And, sure, there are test scores of sorts used in any number of other professions. My father used to come home talking about game show Nielson Ratings, my brother in-law looks to see the totals for his opening weekends. (Can you tell I come from a family of entertainment?) But somehow our test scores are different.

Our test scores reflect far more than our efforts and performance. They reflect how much sleep a kid got the night before. They reflect the recent divorce, the boyfriend’s breakup during passing period, the number of days the kid wasn’t at school, apathy, yesterday’s enrollment into the school, and yes, content knowledge.

But test scores are the American way, a game to those who succeed in them, aren’t they? And like any competitive sport, there is the “thrill of victory and the agony of defeat.” And, after all, we can’t all be winners, right?

But that’s just why teachers and schools have begun to circle their wagons and arm themselves with their voices loud against this threat of test scores running the show. Students should not begin their lives in the agony of defeat. We should be equipping them with what it takes to be victorious.

I think the reason why politicians tend to favor the need for competition in school is because it’s a language that’s worked for them, so they are confused about schools’ lack of buy-in. And while I’m all fine with a good healthy dose of financial incentive, we cannot compete unless we are all given the same resources. I mean, in the Olympics, does any swimmer in an antiquated swimsuit really stand a chance against someone decked out in the newfangled sharkskin suit? So is it for the inequity in school funding.

So clearly I’ve been thinking a lot about the fact that soon our jobs may be identified and retained in large part to my students’ ability to take standardized tests, a variable which, in my opinion, is only one step up from hire date as a means to retain a position (see my article for Teacher Magazine, “Does Last Hired, First Fired Really Make Sense”). And having just ended our own standardized testing, that good ‘ole CST, I am reminded yet again that one of those factors that affect achievement is the lack of quality of the tests themselves.

So as my students bubbled away earlier this May , I looked at the test booklet to get an idea of what the testing gods felt were important enough to assess this year. The quality of what I saw was truly tragic, and I thought I’d share a little of the asinine quality of these tests as a means to answer the question:

How can my job quality be based on THESE tests?

My recollection of the questions (we aren’t allowed to write them down from the book) is also compounded by the feedback from the students. But just to protect the sanctity of the actual questions which are top secret and must not be discussed at all costs, I’ve replaced all the actual terms with similar ones that hopefully get my point across.) Here are the kinds of questions we observed:

1. They were randomly asked to define the word “yachting” (remember, the actual word is disguised to protect its true identity for fear of offending the original word.) Now my Title I minority students (the majority of my school) had never encountered that word. And I was proctoring the advanced math group. You know, those kids who started Algebra as zygotes? Now, I’m not knocking the students. I’m knocking the test makers who clearly can’t seem to avoid culturally elitist questions.

2. The informational reading selections were, how do I say it? Dated. One was on reading the instructions on how to use an old crank Phonograph.

3. How ’bout the fact that there is a percentage of questions on the test which will be dumped if over a certain percent of students get it right? The fact is that the test makers assume that if a high majority of the students get the question right, (reflecting of course that a high majority of teachers actually taught that standard well) the question is trashed as being too easy.

4. How ’bout the fact that there are questions meant to just be “piloted” during the actual test, with the intention of being too hard for most kids? How does that make a kid feel while testing? Why are they using high-stakes tests to assess the quality of the questions on the tests? How nice that the test makers get to use the tests formatively, but the schools don’t.

5. I also couldn’t help but notice that there was at least one question which asked students to pick a synonym for a word, let’s say it was “brick,” and the choices to choose from weren’t even nouns like giving them “run”, “jump”, “laugh”, “cry.”

Assessments are meant to reflect what has been taught, not how to out-think a tricky question. That is not critical thinking. But in this day and age, tests are actually driving the curriculum itself. That being the case, why can’t our standardized assessments at least reflect the lessons we know are the ones that truly need be taught? (See my recent post here on College and Career Readiness in Assessments.)

If the tail must wag the dog, why can’t the tail at least be well informed about what might be knocked off the table with each swing? If tests have become instructional guides in their own right, should they not at least be good ones?

And most importantly for the topic of this post: if tests are to judge my performance as a teacher, or the quality of my students and their community, should they not at least ask questions that are applicable? There are many reasons why tests are not great ways to evaluate performance. Yes, there are students not putting in the effort or families not doing what they need to help students achieve. But it is also the quality of the very tests that is also setting up our teachers and students for failure.

Bottom line is this: good test scores does not a good teacher make, just as bad test scores does not a bad teacher make.

Care to share any of the bizarre or poorly constructed questions that you saw on the tests this year? Please share below.

