Common Core Standards: Sky is not falling, but ground is shifting
Mel Riddile is the associate director for high school services at the National Association of Secondary School Principals. His work in turning around schools in Virginia earned him the 2006 MetLife/NASSP National High School Principal of the Year award. This is his first piece for the AJC Get Schooled blog
By Mel Riddile
To answer a couple of the education questions on the minds of Georgia citizens these days:
Yes, we can expect to see a significant drop in the first year of the new Georgia Performance Standards assessments.
No, the sky is not falling.
But the ground is shifting.
Previous Georgia standards and assessments aimed merely to validate a high school diploma. Nothing more.
The new Georgia Performance Standards, which incorporate the Common Core State Standards, call for a much higher level of student performance as indicators of college-and-career-readiness.
Georgia was one of the first states to adopt the new Common Core standards in English, language arts and math. In fact, the standards were rolled out in 2010 at Peachtree Ridge High School in Suwanee, reflective of the major role of former Gov. Sonny Perdue, a leader in the effort.
The standards are designed to provide teachers and parents with a common understanding of what students are expected to learn at each grade level.
Students will be taking new tests, calibrated to new, higher standards, and assessed on a new scale.
Factor in the short amount of time that Georgia students have been exposed to the GPS, and it becomes clear that the first round of scores should be considered not as a definitive summation of Georgia students’ abilities, but rather as a benchmark for gauging progress toward the standards.
While the results are imminent, we can choose how to react to them. Officials in many of the 45 other states that have adopted higher standards are anticipating that an initial wave of lower scores will give way to higher student performance in the future.
Kentucky, for example, pre-empted the drama months before scores were even available. Kentucky State Education Commissioner Terry Holliday delivered a consistent message that, as he predicted to Education Week, “scores would drop because students taking K-PREP [the new Kentucky assessments] now have to deal with longer, nonfiction reading passages, for example, and exhibit greater ‘technical fluency’ in their comprehension skills.”
My conversations with principals in Kentucky confirm that the message penetrated local communities, and while the nation gasped at the first round of K-PREP results, the state itself steeled for the drop and maintained its focus on improving student performance.
Florida assessments generated similar results, but the reaction was somewhat different. Horrified by the mere 27 percent proficiency rating fourth-graders, the state Board of Education called an emergency meeting, at which they decided to shift the proficiency scale so a much more comfortable 81 percent of students were proficient.
As one parent told the Wall Street Journal, “It calls into question the veracity of the entire enterprise.” Indeed. And worse, it robs Florida students of rigor and authentic assessment.
Of course, reactions will be dictated by agendas. Georgia is one of several states that recently made it easier for for-profit education providers to tap public education funds.
Those providers have a lot to gain from perpetuating the “failing public schools” narrative. Going into the assessments with clear expectations will neutralize those agendas and help us lock our focus where it really matters: Student learning.
–From Maureen Downey, for the AJC Get Schooled blog
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197 comments Add your comment
Cindy Lutenbacher
December 28th, 2012
12:42 pm
A number of things here:
Do I have my own bibliography about standardized testing? No. But I have read and read and read studies on the issue for a couple of decades now, including studies funded by ETS and ilk. Redweather, if you dig deeply enough, you’ll find that Fairtest does cite scholarly articles. So do scholars like Stephen Krashen. And activist/teachers like Susan Ohanian. And scholars like Brian Huot and the late Gerald Bracey. And scholar/activists like Alfie Kohn. Et cetera. And, you’re correct; I don’t trust tobacco companies to do rigorous research on the ill-effects of smoking; GA just received some major bucks (didn’t we?) from tobacco company lawsuits because the tobacco industry was horribly devious in its “research” about smoking. Likewise, I don’t trust the corporations (profit or so-called non-profit) who have billions to gain from the wholesale use of their materials; they fund research that they then cite.
Bracey, Krashen, Ohanian, and the multitudes like them have little to nothing to gain from their labors except the possibility of better education for their/our kids.
I am one who actually scored extremely high on standardized tests; my master’s and doctorate (not in education) were entirely paid for in scholarships because I looked smarter than I think I am–due to standardized test scores. The only score I remember is my GRE math score: 780 out of 800. Okay, so that was back in the 80s before I began to investigate standardized testing and discovered what a nightmare it is.
And yes, colleges and universities are slow in letting go of standardized testing, but at last count, I think the number of U.S. institutions of higher ed that are letting go of reliance upon said testing is over 850. Study after study shows that the GPA in high school is a much better predictor of college success than standardized test scores.
I do believe our discussions would go further if we could all try to avoid making assumptions about the writers and try to deal with what is written.
redweather
December 28th, 2012
1:22 pm
I have not made any assumptions about you, I just wanted you to name a few names, which you have finally done. Much obliged.
Progressive Humanist
December 28th, 2012
1:44 pm
Cindy-
Those sources are not particularly strong ones. Krashen, while a very influential professor, is a linguist and more of sociologist. He wasn’t trained and doesn’t publish in the fields in psychometrics, psychology, or educational measurement. Huot is an English professor, and while he is qualified to teach and assess writing, he’s not qualified in cognitive psychology (the construct of learning). It’s doubtful that he ever had the quantitative or empirical training to understand the science of learning or its measurement. English professors do not generally conduct empirical research. Ohanian seems even less qualified. I enjoy Kohn’s writing quite a bit, but he reviews research; he does not conduct it. Bracy, a developmental psychologist, was the only one who appears really qualified to address the concepts of learning and the measurement of it through research. So it seems like you have been basing your views more on commentary than on research.
