School Officials Doubtful About Technological Infrastructure For Online Testing

 

Sean Cavanagh writes at the Education Week (7/1) “Digital Education” blog that a new survey sponsored by the Software & Information Industry Association and released at the 2014 conference of the International Society for Technology in Education indicates that roughly 60% of school officials “do not feel their schools have the bandwidth or devices to make them ready for summative, online testing.” Noting some significant methodological deficiencies of the survey, Cavanagh says that nonetheless, the results “seem to speak to school officials’ anxiety about administering computer-based tests aligned with the common-core standards.”

New SAT Part Of Shift Toward Testing Achievement Instead Of Aptitude

The Washington Post (4/22, Anderson) reports that that the new SAT is part of a “long move away from testing for aptitude as the College Board seeks to tie the exam more closely to what students learn in the classroom.” Cyndie Schmeiser, the College Board’s chief of assessment, commented that “the College Board has moved toward achievement testing in response to the need for better information about student readiness.” Jeremiah Quinlan, Yale University’s dean of undergraduate admissions and an adviser to college board, said “this test could be even more predictive of success in college than it has been in the past.” Bob Schaeffer, a spokesman for the National Center for Fair & Open Testing, criticized the new test, stating that “SAT scores will remain a better measure of family income than of college readiness.” In an opposite opinion, Stuart Schmill, dean of admissions for the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, said the new focus “made sense,” as it measures what students “should be” learning in high school.

New Technology Seen As Essential To Teaching Old Subjects

In an op-ed for the Wall Street Journal (4/22, Subscription Publication), former Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, who serves as chairwoman of iCivics Inc., and Jeff Curley, its executive director, cite the College Board’s decision to have every student who takes the SAT read a passage from America’s founding documents or the world debate they inspired. They also note the announcement that the College Board and the nonprofit digital education platform Khan Academy will partner to provide “free, world-class test prep” for the new SAT. In discussing these developments, the authors note a paradox in education in which teaching the old subjects is as important as ever, but also in which new methods may be required to fully prepare students for the future. They argue that old methods of preparation such as flashcards and memorization are no longer sufficient, and digital technology is essential to providing students with the tools they need to understand the material.

Field Testing Of Common Core Exams To Begin This Week

The AP (3/22, Hefling) reports that over four million students will participate in field testing of Common Core exams beginning “this coming week in 36 states and the District of Columbia” and ending in June. The field tests “will give education officials a chance to judge things such as the quality of each test question and the technical capabilities of schools to administer the tests.”

        The AP (3/23, Blankinship) reports that in Washington state, “nearly 40 percent of children in grades three through eight and about 10 percent of ninth, 10th and 11th grade students will be participating in a field test,” and 24 states with “about 3 million students” will participate in “the Smarter Balanced coalition test” of the exams. There will also be “a shorter sample test online.”

        NY1-TV New York (3/23) reports that New York City students “will serve as a testing lab for the new Common Core exams” in June as “students in 36 states will take a trial test based on the new math and English standards.”

Higher Education Officials: High School GPA Better Success Predictor Than Standardized Tests

The AP (3/24, Edwards) reports that higher education officials say that standardized test scores aren’t “the best predictor of college success,” but instead “a student’s high school grade point average” is. The piece notes that Dr. Thomas Calhoun of the University of North Alabama “said research indicates a student’s performance in high school tracks better with that student’s college performance.”

NEA Backing Bill To Reduce Federal Testing

Alyson Klein writes at the Education Week (3/12) “Politics K-12” blog that the National Education Association is backing legislation sponsored by Rep. Chris Gibson (R-NY) and Rep. Krysten Sinema (D-AZ) that would significantly decrease “the federal footprint on standardized testing.” Noting that similar legislation has failed in the past, Klein writes that under the bill, “states would assess their students only in certain grade spans” instead of “testing students in reading and math in grades 3 through 8 and once in high school.”

        THE Journal (3/11) also covers the NEA’s backing of the bill, noting that the union “issued a lengthy endorsement of the legislation, praising the bill’s sponsors and slamming high-stakes standardized testing as harmful to students and detrimental to education.”

California BOE Member Defends Common Core Testing Switch

In an op-ed in the San Francisco Chronicle (11/15, Cohn), California Board of Education member Carl A. Cohn writes about the law recently passed in California to provide “a one-year respite from the state’s 15-year-old standardized testing program” as the state transitions to Common Core-aligned tests, and he laments that Education Secretary Arne Duncan is “threatening to withhold at least $15 million – and potentially billions more...as a punishment.” Cohn criticizes ED officials for issuing a “high-handed threat,” and calls on ED to reverse its position on the issue.

California Struggling To Assess Districts’ Testing Readiness

Southern California Public Radio (11/4) reports online that education officials in California are assessing districts’ readiness for “a new computerized field test” tied to the Common Core Standards scheduled for five months from now. However, “fewer than one in four have returned” a classroom technology survey.

Angelou “Blasts” RTTT

Valerie Strauss writes at the Washington Post (10/29) “Answer Sheet” blog that author Maya Angelou, who recently joined over 100 other authors and illustrators asking President Obama “to curb policies that promote excessive standardized testing,” has now “blasted” Race to the Top, calling it “‘a contest’ that doesn’t help children learn to love to read and get a better understanding of the world.”

Poll: Opinion Shifting Away From Test-Based Teacher Evaluations

Neon Tommy (10/3) reports that according to a new American Policy Makers/Gallup poll, “the majority of Americans now oppose using test scores to evaluate teachers,” even as most respondents “think increased testing has hurt public schools.” The article presents this as a “sea change” from views over the past decade.

Retired Teacher Criticizes Four Decades Of US Education Reform

In an op-ed in the Washington Post (9/28), Patrick Welsh, who recently retired after 43 years teaching English at T.C. Williams High School in Alexandria, Virginia, writes about the frustrations teachers feel about “the politics of education reform,” which results in a constant stream of new reform policies that are often jettisoned soon after being adopted. During his career, Welsh writes, he “saw countless reforms come and go; some even returned years later disguised in new education lingo.” He laments that none of the policies he witnessed “make students care about what they’re studying and understand how it’s relevant to their lives.”

Analyst Says California Should Not Forego Test Data

Jack Mosbacher, an analyst at California Common Sense, writes in a column in the Los Angeles Times (9/20) about the impasse between California and ED officials over the state’s plans to hasten its transition to Common Core-linked assessments, arguing that given changes to the state’s education funding formula and other policy changes, “a year without [student test] data is unacceptable.”

California Testing Overhaul Ignores High School Exit Exam

The EdSource Today (9/19, Baron) reports that the California High School Exit Exam was not addressed by the California legislature’s recent overhaul of the state’s high-stakes testing program, quoting a California Department of Education spokesperson saying, “The future of CAHSEE remains unclear; it’s an ongoing discussion during this time of transition.”

Columnist Says It’s Time To Stop Testing Just For The Sake Of Testing

In a Janesville (WI) Gazette (9/16, Stanford) op-ed, Democratic consultant and Austin American-Statesman and MSNBC columnist Jason Stanford lauds efforts in California and Texas to reform their annual assessments but questions the US Department of Education’s response, in which it rejected both states’ approaches and threatened to withhold Federal funding in the event either state abandons the tests. According to Stanford, “Secretary Duncan’s refusal to play ball with California and Texas shows that the federal government is committed to the ideology of assessment for the sake of the data, not the learning.” Stanford adds that “It’s time to stop testing for testing’s sake and fostering the innovation that makes America exceptional.”