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From Kindergarten to College

Standardized Testing
With Karen Hartke
FairTest
Thursday, Aug. 23, 2001; 2 p.m. EDT

Are standards of learning tests the answer to improving our nation's schools? Can these tests truly measure a child's knowledge? Do these tests overburden teachers?

Karen Hartke from FairTest will be online to take questions and comments on standardized testing.

The transcript follows.

Editor's Note: Washingtonpost.com moderators retain editorial control over Live Online discussions and choose the most relevant questions for guests and hosts; guests and hosts can decline to answer questions.

Easton, Mass.: I know a lot of parents who are angry and upset about the way our state test -- MCAS -- is taking over the schools. Now we're getting notices that our children who've been in honors classes have to go to remedial classes and might not graduate. How can parents get in touch with other parents to do something about this?

Karen Hartke: Massachusetts is home to a substantial parent group - the Coalition for Authentic Reform in Education - that has been raising a number of concerns about the MCAS. Their primary goal is to end the use of the test for high-stakes purposes including high school graduation and school accountability due to some of the same concerns you raised.

CARE has expanded to a statewide group and has been joined in its quest to halt the high-stakes MCAS by the state's school committees, principals and superintendents and several legislators who recently filed bills calling for an end to high-stakes MCAS.

To learn more about concerns raised by parents, about what you can do to help, and what is happening now in MA, go online to www.caremass.org and/or call 617-864-4810.

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Laurel, Md.: Do you believe the SAT is racist or sexist?

If so, how do you explain discrepancies in math scores?

Karen Hartke: Even the SAT's manufacturers agree that, on average, the test underpredicts the college grades of females and overpredicts for males -- this is a textbook definition of gender bias. Race is more complicated -- the data indicate that the SAT generally underpredicts college performance for students whose home language is not English.
Moreover, when SAT cut-off scores are (mis)used to determine admission and award scholarships, otherwise-qualified African American, Latino, Native American and new-Asian immigrant students are excluded. Many of these young people would succeed if given the opportunity -- but the SAT
and similar tests serve as unfair gatekeepers to access.
These are some of the reasons why FairTest supports colleges adopting policies that make SAT (and ACT) scores optional for applicants -- policies that already work at nearly 400 colleges. Test scores do not equal merit.

Herndon, Va.: Standardized tests are fine -- in their place. Would you agree they are now being overemphasized at the elementary through high school level?

Karen Hartke: Yes! Standardized tests are best used as one indicator in balance and alongside other types of assessments. Leading testing experts and researchers agree that a single test score should never be used in isolation to make critical decisions, and yet there has been a substantial upsurge across the country in exactly this type of test misuse.

When sanctions, rewards, promotion, graduation are tied to tests – that is – they are used to make ‘high-stakes decisions – there are many predictable negative results. Those that are heard most loudly by parents are about unfair and mistaken judgments about student ability and endless, mindless drilling of students to prepare for exams. The fallout of high-stakes testing is felt everywhere, but often falls most heavily on students in schools that are already struggling. For instance failure rates, dropout rates, and grade retention rates predictably rise under high-stakes testing situations – but they tend to grow fastest among minority and low income students. Thus, the overemphasis on tests often results in greater disparities between the haves and have-nots in public education. Today’s USA contains an excellent commentary by Alfie Kohn about many of the things that are sacrificed in our schools when tests are used to “drive” schools and curriculum improvements.

The solutions being proposed by testing experts, teachers and parents are primarily to de-emphasize standardized testing and elevate classroom work and class based assessments to measure both students and schools.

Seattle, Wash.: The test scores in Washington state seem very tied to race and class. The higher percentage of students on free and reduced lunch, the lower the scores. It is true right down the line in Seattle. How typical is this across the country, and how do you understand this phenomenon?

Second Question:

Is there any evidence anywhere that shows that a higher score on a standardized test translates to a better education? Are higher scoring students more success later in life? The tests are sold here in Washington as testing for learning that is necessary for success, but there is no evidence here to support that claim. Is there evidence anywhere?

Karen Hartke: The strong correlation between student family income and the wealth of communities and the results on standardized tests is a pattern that is widespread across the country. Test score results best reflect the resources of the communities where schools reside. This is one reason why the common practice of ranking schools according to their average test scores provides misleading and often false information to the public about the value of the real education taking place inside the school. Schools whose students enjoy enormous financial and other advantages inside and outside the school are rewarded for high test scores, while less resourced schools in poorer communities are "punished" despite these disparities. No wonder more and more qualified teachers are choosing not to practice where resources are scarce. There is little incentive. "Accountability" practices that rely on test scores alone to rank and measure schools, like the testing mandates being proposed by President Bush's education proposal, will only continue to mirror these disparaties while sanctioning schools based on limited and often
mistaken information about eduational quality.

