For years, school administrators have been talking about bringing more computers into the classroom. Parents have assumed that this was to enable students to hone their computer skills and to gain knowledge about the world. Surprise! It has turned out that the world is gaining knowledge about your child. Read Jane Robbins’s commentary about data-mining from the website, Truth in American Education here.
After our post of May 4th, even more students have opted out of the Smarter Balanced Assessments which align with the Common Core Standards. Students, parents, and teachers are not quietly accepting the new Smarter Balanced Assessments which have no track record, rob students of countless hours of school time, and squeeze out other subjects which are not in the Common Core Standards.
Bellingham students have opted out by the hundreds. See the article.
Also, students in University Place’s Curtis High School are opting out, many citing testing overload as the reason. Read about University Place here.
Diane Ravitch, education researcher, posted on her blog a resolution by teachers in Everett, Washington, disapproving of the Smarter Balanced Assessments.
King 5 News did a story on the wave of opt outs in the Puget Sound area.
We hope the education policy-makers are watching and listening.
As in previous posts, we repeat, the Smarter Balanced Assessments are NOT STANDARDIZED, even though the media, administrators, and legislators use the term. For one thing, the assessment is adaptive. They explain on their website: Based on student responses, the computer program adjusts the difficulty of questions throughout the assessment. For example, a student who answers a question correctly will receive a more challenging item, while an incorrect answer generates an easier question.
You can see that each student is receiving a different set of questions. If each student is taking a different assessment, how can that be called standardized?
Please read more about the difference between “standardized tests” and “assessments” in our commentary, “Lies, Damn Lies, and the Myth of ‘Standardized’ Tests.”
Students across the United States are opting out of Common Core Assessments, and that includes Washington State. The US Department of Education funded two consortia to develop the assessments: The Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium (SBAC) and the Partnership for the Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC). In Washington State, we are using the SBAC assessment.
Here are a few points to keep in mind:
(1) Students may legally opt out. Yes, by law, Washington State schools are required to administer the assessments. However, students are not compelled by law to take the assessments. There are possible consequences, however. Through a phased-in schedule, high school students will eventually have to pass the SBAC to graduate. This year, however, juniors and seniors may use the assessments that are being phased out to graduate.
(2) Not Standardized. The assessments ARE NOT STANDARDIZED no matter what teachers, administrators, politicians, or the media say. This is from Smarter Balanced ‘s own website:
“Based on student responses, the computer program adjusts the difficulty of questions throughout the assessment. For example, a student who answers a question correctly will receive a more challenging item, while an incorrect answer generates an easier question. By adapting to the student as the assessment is taking place, these assessments present an individually tailored set of questions to each student and can quickly identify which skills students have mastered….. “
Think about it: If each student is being fed a different set of questions, it means each student is taking a different assessment. That cannot be described as “standardized.”
Also, please read our commentary: Lies, Damn Lies, and the Myth of “Standardized” Tests.
It is not the test that is standardized; it is the student who is being standardized through continued assessments.
(3) No Validity and Reliability Studies The SBAC (and also the PARCC) assessments are brand new. They have no track record. It has not been established yet that they actually measure college and career readiness. The use of the computer for this new assessment is unfamiliar to many students so low scores often reflect the students’ confusion with the computer process, not their lack of comprehension of the material.
Nathan Hale High School, Seattle: http://www.king5.com/story/news/local/seattle/2015/04/23/sbac-standardized-testing-nathan-hale-high-school/26267407/
Garfield, Roosevelt, and Ingraham High Schools, Seattle: http://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/education/big-wave-of-seattle-juniors-skipping-new-high-school-tests/
University Place, Tacoma: http://www.thenewstribune.com/2015/04/29/3765492_half-of-curtis-high-school-juniors.html?rh=1
When students take the Smarter Balanced Assessment this year, many may score poorly due to the computer-driven nature of the test, not because they did not know the material. The Smarter Balanced Assessment is an online assessment, although a paper version will be made available during a transition period. The flawed construction of the computer assessment is the subject of a critical report by education consultant Steven Rasmussen. Read the Education Week article about Steve Rasmussen’s Report and Steve Rasmussen’s report itself .
Rasmussen urges people to share his report with their friends. Please do so! And consider opting your child out of the Common Core Assessment.
Kindergarten used to be a place to paint pictures, play with clay, make friends, and learn a few social graces. Now it is a place to be assessed and started on the path to be molded into human capital. What has happened to common sense?
Some teachers are beginning to speak out in defense of their students. Valerie Strauss of the Washington Post writes about a Florida teacher who refused to administer one of the Florida kindergarten assessments, the FAIR test. See the article.
Although she feared she would be fired, she just couldn’t bring herself to subject her students to the assessment. Her gutsy stand led to the principal’s decision to drop the assessment. Read the follow up story.
This trend of early assessments started before the appearance of the Common Core Standards and Assessments. Now that data collection through the Race to the Top and other mandates has become a priority, the assessment machine starts in kindergarten or earlier, giving rise to such non-governmental organizations as the Early Childhood Data Collaborative. The assessments drive the curriculum and facilitate the data collection. It isn’t even clear whether the assessments reliably or validly measure what they’re supposed to be measuring, or whether constantly assessing students actually improves education. We appreciate people like this brave teacher who speak out against them.
Click to download a sample Opt-out form which you can adjust to fit your situation.
Even the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction acknowledges that you may opt out your child from assessments. See the third question on their assessment information page.
Also, read the commentary from our friends at “Stop Common Core in Washington State”.