My understanding is that the SAT and ACT are very accurate in predicting college students’ success during their first two years, but not so much at predicting college graduation. This is logical, though, because those tests assess mainly verbal and quantitative skills, and during students’ first two years they are taking core classes that are heavy in those skills. It makes sense that those tests would correlate with the first two years of college but show little correlation to achievement after that when students are studying material more specific to their majors.
But the question remains, if you assert that tests cannot measure learning, then how should it be measured? Are you saying that it can’t be measured?
Sandy Springs Parent
December 28th, 2012
2:24 pm
It continues to amaze me how many Georgia teachers are scared to death about the common core. Are the scared that it will expose even more how backward and off course the GA educational system is. I really think that they are.
If you do just a little bit of research, a few google hits. You find that 47 or so States are on board. These inclued the top State Mass. along with perinial winners like New York State. When you go deeper you will see that the High School evaluations are basically the New York State Regent Exams.
I was not ultra nerd in the class. In fact I underperformed my first two years in High School to be accepted as cool. My Junior year I had a “Welcome Back Kotter” type of History teacher, who got up and ran off on tangents, about the future magalopolsis’ of “BoWash”. Which sites in the country might be next cold war targets, this was 35 years ago. I ended up getting the highest grade on the New York State Regent’s exam in 1977, in History. The Regents exam is part multiple choice and part essay. What is the fear that the teachers actually will have to grade the essays.
The biggest thing that will be found that will not work with common core is this stupid one track, to graduation that Georgia has will not work. There must be multiple tracts at least by high school. One of those tracts must include a General Diploma with Vocational Education ( Carpentry, Auto Mechanic’s , Plumbing, Basic Machinest Skills, Welding, Culinary, Nurses Aide, Medical Transcription ) The High Schools can provide in the Votech school what the For -Profit midnight advertiserts, ripoff schools provide here for free. Graduation Rates will skyrocket to 90-95%. Change the Math and Science requirements to meet what is required for these Vo-tech jobs. These Jobs should be coordinated with the employeers and employers looking to come into the state.
Teams should even start to consider what are the career aptitutude of students in middle school. Private School already do this. Parents pay several thousand dollars more for their students at Woodward that need extra attention, and may not be college bound like siblings. All Students should rotate through 13 week trials in middle school. I remember 13 weeks of French and 13 week of German ( no spanish offered 40 years ago). My 12 year old often complains that so many kids in her Spanish class don’t want to be their, and disrupt the class, even the native speakers. Where she loves Spanish and is almost Fluent. The other offerings are French and Manderan Chinese, but their is no tryout. I tell her it is because their parents have picked it for them. My other daughter switched to French in 9th grade, Spanish wasn’t for her.)
Another thing that must change for this to be successful we must get rid of these wasteful mega districts. Please GA House and Senate, get rid of just a few little words in the constitution. We need to allow more local control. We need 1-2 high school with feeder school Districts. They work. They are the ones that have made the Common Core Successful in top states. We do not need middle layers of mid management, for Friends and Family, for Church Members, for Soriety Sisters of the Pink and Green. We do not need huge contracts going to the politically connected. Allow Sandy Springs to have a Riverwood -North Springs District. Allow Dunwoody to have a Dunwoody District. Allow Brookhaven and Chamblee to have a Chamblee and Crosskeys District. Allow Tucker to be Tucker. Why should Marietta, Decatur, Bremen City and Buford, be the only ones who get Districts who operate as they should. Counties should not be in the Operation of School Districts. Buckhead should have North Atlanta and its Feeders. Morningside and Inman Park should have Grady/Inman Park. We don’t need county job palaces.
Cindy Lutenbacher
December 28th, 2012
2:34 pm
Dear Progressive,
You are correct in your labels of the voices I cite, but they are scholars with deep training and understanding that they have quite aptly applied to this issue. Furthermore, because learning is a complex issue, psychometrics and psychology have only partial wisdom as well. I also speak as one with a psychology degree (albeit 1975, Vanderbilt).
My understanding is that the standardized tests have greater correlation with student scores in first-year student scores, but not as high a correlation as GPA. Standardized test scores correlate most securely with the financial wealth of students’ parents.
I do appreciate your thoughtful response, and I do wish that you and others would always leave IN the word “standardized” when responding to my posts about such testing. Although I prefer to avoid tests as much as possible in my teaching, I don’t disparage them for all assessments. I simply challenge myself and other teachers to create our classes to include authentic assessments as much as possible. I associate authentic assessment with things like real-world tasks that have actual meaning. For example, my colleagues in the business department require students to create things like business plans and economy models that can actually be used. Colleagues in sociology get students studying social issues and creating possible solutions, working with groups in the community to grapple creatively with making our city and world better places. As an English teacher, I’ve taught for over a quarter century, but I constantly struggle with authentic assessments of writing; the best assessment I’ve come up with so far is a semester-long family/community portfolio project that revolves around a variety of research and writing assignments–the portfolio becomes a gift that students may give to their families. By the end of the semester, I’ve seen the vast majority of students truly excited by the project (no matter how much they may have complained during the semester) because its components are things they they have researched and that actually mean something to them and their families. But my ideas are far from the be-all/end-all! That’s the reason I continually struggle to do teaching and assessing better.