____________________________________________________________________________________

And here’s a little Test Score blogroll so you can follow this topic from other edubloggers who comprise our Fellowship of the Ning (Otherwise known as Those-who-spoke-with-Arne-Duncan). Throughout June we will all be involved in discussions and webinars focused on the issues we raise in our series of posts on this topic. Remember, policy affects our practice. And all our voices need to be at the table. Check these out for further reading. Feel free to comment and participate on any of our sites:

Marsha Ratzel – “Reflections of a Techie”

Renee Moore – “TeachMoore”

Mary Tedrow – “Leaving No Multiple Choice Footprint Behind”

Anthony Cody – “Summer of Discontent”

Teacher Letters to Obama -

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=166176941518&v=app_2373072738&ref=ts

© heather for tweenteacher.com, 2010. | Permalink | 7 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: assessments, education, merit pay, standardized tests, Teachers Letters to Obama, test scores, TLO

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So think about it. Pretend budget isn’t an issue. Pretend there are no barriers. Fantasize away. Here are just some of my la-la-land dreams for fixing the schools:(...)
Read the rest of How do we “Fix the Schools?” (1,024 words)

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Post tags: assessments, education, project based learning, school reform, standards

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I begin my lesson by asking them why people go to the gym. “To work out their muscles,” a student inevitably says.(...)
Read the rest of Costa’s Levels of Questioning and Student-Designed Assessments (865 words)

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Post tags: assessments, bloom's, costa's levels, differentiation, multiple-intelligences, student-driven instrustion

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Post tags: assessments, collaboration, education, guy kawasaki, k12, middle school, testing, twitter

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But in the world of Facebook, you are infinitely defined by any thematic quiz you could imagine.  And the way I see it, it’s just the same old, same old personality type quiz…but more tailored to you.   In other words…differentiated.

For instance, according to the Facebook world of personality quizzes, I am the following (like in Jeopardy, try to think of the question that goes with the answer):

Water 

Viola 

A Hobbit

Jean Grey

Prof. Lupin

I have no real idea what all this information really means about me, but it’s a fun way to kill a couple of commercial break minutes during “So You Think You Can Dance,” does it not?

Anyway, all these quizzes got me thinking.  If you are a teacher using a multiple intelligences quiz in your classroom with your students, maybe it would be worthwhile, from a student choice/student ownership point of view, to have students develop their own quizzes of sorts.  Perhaps they can design their own topics of categorization and administer these quizzes to other students?  Would that not add additional ownership towards reflection?

I guess what I’m picturing is students gathering their own information about characters from books they’ve read during the year: traits, internal conflicts, flaws, life themes, skills, etc…and developing some kind of Facebook-esque flowchart that allows fellow students to follow a path towards a given answer.  Then the quiz author must provide a concise paragraph description of that character to distribute to students who qualify as that character.

If I understand it properly, to produce something like this offline, a student might only need index cards to create a flowchart to track answers towards the end.  Online, however, a student might use a program like this one.

I can see the value in this lesson and activity.  It serves as a review of a book or perhaps even covers the standard of Multiple Works By A Single Author.  The creation of the quiz itself is a differentiated assessment of the student who writes it.  It’s a cross-curricular assessment possibility:

Science: What Planet Are You?  (applying science, mythology, and character traits to the planets)

History: Which English Monarch Are You?  Caesar?  Inventor?

Language Arts: Which Book That We’re Read This Year?

Math: Which Algorithm Are You? (assigning traits to different equations as well as understanding the purposes behind their discoveries) 

As I’ve noted before, lessons can come from wacky places.  Keep your ears and eyes open, and you’ll have fresh lessons to start the new year off in an interesting way both for you and your students.

© heather for tweenteacher.com, 2009. | Permalink | 3 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: assessments, briggs-meyers, cross-curricular, differentiation, facebook, lesson planning, multiple-intelligences, quizzes, standards

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Here’s yet another reason why test scores can’t be the only way to gage teaching quality.

A colleague of mine, a fifth grade teacher, at the UCI Writing Project got a call last night from her automated phone tree saying that the school was being closed for 7-14 days due to a swine flu outbreak in the classes.

Two confirmed cases, 8 kids out last Friday in her class alone, a teacher or two out…OK, I guess if we’re closing schools for flu outbreaks, they seem to have one.  But the stressful thing here is not the flu itself.  No, the vomiting is outweighed by the reality that the school is scheduled to have testing next week.

The AP is calling Sacramento to see what can be done.  What do you mean, “What can be done?”  Do you mean postpone the tests, or simply put them in the frame of reference to which they belong; that is, they are one way, a frankly inaccurate photograph, of an entire year’s accomplishments?

