Thomas (2012), “If we want highly literate and critically thinking young people to enter and rejuvenate our free land, spending much of their schooling trying to get a higher test score is not the solution, regardless of the test they are chasing” (pg. 42). Is this focus on “single test performance” an effective way of looking at achievement? Do we want students/citizens who are just good test takers or are we in the position of cultivating learners and thinkers who can also show their understanding on high-stakes assessments when necessary?
The difficulty for our society now is that we crave things to measure. We want “proof” of what is happening in our schools and test scores happen to be a very easy way for our school communities to keep informed on student achievement and communicate how each class, school and district is performing in comparison to one another. Currently we find ourselves chasing test scores. Test scores that will seemingly prove to the nation that we are a nation of high educational standards and performance. Test scores that we know can be “…impacted by effort of the student, quality of the test, conditions of the testing day and time, and a number of other factors that have nothing to do with learning” (pg. 41). The calls of crisis and reform based on the results of the single measures are very difficult for me to understand. Compounded by the fact that almost all of these measurements (state assessments) are multiple choice. Multiple choice assessment platforms are easy to administer, easy to quantify and score. Multiple-choice assessments also allow analytics of item strands and specific question types. We can also use zero/one matrixes to further analyze student response patterns based on item difficulty. In my opinion, multiple-choice assessments are an excellent form of formative assessment in many cases, they can provide very useful data on student misconceptions and gaps in learning. We are living in what Conley (2010) calls the “third wave”, “…when high-stakes testing and accountability requirements were implemented in earnest” (pg. 46). “…tests gradually began to take on additional purposes, moving beyond a ‘measuring stick’ of schools to an unapologetic focus on accountability” (pg. 47). I too don’t see this as something that will pass anytime soon. It appears this notion will only become stronger as states continue and some begin adopting a consistent teacher evaluation/appraisal model between districts.
When we hear reports from our Secretary of Education (Mr. Arne Duncan), we hear the calls of crisis and concern. We hear the continued call that it is our educational system that must be “fixed” and the only way we can do that is through reform, funded and unfunded mandates and new policy. Here is a visualization from a Twitter post I thought I’d share. My point is not that we should automatically believe what is printed in the visualization (I haven’t further researched or disaggregated the PISA scores from 2009), but at least consider what is being communicated with us before making any decisions. BATeachers Association Visualization
The authors of America's Perfect Storm: Three Forces Changing Our Nation's Future, share with us three forces changing our nation’s future, “They are divergent skill distributions, the changing economy and demographic trend” (ETS article; Barton, Coley, Gitomer, Uvin, Rosenberg, pg. 3), I don’t think anyone would argue that these are not important issues, while not the only ones. As I was reading this article, I kept thinking that these three “forces” maintain a strong cause and effect relationship. While a focus on high profit margins, shipping jobs overseas to accomplish this and large bonuses for top tier executives become the norm, can we truly expect to see this change? The system plays well into the American Dream for those who are already “living it”. What about those striving to achieve this for themselves? If the skills, necessary education and opportunities are no longer there, how will we close this economic gap?
As Friedman (2005) was quoted in America’s Perfect Storm, “Economic growth is not merely the enabler of higher consumption; it is in many ways the wellspring from which democracy and civil society flow” (pg. 5). The author’s then go on to suggest,
“While new policies focusing only on education and skills will not solve all the challenges associated with existing inequalities, if our society’s overall levels of learning and skills are not increased and the existing gaps are not narrowed, there is little chance the economic opportunities will improve among key segments of our population” (pg. 5).
References:
Conley, D. T. (2003). Who governs our schools?: Changing roles and responsibilities. New York: Teachers College Press.
Kirsch, Irwin, Henry Braun, Kentaro Yamamoto and Andrew Sum. “America’s Perfect Storm: Three Forces Changing Our Nation’s Future.” Policy Information Report by Educational Testing Service. Princeton, NJ: 2007.
Thomas, P.L. (2012) Ignoring poverty in the U.S.: The corporate takeover of public education. Charlotte, NC: Information Age Publishing.
Creative Commons Pictures:
Original Image Credit: Education by Sean MacEntee
Licensed Creative Commons Attribution on April 13, 2011
Original Image Credit: No Path by Rebecca Haagsma
Licensed Creative Commons Attribution on April 23, 2013