We have to be creative with our teaching and assessing. Standardized tests and the high stakes placed upon them by all the administrations since the 1980s are requiring such absurd demands upon teachers that they are replacing actual teaching and learning. As long as teachers are required to give over so much of their years to standardized testing and test-prep (as we constantly hear from K-12 posters in this blog, alone), then they will never even have the chance to be the creative teachers our kids need and deserve.
Cindy Lutenbacher
December 28th, 2012
2:42 pm
@redweather,
Sorry–I wasn’t responding to you about the “assumptions” piece. Another poster got me side-tracked with that one. I generally find your postings to be thoughtful and helpful.
I gave you some of my sources, but there’s so much more to be seen out there, and that’s what I’ve tried to encourage folks to do: go after the question for yourselves, dig deeply, and review independent research. Do so for many, many years.
We may still come up with different responses to these issues, and that’s what thoughtful discussion is for. Or so I hope.
I’m also sorry if it seems that I sometimes wait a long while to respond. I’m a single, working parent, so, like many of us on this blog, I come to it in snips and snatches.
Cindy Lutenbacher
December 28th, 2012
2:49 pm
@ Paulo77
Have done so. Many, many times. I’m furious that Arne Duncan is in that position. But that’s another subject.
say what?
December 28th, 2012
3:37 pm
Sandy spring parent, with these new standards, your “Welcome back Kotter” style teacher would be shown the door. Teacher creativity is limited because of testing testing testing.
There should be a pre- test at start of year based on what will be taught during the year, then the same test is giving as a post- test at year’s end to measure potential educational growth.
I as a parent recognize that all standards can it be adequately covered in class during the 160-180 days of school in this state. not all can be done by educators, politicians,teachers, administrators.
Only if we could get parents willing to take these same pre/ post test, so that they cAn become more engaged.
paulo977
December 28th, 2012
3:39 pm
Mary E ….Do have a look at this…
http://www.education.com/reference/article/cultural-deficit-model/
Truth in Moderation
December 28th, 2012
4:24 pm
Eva Baker, “queen of psychometrics” at UCLA/CRESST, lays out her ideas on 21st Century assessments. Note the SHE INCLUDES BLOOM’S AFFECTIVE DOMAIN!
“Assessment Design for the 21st Century
Starts with key elements of performance—what and how students learn and what are a range of desirable attributes, accomplishments and skills
1. 21st Century Skills or cognitive demands
2. Content domain represented in an ontology
3. Blend skills and content together
4. Incorporate in tasks and tests”
“Three: Blending cognitive-ontology architecture”
•
“The ontology is an integrative frame for a database
• 21st Century Skills: problem-solving, reasoning, communication
• Knowledge: declarative/conceptual/procedural/factual for content and age ranges of choice
• Alternative formats and technical quality data
• Affective behaviors
• Alternative learning sequences, schemata
• Situations for learning & transfer
• Data accessed by separate or combined metatags”
http://www.cse.ucla.edu/products/overheads/OTHER_12/eva%20best%20japan1017V5.pdf
Pride and Joy
December 28th, 2012
6:24 pm
Cindy says test scores are tied to parent wealth. My parents came from dirt poor. I mean, on one side, they were literally cotton farmers scratching out a living and on the other side they were scrubbing hospital floors as a second job to put shoes on their kids’ feet. My parents NEVER got involved in my school work — I wasn’t read to, no one signed my home work. No one encouraged me.
I vaguely understood that education was a ticket out of the chicken farm and I took it. I didnt’ know a darn thing about college or even how to apply. I never even knew what an ACT test was until a couple of weeks before I took it — and made a 27 — on every subject. I went to a poor high school in the South.
So, I am not buying that song and dance that a parent’s income determines a child’s academic success.
And let’s get real here about cause and effect.
Poverty is often caused by bad choices. If you choose to have a child at 15 you will most likely live a life of poverty and drag your innocent kids down in it.
If you choose to knock up your girlgriend and walk off and leave her and your child fatherless and penniless, you create more poverty.
This isn’t rocket science.
In the USA, education can cure poverty in one generation or less. Education here is free for the poor. FREE. School libraries have books for FREE.
What mamas and daddies need to do is make sure they are EMPLOYED ADULTS before they become mamas and daddies and that they put more emphasis on reading than they do on sports and their personal appearance.
Beverly Fraud
December 28th, 2012
8:47 pm
“On the Beverly thing, I see her point and the validity in her point. Apparently the superintendent’s association that gave the award will not rescind it. Therefore in the long run, they lose legitimacy and standing”
Yet it apparently bothers educators more that I make a valid point about injustice than it does it actually occurred, and is still ongoing..
Know this then by your silence:
As teaching conditions continue to deteriorate, as you find yourselves increasingly burdened and decreasingly supported, know that you, by your unwillingness to address issues of integrity, are active co-creators in these conditions and as a logical, natural consequence, you are getting the teaching profession you richly and fully deserve
Come back five years from now and say “Oh teachers are being treated with better conditions and respect than they ever have” and I be the first to admit I was wrong.
