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New York Not Unique in Operating on Flawed Assumptions with Its High-Stakes Tests
Ohanian Comment: The author, a longtime director of curriculum services for the New York Education, points out that not all students learn in the same way and that the problem with using the Regents as a high stakes test is not a problem unique to New York; the flawed assumptions on which this is done are rampant in other states. Some states, such as Georgia, have scrapped the practice--and fired their director of testing.
Unfortunately, it appears from recent interviews that state Education Commissioner Richard Mills and the Board of Regents have already adopted the position, ''Damn the torpedoes, we are not going to change our course.'' This is before there has been any study made of the faulty exams in Math A, physics and chemistry, and the mistakes made on other exams such as French, Spanish and the Regents Competency Test.
When dealing with the educational welfare of children, this is an untenable position.
The use of Regents exams as high stakes tests for all students is based on many flawed assumptions. Across the country other states are having the same problem as New York.
A 7-year-old program in Georgia using a number of similar high stakes tests has been scrapped, and the head of the state testing program has been fired. The reasons are the same as those showing up on the Regents exams faulty tests, incorrect scores, high numbers of student failures, teacher and parent protests, and pressure from politicians to start over with more realistic requirements for graduation.
The arbitrary position of the Regents and the commissioner flies in the face of facts such as the high dropout rates in New York City, where the reported rate is about 20 percent, with one high school at about 50 percent. The graduation rate for New York City as reported in a February study by the Education Policy Center of the Urban Institute is 37 percent, as compared to 60 percent for the state as a whole. Is it assumed that having to pass the five required exams will solve this problem rather than make it worse?
The basic flawed assumption is inherent in the policy of Regents examinations for all students. With apologies to Garrison Keillor and the people in his fictional Lake Woebegone, New York state has not become Woebegone state where all students are assumed to be above average. Not "all" students fit into a system where the "one size fits all" is translated as a requirement that they must pass five exams that total 18 hours to graduate.
Another flawed assumption is that the type of examination now used is appropriate as a high stakes test required for graduation. It is assumed that the process used in preparing the tests is infallible. It is also assumed that the tests produced will always be valid measures of how students succeed in mastering the content in the core curriculum. Both of these assumptions have been proven to be wrong. There have been and will continue to be yearly aberrations in the results on this type of examination.
The assumption that the state Education Department can function with a limited staff of subject matter specialists and rely on temporary personnel is insupportable. A collection of generalists (Jacks of all trades), psychometricians (testing experts), statisticians and bean counters and too few scholars will always produce inadequate educational services and products.
It also is assumed that glowing reports from the Education Department showing that more students with disabilities are benefiting from the testing program will be accepted as fact. When state and federal figures are reviewed and analyzed, however, it seems that there is an increasing number of such students who are dropping out.
The Regents and commissioner must settle for a revised testing program that does increase the number of students who will take appropriate Regents exams. But, it must be accepted that such tests are not to be used as high stakes tests for graduation. The federal No Child Left Behind Act only requires passing reading and mathematics for graduation and that math test should never be a test like Math A.
So, the Regents should back off and take a more sensible approach that will still raise standards for all children. Yes, all children can learn, but not all of them can learn at the same level, at the same rate, or in the same way.
It is the most critical of several false assumptions, and the one that guarantees the worst possible outcome for many students.
Gordon E. Van Hooft worked for 43 years as an educator, including 29 years in a variety of state Education Department positions. He retired in 1980 as the department's director of curriculum services. His e-mail address is: gevanhooft@aol.com.
— Gordon E. Van Hooft
Learning Curve
Albany Times-Union
July 6, 2003
http://www.timesunion.com/AspStories/storyprint.asp?StoryID=148593
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