Standardized Testing Pushback!

Scott,

Ok, not a comic, but a new one is being released tomorrow, but more on that later…

For now,

I heard this on NPR radio this evening when driving home from a wonderful get together hosted by the Boston Teacher’s Union (thank you for the good conversation and food my friends!). It seems some parents have finally reached their limits with the amount of standardized testing occurring in schools these days. Testing that seems to have no rhyme or reason or direct correlation to student learning. Check out the link below and read or listen to the story on NPR.

http://www.npr.org/blogs/ed/2015/03/05/390239788/why-some-parents-are-sitting-kids-out-of-tests

For my comic fans, my next comic, which deals with the current plans to close more of our schools, is to be released tomorrow!

The first 3 to leave a comment will win a free ed.reform t-shirt! (I’m feeling crazy tonight!)

-Contest Update- contest closed, hooray for the lucky 3, you will be receiving a email from me shortly.

 

Published by Scott

10 Comments

  2. Very interesting article. I don’t think it makes a great case for over testing given the data they provided though. In fact, 14 tests over your entire school career as a student seems remarkably small to me. But, then again, I’m a firm believer in using the test data to improve instruction. Parents should get up in arms about how come assessments are being adopted and used without training teachers on how to use the data to make sure they’re refining their instruction in the best way to support their students. A good testing setup, one that serves to illustrate student achievement, would also enlighten teachers to areas of strength and weakness for individual students so we could do our jobs more efficiently. 🙂

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    1. I agree with your point on using data to drive instruction, and thank you for your insightful comment. I think all educators as well as most “civilians” understand that some form of assessments must be used to inform instruction, but unfortunately that is not the purpose of standardized tests. They are not called “high-stakes” for nothing! Whether a student graduates, and often whether a teacher will keep their job, have all become tied to such test scores. The data from the exams is far from being used to inform instruction, as many a school has had the mantra “improve your test scores or else!” beaten down upon them. If such tests were truly used as a tool to inform instruction I don’t think anybody would be pushing back on that.

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      1. So true- excellent point. Take that “high stakes” part away and I’m completely sold! Fortunately the data isn’t tied to teacher evals yet in Boston but it’s coming, I’m sure. I just hope they take the time to realize how few teachers actually have an assessment directly related to their teaching.

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      2. Yes, so officially it may not be tied, but personally I know from experience how carefully my classes’ test scores are scrutinized by my admin. Let’s not forget that our entire school’s “report card” and ranking is in large part determined by these test scores as well.

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  3. One word for this article, insane. This concerns me because there is so much pressure on children in kindergarten, especially in high performing charter schools, I fear that if this became requirement in these types of schools, I personally don’t think children will respond well. In result, their academic performance will drop big time.

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    1. Drawing from your personal experience in such a school Debbie I think you offer some real insights here, thank you!

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