Beverly Fraud
December 28th, 2012
9:34 pm
“Beverly-
You’ve beat it to death. We get it. Nothings gonna happen.”
Apparently not; and it’s a damning indictment of Georgia teachers that they would sit blithely by while an organization continues to honor someone who was as anti-teacher, and ultimately as anti-children as one could get.
Is it any wonder such a multitude of forces feel fully empowered to denigrate teachers, when teachers themselves apparently lack the mindset to challenge “educational leaders” regardless of how disrespectful their actions are to the classroom teacher?
No rescinding the award won’t change life in the classroom; but the moral and ethical mindset that would demand it be rescinded could change things, both for teachers and the students they claim to care about.
Mark my words: With the mindset that would allow such an insult to go unchallenged, five years from now I sincerely doubt the overwhelming majority of teachers will be able to say “Oh my, teaching conditions have gotten so much better!”
If they do, I’ll be the first to admit I was wrong.
True Blue
December 28th, 2012
9:43 pm
I couldn’t agree more with all of the comments made by Beverly Fraud. The lack of leadership at all levels in APE is astonishing.
bootney farnsworth
December 28th, 2012
10:16 pm
@ beverly
the surest sign you’re on point is the steeped up criticism of you making the point.
Beverly Fraud
December 28th, 2012
10:45 pm
Amen to that bootney…and here’s a quote from Diane Ravitch on Common Core. But before that (so much for me not commenting on topic LOL}
Notice bootney no one could explain why, if the IOC rescinded Marion Jones’ medals, the Tour de France vacated Lance Armstrong’s 7 titles, the Pulitzer folks rescinded Janet Cooke’s award for fabricating the prize winning story, the GSSA shouldn’t be held to just as high a standard as those other organizations given that GSSA honored the Milli Vanlli of education?
No they will “ignore” the messenger and dismiss the messenger. Heck I guess absent any effective rebuttal I would to. Kinda like APS tried to do when they had no legitimate reason for the statistical anomalies in test scores? Hmm…
If you pay attention to the Common Core State Standards as required by the authors, (verbatim treatment, no menu-like choices, close reading), you will see that Mr. [David] Coleman and others expect all students to meet 1158 lteracy and ELA standards K-12 (that total includes parts a,b,c,,d, and so on for each standard).Kindergarten kids and their teachers have 64 “college and career ready (CCR) standards to meet.
A five year old has 64 “college and career” standards to meet? And yet you have those here who just go blithely along, accepting the Common Core like it’s the second coming of the Hale-Bopp comet. (Ohh, but this time it’s for real!)
Why does one get the feeling if Diane Ravitch was head of GSSA, she would definitely rescind the award?
Georgia and education not compatible
December 28th, 2012
11:51 pm
@ Beverly Fraud, your statement:
“If you pay attention to the Common Core State Standards as required by the authors, (verbatim treatment, no menu-like choices, close reading), you will see that Mr. [David] Coleman and others expect all students to meet 1158 lteracy and ELA standards K-12 (that total includes parts a,b,c,,d, and so on for each standard).Kindergarten kids and their teachers have 64 “college and career ready (CCR) standards to meet.
A five year old has 64 “college and career” standards to meet? And yet you have those here who just go blithely along, accepting the Common Core like it’s the second coming of the Hale-Bopp comet. (Ohh, but this time it’s for real!)”
I agree 100%.
Dr. John Trotter
December 29th, 2012
12:31 am
@ Beverly Fraud: I have been away from this blog the last couple of days. But, I see that you are continuing to hit the nail on the head, and educrats like Cindy seem to be inexplicably bothered that you are putting the obvious scandal right in their faces. Hmm. I agree with on this topic. Herb Garrett and his superintendents’ organization ought to take back the phony award given to Beverly Hall. It is a joke. Why aren’t the GSSA’s standard’s at least as high as the U. S. Olympics’s or Penn State’s? Lance Armstrong is stripped of his titles, but, no, GSSA continues to honor Beverly Hall who sat over the largest school cheating scandal in the U. S. History. I personally have encountered and know many, many educators who suffered much (by way of health and finances) from the totalitarian regime of the Hall Administration. It was an insufferable administration which rewarded those who went along with the program and apparently punished those who spoke out against corruption. The AJC is obviously conflicted here, though it did indeed shed much light on the corruption after much damage was already done. But, I still tip my hat to the AJC for finally coming out on the right side. Perhaps it will eventually do the same on this issue. At least, I hope that it will.
Pay no attention to the Cindys of the world. Perhaps your very perceptive and persistent posts simply dwarf the drones of her blathering about her so-called expertise on standardized testing. Or perhaps this isn’t her real name. She might even be Herb Garrett’s secretary. Ha!
Has Cindy and the other rather squeamish critics never learned to use the scrolling device on their computers? When I don’t want to read something, I simply scroll past it. I don’t waste any time trying to get the other poster from posting. This sounds like a backa$sword censorship…or perhaps a severe case of insecurities. Just scroll, Cindy, just scroll.
