Testing, Testing, Testing: Tale #3

3. Can I opt my child out of the MEAP?

Many people are finding their way to my blog by virtue of searching for "opt out of the MEAP" or some such phrase. And on our Ann Arbor STOP: Stop Overtesting Our Pupils! facebook group there has been a fair amount of discussion of this--with some people posting their opt out letters.

People have been asking, "Can I opt out?" and the answer is yes, but...

Michigan's Revised School Code says:

THE REVISED SCHOOL CODE (EXCERPT) Act 451 of 1976   380.10 Rights of parents and legal guardians; duties of public schools.   [M.S.A. 15.4010 ] Sec. 10. It is the natural, fundamental right of parents   and legal guardians to determine and direct the care, teaching, and   education of their children. The public schools of this state serve the   needs of the pupils by cooperating with the pupil's parents and legal   guardians to develop the pupil's intellectual capabilities and vocational   skills in a safe and positive environment. HistoryAdd. 1995, Act 289,   Eff. July 1, 1996 .

Based on that, the answer would be yes.
But it's never been tested (to my knowledge) in court.

The state of Michigan more or less says that districts can decide if they want to let anybody opt out, but there are only a few circumstances in which if students don't take the MEAP the district won't be penalized. Those circumstances might include a child who is so severely disabled (s)he cannot take even a test that is modified; or a child who is so sick (think chemotherapy or another long-term illness) that they cannot take the test. Otherwise, if a school does not reach a 95% participation rate, the school will be penalized. Financially.

Some reasons that parents have told me they don't want their child to take the MEAP are:
*religious reasons
*their child has been sick and missed the original testing days, and they don't want them missing more instructional time (the MEAP is given during a certain time period, and many of the days are solely scheduled as makeup days)
*they believe that testing is wrong. . . unnecessary. . . evil. . . immoral

And guess what--several of those parents are also teachers.

But this 95% participation rate barrier has districts very worried, because a few chronic truants could bring a school close to missing that 95% participation rate. And financial penalties are, to put it seriously, serious.

One of my friends who decided to opt out her child from the MEAP was told that the only way that she could opt her child out was if her child was kept out of school for the entire three-week period of the test.

If you want to understand what high stakes testing means, this is a great example. Nowhere in the world would it be considered educationally sound to intentionally keep a child out of school for three weeks over what ends up being something like 5-10 hours of testing, right? And obviously, unless you are a person who doesn't work, it would be super difficult to keep your child out of school for three weeks. [Trust me, I know--one of my children was sick for four weeks once, and that was a very difficult time.]

So what is the point of that grandstanding? It's to make it virtually impossible to keep a child from being tested, right? It's to force parents to let their kids be tested.

And it points out the farcical nature of all this testing. The MEAP has absolutely nothing to do with the child in question (for whom being in the classroom and skipping a few tests would presumably be the much better choice). No, all of this testing has to do with school finance. Who benefits? The schools, but not the kids. [OK, I cede your point--if the schools don't have money, the kids do suffer. Nonetheless, I maintain my own point--this is not about whether your child is "proficient" in math. You probably already know the answer to that question and don't need the test to tell you.]

As for the draconian threat of saying, "Well if you don't want your child to be tested you will have to keep him or her out of school for three weeks?" It reminds me of some absurd threats I would make to my preschool son. "Well if you don't do X I will keep you from watching tv for the next five years!"

This showdown is so foolishly theater of the absurd that it reminds me of some people who might force a government shutdown in order to try to derail Obamacare. Oh, wait...

Testing, Testing, Testing: Tale #2

2. What's Wrong With This Picture?

This morning, this tweet showed up in my twitter feed. [Side note and reminder: you can follow me as @schoolsmuse. I kind of tweet in fits and starts--and not only about schools, but also about Ann Arbor, politics, Jewish stuff, the Middle East, and whatever else catches my fancy...]

Can you read the text on the poster? It reads,
 "J.E.S. worked hard to improve Scores. We are no longer a Focus School!"

What is a focus school? A focus school is a school where, according to the Michigan Department of Education, "Focus Schools consist of the ten percent of schools on the Top-to-Bottom list with the largest achievement gaps between its top 30 percent of students and its bottom 30 percent, based on average scale score."  And guess what? Focus schools tend to be schools with heterogeneous groupings of students. A school that is homogeneous--whether all rich, or all poor, is not likely to be a focus school because the gap between students is not likely to be in the top 10% of gaps. A school could perform very well on standardized testing (overall have a high average) but if there is a wide range in the test scores, it will be a focus school while a school where everybody performs poorly will not be a focus school. And guess what? Twenty-seven of Ann Arbor's schools got designated as "focus schools, even though some of them also performed well above the average for the state.

