An excerpt from The Politics of Education K-12, available on Amazon.
One of the many things that contributed to the turmoil during the initial rollout of the Common Core-based testing was the secrecy. Teachers were unable to review even sample tests, which contributed to teacher, student and parent fears.
What exactly are they asking the students to do? How will the questions be worded? How can I make certain my students will be ready when I can’t see the test?
The reason teachers cannot see the tests is not just for exam security; it’s because of the cost. If the tests become public after they are given, then Pearson and test companies like them must design completely new tests every year and that costs more money for an already expensive enterprise. In New York State, the Regents exams of 20 years ago were prepared for the following school year by committees of teachers who worked over the preceding summer. The old Regents exams were available for all to see, and this took much of the mystery and anxiety out of the testing process.
Now that Covid has impacted the timeline, efficiency is even more critical.
Pearson also uses the actual tests to integrate potential future test questions that don’t count in student scores (field testing them on the students)[i]. Making the tests public is incompatible with this type of test security.
Why not keep the field test questions secret and reveal the questions that count in student scores? We would save enough with a switch to a one-hour-long test from a four-and-a-half-hour test that is 98% as reliable, and then we could release the tests to everyone. It is a move that would calm a lot of fears.
Releasing the tests should have facilitated work going on in many school districts gearing up for the Common Core standards and test expectations. The smartest districts, principals and teachers have already made the adjustment, and the huge drop in student proficiency rates seen in the first two years of Common Core test implementation in New York State[ii], and other early implementation states, will probably be made up in less than 10 years in districts that responded effectively. The process could have been made much more efficient and cut the transition time to five years by releasing the tests.
Now that Covid has impacted the timeline, efficiency is even more critical.
Sadly, lost in all the angst and politics about the implementation of the Common Core is the fact that our students and our economy need the skills taught by the Common Core to be successful with a rapidly changing job market that shows no signs of a slowing.
[i] Hiten Samtani, “More Parents Are Saying No to Pearson’s Field Tests,” Schoolbook WNYC, May 23, 2012. http://www.wnyc.org/story/303153-more-parents-are-saying-no-to-pearsons-field-tests/
[ii] Javier C. Hernandez and Robert Gebloff, “Test Scores Sink as New York Adopts Tougher Benchmarks,” The New York Times, August 7, 2013. http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/08/nyregion/under-new-standards-students-see-sharp-decline-in-test-scores.html
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