Standardized Testing actually REDUCES student motivation

[Elspeth]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/2518379.stm

... Constant testing at school could be highly detrimental to pupils according to new research.

A government-commissioned study by the Assessment Reform Group, carried out at Bristol university, says repeated exams are putting children off school and reducing their learning ability.

The research concludes that repeated testing leads to poor motivation, less effort and lower results.

It says pupils see the point of school in terms of passing tests rather than understanding what they are learning...

[femmocrat]

1. This is news?

Just ask any teacher!

[teacher gal]

3. Yes, but

do you think policymakers listen to teachers? Ha...we are the last consulted, along with parents.

[teacher gal]

2. Here's a link to a recent study

on the impact of high stakes testing on the dropout rates.
http://epaa.asu.edu/epaa/v16n3/


Avoidable Losses: High-Stakes Accountability and the Dropout Crisis
Linda McSpadden McNeil
Eileen Coppola
Judy Radigan
Rice University

Julian Vasquez Heilig
University of Texas-Austin

Citation: McNeil, L. M., Coppola, E., Radigan, J., & Vasquez Heilig, J. (2008). Avoidable losses: High-stakes accountability and the dropout crisis. Education Policy Analysis Archives, 16(3). Retrieved from http://epaa.asu.edu/epaa/v16n3/.

Abstract

In the state of Texas, whose standardized, high-stakes test-based accountability system became the model for the nation's most comprehensive federal education policy, more than 135,000 youth are lost from the state's high schools every year. Dropout rates are highest for African American and Latino youth, more than 60% for the students we followed. Findings from this study, which included analysis of the accountability policy in operation in high-poverty high schools in a major urban district, analysis of student-level data for more than 271,000 students in that district over a seven-year period under this policy, and extensive ethnographic analysis of life in schools under the policy, show that the state's high-stakes accountability system has a direct impact on the severity of the dropout problem. The study carries great significance for national education policy because its findings show that disaggregation of student scores by race does not lead to greater equity, but in fact puts our most vulnerable youth, the poor, the English language learners, and African American and Latino children, at risk of being pushed out of their schools so the school ratings can show "measurable improvement." High-stakes, test-based accountability leads not to equitable educational possibilities for youth, but to avoidable losses of these students from our schools.
K

[Elspeth]

4. Can you post some of the info from the link on this thread?

Thanks

[teacher gal]

6. Sorry...done on reply #2

I'm trying to hurry, I'm sorry. I'll be back in a few minutes to see how this discussion is going.
Thanks!

[teacher gal]

5. FairTest - great organization in the fight for testing reform

The National Center for Fair and Open Testing (FairTest) has some links that might be of interest. Go here: http://www.fairtest.org/k-12/high+stakes

If you haven't read this publication by Peter Henry, it's excellent: http://www.mcte.org/journal/mej07/3Henry.pdf
I've posted it here before but it was quite a long time ago.

[Elspeth]

7. Thanks, this needs to get out there

So many parents think that all this testing helps their kids get competitive. It actually destroys their ability to learn a lot.

[Elspeth]

8. It would be nice to get a 5th recommend

....

[DesertRat]

9. done. n/t

[Elspeth]

11. THANKS!

:hi: :loveya:

[teacher gal]

10. Sheesh Elspeth

I'm so sorry I messed up on helping you with this thread. Twice! I've added a little now if you want to check it out.

[timtom]

20. Sorry.

I was only the eleventh recommend.

I have failed you, Elspeth.

[ananda]

12. Anyone with half a brain would know this..

.. just from observation and experience.

[Elspeth]

16. No. Most good people don't know this. Parents believe that these tests improve their kids'

overall achievement. If they actually knew the truth, they might put pressure on the politicos to stop this nonsense.

[seabeyond]

38. i am in pta and involved in two schools with boys. not a single parent, not a single teacher

and not a single principal is in favor of these tests. i even know a couple on the education board and they are not for this test.

we have had them in texas for a longer time so anyone that thought they might of been a good idea have come to the side that they are horrible and damaging in so many ways.

[The2ndWheel]

13. Standardized testing for a standardized world

Just part of the process.

[Elspeth]

17. Depends on which process.

I agree if it's all about the dumbing down process.

[tavalon]

14. Well, there's a duh statement

Honestly, though, school was always boring to me and I was always a good test taker so given those two, I might actually like school better as long as I could just read whatever I wanted through my classes.