But that's not why I'm writing about this tweet, which I found exceedingly irritating. No, I'm writing about some key words here.

Do you want to understand the insidious nature of high stakes testing? Look no further than the picture in this tweet. 

"J.E.S. worked hard to improve Scores." And yes, they capitalized Scores.

Did they work hard to improve their students' knowledge?

Did they work hard to educate their students?

Did they work hard to become better teachers?

No. They "worked hard to improve Scores." High stakes testing is not about students learning. It's about how the "Scores" make a district, or school, look. 

State 1, Local 0: The MEAP and Three Star Holidays

A few days ago I was contacted by someone from the Arab American Parent Support Group, who was concerned that the MEAP was scheduled to be given on one of the holiest days in the Muslim calendar, Eid. Eid is a three-star holiday in the Ann Arbor Public Schools religious calendar, and I was contacted because I recently wrote this blog post about three-star holidays.

You may recall that the guidelines state that:

RELIGIOUS HOLIDAYS GUIDELINES  I. Holiday observances of major significance to a religious group are indicated on the calendar by three stars (***). The following apply:School district employees may not schedule any of the following during these (three star) holidays.   1. Major exams   2. Reviews for major exams   3. Standardized tests...

And clearly the MEAP is a standardized test. So why was it being given on Eid?

A member of the AAPSG did some poking around, asking the state if the test had to be given on Eid or if a change could be made. She got an email back from the state saying that a deviation could be possible for Eid. But when the Ann Arbor schools administrative staff asked, they got a different answer from the state: No. So they told AAPSG that the answer was no. AAPSG did not like that answer, especially since they thought the answer from the state had already been yes.

At the behest of the person who contacted me, I contacted the school board and administration, and they did a little bit more poking around, and went back to the state Department of Education, and confirmed that the answer was, in fact: No.

However, the district did not formally request a "deviation" and I was a bit confused about that. The MEAP administrator at the state level offered to talk to me about it, and I took her up on it, learning a bit about the MEAP in the process.

1. MEAP testing is given in a time window, with certain dates for certain tests. Then there are make-up days.

2. A "deviation" would only be given by the state if a school is actually closed. (For instance, for Eid I think the Dearborn schools are closed.) But then again, if a school is closed, there are no staff to give a test or kids to take it, so that's rather circular logic there. (In fact, it's not even clear to me why, if a school is closed, you need to request a deviation.)

So basically, Ann Arbor was told that since they weren't closing any schools, they couldn't get a deviation, even though it contradicts their local policy about giving standardized tests on three-star holidays. Thus I say, State 1, Local 0.

(Side note: the schools I grew up in were, and are, closed for the Jewish holidays of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, even though only about 5% of the kids were, and are, Jewish.)

3. I asked the state administrator why the tests have to be given on certain days, especially given that there are makeup days. Why couldn't the district just substitute a makeup day for a specific test day? The answer: Security.  I said, "but you have makeup days," and was basically told that they have to make accommodations for kids who miss school (because they are high stakes tests), but it would be a "nightmare" in terms of security if, for example, different schools gave the math test on different days. (Think: cheating.)

This is where we see what is meant by "high stakes" testing. If the MEAP wasn't "high stakes," nobody would worry about the implications of swapping days. And unfortunately, the district doesn't have any control over this. And the stakes are high for the district because if fewer than 95% of the kids in any school take the test, then the school won't make adequate yearly progress. And penalties ensue. To the district.

As far as the district goes, this is what I learned:

1. The district did respond to the initial request of the AAPSG, which is good. I think the communication channels still need a little bit of working out, because it appears that the district staff didn't adequately explain the situation (which is how I got pulled into this). Over the past few years I have found several times that even when the district staff are doing the right thing, the communication back to families from central administration is very weak and leaves people confused and upset.  But, I'm hopeful that this is about to change, because...

2. I was very pleasantly surprised by the communication from the top AAPS staff. It was a HUGE improvement over the past administration's practices. I actually got an email from the superintendent (and a couple of board members too--thank you board)! Fingers crossed for more great communication back to parents.

And to the district staff I say: Thank you very much for trying to follow the religious calendar guidelines. Even though you weren't able to do so this time, I truly appreciate the effort.

