A myopic view of standardized testing

22 Aug A myopic view of standardized testing

By Dale Chu

Coinciding with this week’s convention, the Democrats just released its party platform, a document that provides plenty of political comfort food, but nothing appetizing when it comes to annual assessments. Turn to page 26 in the platform to see for yourself the off-putting dish on serve:

The Administration supports a multitude of approaches that have been proven to help students learn: reducing chronic absenteeism by building social and emotional supports at schools, offering literacy programs, and setting high expectations for student attendance; providing intensive tutoring; extending the school day and school year; expanding community schools; and helping schools to lift student achievement, rather than punishing them based on state standardized tests [emphasis added].

All of this is fine and good until the end of the sentence, which should have stopped after the word ‘achievement.’ Instead, someone got greedy and felt the need to take a gratuitous swipe at testing. Well, as the saying goes, ask and you shall receive.

Since when has lifting student achievement been at odds with measuring student progress? If anything, low test scores are more likely the result of inadequate instruction. Anyone seriously concerned about raising achievement would understand that removing the most reliable and valid measure on tap to gauge academic performance is a poor choice. But that’s just it. The lack of seriousness behind arguments like these and the absence of urgency or substance when it comes to helping students get back on track. Moreover, this line of attack—“punishment” by way of standardized testing—has become so predictable that I’ve, well, predictably written about how predictable it’s become.

In the spirit of constructive criticism, however, here’s how the Dems might improve upon the sentence (additions in bold):

The Administration supports a multitude of approaches that have been proven to help students learn: reducing chronic absenteeism by building social and emotional supports at schools, offering literacy programs, and setting high expectations for student attendance; providing intensive tutoring; extending the school day and school year; expanding community schools; and helping schools to lift student achievement by strategically using data to allocate resources to the students most in need, rather than rehashing hyperbolic claims about how tests “punish” schools when the focus must be on getting America’s students back on track.

To be sure, all of this is politics and none of it should come as a surprise given the Left’s alignment with the education establishment. However, it’s disappointing nonetheless coming from the party that’s historically championed America’s most marginalized populations. For their part, the Republicans and the Right have been similarly derelict on the question of testing, being completely silent on assessments in its platform. With the winds blowing as they are against state exams, perhaps that’s the best outcome we can hope for.