9486 in the collection
FCAT: An Imperfect Test, Inappropriately Used
Guest Commentary:
Across Florida, 40,000 families are reeling from news that their third-grade children may be retained in grade, kept behind, because of a score on a single standardized reading test, the FCAT.
In addition to third-graders, thousands of high-school seniors also are suffering from the testing tyranny, as they are denied standard diplomas, no matter how well they've done in school course work. In some cases, a test score confirms what parents and teachers have already observed, and everyone concurs that a student needs more support.
In most cases, however, the family and school officials agree that retention isn't a remedy. But for many children, the decision to retain is being dictated by politicians whose experience with schools rarely goes beyond a photo opportunity. In the language of my friend Dave Miner of Bradenton, these children are "political retainees" — retained not for good educational reasons but for political reasons that have more to do with a desire to destroy public schools than to improve them.
Yes, it's true that the law recognizes a few "good cause exemptions" from mandatory retention for third-graders, but after the governor and education commissioner publicly excoriated districts that didn't fail enough third-graders last year, most schools will use the exemptions only with great caution.
Life-altering decisions are best made by the people in the community closest to the children — parents and teachers — and not by rigid bureaucratic mandates.
What do we know about this test that is used to judge schools and teachers as well as children and their families? For the most part it's a secret test, with teachers under threat of fines and imprisonment if they so much as look at test items that are used to make sweeping judgments about children's lives. The state did release some items from the 2001 FCAT, but these do little to reassure us about the value and appropriateness of the test. On the fourth-grade reading test, for example, difficult technical vocabulary sends the reading level soaring to eighth grade — and includes a spelling error.
The essay and short-answer portions of the test are graded by people with bachelor's degrees with three days of training. Finding qualified scorers is such a challenge that in 2000, NCS Pearson, the company that has the FCAT scoring contract, paid the state $4 million for failing to return scores before school was out.
Even on the machine-scored sections, there's no guarantee of accuracy. In Minnesota two years ago, NCS Pearson used the wrong key for one section of the state math test and erroneously reported that more than 7,000 high school seniors had failed it, which prevented them from graduating. It took a tenacious parent who demanded to see his daughter's test to uncover the error and the injustice that resulted.
Even if FCAT were a perfect test, it is being used inappropriately to make high-stakes decisions about promotion, graduation, school grades and funding, and bonuses for teachers and administrators. Dozens of professional organizations, including the American Educational Research Association and the American Psychological Association, agree that decisions that affect individual students' life chances or educational opportunities should not be made on the basis of test scores alone.
High-stakes tests like the FCAT further harm students by cannibalizing the curriculum, narrowing it to what can be included on a standardized test.
Music, art and social studies receive short shrift, as does writing in a variety of forms and modes, for purposes and audiences that matter to the writer. Because FCAT rewards formulaic writing, students crank out boring five-paragraph essays that no one in her right mind would ever choose to write or read.
The students at greatest risk are those that suffer most from FCAT. Instead of rich and varied educational experiences, students with the least advantages are subjected to scripted programs and Stepford teaching that often have them barking in unison to teacher commands. The widely viewed videotape of George Bush observing a reading lesson in a Sarasota elementary school on Sept. 11, 2001, provides a chilling scenario of students chanting a dull story to a metronomic beat clapped out by the teacher.
The gravest mistake we can make is to equate rising test scores with significant increases in real student achievement. Test-prep workbooks and software that mimic FCAT format by providing endless practice passages and problems can raise test scores. But they teach students little more than the false lesson that life's challenges are accompanied by four choices, one of which is the "best" answer.
Florida native and longtime resident of Lynn Haven in Bay County, Gloria Pipkin serves as president of the Florida Coalition for Assessment Reform. She taught for more than 20 years in Florida public schools. In 2000 she founded the Florida Coalition for Assessment Reform Inc. ( www.fcar.info) and currently serves as its president. With ReLeah Lent, she co-authored "At the Schoolhouse Gate: Lessons in Intellectual Freedom" (Heinemann, 2002). She wrote this essay at the request of the Daily News.
— Gloria Pipkin
FCAT an imperfect test, inappropriately used
Naples Daily News
May 18, 2003
http://www.naplesnews.com/03/05/perspective/d939141a.htm
INDEX OF OUTRAGES
Pages: 380
[1] 2 3 4 5 6 Next >> Last >>
