Network Schools – Wayne Gerseny to https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2022/04/03/magazine/thomas-piketty-interview u w B l.html?h I’ll smid=url-share the Is for

I’ve read several articles and blog posts about the NYS tests… and all of them underscore the flaws of using standardized tests to measure the effectiveness of schools.

The “Lace To The Top” blog provides the clearest example of the flaws with standardized test scores: the cut score can be modified from year to year to alter the pass rates. As anyone familiar with standardized tests realizes, the scores are not “standard” in a pure mathematical sense. As the blog points out:

Results of the Math tests are up 4.6%, but the cut score was lowered by 3% (3rd grade). In 2013, students needed to receive 44 out of a possible 60 points in order to achieve a passing score of 3. In 2014, students needed to only receive 42 out of a possible 60 points in order to receive a passing grade of 3.

Results of the ELA tests are up 0.1%, but the cut score was lowered by 2% (3rd grade).  In 2013, students needed to receive 35 out of 55 possible points to achieve a passing score of 3. In 2014, students needed to only receive 30 out of a possible 49 points to receive a passing grade of 3.

So while the perception of the public is that these “standards” are objective and mathematically invariant the reality is that they are subjective and fungible… as they must be since the questions vary from year to year. Thus, as any student who passed a course in education statistics knows, standardized tests are NOT precise. The public, however, has a different perception,  a perception that is reinforced when schools are rated against each other based on numeric scales generated by the test developers and promulgated without any caveats by State Departments of Education.

The overall lack of transparency in the NYS tests was the topic of a City Limits blog post by Fred Smith last Monday. The post describes the change in the way test results were shared with teachers and the public. Before Pearson took over the testing in 2011,

SED made complete copies of the annual statewide exams available on its web site shortly after they were given, along with the answer keys. People could ponder the test content and thought processes required of students to answer the questions. Every year, no later than December, a technical report was issued giving specific information about each item.

Now, only 50% of the questions are shared and the technical report is non-existent or released too late for teachers to use the results to inform instruction. This is especially problematic given that the tests will be used to rate and rank teacher performance. The practice underscores the reality that these tests are NOT being used to inform instruction in the classroom or help students but rather being used as an evaluation tool… or more accurately being MIS-used as an evaluation tool. And though Smith does not mention it in his analysis of the test results, I believe Pearson is the culprit here: since they are writing the test they probably are using some kind of “proprietary right” argument to avoid releasing the kinds of broad data SED formerly issued– another adverse by-product of privately contracting for the test development.

Anthony Cody’s Living in Dialogue blog post recounts the sordid history of standardized testing, describing how the tests were originally designed to sort employees into manual labor assignments or office jobs. It emphasizes the explicit link between eugenics and standardized testing but overlooks the more subtle and, in my judgment, more damaging link between Taylorism and testing. The use of tests reinforces the notion that the “output” of education can be objectively measured in the same way that a manufactured product can be measured using, say, a micrometer. As noted previous posts, the standardization paradigm is necessary for those who wish to privatize education and leads to a narrowing of the curriculum because teaching to the test is more efficient than giving children the time to learn a concept deeply.

Alas, the testing shenanigans will continue until the public wakes up to the realization that standardized testing ISN’T exacting and IS undermining their children’s joy of learning.