Read more about the state MEAP policies, if you want...and remember, next year there will probably be a different assessment...and probably even more assessments (go to the same place as the MEAP link in this paragraph, and look at the Smarter Balanced information). Ugh. High stakes testing. There is lots to organize around in the coming year.

Standardized Testing Season: Did You Want to Opt Out?

It's standardized testing season and I have a whole lot to say about that (very little time, though!). But my friend Heather shared her "I am opting my child out of standardized testing" letter, and since you might want a sample letter, here it is. She says you can share it.

Dear _________ Public Schools, 

Last school year our family “opted out” or withdrew our child from some of the standardized assessments imposed on children across the state. Our decision to “opt out” in no way reflected on the teachers, administration, or school board. This was not an easy decision for us, but we feel that we had no other choice. We simply see these tests as harmful, expensive, and a waste of time and valuable resources.
This year we will continue our effort to eliminate unnecessary and harmful assessments in our public schools. Our child will not participate in any assessments other than those solely for the use of the individual classroom teacher. 

We refuse to allow any data to be used for purposes other than the individual teacher’s own formative or cumulative assessment. Any assessment whose data is used to determine school ranking, teacher effectiveness, state or federal longitudinal studies or any other purpose other than for the individual classroom teacher’s own use to improve his or her instruction will not be presented to our children. To be clear, our child will not participate in the following: 

• Any state assessments. 

• Any so-called “benchmark” exams whether they are teacher-designed or not, since these exams are imposed by entities other than the individual teacher. 

• Any surveys, or “field tests” given by corporate or government entities or testing companies  

• Any “standardized” test. 

We will be encouraging other parents to stand up against the testing fad and, more importantly, the corporate and government takeover of our schools. We believe in and trust our highly qualified and dedicated teachers and administrators. We believe that our child’s education should be trusted in the hands of those who are most experienced and who personally know the needs and individual requirements of each child. 

Teachers already know how to determine those needs and requirements without mandated standardized testing. Our schools will not suffer when these tests are finally gone. They will flourish.__________Public Schools should have a unified policy in place to address children who will be opting out of assessments. 

Thank you.

Ten Things to Know About the MEAP

I had a conversation last year with a dear friend about the MEAP, the Michigan Educational Assessment Program. It was clear to me that he fundamentally didn't understand how the MEAP is different from other tests, or why that matters. In case any of you are not MEAP experts, I just thought I would offer a few observations about what makes the MEAP different.

1. The MEAP is really multiple tests. . . reading, writing, math, science, social studies.

2. It might not be obvious, but while the reading test is just that--a reading test--the other tests are really also reading tests. You might think of them as "reading +" tests. The reason I say that is that in order to answer the questions on, for instance, the social studies MEAP, you have to be able to read them. So if you don't read well, guess what? You're not likely to test very well on any of the other sections either, even if you are really good at doing experimental science or can identify the 500 most common insects in Michigan.

3. The MEAP is not like other tests, where a teacher gives the test, figures out that half of the class didn't really get the concept of a rhombus, and re-teaches the concept.  No. The test comes at the beginning of the year, the results come at the end of the year, and they're never used for anything except. . .

4. Except evaluating schools. If enough kids don't take the tests. . . if the kids who take the tests don't do well. . . if a subset of kids don't do well, then guess what? The school doesn't make "Adequate Yearly Progress," which basically feels to the schools like they are getting a big fat F. Note my commentary about Skyline's MEAP tests last year.

5. It is this "high stakes" nature of the test that leads teachers to do a lot of pre-testing and test preparation. And the stakes are not high for the students, the way that a final exam worth 40% of a semester-long class might be. No--the stakes are high for the schools. 

6. The test compares year-to-year results for a school. What I mean is that the test is comparing last year's fourth graders to this year's fourth graders, not last year's third graders to this year's fourth graders. If a student moves from School A to School B, the results do not follow the student. And if a new student comes into a school, the state's evaluation still assumes the student has been there for the last several years. That is not at all helpful for schools that have high turnover in students because of poverty and unstable households. Incidentally, the MEAP was neither designed for nor (scientifically) validated for use this way, and yet that is how it gets used. 

7. One of my biggest objections to the MEAP is that it in no way benefits the students. Why should students spend a ton of time on something that doesn't benefit them?

8. The question has been raised to me: is there a way to opt out of the MEAP? In the past, many parents did (so obviously it should be possible). However, districts have gotten their backs up about this for one reason. And again, it's not something that benefits students. If enough students don't take the MEAP (and I don't mean, if enough students don't do well, I mean if they don't take it) then the school can fail to make "adequate yearly progress" solely on that basis. In other words, even if every student who takes the MEAP is proficient or better, if 10% of the students didn't take the MEAP, then the school could fail to "pass." See how it's not about the students?

