Testing Editorial from News and Record, Tyler Whittenberg

An echo of my September entries, from a more recent teacher:

UNDUE PRESSURE FOR KIDS?

  Stakes high for middle school students and teachers in EOG tests

     The N.C. State Board of Education recently recommended a policy change that would make middle school End-of-Grade exams account for 25 percent of each student’s final grade in specified subjects. Currently, this policy applies only to high school students taking End-of-Course exams.     middle school after Christmas break will tell you that spring semester is for test preparation and test preparation only. Posters encouraging better test scores and banners counting down to May line every hallway. Administrators hold EOG “pep rallies” (sometimes featuring an almost religious fervor) in   which students take turns shouting about how well they’re going to do. Last year’s poor performers are separated before and after school to receive remediation — which often looks a lot more like test-prep hypnosis.   have achieved a mastery of the English language, they did master the skills needed to learn. If 25 percent of these students’ final English grade would have been dependent on their EOG score, the lesson learned would have been far less encouraging.   sense) have long understood the foolishness of just “teaching to the test.” Indeed, in many ways, North Carolina’s system of standardized testing is actually better than most states’ and has probably even played a role in the state’s recent success in the lucrative federal Race to the Top funding competition.  

   This would be an unfortunate change. As a former middle school English teacher, I can attest to the negative consequences high-stakes testing has on both younger students and teachers.

   Most middle school students, especially sixth- and seventh-graders ages 11 to 14, are simply not prepared to handle the pressure associated with grade-affecting, high-stakes exams. I have experienced children so nervous they can’t adequately “bubble” in the answers on tests because their hands are shaking; students so disheartened after receiving their first-round test scores that they begin crying and refuse further testing; and even students who fight, curse or act out for the sole purpose of not taking the EOGs.

   It is hard to blame these students. Anyone who steps foot in a

   English Language Learning and special education students — who historically have struggled with standardized tests — will also be negatively affected by this policy. Last year, most of my ELL and learning-disabled students worked diligently throughout the school year to maintain adequate grades, some finishing the year with an “A” average. Nonetheless, after the first round of EOG tests, none of these students was “language arts proficient.”

   What they did learn, however, was that hard work and perseverance pay off. While they may not

   The new policy may be a reaction to the recent trend of connecting teacher performance assessments to student test scores. Some middle school teachers may feel that if they’re going to be held accountable for a student’s performance on the EOGs, so too should the students — a logic that falsely assumes students do not try their hardest on the EOGs because their scores lack consequence. After the implementation of No Child Left Behind, however, you would think teachers would push back in the opposite direction. High-stakes testing narrows curricula. In preparation for the test, teachers avoid inquiry-based projects utilizing critical thinking and employ “skill-n-drill” techniques that prepare students only for the test.

   I still remember older teachers giving me the stern reminder, “If it’s not on the test, don’t teach it.”

   Of course, experienced education observers and officials (and most people with any common

   Unfortunately, in this case it appears that state education officials are forgetting this important lesson. And as we all know, one step too far can easily take you a few steps back, and this step is being made at the expense of disadvantaged students throughout the state.

   It’s not too late to address this mistake. Allowing middle school EOG scores to account for a single test score or reducing the percentage of the final grade to, say, 10 percent (rather than a full quarter of their grade) would likely increase students’ individual investment in the EOGs without undermining a year’s worth of effort or scaring them stupid. Let’s hope state education leaders have a change of heart.

   Tyler Whittenberg is an education policy fellow at the North Carolina Justice Center.