General News
‘Teach kids what they need’
Dec 6, 2007 11:27 AM
Union urged to speak out against misuse of tests, scripted curriculums
Brooklyn Teacher Center staffers Eva Zarinelli (left) of PS/IS 298 and Deann Smith of PS/IS 73 focus on the speakers.
The spotlight shone most brightly on the audience at the UFT Teacher Center’s “Assessing Current Assessments” at the Urban Educators Forum on Nov. 17, as the four nationally known speakers urged teachers and unions to take the lead in stopping the misuse of standardized tests and scripted curriculums by speaking out publicly.
“Ignore the pacing guide. Measure in other ways. Your kids need you to teach them what they need,” Washington Post education reporter Linda Perlstein told the 200-plus educators in attendance. They responded with cheers and nods of agreement. Perlstein is the author of the new book “Tested.”
“People have no idea what pressures you’re under,” Perlstein told the gathering. “People don’t know that teachers are raising the kids,” she said, citing examples from her book where schools stand in for families in providing medical and social care to children.
In one school, Perlstein said teachers were told to teach poetry by having students memorize the definition of poetry, without ever reading a poem. “Speak out,” she told the audience. “I know your profession comes with a culture of fear. But if you don’t tell them no one will. Start your own public information campaigns.”
W. James Popham, an emeritus professor of education at the University of California at Los Angeles and a popular repeat speaker from last year’s assessment forum, took a different tack. What’s needed is “more than PR,” he said. Popham criticized the current overemphasis on standardized tests but urged educators to develop their own classroom assessments. “You can build a test that both evaluates schools and benefits instruction,” he said.
Unions, he said, must play a central role. “A teacher union has to be close to decisions about what kind of tests are used,” so that students and teachers are not the passive victims of poorly designed testing. “Get teachers involved to ensure that tests are designed to benefit instruction,” he said, citing research showing very large student gains from using classroom-based, “formative” assessments.
“Assessment literacy is the answer and the UFT is the organization to do it.” said Popham, whose book “Transformative Assessment” is coming out in the spring.
Speaker Richard Allington, education professor and president of the International Reading Association, criticized the federal government’s emphasis on packaged reading instruction programs.
“There is no evidence that scripted reading programs work. The effect size is minuscule,” he said. “The most important investment is in teacher excellence.”
Allington called on the UFT to mount resistance against the pressure to adopt packaged curriculums and tests, which are designed to get students to pass but do not lead to comprehension and mastery. “Any assessment that does not lead to modification of instruction is a waste of time,” he said.
UFT President Randi Weingarten welcomed the panelists’ remarks and told the gathering that the UFT is helping educators learn more about assessment to ensure fair and appropriate use of standardized tests. Instinctively we know there are too many assessments, but we need to know as much as we can about them if we are to enter the debate in a serious and productive way,” Weingarten said.
She highlighted the report of the UFT Task Force on High-Stakes Testing, which calls for fewer standardized tests, more support for formative testing, and a national effort to develop new approaches to assessment. She also cited a new whistleblower protection law to protect educators who speak out, and added that the UFT has led protests against efforts to evaluate teachers based on their classes’ test scores.
New York City’s former testing director, Robert Tobias, now a professor of education at New York University, closed out the panel, agreeing with his co-panelists and Weingarten.
“Tests could facilitate instruction,” he said, but current tests have little credibility. They cannot be used in complex growth models, especially for assessment of teacher effectiveness.
“Inappropriate use leads to harmful educational consequences” and “invalid” inferences because “they are not sensitive to instructional impact.”
Tobias, who uncovered a major scoring error by a test manufacturer in 1999, cautioned against using state standardized tests as a measure to evaluate teachers and schools. Instead, he said, teachers can encourage administrators to collaboratively examine school climate, professional development and instruction in measuring the effectiveness of their schools.
Educators are invited to attend future Forum sessions on issues critical to urban education. The New York Teacher will publish details when they are available.