9. Well, my friend said, "Why don't people who don't want their children to take the test just pull them out of school for the test?" That turns out to not be so easy. The MEAP has multiple parts (different parts in different grades), and is given during a three-week (or so) window. Most parents don't want to keep their kids out of school for three weeks; most parents aren't able to do so either (things like work tend to interfere). If you are able to take your kids out of school for three weeks, you might be a parent who is inclined toward home schooling, in which case you would not have to subject your child to the MEAP anyway.

10. So can you opt out? I believe so, despite what your district may say. Realize, however, that if you do so you may be putting your school in an uncomfortable position (see #7 above). I have one friend who has successfully (recently) opted out her child from the MEAP, and if I get permission I will share her family's technique--and I have heard of a couple of other techniques as well.  (If you have had your own success story, and are willing to share it, send me an email at rlk234 (at) gmail.com.)

In the meantime, I will leave you with this excerpt from our state's Revised School Code:

380.10 Rights of parents and legal guardians; duties of public schools. Sec. 10.
It is the natural, fundamental right of parents and legal guardians to determine and direct the care, teaching, and education of their children. The public schools of this state serve the needs of the pupils by cooperating with the pupil's parents and legal guardians to develop the pupil's intellectual capabilities and vocational skills in a safe and positive environment.

History: Add. 1995, Act 289, Eff. July 1, 1996
Popular Name: Act 451 (Emphasis added)

I will also leave you with this thought: the volume of tests in our schools increases every year; the high-stakes nature of the tests increases every year. It's time for us to say no to this. If you are an Ann Arbor parent, teacher, or taxpayer, I invite you to sign our petition to stop overtesting in our schools, and I invite you to join our facebook page as well!

Ann Arbor: Stop Overtesting Our Kids!

Ann Arbor: There's a new group in town. 

This is a group dedicated to reducing the amount of standardized testing and "assessments" that are going on throughout the year.
This is a group that believes there is a better way to spend the school day than testing, testing, testing.
This is a group that is organizing parents, teachers, students and taxpayers to oppose the amount of testing going on.
I'm a proud member of this group,  

Ann Arbor STOP: Stop overTesting Our Pupils!

 

We'll be organizing; sharing strategies for opting out of tests; addressing research; and working to convince the school board and school administration to change their testing programs.

And no, we didn't plan it this way, but it's a telling coincidence that the night that we unveiled our new petition and facebook page was also the night before the MEAPs started in Ann Arbor.

If you live in the Ann Arbor school district, and you agree with us that there is too much testing in the school district, taking away valuable time from instruction, then consider doing the following:

1. Sign our petition, Please Stop Overtesting Our Kids!

Here is how the petition begins:

Dear Ann Arbor Board of Education, and the AAPS,
We, the undersigned, object to the over-use of standardized testing and assessments in the Ann Arbor Public Schools.The ever-increasing focus on standardized testing is hurting our kids and diminishing their education.Standardized testing has been shown to reflect one thing quite successfully: socioeconomic status. We do not feel that repeated measuring of socioeconomic status is a good use of classroom time. We feel there are too many tests, with too much overlap, cutting dramatically into classroom time that should be used for learning...

You will find the petition here:

http://www.thepetitionsite.com/745/249/873/please-stop-over-testing-our-kids/

2. Join the facebook group, Ann Arbor: Stop Overtesting!

https://www.facebook.com/groups/annarborstopovertesting/ 

 

There you will find some sample opt-out letters and lots of discussion.

Do we think we'll change things overnight? No. It may take some time. Don't be discouraged--we're in it for the long haul. 

Here's a little inspiration: 

Step By Step

Step by step the longest march can be won, can be won
Many stones can form an arch, singly none, singly none
And by union what we will can be accomplished still
Drops of water turn a mill, singly none, singly none.

--From the preamble to the constitution
     of the United Mineworkers of America

Testing Tales

I'm hoping to do a series about testing--talking about the MEAP, the MAP, the ACT, the SAT, the MME, etc. But it's such a vast subject and I've been a little bit stymied as to how to break it up. Add to that conundrum a busy schedule and I've been thinking about how to write this up for a couple of months now, but I haven't actually set pen to paper [rereading this, I feel I should note--that is just a figure of speech!]. Now I have decided I will move from inward to outward. In other words, I'm going to start with myself.

