Streamline state testing so parents won't opt out
Browse the internet for a few minutes and a test of some sort will inevitably appear. Are you depressed? How blond are you? What does your favorite doughnut say about your personality?
It seems people love to take tests of all kinds, rate themselves and share the results on social media. Unless, that is, it’s a test given by the state to assess student achievement.
High-stakes school testing began more than a decade ago under President George Bush’s No Child Left Behind program. The program came amid criticism it targeted and unfairly penalized urban and low-income schools and charges the whole program was aimed at undermining teachers’ unions.
We know now the high-stakes nature of No Child Left Behind tests led to serious cheating scandals: Several teachers and administrators from Atlanta are now going to jail for changing answers to improve scores.
Testing has also led both teachers and parents to complain too much time is spent teaching to the tests. There’s evidence this may be true in Delaware, at least by negative example: Some parents say after writing was eliminated from the state testing program, teachers required far less writing. As a result, parents say students are getting less practice to develop writing skills as they move through high school.
It’s clear there are problems with frequent tests. At the same time, statewide testing has revealed problems at some schools and also that students at other schools and even with certain teachers consistently do well. Testing, with careful analysis of the results, can provide critical data for uncovering problems and identifying what works.
Delaware legislators are loath to tell parents what their children can and can’t do, and a bill allowing students to opt out, after intense debate, narrowly passed out of committee. At the very least, the bill should be amended to require parents to excuse their children before millions are spent ordering unused tests.
With or without the measure, legislators would do better to ensure state testing is streamlined, fair and used to collect vital data to improve learning. That’s something everyone, including teachers, parents and students, should find useful and worthwhile.
