Testing Mania....
Dear Editor -
Dr. W. James Popham's insightful article "The Score-boosting
game: everybody loses" illuminates many troubling and often perverse
aspects of standardized testing. I particularly liked his realistic
examples from 4th and 6th grade assessment tests that use non-routine
math questions.
Yet the most poignant point, buried deep inside the article, was his
clear understanding of the rules of the game for high stakes testing.
If anyone was serious about getting an accurate test score, then the
tests would be administered by an objective third party. It's hard
to believe that our sophisticated political leaders really expect
administrators and classroom teachers, facing financial penalties
for low scores and bonuses for high scores, to be disinterested. As
Dr. Popham so politely put the matter, "you may reasonably conclude
that the score-boosting game's requirements are so unsound that showing
a bit of leniency to your students doesn't seem all that inappropriate."
The crux of the matter remains that there will be widespread teaching
to the test, bending the rules to help students, and a deceitful culture
of more or less open cheating to raise test scores. There have been
no attempts to prevent, in the most minimal manner, fraud. Who is
administering the tests? Where are the tests kept? How long will teachers
have the tests? Who will score the tests? Why aren't there any essay
questions included on the tests?
School boardmembers want to look good, administrators want to look
good, and teachers want to look good. Politicians and education reform
bureaucrats also want to look good. It's quite easy to become very
cynical about the state of education reform in California.
The
tragedy, of course, remains that accountability is a very legitimate
demand. Parents, teachers, and students want to see children delight
in learning and acquire knowledge of the modern world. Many other
countries (France, Japan) manage to administer both rigorous standardized
tests and maintain intellectual integrity.
I would, however, beg to differ with Dr. Popham on another central
point. There is nothing wrong with expecting students to master a
core body of knowledge. All high school seniors, for example, should
know that Abraham Lincoln was president during the Civil War. History
teachers should expect a question about Lincoln and the Civil War
because if somebody doesn't that bit of information, then they are
effectively excluded from understanding the United States today. It's
easy to mock the memorization of critical dates, facts, and formulas,
but the post-modern assumption that there is no objectivity undermines
the foundation - and justification - for any education system. So
we need fair, objective, and serious standardized testing of students
of appropriate materials.
Unfortunately, the current testing mania has almost nothing to do
with honest educational reform. It's an open secret that few people
actually want an honest assessment of student abilities or school
rankings. Almost every "stake holder" wants the illusion
of progress, and raising test scores will re-enforce those illusions.
Dr. Popham's article has done an excellent job deconstructing the
false premises behind the widespread assumption that teachers can
or should be judged by test score results.
Thank you for publishing his important article. I wish every elected
official, education journalist, test designer, and school administrator
could be cajoled into reading it.
Eric
H. Roth
Santa Monica College
howdouno@attbi.com
3737 Redwood Ave.
Venice, CA 90291
Back
to top