Dr. John Trotter
December 29th, 2012
12:33 am
@ Beverly Fraud: I have been away from this blog the last couple of days. But, I see that you are continuing to hit the nail on the head, and educrats like Cindy seem to be inexplicably bothered that you are putting the obvious scandal right in their faces. Hmm. I agree with on this topic. Herb Garrett and his superintendents’ organization ought to take back the phony award given to Beverly Hall. It is a joke. Why aren’t the GSSA’s standard’s at least as high as the U. S. Olympics’s or Penn State’s? Lance Armstrong is stripped of his titles, but, no, GSSA continues to honor Beverly Hall who sat over the largest school cheating scandal in the U. S. History. I personally have encountered and know many, many educators who suffered much (by way of health and finances) from the totalitarian regime of the Hall Administration. It was an insufferable administration which rewarded those who went along with the program and apparently punished those who spoke out against corruption. The AJC is obviously conflicted here, though it did indeed shed much light on the corruption after much damage was already done. But, I still tip my hat to the AJC for finally coming out on the right side. Perhaps it will eventually do the same on this issue. At least, I hope that it will.
Pay no attention to the Cindys of the world. Perhaps your very perceptive and persistent posts simply dwarf the drones of her blathering about her so-called expertise on standardized testing. Or perhaps this isn’t her real name. She might even be Herb Garrett’s secretary. Ha!
Has Cindy and the other rather squeamish critics never learned to use the scrolling device on their computers? When I don’t want to read something, I simply scroll past it. I don’t waste any time trying to get the other poster from posting. This sounds like a backa$sword censorship…or perhaps a severe case of insecurities. Just scroll, Cindy, just scroll. Cindy, I am sorry to have to get on your case, but just let others’ write without trying to tell them what to say or what NOT to say, OK?
Beverly Fraud
December 29th, 2012
4:15 am
Thank you Dr. T! “Inexplicably” is the word I would use as well. I know teachers and educators aren’t this way, but collectively it’s like they have a case of Stockholm Syndrome
You know…Paul Donsky did the original story back in 2001. Yes 2001. What if you and MACE had taken Cindy’s and the other bloggers” advice (namely “it happened long ago” and “give it a rest”) and just stopped talking about APS?
What if everybody had followed that advice? What would have happened most likely is Beverly Hall would have ridden off into the sunset, but the corporate culture of widespread, systemic cheating would have remained hidden
And if it had remained hidden, I imagine you’d have posters who to this day (if Hall had indeed pulled it off) who would say “She left years ago; give it a rest”
Beverly Fraud
December 29th, 2012
4:27 am
@compatible the first paragraph is Diane Ravitch’s
teacher&mom
December 29th, 2012
8:03 am
@Beverly: You are right to question why GSSA won’t rescind the award.
My guess?
In education, fellow/former administrators have a very hard time holding other administrators accountable. I’ve been told several times that I have no understanding or appreciation of the difficulties of an administrator, therefore, I do not have the right to question their judgement. Ultimately the blame is ALWAYS passed on to the classroom teacher. Somehow, someway, the fault never lies with the leadership.
That attitude is why the professional organizations in this state will not admit the truth and formally criticize Beverly Hall for her actions. They refuse to admit they made a mistake. Deep down inside, they blame the teachers.
We can adopt Common Core, we can win Race to the Top grants, we can implement every single program under the sun….but until the state of Georgia is willing to truly empower teachers and insist on highly trained administrators, nothing will improve.
We desperately need better leadership.
Progressive Humanist
December 29th, 2012
9:17 am
Cindy @ 2:34- Yes, those people are scholars, but not in fields that would give them the expertise to address the specific question we’ve been discussing, and only one of them has the background to conduct research on that question. Two of them have no more than masters degrees, which I don’t think is adequate training to answer such a deep and fundamental question in terms of research. If you were to consult with real experts in the field you’d find that there is a strong consensus that, yes, standardized tests can and do measure learning. But there are many more details that enter the equation, such as how well the tests align with what is supposed to be taught and learned, whether bias is present, how relevant the material is, whether multiple assessments are used to measure growth or a single assessment is used to gauge cross-sectional knowledge or skills, how the data is analyzed and interpreted, etc.
I do agree with your advocacy of authentic assessments. In both the undergraduate and graduate level assessment courses I teach I stress the use of performance assessments using real world problems for classroom assessment. I think this is particularly needed in math and science. Too often, public school students learn to dislike and disregard math because they never see the connection between the abstract numbers and equations they are taught to manipulate on a page and any practical application in the real world. Often I ask pre-service math teachers “how can you take this problem and embed it within the context of some real world problem that students might have to figure out?” Often they return a blank stare because they never think of math in that way. That’s a real limitation of math instruction at the lower levels.
However, just because authentic assessments are very useful in the classroom does not mean that they are practical or even possible in standardized testing, when hundreds of thousands of students must be assessed. Authentic assessments take a great deal of time for students to complete and for the rater to assess. And the biggest limitation is that scoring such assessments is highly subjective, often yielding low interrater reliability. So you’d need thousands of different people to take long hours scoring these assessments, and when they were finished there would be little (insufficient) agreement between them concerning the proficiency of the students’ individual responses. If you think there are protests over testing now, you wouldn’t want to see the controversy when the validity of the scoring of authentic assessments is questioned on a large scale.