I agree that we need some standardized assessment of students to see if they are hitting the basic foundation of our standards.  Standards, of course, are for another post entirely.  They do not, for example, represent the level a student thinks, but rather, how many facts a student can regurgitate.  Hmmm…Perhaps the swine flu is good preparation for tests after all.

Anyway, putting aside the quality of the standardized tests in their current form, this example just adds to the main reason why test scores can’t be our only gage: there are too many factors outside of the classroom that impact test scores.

We cannot continue assessing teachers using a method where so many variables can be corrupted.  Abuse at home, homelessness, health care, hunger, nomadic lifestyles, divorces…these all affect tests scores. Gossip, breakups, upcoming thoughts of birthdays, pizza for lunch…these all affect test scores.  Bubbling incorrectly, anxiety, sleepiness…these affect test scores.  So do school closures.  So do teachers that students have had years prior.  And yes, a small slice of the assessment pie would be the quality of the current teacher.

But how do we explain those students who always do well, no matter which teacher they have?  How do we explain those students who never do well, no matter which teacher they have?

Tests are too imperfect, and evaluating teachers is too important to leave in the hands of imperfection…much less swine flue.

© heather for tweenteacher.com, 2009. | Permalink | One comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: assessments, standardized testing, swine flu, teacher evaluation, test scores

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There’s a really interesting discussion thread going on at the Interactive Whiteboard Revolution ning.  It all began with my post recapping Robert Marzano’s position on the influence of IWB technology when he presented at the CUE conference this year.  You can read the thread here.    

One of the most interesting arguments going on is in the importance of whether or not Marzano is sponsored by Promethean (he is) and whether or not this somehow corrupts his findings (it shouldn’t).  As Peter Kent points out, “Corporate sponsorship is common practice. The MIT Media Lab (created by Papet and highly reputable) and currently including Mitch Resnik of Scratch fame has over 60 corporate sponsors including the possibility to having an employee of a sponsor work in the Media Lab. There is also the opportunity for a sponsor to work closely with a principal investigator and a graduate student in a specific area.  My point is that corporate sponsorship of educational research is both common and necessary.”

I’ve written on this topic before when I’ve said that I think there is a future in education as a privately sponsored entity.  In my earlier post, “Walmart Presents: (insert some president’s name) Middle School,” I previously wrote, (...)
Read the rest of Marzano con’t & Corporate Sponsorship in Education (318 words)

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Post tags: assessments, collaboration, Ed Tech, education, fundraising, interactive whiteboards, ning, TED, Title I, TLN, VLC

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So I began reflecting on my own staff and those “white space” teachers who are not extroverted enough to tout their own successes, or so modest that perhaps they don’t even know how good they are at such a hard job. These teachers, and others, go unnoticed by current teacher administrator-led evaluation policies. Clearly, these observations are not working.

I began reflecting on those teachers I have known in the past who, far more offensive then my prior example, scramble to show good practices when their observation time comes around. These teachers talk the talk, but refuse to use these practices for anything but these twice a year open-door moments. Clearly these observations, too, are not working.

I, must admit, however, that education has, thus far, not been great at policing itself. For this reason, and others, it has become a very top-down system when, in fact, it should be far more horizontal in influence. In fact, there are teachers even on my own site that I would dread being the one to evaluate me. But I wonder if there is a collaborative option that utilizes both teacher skill and administrator objectivity.(...)
Read the rest of Teacher-Led Evaluations (177 words)

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Post tags: assessments, evaluations, teacher evaluations, teacher-led

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I believe a classroom library is the heartbeat of a teacher’s environment.  It is the window into their own personality, and it reflects the importance of literacy in the classroom.  I believe every teacher, no matter the subject taught, should have one.

 Access to books should be thought about with the same differentiated approach as any other lesson, assessment, or activity.  It seems to me that there are four kinds of library-learners:

1. THE BRASH BIBLIOPHILE:  These are students who are well versed in the language of book choice and seek out what they want, avidly asking questions or using learned or inherent strategies to find the book that will make them sigh into their bed with a flashlight in hand.  They will find their way to their local bookstore by any means necessary, and look through the stacks until their parents pull them away.  

(...)
Read the rest of The Importance of The Classroom Library (923 words)

© heather for tweenteacher.com, 2009. | Permalink | 5 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: assessments, blog, book review, classroom library, classroom management, education, ELA, Golden Lines, How To, k-12, k12, Language Arts, learning, middle school, new teachers, school funding, teaching, textbooks, Title I, TLN, tween, UCI, Writers Project, writing

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-Tweenteacher

© heather for tweenteacher.com, 2009. | Permalink | 2 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: assessments, data, education policy, ELA, test prep, Title I, tween, UCI, Writers Project

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