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9486 in the collection
Just Because They Say So, Doesn't Make It True
Don Perl and Yvonne Siu-Runyan take on their state department of education. May concerned teachers and parents go in the other 49 states go forth and do likewise.
by Don Perl, J.D. & Yvonne Siu-Runyan, Ph.D.
In the Spring 2008 issue of the Colorado Communicator on page 13, Colorado Department of Education's Students Assessment Unit (CDEASU) responds to three questions raised about the CSAP.
The first question: What do you see as the merits of CSAP? CDESAU answers, "The CSAP is a statistically valid and reliable assessment of where a student is relative to proficiency as defined by Colorado educators on Colorado's model content standards in reading, writing, math and science. The CSAP assessments are a valuable tool for students, parents and educators to see each year what progress each of our students has made toward proficiency in these important areas."
Our Response:
CDE's Students Assessment Unit's response is the kind that raises far more questions than it answers. Merely saying that the CSAP is valid and reliable doesn't make it so. If the CSAP is simply shown to be highly correlated with similar tests, this is also not impressive.
Those who evaluate the short answer questions are temporary workers who are paid $10.50 per hour. These temporary workers are not teachers, and it is irresponsible to consider their judgments to be comparable to those of a professional educator.
Another significant consideration is that the tests themselves are the issue. The range of “acceptable answers” is so narrow that even if professional educators were grading the tests, students are put in a box that limits appreciation for their full range of skills and abilities.
The important question is whether students who do better on these tests go on to being more successful, in school and in life. The goal of education should kindle thoughtful people who know how to think rather than what to think, people stirred to ask questions about what is important for society, and create solutions, which benefit all humanity. The CSAP does none of these.
The second question: How might the role of CSAP change with the new leadership in the state? CDESAU answers, "Commissioner Jones supports the CSAP as a measure of Colorado model content standards. He also has proposed his "Forward Thinking" document that the standards on which the CSAP is based be examined over the next year to determine if they are adequate for 21st century competencies. This standards review is currently underway and should be completed within the next several months. If the standards are updated, then the CSAP assessment will be reviewed and updated to match the new standards."
Our Response:
Though Jones wants changes, we wonder what kind and will those changes make any difference in the long run? Does anybody know what 21st century competencies are?
How does the Commissioner intend to find out? By a committee vote?
The fact is we have no way of knowing what the future is going to look like. Bureaucrats' attempts at pre-defining a set of skills limits learning through the use of high stakes testing, and have created a multitude of unintended consequence such as:
• Undermine a child-centered approach to education that has so well served previous generations. Ultimately it is the child’s abilities, aptitudes, needs, and interests that should be driving instructional decisions. The frenzy to cram standards down the throats of our children is comparable to teaching adults tax codes— a government exercise with no real value.
• Jeopardize many schools in budget binds, which in turn has lead to the decline of such important curricular activities, like field trips and the arts, which expand our young's background knowledge so important for meaningful learning.
• Reduce learning to test taking, not authentic learning.
• Doesn't account for the diversity of students and how divert thought has shaped and strengthened America.
The phrase "21st Century Competencies" is rhetoric based on the following thoughtless, arrogant notion: "We'll decide what you should know as well as the value of what you know." In reality, standards and assessments don't reach children, teachers do.
Those in favor of standards use drop out rates, youth incarceration, and fewer low-income and minorities enrolling in Colorado colleges as their reasons for tough standards. We offer another perspective. We suggest that the testing hysteria may have contributed to drop out rates, youth incarceration, and fewer low-income and minorities enrolling in Colorado colleges. But it is even more important to consider that Government politics have failed in our democratic mission to extend educational opportunity to all our citizens (Mortensen, 2000).
It is vital and requisite to consider that our young are being exploited, relegated to categories, put in "ticky-tacky" boxes, and labeled ad nauseam at a time when their talents, imaginations, interests, curiosities, and humane tendencies are so in need of nurturing, and thus should be nurtured.
A student will grow up to discover a myriad of career options. We don’t know what our students will become in their personal and professional lives. As Engel (2008) states in a conversation, "We can say with absolute certainty that our students will not grow up to be CSAP test takers." If we are truly to prepare the coming generation for an unknown future, then we must give students the opportunity to apply what they have learned in real-world contexts under conditions that are relevant and personally meaningful (Spady, 2001).
The third question: Where do you think CSAP fits in a comprehensive assessment program? CDESAU answers, "The CSAP assessments are given once a year. They are not designed to take the place of classroom assessment that monitors a student's day to day progress toward proficiency. Colorado teachers should be teaching to standards on a day to day basis. Consequently, the CSAP assessment should be a valuable yearly summative review of student progress.
Our Response:
Though the CDE's Student Assessment Unit says that CSAPs are not designed to take the place of everyday classroom assessment, then why are students, teachers, and schools continue to be ranked, punished and/or heralded? If teachers are important as implied by CDESAU, then why aren't teachers' evaluations taken more seriously? As CDEASU states when answering question 1 that the CSAP is only a measure, we press then why is there so much "hoopla surrounding CSAP scores."
A recent study by Geiser and Saltelices (2007) has shown that high school grades are a better predictor of college achievement than the SAT, a standardized test. Geiser and Saltelices found that adding SAT scores to grades did not provide much more information than grades alone, which suggests that we may not need standardized tests at all.
High stakes testing undermines democracy, learning, critical thought, intellectual freedom, creativity, imagination, and inventiveness—all necessities for an informed and thinking citizenry. The best people to determine how well a student is learning are their teachers, their parents/caregivers, and of course the students themselves. Relying on the combined wisdom of these groups is not only cost-effective; it provides far more knowledge than any high-stakes testing program.
References:
Engel, A. (2008). Private communication on May 23, 2008.
Geiser, S. & Santelices, M.V. (2007). Validity of high-school grades in predicting student success beyond the freshman year: High-school record vs. standardized tests as indicators of four-year college outcomes. Research and Occasional Papers Series: CSHE 6.07, Berkeley: University of California. http://cshe.berkeley.edu
Mortensen, T.G. (2000). Poverty, race, and the failure of public policy: The crisis of access in higher education. Academe. Retrieved May 25, 2008 from http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3860/is_200011/ai_n8911581
Spady, W. Beyond Counterfeit Reforms: Forging an Authentic Future for All Learners. Boston: Scarecrow Press, 2001.
-Together Dr. Perl and Dr. Siu-Runyan have 74 years of teaching experiences. For a longer, more detailed version of this article with charts, data, and a detailed, summarizing conclusion contact Yvonne Siu-Runyan at . Perl and Siu-Runyan thank Dr. Stephen Krashen and Angela Engel for their support and insightful responses.
— Don Perl, J.D. & Yvonne Siu-Runyan, Ph.D.
response to Colorado Department of Education's Students Assessment Unit
2008-05-28
INDEX OF OUTRAGES
Pages: 380
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