Hi Stakes Testing Madness: Racist, Anti-Intellectual and a $32,000,000 Public Trough for Privateer Testmaker Pearson
|
Too bad the content of recent NY State 3rd to 8th Grade tests is being withheld from the public because from what I hear they would make great material for Saturday Night Live, if not Saturday Night Fever. The idea that that teachers will be evaluated, and students promoted or held back on the basis of these ill designed tests strains credulity. We owe a huge debt of gratitude to Pearson for designing tests that are so ambiguous , illogical and culturally biased that they discredit the entire New York State Department of Education, which paid 32 million dollars for these tests, and the US Department of Education, which required they use them to evaluate teachers in order to receive Race to the Top funding.
Mark D Naison
Professor of African American Studies and History
Principal Investigator
Bronx African American History Project
640 Dealy Hall
Fordham University
Bronx, NY 10458
Phone (718) 817-3748 Fax (718) 817-3385
--------------------------
A PRINCIPAL'S LETTER OF OUTRAGE ABOUT THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE ARTS (ELA) EXAMS
P.S. 321 lphilli@schools.nyc.gov
180 Seventh Avenue • Brooklyn, New York 11215 • 718-499-2412 • FAX: 718-965-9605
• Elizabeth Phillips, Principal • Beth Handman, Assistant Principal
• Elizabeth Garraway, Assistant Principal • Ryan Bourke, Assistant Principal
April 19, 2012
Dr. John B. King Jr.
New York State Education Commissioner
New York State Education Department
89 Washington Avenue
Albany, New York 12234
Dear Commissioner King:
I urge you to carefully review this year’s state ELA exams. I have been principal for 13 years and have read the tests each year. Although
there are always issues with selected questions, generally it is only
one or two per test that the assistant principals and I can’t quite
agree on. I am genuinely shocked that with the increased importance of state testing, there are so many more flawed questions than ever before. I
wish I could go into detail here, but it violates test security for me
to discuss the content of the tests or the questions, which is why I
feel so strongly that it is important that you see these tests for
yourselves.
In particular, I would recommend that you carefully read through day one of the fifth grade ELA. The reading passages themselves are not too challenging—surprising since the passages in the 4th grade test were not particularly easy and the Common Core Standards call for more rigor. However, the questions were nothing short of ridiculous. Several
of them were ambiguous and seemed designed only to trick children (and
adults….the answers were not clear to many of us). Overall, the questions did not serve to determine whether or not children had good reading comprehension skills. You could have excellent comprehension skills and miss many questions. Although
to me the fifth grade was the most outrageous of the elementary school
exams, there were problems with the other exams too. It
is puzzling to me that in 2012 in New York State, a testing company
that won the lucrative contract to develop these exams did not think it
was important, on day one (the most heavily weighted day) of the 4th grade exam, to include any selections that were in urban settings. Children
who spend a lot of time outdoors and in rural or suburban settings
definitely will find “friendlier” texts, both fiction and nonfiction. Take a look so you can see what I mean. Fortunately, day two is better in this regard.
I would also urge you to actually do the listening section of grade 3 (first part of day 2). Have
someone read aloud this incredibly thin, brief passage two times as
required and then see if you can answer the questions, including the
short and extended responses, without looking at the text (since kids
are not permitted to look at this text). The
questions are not really ones that you can answer well from the text,
even if it is sitting in front of you and you can refer back.
Because I am an elementary school principal, I do not see the middle school exams. However, a middle school principal from outside of New York City wrote this to me after day one: “As
I reviewed the exams for the sixth through eighth grade yesterday, I
was appalled. I felt that sixth grade was the most difficult of the
three exams, followed by eighth, with the most fair exam being the
seventh grade. There were so many questions that contained answer
choices where the ELA teachers could not decide which answer would be
'best'. I felt terrible for my children, especially for my English
Language Learners and my special education students.” And 8th
graders, who really can’t be controlled in terms of not talking about
the test, are having a field day on the internet mocking what appears to
be one of the most ridiculous selections ever included on a test!
These exams are so deeply flawed, and now so incredibly high stakes. The
idea that teachers may lose their jobs and schools (at least in New
York City) may be closed based on how children do on these problematic
exams is incredibly upsetting and demoralizing to educators. The
fact that the state has decided that these exams can never be made
public just exacerbates the problem, as the general public will never
know how silly the exams are. And,
to use an “added value” measure on tests that are not consistently more
difficult from year to year is another serious problem.
I
understand that you are very busy, but given the importance of the
state tests at this time, it is absolutely critical that you analyze
them carefully. If you agree with
my assessment, I hope that you will consider recommending to the State
Legislature that given the flaws in the tests, we are not yet ready to
use them for high stakes decision making. I also hope you will consider making these exams public after the test scoring is completed. It is ironic that teachers’ individual ratings are made public while the actual test that determines those ratings is not. I
know that the state already has a long-term contract with Pearson, but
there is something seriously wrong with a testing company that has such
inappropriate questions and passages on such a high stakes test.
Thank you for considering all this. Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions.
Sincerely,
Elizabeth Phillips
Principal
No comments:
Post a Comment