[Elspeth]

15. Not really. Parents and teachers and politicians are always sold on tests improving achievement

That's why those tests are never wholeheartedly fought and why parents and politicos clamor for them. These studies make it clear that standardized testing as a way to improve achievement is a lie.

[Kitty Herder]

18. That's no surprise. nt

[LeftishBrit]

19. Surprise surprise! (but I'm glad it's now coming out in the open).

There was also research a little while ago that showed that children perform worse *on the standardized tests themselves* just after an OFSTED school inspection than at other times.

Our governments since the 1990s have treated schools as factories, with teachers as assembly line workers and children as processed peas. There's been a bit of a backlash against this recently, and research like this study may accelerate it; but it has certainly been most demoralizing.

And in the UK, it's not just schools that have been affected by this 'test-itis' and 'target-itis'; it also affects universities, hospitals, doctors, etc.

[aikoaiko]

21. Some (possibly unfriendly) questions?

This topic concerns me greatly because I teach at the college level and have to teach/assess the students who graduate from our primary and secondary schools.

What constitutes constant or repeated testing?

How is standardized assessment inherently not capable of assessing understanding?

Is it possible that some students' motivation is lowered by accurate information that the students don't understand the material?

In the abstract posted by teachinggal, were the increased dropouts caused by students receiving accurate information of poor understanding instead of getting "socially" passed and graduated.

[LWolf]

22. Constant or repeated testing:

In the district that I taught in in CA, elementary students did a round of standardized testing for the state and the feds in the spring that lasted 3 weeks. We spent the first half of the day, until lunch time, for 3 weeks.

That's a lot of testing, and a lot of missed instructional time.

Then the district, required in the new "improvement" plan, when 2 schools didn't make AYP, added "formative assessment." This was not REAL formative assessment; it was a round of tests given every trimester, taken from the newly required scripted curriculum, used as an accountability piece to make sure all teachers were keeping up with the standardized pacing schedule. These math and reading tests took about a week each, each day until lunch. So...another 2 weeks each trimester for tests that were not used to inform instruction, but as a teacher accountability piece.

Thats 9 weeks of testing a year. 2/3 of a trimester. In elementary school.

My current district, in another state, schedules 3 rounds of standardized testing a year. Per subject. The tests are shorter; takes 5 days, about 30 minutes a day. Only those students who did not pass earlier take the 3rd round. This is more reasonable, but still has them spending about 30 days out of the year testing, not counting the science test, which they only do at certain grade levels, and the writing exam, which is done in 4th and 7th grades. The writing exam takes about a week, 2 hours a day. 10 hours.

My current district also requires a portfolio of work samples, and several other measures collected; DIBELS, easy CBMs, and they are now working on more "formative" assessments to be given across the district. The only good news here is that they really do intend these "formative assessments" to be used to inform instruction; they are not a teacher accountability piece.

Testing, testing, and more testing, and for what?

My college professor, when I took "Psycological Measurement" before the high stakes testing movement, spent a lot of time on the portion of our text that looked at data about standardized tests themselves. The greatest predictor of a student's standardized test scores is not anything that the school or teacher does, but SES. This suggests that using standardized test scores to assess understanding is a flawed process, at the least. Based on that, if you wanted to effect change in standardized scores, you would focus your resources on health care, affordable housing, jobs, and adult education for those in the lower brackets.

Does lack of understanding lower student motivation?

It CAN lower motivation for special ed students, who are faced with tests so far beyond their capabilities that they don't even try to understand what they are doing.

It CAN if students have not been supported in their efforts to learn; if they believe that they will fail before they even begin.

In my experience, it works the other way around. The tests, and the constant threat of tests, lowers motivation to learn. Even on the part of those who PASS the tests.

[Fumesucker]

23. Whet is "SES"?

""The greatest predictor of a student's standardized test scores is not anything that the school or teacher does, but SES.""

[LeftishBrit]

24. Socio-economic status (basically social class)

[LWolf]

26. "socio-economic status:"

Parent ed and income level.

[aikoaiko]

28. Thanks

It does sound like too many days in your school are dedicated to testing. I'm surprised the school year hasn't been expanded to address that decrease in teaching/learning contact hours. I can see how that many testing days (non teaching learning days) would interfere with teaching and learning.