We must have an efficient, relatively objective, valid and reliable method for assessing on a large scale whether students have learned the basic material in terms of either knowledge or skills that they are supposed to have learned at different intervals. Authentic assessments, while very useful in the classroom, cannot fill that role for standardized testing, at least not yet. So we are left with the need to ascertain that information, yet limited ways to do it. It can’t be left up to teachers because they vary so much in their content knowledge, adherence to standards, and knowledge of and effectiveness in assessment. That’s why we have the SAT and ACT, to act as another form of data to counterbalance GPAs. GPAs can vary a great deal from school to school and system to system based on rigor or lack of. As you have pointed out, GPAs can hold strong predictive power of future success, but that’s mainly because they are more a measure of long term effort than of academic achievement. When we are looking at discrete courses and the learning students were supposed to have accomplished in them, we find massive variation and massive statistical error in the grades assigned by teachers, which is why we must have additional assessment instruments.
So we are still left with the quandary of how to gather specific information on students’ learning on a large scale, when authentic assessments and teacher grades are not adequate to fulfill that role on their own.
Georgia
December 29th, 2012
9:18 am
Mel Riddle claimed that Charter Schools are perpetuating narratives to tap public education funds. Public Education Funds. PEF (PEF is why Johnny can’t RIF.) But Johhny couldn’t RIF since WW2 ended. The new Common Core Standards (CCS) are not the issue. The issue is resource allocation. How would charter schools perpetuate resource-allocating narratives? They use social media like this public forum newspaper blog. So, the voters are fed personal dramas about real life resource-wresting vendettas. Episode 1: The protest sign ambush by the good Dr. T. The scurrying of the board members. Why the honorable Ericka can’t read a restraining order. All while “Not so Hot for Teacher” by Van Halen riffs in the background.
Hold on to sixteen as long as you can, my friends, like the good Dr T and the honorable Ericka. They both saw their duty and they done it. Lets give Beverly Hall’s award to them. So what if Snookie can’t read. She can tweet, and that’s all the RIF she needs.
teacher&mom
December 29th, 2012
10:22 am
@PH: ” It can’t be left up to teachers because they vary so much in their content knowledge, adherence to standards, and knowledge of and effectiveness in assessment. That’s why we have the SAT and ACT, to act as another form of data to counterbalance GPAs. ”
True….but….
Which SAT score would you consider the most valid?
A student who took the SAT maybe once or twice without any excessive test prep
or
the student who had the luxury of attending a high school that offers a SAT prep course and/or the financial means to hire a SAT tutor.
Isn’t it true that even SAT scores can be manipulated if you have the time and money to pay for test-prep and the funds to pay for multiple SAT tests?
Pride and Joy
December 29th, 2012
10:29 am
Teacher&Mom — I consider both tests valid. I didn’t prep for the ACT and I did well the very first time I took it and I never took it again. It was also a good indicator of how well I would perform in college. I went to collge on an academic scholarship, graduated, and became a good, tax-paying citizen and parent.
For those who prep and study for it, those results are valid as well. Those who prep and study for the test are performing exactly the way colleges need them to perform, meaning, colleges expect students to prepare before the exams.
So, both are valid measurements. They are meant to predict college readiness and they do that very well.
Progressive Humanist
December 29th, 2012
10:51 am
They are equally valid. Yes, some students may have better preparation for one reason or another, but that doesn’t mean that the instrument is not accurately measuring students’ knowledge of the material. With what you are suggesting, by extension, the SAT would be less valid if one student had a good teacher leading up to the test and another student had a bad teacher. What you are describing is not a problem with the test. That is a common misunderstanding in education. The test gets blamed for extraneous variables that probably should be addressed, but it doesn’t make the measure any less valid. The test doesn’t tell you why a student knows what he or she knows; it just tells you roughly what they know. If you use a tape measure to measure students’ height, but one student had a hormonal imbalance and is much taller than the others, does that mean that the tape measure is flawed or that it’s not measuring inches correctly?
Beverly Fraud
December 29th, 2012
10:52 am
@Beverly: You are right to question why GSSA won’t rescind the award.
Thank you @teacher and mom. Cinnnndeee…Annnnieeee, are you listening? Or scrolling past LOL
Vindication is nice…INDEED!
And Maureen must be thinking “God this is insufferable but in my ethics I can’t ban it, because no matter how insufferable, it has merit”
Then she gives thanks to God I’m not her neighbor LOL
Hmmmmmmm
December 29th, 2012
11:01 am
@Cindy L
You are much too rational and logical for most of the attendees on this blog… I use the KISS method on education… Reading, writing, and arithmetic… and holding kids accountable. But hey, in a sequence of numbers to know which number doesn’t belong is soooooo important…
HS Math Teacher
December 29th, 2012
11:07 am
Amazing. We put so much emphasis on standards and standardized testing, but allow social promotion to flourish in the lower grades. High school teachers in rural and urban, inner city schools are starting to buckle under the strain. Many affected teachers have quickly learned that to avoid so many hours spent in RTI meetings, and endless documentation of fruitless endeavors, just find “creative” ways to “pass-em-all”. I wonder what the cut score will be on this school year’s Math EOCT . . . 40 or 50%? Even then, the average pass rate will probably be around 50%. Think about it, 50% of kids getting 50% of the problems worked correctly. What a charade.