I've never been a particularly anti-test person. I always thought that test taking was a skill that people needed, just like writing, arithmetic, or learning how to tie a shoelace. But I also thought we shouldn't overemphasis tests.

For myself, I have pleasant memories of filing into the school cafeteria to take the Iowa tests. I was lucky that my name wasn't something long like Smolensky or Blagojevich [sneaky reference to a former Illinois governor who is going to jail this week] because they were too long to fit in the bubbles. And of course I made sure to fill in the bubbles well with my newly-sharpened #2 pencil.

Do you remember the Iowa tests? They have a long history. They were first developed in 1935. The Iowa tests are what are called "norm-referenced" tests.  In other words, they score test-takers on a bell curve. Some students will be above average; the majority will be average; and some students will be below average.  [Below, there is a drawing of a bell curve. See how it looks like a bell? Hence the name.]

The Bell Curve

The idea behind a norm-referenced test is that it describes a population's distribution. In other words, not everyone will perform well--some people will perform poorly. But in a particular population (say, for example, Lake Wobegon, where "all the children are above average,") all of the kids could score to the right of the center line--and would look good when compared Lake Woestayhere, where all the kids are below average.

On the other hand, you can see the problem. In the broader population, it is impossible for everybody to score well. Half the test-takers would have to be below average. If a large population moves its scores (everyone starts reading better), then the bell curve shifts to the right--but still, half the kids are below average. Also, norm-referenced tests tend to focus on the kinds of questions that differentiate between students, and not the kinds of questions that show proficiency in certain areas. In other words, the point of the test is to rank students.

If, by chance, you have ever had a teacher who "graded on the curve" or "curved the grades," that teacher was working toward a certain middle ground. If she or he expected that most of the class would get a B, but the average grade was a C, they might think "I guess I made that test too hard" and they would move the average up to a B. I was very thankful for that in college physics, where my C- turned into a B- thanks to a professor's curving of the final exam.

In my test-taking heyday--which might have been eighth or ninth grade--I enjoyed the tests as a break from my regular school work. I enjoyed completely filling in the circles. I didn't feel any pressure about the tests, because a) they didn't mean much of anything and b) I always scored well on tests. In other words, whether it was an Iowa test or an IQ test (which is also scored on the bell curve), I was always well along on the right-hand side of that curve.

I never had test anxiety, which definitely helped.

But it's also true that students who fit my profile tended to do well. And of course, doing well is positively reinforcing. And since I did well the first time, why get nervous about the next year's test?

What, you might wonder, is "my profile?" Well, to begin with, I lived in a primarily white, upper middle/middle class town. I had two well-educated parents, both with graduate degrees. I had lots of books in my house. Only one of my grandparents had finished high school, but they all could read in more than one language. It turns out that the confluence of a comfortable income and an educated, literate family lead a certain population to do very well on tests. And that is true, whether the test is a norm-referenced test like the Iowa tests, or a criterion-referenced test like the MEAP.

Criterion-referenced tests sound, on paper, a lot better. In a sense, they are more like the kinds of tests that we took in high school. If you were taught the future tense in a language class, you would be expected to demonstrate that knowledge on a test. Theoretically, every student in the class could get an A if they had studied and mastered the future tense. And in this simple example, that might actually happen.

In real life, in criterion-referenced tests like the MEAP, that never happens. There are a lot of reasons for this, but here are a few.
1. Students come in with different weaknesses. If one of those weaknesses is reading, that will show up in every single other test. The social studies and science tests--and even the math tests--require a lot of reading.
2. The "cut scores," as to what "proficiency" means, change. That just happened this year in Michigan, and guess what--a lot of kids who looked "proficient" last year don't look proficient this year. Even though they might have actually done better.
3. Not all teachers teach everything that might be on the tests. And even if they cover the subject matter, the questions might be unintelligible to the student. Take, for instance, an example that a teacher gave me a few years ago. Her students (upper elementary) had a question on the reading comprehension exam about logging. Yes, I'm talking about the cutting down of trees. Her students, however, had a different understanding of logging. One logs into a computer, and logs out of a computer. . .  That reading comprehension passage made no sense at all to those kids.

But anyway, back to me. I've now had two children go through the college application process. They've taken a lot of tests. Like me when I was growing up, they have two parents with graduate degrees. Like me growing up, they live in a middle class community--and an academic community too! That is another kind of privilege. Like me, they did relatively well.

And my youngest son? He said to me, "I like the tests."
"Really? Why?" I asked.
"Well," he said, "we don't do any work during the testing periods!"

And that's Part I. More about testing, coming soon to a blog near you.