What do Standardizes test measure? Performance - at least as defined by the test maker. Its true that things like SES and IQ (and the two are often confounded) are great predictors of standardized tests, but that doesn't really matter when the question is what have students learned and we want to make comparisons.

I don't understand why "the tests, and the constant threat of tests, lowers motivation to learn". Usually I studied, read, practiced more when tests were promised. Is there no accountability for the student performance?


Maybe I don't understand the tests. Don't they measure they things we would expect students to learn?n

[LWolf]

29. All good questions.

FYI, in my state and district, the school year was SHORTENED to accomodate budget cuts a few years back. We have 168 student contact days; one of the lowest in the nation.

Even the best of standardized tests don't always measure what they are intended to. It is really difficult to come up with one standardized test that does not contain any test bias. Often, test questions depend on cultural knowledge, not just academic learning.

For example, a test question in the 2004 Tennessee state test asks questions about a passage written about tying a lasso.

If a student does not know what a lasso is, the question will not give a reliable result.

Do you think every child in the nation knows what a "lasso" is?

Then there is the question of validity. Is the test actually testing what it claims to?

For several years in the late 90s, stopping in 2000, I gave standardized tests to 2nd and 3rd graders in California. Let me tell you about the 2nd grade math test:

First of all, the entire test is read aloud. There is no written record of the question in the test booklet. There is sometimes a picture, but no written information, including question, at all. The point is to make sure that when a child misses a question, it's because they don't understand the math; not because they can't read the problem.

Second, the problem is read aloud ONLY ONCE. Remember that there is no written record. The 2nd grader must be able to retrieve the information they need on one hearing. By the way, these are ALL story problems. There is one short section on actual computation. The rest of the very long test is ALL word problems. Some problems with extraneous information, requiring 2nd graders to distinguish between which information is needed, and which isn't. Some requiring multiple steps to solve. All done on one hearing.

Third, while the students are allowed paper and pencil to take notes while the problem is read (because 7 yos are such good note-takers,) the proctor is instructed to give them 10 seconds to mark an answer before reading the next problem. 10 seconds. That's not much time to process all of that information and make a choice before being ready to hear the next problem...ONCE.

Obviously, the results of this test reflect more auditory comprehension than math skills.

One of the questions that I recall asked a question about how many fence posts were needed. The test booklet included a picture, not of fence posts, but of fence slats/pickets. This question penalized prior knowledge of fences. Anyone who actually knew what a fence post was spent their ten seconds looking for pictures of posts.

Of course, students forced to take a test in a language other than their first, home language, are at a distinct disadvantage.

So are students with identified learning disabilities. The special ed population tends to do their learning with concretes, in small steps, and less paper-pencil. That's not the way they are tested.

Finally, we know that students, that people, are not "standardized." Students come to us with a wide variety of learning styles. Some are more auditory, some more visual, some more kinesthetic. Gardner goes even further than this. The tests, though, offer one format, regardless of learning styles.

There is no accountability for most of these tests for students; they aren't intended to be a student accountability tool, but a teacher accountability tool. Except for some of the exit exams being currently developed for high schools, kids are not accountable at all for their results.

They still develop test anxiety. When you threaten school districts, school sites, and teachers with "punishment" for test scores, then the tests are pushed. Hard. Hard enough to cause anxiety, and, in some cases, to cause students to shut down. It's not a positive thing.

They ARE accountable for regular teacher-developed and/or chosen classroom tests and assessments; those they are graded on. They do study for those. Those tend to reflect the instruction, and the practices in the classroom, much more closely than a standardized test. There are many ways to demonstrate learning. Of course, those classroom tests simply add to the amount of time spent testing. :shrug:

[Runcible Spoon]

35. oi vey.

you teach at the college level and you haven't taken the time to research basic pedagogical ethics? If you can't do the basic research to investigate standardized testing and why its current use is detrimental to the learning process in every imaginable way, I suggest you insert No Child Left Behind up a dark orifice. Standardized testing is almost universally abhorred by serious researchers specializing in education unless they are on Bush's payroll, and reviled by teachers everywhere. Any usefulness it ever had as a diagnostic device has been replaced by its
(d)evolution INTO the prime material and focal point in American public school curriculum. As with everything Bush-related, just follow the money.

[seabeyond]

39. my children start taking simulated tak tests in fall. they are studying to these tests

from beginning of year on... a month prior to the test they focus only on the tests.

if these tests were just given out of the blus one day then it would not be constant and repeated, but that doesnt happen. schools cant afford it.