It’s apparent to me that our policymakers and legislators are getting tired of seeing our state near the bottom on national SAT rankings. It’s equally obvious to me that what is keeping our state down at the bottom are the poor rural and inner-city schools. Nonetheless, education funds will be cut, and class sizes will still be large. I liken this approach to this: We have a sinking boat, but instead of fixing the hole in the hull, we’re given a large Dixie cup to get the water out.
If you’re going to raise the bar, stop lowering the floor.
HS Math Teacher
December 29th, 2012
11:09 am
correction: “I wonder what the cut score will be on this year’s COMMON CORE Math EOCT….”
Private Citizen
December 29th, 2012
12:00 pm
I’m having trouble with the auto-moderate of this site contraption. I put two links, one to Mel Riddile biography, and one to Washington Post article on same, and it throws the comment in auto-moderation. As a person posting, this is distracting and time consuming. Site participants should be fully informed of what actions put posts into moderation, for example, a work list (yes it exists) and what type of sites. It is difficult to make a post and include documentation. Checking back to see if a comment is removed from moderation is demeaning, particularly without being informed of the chess game of post that goes through or is moderated. Have I just wasted my time writing a post? Is operating under unknown conditions a requirement for participating in this forum? It seems to be the case.
Private Citizen
December 29th, 2012
12:01 pm
typo correction: for example, a word list (yes it exists) and what type of sites
Private Citizen
December 29th, 2012
12:04 pm
Here is my comment without the links to document information:
First question, who is Mel Riddile? Dude is a super player in the current politics, “national and international recognition from National Geographic magazine, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, NASSP, and the International Baccalaureate of North America… As principal of both a Breakthrough High School and an ICLE Model School, Dr. Riddile is a recognized leader in efforts to reinvent America’s high schools. He has received White House and U.S. Department of Education recognition for this and was a member of the U.S. Secretary of Education’s High School Reform Task Force.”
_____________
This guy is no ordinary commentator, he is a super-surfer on the waves of power.
____________
The thing that makes me cringe about this article is that everything is voiced in “Georgia speak.” That was my initial reaction, question, how the “Common Core” gets subsumed as “The new Georgia Performance Standards, which incorporate the Common Core State Standards”
Wait a minute. Full stop. Why is Mr. Riddile using “local talk.” He is a propagandist / salesman extraordinaire. Anyway, one question is why can not Georgia just use “Common Core” in place of still claiming “Georgia Standards?” This is like politics happy-hour or something. Seems Mr. Riddile is a mastermind of building up the local / state fiefdom as political power to, in-turn, implement the wishes of the power interests than he represents.
Is it not a little queer, that Mr. Riddile, from Fairfax, Virginia, starts off this essay with, “questions on the minds of Georgia citizens these days” as if he has anything at all to do with the state of Georgia? The article is manipulative for sure and is a piece of neighbor-friendly propaganda.
Nice try, Mr. Riddile. It might be a lonely road, but there is one reader who sees that you are complimenting the state power while using them to deliver the directives from the groups you represent.
Dear Mr. Riddile, we still do not have eyeglasses for children, and in many schools we do not have textbooks or resource materials / consumables / work-books and such. They’re basically extinct and individual teachers are spending hours of their time assembling / creating lesson materials from the internet. Truly, I do not know what you stand for Mr. Riddile. It would be much more easy for everyone if you just made an outline of what you are implementing / who you stand for, what you are fronting. Many of us really do not need to sales job / marketing to go with it. it is not like we have any choice in anything. So, please, just make it clear what are the conditions you are dictating.
Redux: Political super player from Fairfax, Virginia (right next to Washington, DC) issues 517 word article and uses the word “Georgia” 8 times.
Sports connection: “former linebacker at the University of North Carolina”
Private Citizen
December 29th, 2012
12:12 pm
Awarded Mr. Riddile is from managing high school in Fairfax, VA is a wealthy, WEALTHY WEALTHY area supported by lots of tons of TONS OF TONS OF Washington, DC political / lobbyist salaries.
Kind of having difficulty seeing the connect to Athens / Clark County (dirt poor), Macon, Valdosta, and points in-between. Mr. Riddile I think there is an ethical question that you ought to spend a month in Clark County schools (DIRT POOR) before you issue a good-neighbor propaganda article using the word “Georgia” 8 times.
Truth in Moderation
December 29th, 2012
1:03 pm
@Progressive Humanist
Anyone with a knowledge of the current “best practices” in the area of psychometrics and assessments is very familiar with the work of UCLA prof and co-director of CRESST, Eva Baker. You complain that Cindy L. quotes individuals who are not psychometric specialists, therefore their conclusions are invalid. I just quoted the specific plan laid out by Eva Baker, “queen of psychometrics”, for “21st Century assessments, INCLUDING MEASURING FOR THE AFFECTIVE DOMAIN (attitudes, values, and beliefs). You have made NO COMMENT on this post. (December 28th, 2012
4:24 pm). Yet in the past, you claimed that you advised your students NOT to measure for this domain. DO YOU NOW AGREE WITH EVA BAKER’S plans for the countries new assessments? Please comment.
Georgia
December 29th, 2012
1:03 pm
It looks like The Riddler got what he……TOUCHDOWN AIRFORCE!!!
Truth in Moderation
December 29th, 2012
1:04 pm
oops! Should read “country’s”.
