UK government to drop high-stakes testing?

The new Conservative Education Secretary in the UK, Michael Gove, is to appoint a commission to re-evaluate the use of high-stakes testing in elementary schools in that country, called the Sats, as well as the "league tables" or report cards based on their results:

The education secretary, Michael Gove, wants teachers to be more autonomous – or "free to set their own direction". The Department for Education said "too many schools believe they must drill children for tests and spend too much time on test preparation at the expense of productive teaching and learning".

Yet the same so-called "expert" who helped devise this system in the UK under the Labor government went on to develop our accountability system here in NYC and is still pushing the adoption of these systems nationwide -- Sir Michael Barber, now at McKinsey.

The above article also omits mentioning that one of the primary reasons driving this re-evaluation was provoked by the fact that one fourth of UK teachers had their students boycott the tests this year. Steve Koss has written extensively on this blog about the widespread dissatisfaction with the high-stakes accountability system among British teachers and parents alike and its negative impact. See this, for example:Want to See the Future of NCLB? Look to the UK.

Is it too much to hope that the re-evaluation in the UK triggers a similar re-examination of this issue here in the US, where the Obama administration seems wedded to this version of education reform?

Forum on testing in District 26

Last night, Community District Education Council 26 hosted a forum on testing & Assessing in NYC Public Schools.

Our panelists were Randi Weingarten, President of the United Federation of Teachers, Bob Tobias, former Executive Director of Assessment and Accountability of the NYC Department of Education and current director of the NYU Steinhardt Center for Research on Teaching and Learning, and Jane Hirschmann, co-chair and founder of Time out from Testing.

We tried having a person from the Department of Education, however, their person insisted on conditions for appearing that could not be met.

There were over 150 members of the audience. Each panelist gave a presentation that was followed by a question and answer period.

We were informed that during the last five years, there has been a tremendous increase in the number of standardized tests and assessments given to our children and a vast proliferation in the ways results are used. All of the panelists explained that testing is an integral part of the education system and is necessary to determine whether or not students are understanding a given subject. However, all of them agreed that the standard tests were not designed to be used in the way that they are being used in NYC schools.

In particular, the use of these tests in determining whether a student is promoted and in evaluating an individual student and teacher’s performance was criticized and rejected as inappropriate.

It was also explained that there is no evidence that when students are subjected to more standardized tests, their efforts increase and understanding improves. Panelists also discussed: the disparity between students’ good results on New York State tests and not so good results on federally approved tests; the shrinking of curriculum so as to gear it toward test preparation; the excessive time spent on test preparation, and the monetary expenses associated with the tests.

At one point Senator Padavan spoke and said he will look into the possibility of limiting the high stakes testing by imposing limits on state funds to NYC; in a manner similar to the recent limits of CFE money for class size reduction.

In general, parents expressed equal concerns on the above matters and expressed frustration over the inability to stem the regimen of testing now imposed. In fact, a belief that the system of testing is harmful to the quality of education is held by most parents . Such is the frustration that many parents called for a student boycott of tests.

The Community District Education Council will be evaluating whether or not a boycott will be helpful to our students and if a boycott should be called and organized.

I urge you to take steps to publicize issues on testing and assessing that do not reflect only the Department of Education’s point of view. By doing so, you will be doing a tremendous service to our children.

Sincerely, Robert Caloras, CDEC26

The parent voice, censored from the parent survey

Today, the DoE will send home a survey in backpack mail and by snail mail, for parents to fill out about their schools. Last week, many parents who participated in the focus groups that were supposed to help design the survey sent a letter of protest to Schools Chancellor Joel Klein, pointing out how our concerns were censored from the survey. (see our letter dated April 26, and the Chancellor's reply.)

Now, we are calling on all parents to boycott the survey, cross out the questions listed, and before sending it back, write “We want real parent input – as well as smaller classes, less testing, and new priorities at Tweed to deal with the real problems in our schools.”

Class size, testing and test prep, the principal’s attitude towards parents, and the functioning of school leadership teams were all key issues for us and the other focus groups whose results we were shown. Despite this fact, none of these issues will have individual questions dedicated to them in survey.

Rather than admit that these are key concerns, the Chancellor responded to our letter that they were merely “one or another of the many hunderds (sic) questions that were proposed.”

Instead of including questions about the issues parents really wanted addressed, there are many that seem designed to put the blame on us, if our children are not receiving a sufficiently individualized education.

In any event, since the parent survey will account for at most only 3-5% of a school’s grade, the results will continue to deny us the ability “to exercise the kind of voice and influence over our schools that every parent, secondary student, and teacher in the City deserves,” as the Chancellor claims. Yet again, this is simply another PR offensive by Tweed, to try to show that they really care about what parents think when the reality is otherwise.

We deserve far better. Parent voices and views have again been stifled– even when it comes to the parent survey itself.

Please, send the survey back corrected – so that Tweed hears how we really feel.

UPDATE: Bloomberg lashes out at parents who criticize survey. See our new post with links to press coverage.