Testing, Testing, and More Testing

Michelle Rhee has decided that all students in all grades, in all subjects will begin getting tested every six weeks in Washington DC's public schools. A similar testing regimen is in place in my hometown, New York City. Rhee argues, as did Chancellor Joel Klein, that testing can only help teachers make better instructional decisions. But the evidence points in the opposite direction.

First, testing data, especially the kind that Rhee is proposing to use which is collected by an outsourced company, is notoriously inaccurate. There have been scores of examples of invalid scoring. From the "Texas Miracle" in which Texas officials falsely claimed that they raised test scores and lowered dropout rates by record numbers to New York's lowered exam standards so that more students could be shown as passing, there are problems with testing.

Making matters worse, teacher evaluations are tied to test data, so there is an incentive for them to do whatever it takes for their students to do well. In New York City, whole schools are evaluated on their test score data, and incidents of cheating are not hard to find.

Finally, there is the issue of improving instruction. Even if the test data were accurate, would the data be used to improve teaching? Since so much time will be spent on testing, and therefore prepping for the tests, it is unlikely that the teachers will have much time to reflect on the data to improve their teaching practice. Also, Rhee has not mentioned providing teachers extra time or training to carefully use data to improve their instruction. Both would be key if, and it is a big if, more testing is necessary.

Of course then there is the matter the change in how teachers spend their time. By preparing students for or analyzing test data, teachers are not going to be able to be the most creative or inspiring. They will not be able to take field trips very often or engage their students in that research project that might be interesting. But no one ever said school was supposed to be interesting, right?

Photo credit: ccarlstead