An Open Letter to Parents about why I am opting my children out of the Washington State Measure of Student Progress test (MSP).
April 17, 2014
Dear Parents,
Our children have a constitutional right to a free and high-quality public education. In the discussion about high stakes assessments, and as you read my reasons for opting my children out of high stakes tests, I ask that you not only consider your own child and their experiences with high stakes tests, but that you also consider other people’s children and the threatened state of public education in this country. Although the issues around high stakes testing are complex, I describe below my primary arguments against high stakes testing.
High stakes testing results in teaching to the test. As a former middle and high school mathematics teacher, and a teacher educator for the last nine years, I have seen a significant narrowing of the curriculum. When high stakes (i.e. teacher evaluations) are attached to the test scores of their students, teachers end up teaching to the test. I can’t tell you how many times thoughtful and successful teachers have said to me, “I’d really love to have students spend time figuring out why that formula works but I just don’t have time. My students need to know it for the test so I just need to tell them the formula and then have them practice it.”
Unfortunately, this method of teaching goes against years and years of research on teaching and learning. For true and deep learning to take place, children need opportunities to make sense, problem solve, discover, create, and invent – they need to engage in the process of meaning making, not memorization. When tests like the MSP are used to “measure” student learning and used to evaluate the “quality” of a teacher, the classroom becomes narrowly focused on the content of the test. Even when teachers know this is not quality teaching and learning, they have a very difficult time resisting test preparation because their jobs and reputation may be at stake.
You might be asking yourself “Shouldn’t students be able to at least pass a basic skills test?” I asked myself that question for years. What I have come to better understand is that yes, I want my children to be able to pass a basic skills test. However, when critical placement decisions (Can my child be placed in “honors” math? Or will my child be forced to enroll in an “intervention” math class instead of an elective?) and evaluation criteria for teachers are attached to those tests, classroom instruction doesn’t stay focused on critical thinking supported by basic skills. Instead, the basic skills get placed front and center – and the pressure to be sure kids can get the right answers on the test wins over teaching students how to think. The tests do not assess creativity, critical thinking, or problem solving skills. Rather, these tests measure students’ abilities to follow directions, apply procedures, and recall memorized facts. I want more for my children. I don’t want my children, or the children of other people, to be taught how to follow directions without thought or follow a procedure that makes no sense. Instead, I want my children to be taught how to think for themselves. I want my children to be empowered by their education. I want my children to be prepared for active civic participation.
High stakes testing does not provide useful information for teachers. Most teachers do not find high-stakes standardized tests helpful in meeting the needs of their current students. The MSP results arrive in late summer with no time for teachers to support the students who did not pass. All they can do is look at “patterns” in the results, which are very general, and try to guess at how to make changes in their teaching practice to meet the needs of their next group of students. And who knows if those students have similar or different needs compared to the previous group.
High stakes testing is inequitable. Have you ever looked at which kids pass these tests and which kids don’t? Year after year, white students and students from well-resourced homes (i.e. students who are not impacted by poverty) score significantly higher than other students. These assessments are inequitable and biased. Unfortunately, these same assessments are used to determine whether students can be admitted into special programs such as district STEM programs. Essentially, these tests are being used to provide more resources and richer learning experiences for students who already come from well-resourced homes while students who need these experiences the most are denied such opportunities. We don’t have an achievement gap. What we have is an opportunity gap and these assessments are only working to increase this gap.
The “Smarter Balanced” assessment will not change the culture of high stakes testing. You will hear people claim that the new upcoming Smarter Balanced assessment will change everything because this test supposedly assesses important thinking skills such as problem solving. However, I have not been able to find any research to support this claim. The assessments are still in the field test phase and results won’t be available for quite some time. Yet our state has adopted this assessment. Analysts are predicting that very few students will pass the Smarter Balanced Assessment in the 2014-2015 school year (some predict a 30% pass rate – meaning 70% will FAIL). Yet scores will be made public and in many cases will be used to evaluate teachers. How is this OK?
Money is being diverted from public education to pay for high-stakes testing. Creating new standards and new tests to assess the standards is a money-making business. Corporate “reformers” look at our children and see dollar signs. The Fordham Institute estimates that our country will spend between $1 billion and $8 billion dollars to implement and assess the new Common Core State Standards. Guess who will get most of the profits? Book publishers and test creators like Pearson and McGraw-Hill. These are massive profits for private companies when states like ours are spending millions of dollars on testing rather than educational practices that actually make a difference, such as reducing class size.
What is perhaps most appalling is that these tests are not required in private schools – the same schools people like Bill Gates and Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel send their children. Journalist Valerie Strauss of The Washington Post wrote, “Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, who strongly supports school reform that centers on standardized test-based accountability for students, schools and teachers, has decided to send his children to a private school that doesn’t obsess on standardized tests.” Why are these tests “good” for our kids in public schools but not for their kids? Our kids deserve a rich and varied curriculum–like their kids get at private schools–not an education focused on rote learning of basic skills in only math, reading, and writing and where students are given more time in math class instead of recess.
You have a right to opt your child out of these tests. In Washington State, students receive a zero as a score if they are opted out of the test. Although the percentage of students who refuse the test is published on the school’s Report Card on the OSPI website, this percentage is also factored into the overall school pass rate. The state uses this policy to strong-arm parents into making their children take the test. These are policies parents need to question and work to change. In other states, students who opt out are given a score such as 999, which is not factored into the overall school pass rate. Why does Washington use such a threatening and punishing system to record student test scores and rate schools?
My children only have one childhood. I will do whatever I can to protect my children from harmful policies such as high-stakes testing. Until our government can adequately fund our public schools, they cannot have my child’s test data. As a parent, I have a right to make this choice. And as a person who believes all children have the right to a high quality public education, it’s my responsibility to question and work to change policies that I believe harm public education.
Please consider joining me, and thousands of other parents around the country, in protesting the use of high stakes testing in our public schools. Opt your child out of all high stakes tests, including the MSP.
Sincerely,
Sara Sunshine Campbell, Ph.D.
Parent, teacher, teacher educator
Public school advocate