Edutopia - April/May 2008 - (Page 35)

broke down in tears under the pressure. The tests’ fallibility has most to do with the very idea of measuring a year’s worth of learning in a single exam. Inevitably, cramming that much coverage into a short test leads states to rely mostly on multiple-choice questions— the fastest and cheapest means of large-scale assessment. Such brief yet weighty exams limit the ways students can show their skills, and because it’s impossible to test hundreds of state standards in a few hours, they leave teachers guessing on which to emphasize. Randy Bennett, who holds the title of distinguished scientist at ETS, writes that this rigid idea of assessment yields a “narrow view of pro⇒ciency” de⇒ned by “skills needed to succeed on relatively short, and quite arti⇒cial, items.” Even when states do pony up to use open-ended essay questions and pay human scorers, these questions can encourage formulaic answers. Last school year, I watched the principal of a (highscoring) Boston high school interrupt a test-prep session to warn students not to stray from the essay-writing formula—main idea, evidence, analysis, linking—lest they lose points. “Don’t be creative,” she said ⇒ercely. “You’ve heard me rail against standardized tests, and this is why. There’s one way to do this, and it’s the way the assessment coordinator told you.” Equally worrisome is that today’s assessments emphasize narrow skill sets such as geometry and grammar, and omit huge chunks of what educators and business leaders say is essential for modern students to learn: creative thinking, problem solving, cooperative teamwork, technological literacy, and self-direction. Yet because NCLB has made accountability tests the tail that wags the dog of the whole education system—threatening remediation and state takeover for schools that fall short—what’s not tested often isn’t taught. In short, the American accountability system is a bastion of the past that’s sti⇓ing our ability to tackle the future. High Stakes The good news is there’s work afoot to create better tests that will challenge students to demonstrate more creative, adaptable skills—and, in turn, encour- age teachers to teach them. Some model assessments already exist; for instance, many experts tout the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) exam for its challenging, open-ended questions on practical topics, such as climate change or the pros and cons of graf⇒ti. Even more advanced models, some using computer simulations, will become available in a few years—and none too soon. Business leaders have issued dire warnings about how hard the U.S. economy will tank if our education system doesn’t get itself out of the nineteenth century, and fast. They’re clamoring for creative, productive, affable employees—not just dutiful test takers—and they point to assessment as a crucial tool for turning the tide. Microsoft founder Bill Gates, addressing state governors, CEOs, and educators at the National Education Summit on High Schools in 2005, said, “America’s high schools are obsolete. Even when they’re working exactly as designed, they cannot teach our kids what they need to know today. In the international competition to have the biggest and best supply of knowledge workers, America is falling behind.” The New Commission on the Skills of the American Workforce, convened by the nonpro⇒t National Center on Education and the Economy, issued a stark report in December 2006 predicting that our standard of living “will steadily fall” compared to other nations unless we change course. The globalized economy has created, the commission wrote, “a world in which comfort with ideas and abstractions is the passport to a good job”; what’s essential, it added, is “a deep vein of creativity that is constantly renewing itself.” According to the report, whatever efforts we make to modernize education, without a complete overhaul of the testing system, “nothing else will matter.” Congressman George Miller, chairman of the House Education and Labor Committee and chief House wrangler of NCLB (and a member of The George Lucas Educational Foundation’s Advisory Board), understands the problem. The original law left it up to states to choose their own tests, but now he believes most states picked tests more for This ETS test item taps math skills by asking students to properly resize digital photos. Ending Hit-and-run Testing Strange as it might sound, a big push to reinvent standardized tests is coming from a major standardizedtesting company, ETS. The Princeton, New Jersey, nonproﬁt organization, which produces the SAT and Advanced Placement exams, among others, is two years into a ﬁve- to ten-year project to create an accountability test that—unlike the tests states use today—measures complex, real-world skills and helps teachers improve instruction. “What we are trying to do is come up with tests that not only measure discrete skills but also measure their integration,” says ETS distinguished scientist Randy Bennett, “tests that exemplify not only the kinds of things that students must know and be able to do to succeed in the twenty-ﬁrst-century world but also the kinds of things that teachers want to teach.” The ETS vision is to create a far longer assessment than today’s quick-hit exams, then break that assessment up into many parts that could be done in short sessions over the course of a whole school year. The added time would allow test makers to use open-ended tasks that call on multiple skills, and place the tasks in meaningful contexts. For example, one task being developed calls on students to show their knowledge of mathematical proportion by resizing digital photos and explaining why certain sizes will or won’t work. If test makers get it right, Bennett says, the exam should be a learning experience in and of itself, not an endgame. Amassing test results over time, rather than at a single sitting, would prevent ﬂeeting disturbances such as an argument or a poorly air-conditioned room from skewing kids’ ﬁnal scores. It also would provide teachers with feedback on student progress throughout the year—when they can actually use it—giving a richer, more reliable picture of student skills. The hope is that what ETS calls the Cognitively-Based Assessment Of, For, and As Learning, or something like it, could ultimately replace the worn-out exams now being used to satisfy the No Child Left Behind Act. It’s an uphill battle; it will take time, money, political will, and probably more advanced artiﬁcial intelligence systems to score written answers without breaking the bank. But, as Bennett says, “I haven’t heard anybody say, ‘Don’t try.” —GR Test example above is reprinted by permission of Educational Testing Service, the copyright owner. No endorsement of this magazine by Educational Testing Service should be inferred. EDUTOPIA.ORG EDUTOPIA 35 http://EDUTOPIA.ORG

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Edutopia - April 2008

Edutopia - April 2008 Contents Up Front Feedback Dispatches Sage Advice Ask Ellen Head of the Class Cool Schools Design Reinventing the Big test The Daring Dozen Heart & Soul Pop Quiz: Jack Prelutsky

Edutopia - April 2008

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