If they cannot do that - and only that - how can they put one foot in front of the other in real life? If you continue to blame the test - the simple foundational idea of some type of measure - how can I help you? I want the students to succeed. You have not made a dent in my impulse to expect competent children to pass a simple test. You have failed with your constituency. Make a better arguement. Please.

[jhNY]

01:06 PM on 05/25/2010

Aside from the supposed effect on a child's self-esteem, your objections to standardized tests seem to be more about the composition of the tests themselves-- not enough problem-solving, too much multile choice, and about the difference between what is taught and what students are tested on. Seems easy enough to solve if teachers were willing to teach students those concepts and facts that are on the tests, and if test creators emphasized problem solving at least as much as memorization. But of course, that would mean we had a general agreement as to what students need to know, and how they migh best be taught.

Yet the demands of employment, coupled with the fact that families move from district to district and state to state frequently, seem to call for national standardized eductation, and standardized funding. Or else we are stuck with what we have-- wildly disparate funding and texts and emphases in curricula-- so that diploma from one state may not really mean as much practically as a diploma from another.

I can't believe the real best way to address the challenges of tomorrow will be met merely by abandoning attempts at a national standard today. But that's just my opinion. I do not teach for a living, I have no children in school.