rick roach orange county public schools orlando, florida school board member district 3

Rick RoachOrange County Public Schools

Orlando, FloridaSchool Board Member

District 3

WHY OUR KIDS ARE STESSED OUT WITH HIGH STAKES TESTING

Banesh Hoffman- The Tyranny of Testing

“It is not without significance that the professional test writer refers to wrong answers as; distracters, enticers, misleads, traps, tricks and decoys. They are in fact deliberate traps. Too often traps are baited unfairly, for it is difficult for our kids to tell the difference between legitimate wile and legitimate deceit.” (Wile-deceitful cunning; trickery)

ONE DIFFERENCE BETWEENYOUR CHILD’S TEACHER

AND A TEST WRITER

Telephone conference with Ms. Mac, Dallas Texas, (teaches kids to beat the test writer)

“ Teachers connect information by adding clarity while test writers design confusion. If standardized tests were written with clarity, test scores would go through the roof.”

WHY TEST DESIGNERS WIN MOST OF THE TIME

Bob Alexander - former test writer, now helps kids beat the test writer, Celebration, Florida.

“Test writers structure answers into 4 categories: Nonsense answer, trick answer, trap answer, best answer. Often the best answer is just the test writer’s opinion. The test writer will try to attract kids to the wrong answer. Kids have to be taught to think like the test writer.”

WHY FINLAND LEADS THE WORLD IN STUDENT ACHIEVEMENT SCORES

A recent visit to hear Pasi Salhberg, Minister of Education of Finland

“ We don’t use the word accountability. In Finland accountability is what is left when responsibility is subtracted.”

WHY FINLAND LEADS THE WORLD IN STUDENT ACHIEVEMENT SCORES

Three lessons from Finland:

1. More collaboration, less competition

2. More trust, less control, allowing more growth for student creativity and innovation.

3. More play time, less testing time. Children’s minds grow through play

HIGH TEST SCORES DO NOTEQUAL EDUCATING THE CHILD

Diane Ravitch - The Death and Life of the Great American School System

“Much of this test prep is not designed to increase student learning, but rather to beat or game the test.”

“Somehow our nation got off track in its efforts to improve education. We measure, then punish or reward. It produces fear and obedience among students and teachers. It often generated high test scores but it had nothing to do with education.”

THE REAL KEY TO SUCCESS IN COLLEGE AND CAREER

Paul Tough- How children Succeed

“The most accurate predictor of whether your child would successfully complete college is not their score on a standardized test. A far better predictor of college completion is their GPA. School grades are an excellent predictor no matter where your child goes to public school. Good grades show much more than just content mastery. They reveal the qualities of motivation, perseverance, good study habits and time management. Key elements in life success.”

WHAT THE FLORIDA SCHOOL BOARD ASSOCIATION BELIEVES

Position paper to Governor Scott and the Florida Legislators- June 2012

Consequences of poor test results on our children- Retention, extensive remediation, denial of upper level classes, denial of course credit, denial of a diploma. A student’s performance for 180 days of other tests, class projects, and participation in class have less weight than the student’s score on a single test. This is discouraging to our students.



The testing schedule is excessive- Almost half of the school year is devoted in some way to test prep or testing. This denies student access to the computer labs and media center needed for research and student projects. This also breaks the flow of traditional classroom instruction.



Scores don’t add up - Students who do well on FCAT reading one year, suddenly perform poorly on FCAT reading the following year. The difference may not be due to student progress. The assessment changes or cut score is arbitrarily moved. Nevertheless the state proceeds with harsh consequences despite the acknowledgement that this may not be due to a decline in student performance.



Not fair to our students - Test scores are unstable and unreliable. The measuring of student performance due to state adjustments and manipulating of high stakes testing structure produces inaccurate data .It is at best confusing and misleading to children and families and at worst punitive to our students.

WHAT ARE WE DOING TO OUR CHILDREN’S LOVE OF LEARNING

The Truth About Testing - James Popham

“If unexciting drill activities can actually raise test scores, you can almost guarantee the test is inappropriate, measuring only low level outcomes. This alone will extinguish the love of learning in children.”

3 REASONS WHY TEACHERS CANNOT WIN THE “SCORE BUSTING GAME”

WITHOUT DOING EDUCATIONAL DAMAGE TO OUR CHILDREN

James Popham - The Truth About Testing

1. There is a mismatch between what is taught and what is tested.

2. The P-Score predicts very accurately how many students will miss test questions.

3. SES - using language in test questions that is unfamiliar to many students from lower socio-economic homes.

3 REASONS STANDARDIZEDTESTS ARE NOT USEFUL

Marion Brady - What’s Worth Learning

1. They allow for student pass-fail rates to be manipulated for political purposes.

2. They violate the #1 motivator in the classroom…timely feedback on results.

3. They penalize children who think in non-standard ways.

HOW STANDARDIZED TESTS “ALWAYS GET THE PREDICTED FAILURE RATE”

FCAT- ITEM DIFFICULTY- 3 CATEGORIES:

EASY- Designed so that 70% of the children will get the answer correctly.

AVERAGE- Designed so that between 40-70% of the children will answer correctly.

CHALLENGING- Designed so that less than 40% of children will answer correctly.

HOW TEST WRITERS PREDICT THE “P-VALUE”

THIRD GRADE FCAT READING TEST WILL HAVE 70% OF THE QUESTIONS IN THE AVERAGE OR CHALLENGING CATEGORIES.

10TH GRADE FCAT READING TESTS HAVE 85% OF THE QUESTIONS ARE AVERAGE OR CHALLENGING CATEGORIES.

RESULTS IN ORANGE AND STATEWIDE ARE VERY PREDICTABLE

Last year 2,500 3rd grade children failed the FCAT reading test. This was right at the state average. Half of them were promoted in the summer with “other” criteria. Half of them were retained in 3rd grade.

Last year 17,000 high school kids failed the FCAT reading test. This was also right at the state average. All were denied an elective class and possibly admittance into honors or A.P. classes. Some never passed the FCAT after 5 tries and were denied a high school diploma.

rick roach orange county public schools orlando, florida school board member district 3

Documents