Karen Hartke:
(The last question had two parts: here's the response to the second part about test scores and later success in life)

Quite the contrary, several studies have shown no relationship between test scores and life-success. In fact, many currently successful adults could not pass the tests we're now requiring of our children -- that's
why so many politicians and business leaders refuse to take the very tests they are promoting with the knowledge that their scores would be made public

Supporters of plans to impose more standardized exams on our children often make claims that are not based on any data. Their arguments fail the real world "tests" of evidence and logic.

Fortunately parents, teachers and community activists who support genuine education reform, not just more testing, are joining together to help our children learn through FairTest's Assessment Reform Network. Check it out at http://www.fairtest.org

Seattle, Wash.: Who is making money from these standardized testing programs? How much are they making? What else could be done with that money? How is that our public schools are making these decisions and then keeping the tests secret, away from any public review?

Karen Hartke: The economic downturn that has recently spread among the dot.coms and some of the rest of the private sector came to screeching halt at the door of companies that make and score standardized tests and those that produce test preparation materials. Both types have recently experienced an upsurge in profits now in the billions. The money spent on measuring could have been spent on solving the problems we already know exist in our public schools. Investments in reducing class size, providing access to early childhood care, providing professional development and ensureing that students have the books and materials they need would have paid off far more in the long run than the reams of data we now have as a result of testing.

While this sector is booming, there is virtually no independent sort of consumer protection agency overseeing that the tests are being used properly, accurately and fairly. The tests your kids take are less regulated than the food your dog eats. While companies and several policy makers argue that test secrecy is necessary to hold down costs, the public needs and deserves protection from unfair practices, and should be able to review the very tools that are being used to make such critical decisions about future spending, rewards and sanctions and which students can graduate, for instance.

Reston, Va.: What people need to realize is that the SAT primarily tests four things: reading speed, vocabulary, arithmetic, and the nerves of the student. The do not test the basic intelligence of the student, nor do they test that students work ethic, two of the most important factors in collegiate success. When I was a freshman in college, I had two girls who lived across the hall from me. One had a 1100 SAT, the other had a 1500. After the first semester, the girl with the 1100 had mostly A's and B's, and the girl with the 1500 had C's and D's, because she didn't know how to study hard. Similarly, my best friend didn't break 1000 the first time he took the SATs, because he reads slowly and gets anxious while taking tests. But when he graduated, he won the award for the top student in his entire department (this was at one of the big-name VA schools). I can think of many more examples of this sort of thing: standardized tests really aren't as useful as people think they are, and they should be emphasized less than a student's grades.

Karen Hartke: This is a great example of one of the reasons why a growing list of colleges and universities are deciding to make the SAT optional for incoming students - they have realized that the data provides little help in identifying talent, smarts and potential.

Fairfax, Va.: Do proponents of standardized testing take into account that different students learn in different ways? In my opinion, schools that operate with this in mind will be the most successful.

Unforunately, most don't and the kids who need more than text to learn are the ones who will be left behind. (My artist boyfriend was one of them.) This is particularly true in schools where teachers are too busy dealing with discipline problems, keeping the slowest students afloat, and figuring out whose parents are injuring their kids this week to actually teach the material.

Likewise, do you think that testing will lead to an upsurge in homeschooling, Montessori schools, and alternative schools that do take a child's learning style into account? I was a gifted child who spent my school years deadly bored in a poor rural county where education was a low priority and am seriously considering homeschooling as an option for creative learning.

Karen Hartke: For clarity, I've restated the questions with my responses.

Q: Do proponents of standardized testing take into account that different students learn in different ways? In my opinion, schools that operate with this in mind will be the most successful.

Very good point! Proponents of standardized testing act as if our schools are supposed to "crank out" children on an assembly line instead of meeting their individual needs. Two good books to read on the subject are "Standardized Minds" by Peter Sachs and "One Size Fits Few" by Susan
Ohanian.

Q: Unforunately, most don't and the kids who need more than text to learn are the ones who will be left behind. (My artist boyfriend was one of them.) This is particularly true in schools where teachers are too busy dealing
with discipline problems, keeping the slowest students afloat, and figuring out whose parents are injuring their kids this week to actually teach the material.

If Congress adopts President Bush's proposal to require every state to test every child in grades three to eight every year in english and math, many more children will be left behind. Students who are learning disabled, creative in non-academic ways, or whose first language is not
english will increasingly be held back and driven out of school by unnecessary tests.


Q:Likewise, do you think that testing will lead to an upsurge in homeschooling, Montessori schools, and alternative schools that do take a child's learning style into account? I was a gifted child who spent my school years deadly bored in a poor rural county where education was a low priority and am seriously considering homeschooling as an option for creative learning.

It's very telling that many advocates of more standardized high-stakes testing for public schools send their own children to expensive private schools where education is individualized and tests play a minor role. Students from poor families can't afford that luxury -- they will be the
victims of drill-and-kill education at test-driven schools.

washingtonpost.com:

That was our last question today. Thanks to everyone who joined the discussion.

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