What If We Had a Test and Nobody Took It?
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In a rational world, the public school test prep season wouldn't heat up during the winter and the first of April wouldn't signify the beginning of the high-stakes test marathon, and the end of learning during the last quarter of the school year. Before NCLB, testing didn't distort instruction and it was done in the last couple of weeks of May. Now, for weeks after almost all students and teachers have completed their roles in the ordeal, testing make-up sessions disrupt school.
Why?
Testing drags on for so long for the same reason why so test prep is mandated. When stakes are attached to assessments, a cat and mouse game results. Schools seek quick and easy fixes to make accountability numbers look better and systems respond by tightening regulations. So, under-the-gun schools are required to test 95% of students or face sanctions. That is why teaching, learning, the completion of classroom projects, field trips, and the celebration of sharing the school year must take a backseat to rounding up the last test-takers.
The arcane 95% rule could be crucial in defeating test and punish malpractice, however. If only a student or two per class refuses to be tested, the entire school's results could be thrown out. And, the Buffalo News's Barbara O'Brien reports that up to 30,000 New York students may opt out of state tests. This boycott will prevent many districts from meeting their threshold. In one district, 28% of 8th graders refused to take the test. In another, there was a fourfold increase of opt-outers.
District administrators have a right to be alarmed, but there is no need for them to What If We Had a Test and Nobody Took It? | John Thompson:
