Testing

Since I have lived in New York and become a teacher here, I have cycled through various campaigns of thought on the ever-present state tests that are constantly being adminstered here. In Idaho, I never really knew the full impact of the "No Child Left Behind Act" and the standardization movement. The amount of micromanagement and legislative acts regarding education in Idaho is miniscule in comparison to the East coast.

Last week was "Regents Week." The Regents are state tests, administered three times per year, many of which are required to graduate. I believe that in order to receive a regents diploma (basically the equivalent of a high school diploma), each student must pass Living Environment, Global, Math A, Earth Science, US History and two English exams. To receive an Advanced regents diploma (for those who are seriously college bound), they must also pass Math B, a foreign language exam, Chemistry, and I think one other in the Social Sciences... government possibly. I am not exactly sure. Each of these tests is a 2-3 hour exam. The Math B covers two years of material - essentially algebra II, trigonometry, and statistics.

Every year it seems at least one test is thrown out for being flawed. In 2003 it was the Math A exam. The questions were worded poorly, the diagram provided with one problem had a error in the drawing so it was unsolvable, resulting in over 100,000 students in NY state who were taking the test in hopes to graduate that month and would be denied their diploma.

This semester, the test poorly represented the material required. No questions required any knowledge or slope, graphing, or parabolas. The test is comprised of four sections. The first is all multiple choice; 30 questions, worth two points each. The other sections all require the student to show work and are worth 2, 3, or 4 points each. A raw point score is first given, then a conversion is applied.
This is where the problem occurs.

This test was not difficult. A 65 out of 85 is the required passing score. The conversion this time was that a raw score of 34 points converted to a 65 final score. That means that a student needed only to answer 17 of the 30 multiple choice questions correctly in order to pass, without even looking at the rest of the test.

If teachers are working like crazy, teaching to the test, telling kids how important this test is to pass (all of which i disagree with anyways), then the test is so easy to pass, kids all get passed on that dont really know anything. 91% of the kids at my school passed the test. Plus, since the statistics are used to evaluate the school, if our scores go down next semester, which I am sure they will, we can be put under review for a school that is becoming worse instead of better.

I dont know what the answer is. There are so many bad teachers and students being passed on that some sort of standard requirement that is imposed by someone other than the teacher is almost a necessity. This is a joke though. A student who passes the test this semester didnt have to work nearly as hard as a student who passed in, for example, January 2003. If anything, there is less standardization than without the tests. Even worse, there is the impression being given that standardization is occurring and parents and colleges probably dont realize how far from the truth that really is.