[dansolo]

25. NCLB is designed to make public schools look bad

I can't believe that Ted Kennedy pushed this turkey.

[LWolf]

27. Kennedy and Miller, and they are still pushing it.

I lost any illusions I had about supposed liberal democrats when TK bought into this mess.

[Elspeth]

30. It means that Chomsky is right, that there is only one party

The business party

[LWolf]

31. Yes.

:(

[Elspeth]

32. And on that cheerful note...

I wish you good night

[Occulus]

36. Actually, I think it's designed more to help

kill them off. Vouchers also help in that regard.

I do not understand the 'why', though, except in terms of having a dumbed-down, easily led population, one that won't question anything. That necessarily implies a level and length of conspiracy or simple conflation of similar ideologies with an endgame so dreadful I don't want to think about it.

[Snarkturian Clone]

37. I wouldn't be surprised if it was designed to fail

so when 2014 comes around the fed gov will say "See! Public schools suck ass! Time for federal control!!!" or "See, we were right! Privatize, motherfuckers!!! And it's the unions' fault!"

I work at a union-less charter school and I'll tell ya... the things that made teacher's unions start in the first place become evident right away. Basically the admin takes advantage of every teacher to the nth degree in the name of being "flexible"...

[Elspeth]

42. Oh yeah. "Flexible".

What a joke. It basically means that they should be able to drain every drop of blood from you and pay you crap wages.

[Elspeth]

43. Then why do parents and politicians buy into endless testing?

Maybe parents need to be informed and fight like hell.

[roody]

47. And why do teachers carry it out?

[Elspeth]

48. Teachers can be reprimanded, fired, etc. Make no mistake: teachers are the peons in the system

The Superintendents (who typically score 100 points lower on the SATs than the average teacher), the politicians, and the school administration are in charge. If a teacher does not give the test, or if his/her students do poorly, the administration (principals, district curriculum people, etc.) can go after that teacher.

The place it HAS to stop is with the parents, who actually have some clout and can use their collective power to intimidate the district and local politicians.

Of course, now with that SF court ruling that says that parents have NO constitutional right to home school their kids, I don't know how parental clout will change.

[teacher gal]

33. a critical distinction

I think it needs to be made clear that it is not standardized testing per se that is so destructive but the overuse and MISUSE of the tests as with the practice (malpractice) of attaching life-altering consequences to the results of these quite imperfect measures.

Using a medical model... if a doctor prescribes a drug for a sick patient, the drug can help the patient if used as prescribed and intended. However, if the patient abuses the drug, the consequences can be destructive, even fatal.

David Berliner (author of The Manufactured Crisis) and Sharon L. Nichols recently published "Collateral Damage: How High-Stakes Testing Corrupts America's Schools". I highly recommend this book as they document how high-stakes testing threatens the very purposes and ideals of our education system. Their analysis is grounded in the application of Campbell's Law, which posits that the greater the social consequences associated with a quantitative indicator, such as test scores, the more likely it is that the indicator itself will become corrupted - and the more likely it is that the use of the indicator will corrupt the social processes it was intended to monitor.

Again, I highly recommend this book.

[goclark]

34. No Child Left With A Decent Education

[Iwillnevergiveup]

40. Poor motivation and less effort, indeed

For years I watched as many of my middle school students opened up their test booklets, scanned a few of the questions and then proceeded to bubble in answer sheets for the sole purpose of creating designs. A 50-minute test was completed in 5 or 10 minutes, but they sure enjoyed their snacks!

[teacher gal]

46. Yes, and teachers' jobs

and the survival of our schools are being tied to the results of these er, "objective measures" - ha

[knitter4democracy]

41. Duh.

:eyes:

Anyone who's ever taught knows that, and anyone who's ever been a student through times of massive standardized testing knows that.

[Quantess]

44. I hope the lawmakers hear about this.

They are the ones who mandate school policies.

[Breeze54]

45. I disagree. It's not the test, it's the weeks of drilling to learn what's on the test!

LNCB should be defunded to die a slow death and that won't be difficult, as it was never funded properly... on purpose!

It is *'s and the GOP's way of killing public education. Screw them! :grr:

[Elspeth]

49. Remember that Ted Kennedy was also part of NCLB

Maybe he has rethought it?