Earlier this year, many readers of this newsletter endorsed the “National Call to Suspend High-Stakes Testing in Spring 2021.” Among the arguments made in that statement: “[T]he results won’t be valid, reliable or useful. We don’t need test scores to know that low-income children in poorly resourced school have fallen even further behind in a pandemic.” and “The time and resources required to test students this year would be better spent educating and supporting them.”
States have recently begun to release spring test scores, and . . . wait for it . . .the results are exactly as predicted: Scores declined across the board, and historically under-served students fell further behind. What was the point of this politically driven exercise?
CaliforniaNew Testing Metric Tries to Account for Student Poverty
https://www.voiceofsandiego.org/topics/education/a-new-testing-metric-that-controls-for-school-poverty/
ColoradoLow Test-Taking Rates Further Undermine Value of Spring Exam Scores
https://kdvr.com/news/local/colorado-testing-a-quarter-of-students-didnt-take-the-cmas-in-2020-21/
Colorado Putting Testing to the Test
https://pagosadailypost.com/2021/09/03/editorial-testing-testing-one-two-three/
ConnecticutNewly Elected Teacher Leaders Blast Standardized Testing Failure
https://www.theday.com/article/20210905/OP04/210909816
ConnecticutIn-Person Students Had Higher Test Scores Than Those Learning Remotely
https://ctexaminer.com/2021/09/01/test-scores-show-clear-advantage-of-classroom-learning-over-remote-models/
IdahoMisleading to Use a Single Metric to Try to Predict Student Success
https://www.idahoednews.org/voices/it-is-misleading-to-use-a-single-metric-to-measure-or-predict-student-success/
MichiganI Can’t Believe I’m Looking at Test Scores
https://teacherinastrangeland.blog/2021/09/06/i-cant-believe-im-looking-at-test-scores/
New HampshireStandardized Tests Are Not the Answer
https://www.concordmonitor.com/My-Turn-Standardized-tests-are-not-the-answer-42224527
South CarolinaUnsurprising Test-Score Decline Should Be Viewed in Context
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/did-student-learning-suffer-due-to-covid-heres-what-sc-school-report-cards-say/ar-AANYhwZ
South Carolina Teachers Say State’s School Report Cards Show Incomplete Story
https://www.postandcourier.com/kingstree/opinion/psta-statement-on-release-of-2020-21-school-report-cards/article_a063500a-0b44-11ec-97ab-db9e46187052.html#tncms-source=article-nav-prev
VirginiaSpring “Test Scores Tell Us What We Already Knew”
https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/virginia-school-exams-sol-scores-covid/2021/09/01/781483a2-0b4f-11ec-aea1-42a8138f132a_story.html
University AdmissionMost Four-Year Schools Suspend Admissions Tests
https://www.languagemagazine.com/2021/09/05/most-four-year-schools-drop-admission-tests/
University Admission ACT, SAT Leave Much to Be Desired
https://www.news-gazette.com/opinion/letters-editor/letter-to-the-editor-psat-sat-act-leave-much-to-be-desired/article_6cd8a438-ac95-5c06-9e39-12fb84688b80.html
Worth ReadingThe Problem with the “Learning Loss” Debate
https://curmudgucation.blogspot.com/2021/09/the-troubles-with-learning-loss-debate.html
Worth Reading It’s Not as Though We Don’t Know What Works
https://www.bloomation.net/2021/08/its-not-as-though-we-dont-know-what.html
Bob Schaeffer, Executive Director
FairTest: National Center for Fair & Open Testing
office-(239) 395-6773 mobile-(239) 699-0468
web-https://fairtest.org.org
email-bobschaeffer@fairtest.org