Private Citizen
December 29th, 2012
1:10 pm
2011 Fairfax County, Virginia median household income – $105,797
2009 Alexandria, Virginia median household income: $77,095
2009 Athens / Clarke County Georgia median household income: $32,019
note: Mr. Riddile’s experience / awards are from Fairfax County and Alexandria.
Just A Teacher
December 29th, 2012
1:15 pm
My concern with these Common Core standards is that they focus on “longer, nonfiction reading passages, for example, and exhibit greater ‘technical fluency’ in their comprehension skills.” There is a much higher level learning than comprehension. At what point do we begin to test abstract reasoning and symbolism?
Furthermore, I am very concerned that the focus on technical knowledge will drain much needed funding from the humanities.
Truth in Moderation
December 29th, 2012
1:18 pm
@Progressive Humanist
I’m still waiting for your explanation…..
Private Citizen
December 29th, 2012
1:22 pm
Fairfax County, Virginia, median value of owner-occupied housing units, 2007-2011 $493,100; Homeownership rate, 2007-2011 71.0%
Private Citizen
December 29th, 2012
1:36 pm
Clarke County, Georgia, median value of owner-occupied housing units, 2007-2011 $161,100; Homeownership rate, 2007-2011 45.6%
Bibb County, Georgia (where Macon is located), median value of owner-occupied housing units, 2007-2011 $121,900; Homeownership rate, 2007-2011 57.5%
Looks like Mr. Riddile is making a visit to Georgia from the “ownership society.”
Progressive Humanist
December 29th, 2012
1:41 pm
Robin, as I’ve told you before, you’re not qualified for this type of discussion. You can’t Google your way to a PhD, although I know you’re trying. Maybe if you took off the tinfoil hat for a minute someone would take you seriously.
Maude
December 29th, 2012
1:42 pm
Am I the only one on this blog that has figured out the Beverly Fraud and Dr. John Trotter are one and the same??
Truth in Moderation
December 29th, 2012
1:44 pm
@ Just a Teacher
You seem to be confused. You believe education is the goal. Documents indicate otherwise…..
http://www.cse.ucla.edu/products/policy/coherence_v6.pdf
“Coherence: Key to Next Generation Assessment Success”
“AACC: Assessment and Accountability Comprehensive Center: A WestEd and CRESST partnership. aacompcenter.org
Copyright © 2010 The Regents of the University of California
The work reported herein was supported by WestEd, grant number 4956 s05-093, as administered by the U.S. Department of Education. The findings and opinions expressed herein are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the positionsor policies of AACC, WestEd, or the U.S. Department of Education.
To cite from this report, please use the following as your APA reference:
Herman, J. L. (2010). Coherence: Key to Next Generation Assessment Success (AACC Report). Los Angeles, CA: University of California.”
“What can we do differently?
In a single word but with many steps, I suggest the word “coherence.” I believe that by making our assess- ments more coherent in both design and use, we can create assessment systems which will measure the right stuff in the right ways while better serving intended purposes, particularly the purpose of improving teaching and learning. The current Race to the Top Assessment Program (RTT) provides states a sizeable carrot—$350 million—to do just this, creating a next generation assessment system that reflects new Common Core State Standards and supports accountability and improvement at all levels of the educa- tional system: state, district, school, classroom.
The way forward to better assessment begins with the conception of assessment not as a single test but as a coherent system of measures. Coherent systems must be composed of valid measures of learning and be horizontally, developmentally, and vertically aligned to serve classroom, school, and district improvement.”
After reading this, compare with CRESST co-Director Eva Baker’s power point outline (post (December 28th, 2012 4:24 pm) on the same subject. Note the inclusion of MEASURING FOR AFFECTIVE DOMAIN.
Private Citizen
December 29th, 2012
1:45 pm
According to Google Maps, it looks like Mr. Riddile’s principalships have been done between 3 (Falls Church, Virginia) and 16 miles (Alexandria, Virginia) from CIA headquarters in McClean, Virginia.
Private Citizen
December 29th, 2012
1:50 pm
Principal at a school 3.6 miles from CIA headquarters! C’mon folks, you can’t make this stuff up!
Needless to say, neighborhood school has a different meaning there.
(no offense meant, Mr. Riddile)
Truth in Moderation
December 29th, 2012
1:52 pm
As usual, a pitiful defense by so-called Progressive Humanist, who claims to instruct college students in assessment design. BTW PH, who is “Robin?” Are you jousting at ghosts again? Irate students?
“Robin, as I’ve told you before, you’re not qualified for this type of discussion. You can’t Google your way to a PhD, although I know you’re trying. Maybe if you took off the tinfoil hat for a minute someone would take you seriously.”
Private Citizen
December 29th, 2012
1:59 pm
Let us not forget that Ronald Reagan did the “folksy grandpa” routine while he was removing the anti-trust laws that lead to the current consolidation of media. Mr. Riddile has written an essay sounding like he is your “Georgia neighbor.”
Repeating, Mr. Riddile, it would be easier for all of us if you just indicated your agenda without the folksy “Georgia speak.” It’s not like we have a choice in anything, or the will to resist. The will is already broken, the public mind is scattered. We are ready for the “normalisation” phase of your program. You can pass this message to your bosses. They don’t have anything to worry about in Georgia.