Monday, November 07, 2011

Emphasis on testing makes less sense than scores


The hottest temperature ever recorded in the United States was 52 degrees in Las Vegas, Nev., according to Wikipedia. Prospect Creek, Alaska, recorded the coldest temperature of minus 63 degrees. I took a college entrance examination first in the warmest city and scored 500. In the coldest city, I scored 20, a whopping loss of 480 points.

The Herald-Leader's Sept. 29 editorial, cited some statistics about differences in test scores between elementary and high school:

"In math, the drop from elementary to high school was a whopping 27 points (from 73 percent to 46 percent proficient or higher) and in science 30 points (71 percent to 41 percent)."

The editorial continued: "There may be a reasonable explanation, but it appears that students are losing a lot of ground in math and science once they reach high school."

Yes, there may be. The Herald-Leader's numbers may be little better than the ones I cited above. The issue is the scale upon which the numbers are based. The 52 degrees is temperature on the Celsius scale; the comparable value on the Fahrenheit scale is 125 degrees. The first test was the SAT; the second was the ACT.

The Herald-Leader's differences — which should be expressed in percents, not points — are from scores on different scales. There has been no attempt to vertically equate the tests (fancy words for making tests scores comparable). While there are straightforward rules for translating a temperature in Celsius to Fahrenheit, the process is much more complicated for test scores. Without equating the scales and making sure that cut-points to determine proficiency are comparable, comparisons like those in the editorial are not meaningful.

With the increased use of tests, one would expect increased sophistication about the proper use of scores and how to interpret results. That is not the case. At every level, one gets ridiculous test score use and interpretations.

No Child Left Behind used test scores in reading and mathematics to make judgments about schools.

Kentucky's Council on Postsecondary Education requires placement in courses based on one test score.

Very short tests are given to eighth graders in Kentucky and interpreted to mean a student is or is not "on track" to go to college.

Fayette County schools use a short test to track a sixth-grader into a less rigorous mathematics course.
Perhaps school officials should look more closely at international test results. None of the high-scoring countries track as early or as much as does the United States.

A friend of mine asked me where I thought this recent, silly, unquestioned emphasis on testing came from. I don't know.

But it was not so long ago that a major purpose of testing was "in addition to," not instead of. A score on a college entrance examination was used in addition to the high school record for admission to college. A score on a placement test was used in addition to previous work in the subject matter to make placement decisions. A standardized test was given to get additional information about how students were progressing.


So the real problem with the editorial is not that it misuses test results and misinterprets test score differences. That's the coin of the realm. The problem is that it has been captured by this inexplicable infatuation with testing. Most fads in education fade away. Let's hope.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Dear Dr. Day,
Dr. Dr. Kifer,

Once again I wanted to tell both of the lunacy surrounding testing. Last week, at our school, we took the on-demand writing test. We were told by the testing coordinator "that we did not want the students to do well." (I question the credentials of a testing coordinator who would make such a staement) We were told that if the students did "too well" that might raise the expectations of the examiners who would then, in turn, expect all students to write at a certain level. I could not understand the rationale behind these statements. If the Commonwealth is paying for the tests, why would we not want students to do well? The writing prompts were varied and they appeared fair, but we teachers had no idea on what basis the tests were being scored. How much for grammar? How much for content?

The students I tested have been taught so many previous "graphic organizers," as of late, they did not know what to choose for this test, and, as a result, and many students spent too much time on writing the pre-write, and less on the actual "final copy" to be graded.

To further illustrate the lunacy and incoherence of testing in Kentucky, we no longer can call an ORQ (Open Response Question) an ORQ. We have changed that to "Extended Response" or an "ER." I can tell you this: no ER can help this broken system, which, to me, seems DOA. Dead on Arrival!

I am in despair. I still feel afraid to speak up regardless of what Tom Shelton says, and it seems that FayetteABC has become moribund and ineffective. Where is Dr. Myrup? Should I just keep my mouth shut and grin and bear it for the next three years before I retire.

I feel strangled by the FCPS testing octupus. Would you and Skip ever consider teaching a "Teaching Empowerment" seminar? Would you ever teach an "Understanding testing in Kentucky" seminar? I just can't seem to come to terms with this job any longer, but I love teaching.

Anonymous said...

I could not agree with you more strongly. There is a complete detachment between local and state leadership. Seems so ironic that our educational leaders can't seem to teach us how we are suppose to be teaching but certainly seem confident in developing ways of evaluating educators. Seems like a KERA era revolt by true local education leaders is greatly needed. How could this expenditure and emphasis on vendor assessments ever be considered equitable in relationship to the larger educational budget? The only fair and equitable aspect about this is that we are all equally dispondent and confused

Anonymous said...

Just got info on how state is going to have us calculate grades (20%) of end of course exams based on ACT determined cut scores for college readiness.

So somehow a testing company in Princeton, NJ (ETS/ACT)has unilaterateraly decided upon a numeric score on their examination (which really has no statistical corrolation with college success) based not on content competency but on a self created critereia call "college readiness" to determine if a student in Kentucky should get a particular grade in his or her Algebra II class which was taught by a teacher who was told by state officials to change to Common Core curriculum for an examination which is aligned with quality core.

Oh yes,the company doesn't even supply hard copy guides for parents and students to interpret their scores. School are expected to make those copies for each exam for parents.

Assessment is increasingly becoming irrelevant in relationship to teaching and learning through its own self destructive actions. We have just wasted millions of dollars on assessments we neither control, understand or can use.

Anonymous said...

For anonymous, Nov 8, 8:49:

As a signer of the FayetteABC petition, I get regular updates from Erik and Cheryl Myrup. For example, they recently met with Tom Shelton sharing general concerns from petition signers and from teachers who have contacted them, objecting to academic celebration assemblies focused primarily on test scores, and calling for a district- led discussion with teachers and the community about test-related concerns.

If you do not get these updates but want to know what they have been doing, you should contact them at the address on the FayetteABC website.

If, like FayetteABC signers, you would like to see the district open up this discussion, you should email the superintendent who has recently asked for public comment and encourage everyone you know to do the same.

Teachers, you may not feel appreciated by administrators for your efforts to teach the broad curriculum, but I know these efforts are appreciated by many students and parents. Thank you.

Anonymous said...

To the author of the above post (9:14), I am, as a teacher, too afraid to contact Superintendent Shelton to express my views on testing. I am also afraid of retaliation by my principal, Kate McAnelley if I were to question the testing procedures at my middle school. I wish this were not so, but it is. When Dr. Myrup's email came to each staff memeber, many were afraid to open or respond. I saw the names of less than ten teachers on teh signature list. FEAR was again the major factor. I also saw a high number of UK staff that had signed. (My uncle is on the staff at UK) We teachers , even the tenures ones, know that we xan be moved if we are perceived to be "trouble makers."