The Case Against Standardized Testing

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The Case Against Standardized Testing

• Will standards save public education?

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The Case Against Standardized TestingAlfie Kohn

• Our children are tested to an extent that is
  unprecedented in our history and unparalleled
  anywhere else in the world."

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Measuring What Matters Least

• Nation at Risk report stirred up widespread
  concerns about our schools
• Corporations that manufacture and score these
  exams have a stake in testing
• Testing allows politicians to show theyre
  concerned about education
• Standardization suggests that subjectivity can be
  overcome, however standardized tests do not
  provide such objectivity

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Measuring What Matters Least

• Content of the test is not objective
• Test anxiety affects scores
• Some students dont take them seriously
• Dont prepare students for real world
• Studies show statistical association between high
  test scores and shallow thinking

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The Worst Tests

• Multiple choice
• Does not measure same cognitive skills as are
  measured by similar problems in free-response
  form
• Timed
• When students are asked to complete within a
  specified period, a premium is placed on speed as
  opposed to thoughtfulness
• Given frequently
• Out of step with developmental reality
  ensures that those who require more time will be
  branded as failures

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The Worst Tests

• Norm-referenced
• Expecting all students to have acquired the same
  skills or knowledge creates unrealistic
  expectations and leads to one-size-fits-all
  teaching
• Reported as percentile do not assess excellence
  they are about sorting students into winners and
  losers sets students up for failure

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Burnt at the High Stakes

• Support for testing seems to grow as you move
  away from the students
• Officials use bribes and threats to coerce
  everyone into concentrating on the test results
• Low scores are, to a large extent, due to social
  and economic factors, such as resources and
  affluence
• With the possibilities of error, children can be
  misclassified

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Burnt at the High Stakes

• Rewards and punishments can never succeed in
  producing more than temporary compliance.
• Human beings are less likely to think creatively
  when they perceive themselves to be under threat.

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Burnt at the High Stakes

• High-stakes testing
• drives good teachers and principals out of the
  profession,
• educators become defensive and competitive,
• has led to widespread cheating,
• may turn teachers against students,
• may contribute to overspecialization,
• more that scores are emphasized, the less
  discussion there is about the proper goals of
  schooling

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Poor Teaching for Poor Kids

• The tests may be biased
• Affluent families, schools and districts are
  better able to afford test-taking
• Quality of instruction declines most for those
  who have least

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Poor Teaching for Poor Kids

• Poorest families, schools, and towns suffer most
  from policies enacted by officials who claim to
  be committed to higher standards for all
  students.
• Those who teach low-scoring populations are the
  most likely to be branded as failures and may
  decide to leave the profession.

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If Not Standardized Tests, Then What

• Standardized tests are efficient at ranking one
  school or state against another.
• They arent efficient for determining how good a
  given school is, or how effectively a given
  student has learned.

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If Not Standardized Tests,Then What

• Examples are narratives, portfolios, performance
  assessments, authentic assessments, student
  reflections, etc.
• Parents need to be informed, aware, and confident
  of any assessment performed in the classroom.

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Fighting The Tests

• Kohn wrote this book as a means to protest
  standardized tests
• Methods go from mild to extreme
• Letter writing
• Talking to parents, legislators, school officials
• Filing Lawsuits
• Boycotts

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Reaction to Text

• We agree with Kohn philosophically, testing could
  be a piece of the puzzle, but should not be the
  ONLY way that students are evaluated.
• While we agree that talking to parents and
  legislators is acceptable, even protesting,
  boycotting is an unacceptable practice.

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Standardized Testing and Student Motivation

• Its also reasonably clear that intrinsic
  motivation is more desirable and more potent over
  the long haul. No amount of extrinsic motivation
  to do something can compensate for an absence of
  genuine enthusiasm. (Kohn, 2000)

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Standardized Testing and Student Motivation

• Experiments have shown that when two groups of
  teachers are asked to teach the same content or
  skills to comparable classes of students, the
  group instructed simply to help their students
  understand the content or master the skills tends
  to teach more efficiently and elicit better
  student achievement than the group instructed to
  prepare students to pass an achievement test.
  (Brophy, 1998)

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Standardized Testing and Student Motivation

• Several studies (reviewed in Good Brophy,
  1997) have shown that an emphasis on teaching for
  understanding not only leads to better
  achievement of higher-order outcomes but also
  produces comparable or better achievement of the
  kinds of lower-order outcomes that are emphasized
  on standardized tests. (Brohpy, 1999)

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Alfie Kohn

• Website www.alfiekohn.org
• Written seven previous books such as
• Punishment by Rewards
• Beyond Discipline
• The Schools our Children Deserve
• Former teacher and recognized as perhaps the
  biggest critic of standardized testing.

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Will Standards Save Public Education?Deborah
Meier

• Standardized tests are too simple and
  simpleminded for high-stakes assessment of
  children and schools. Important decisions
  regarding kids and teachers should always be
  based on multiple sources of evidence that seem
  appropriate and credible to those most concerned.

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Educating a DemocracyMeiers View

• Standardization is misguided and shifts the locus
  of control from the people nearest the children
  to people who have very little day to day
  dealings with them.
• It undermines the ability of the teacher to teach
  and motivate students.

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Educating a Democracy Alternative Assumptions

• Goals
• Authority
• Assessment
• Enforcement
• Equity
• Effective Learning
• An Alternative Model

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Responses to Meier

• Standards have been inspired by concerns for the
  disadvantaged kids. -Thernstrom
• Standards can work if
• Reflect wisdom of parents and teachers
• Curricula aligned w/new standards
• Provide professional development
• Must insist that high stakes tests are not the
  only indicator of academic progress. -Chase

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Responses Continued

• In a society that is stratified along racial and
  economic lines the absence of state standards
  guaranteed that educational opportunities for
  students will be stratified according to where
  one lives and what ones background is. -Nash

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Responses Continued

• When the state gets in the business of giving
  schools endless laundry lists that must be
  taught, we loose our ability to teach well.
  -Nathan
• I believe that standards based educational
  reforms have significant promise for improving
  American Public Education. -Murnane

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Responses Continued

• Standard setting should be part of the everyday
  vocation of schools and communities, the heart
  and soul of education and should engage the
  widest public. -Ayers
• The communities right to control many if not all
  students education deserves to be a fundamental
  America Freedom. -Sizer

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Reflection to Meier

• Meier states that control over curriculum and
  assessment should be under strict local control.
• We, however, believe that standards are
  necessary, there should be some local control,
  and that high stakes testing on those standards
  is dangerous and irresponsible.

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Comparing Kohn and Meier

• Kohn has very extremist views on high stakes
  testing but is not against standards. (video)
• Meier is against state mandated standards and
  assessment, and fights for local control. (video)

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Resources

• Handout