Guest Post: A Parent Reviews Her Child's M-STEP Results, and Learns...

A guest post by Naomi Zikmund-Fisher about the M-STEP results, and what they mean.

Last week, we finally received my children’s scores from the M-STEP test they took last spring. My son, a fourth grader at the time (now 5th) and my daughter, a high school Junior (now senior) both took the test. For more on that decision, you can read here.

In the interest of maintaining some of their privacy, I’m not going to share how my kids did on the test. More to the point, it probably doesn’t matter how they did on the test, as their performance on this first round appears to be being largely discarded.

As a former teacher and administrator, I probably know more about how to read a score report than most parents. Theoretically, I should be able to get all there is to get out of these scores. So, here’s what I learned from looking at my children’s score reports:

1. Last spring, my children were doing about as well in their academic progress as their teachers said they were. There were no real surprises. You could have looked at their report cards and gotten the same information that M-STEP gives you.

2. That information is wildly out of date. They took this test in a window from March to May. I got the scores in January. Whatever new information may have been useful in the scores is no longer pertinent.

3. The science and social studies tests measure curriculum alignment more than anything else. They are broken out by different smaller subjects (e.g. physical science, life science or economics, geography). You can see that in this sample of a child’s 4th grade science scores.

Sample M-Step information provided to parents, in this case for the science test.

When they say a child is proficient, what does that mean?

My children did best in areas that they had studied recently and worst in those from previous years. In other words, this test measured what classes they were taking, not anything about my children or about whether their teachers were teaching well.

4. The target area for “proficient” is, in some cases, shockingly small. Scores are reported graphically (among other ways) on a continuum of four ranges. Proficient is the second to the top and is the smallest area, sometimes by quite a bit.

But shouldn’t “just fine” be a fairly broad range of kids? When did we stop recognizing that “normal” isn’t a single point, it’s a spectrum?

Sample of information provided to parents. Note that the grey "margin of error" overlaps both the "partially proficient" and advanced categories, meaning that a child who scores in the yellow/gray overlap as "partially proficient" might actually be "proficient" on another day. Note also that the green ball of "proficient" is a much smaller area than the bars for not proficient, partially proficient, or advanced.

This picture shows the score graphic for the same student whose subject scores were above. This child is supposedly proficient in 4th grade science [the score is right in the middle of the green bubble]. As you can see, this is quite a feat, since the “Proficient” range is about 5.5% of the total.

What’s more, while it’s great that the score report acknowledges a “margin of error” around the score, that margin is substantially larger than the target itself. This means that three kids who score as “partially proficient,” “proficient,” and “advanced” might all know exactly the same amount of science. We sing the praises of one (and the wonderful teacher who taught her) while wringing our hands about another (and the mediocre educator she had) when there is truly no difference at all.

In the end, what I realize once again is that this data is designed to measure districts and schools much more than to give us any useful information about individual children. Even without the huge delay in score reporting, the amount of useful information, that you can’t find more easily somewhere else, about a single child is minimal.

It’s reasonable to say that the measure of a school or a district is how well its children are prepared for the next phase of life. The problem is, we’re substituting this test for the real answer to that question. We’re asking our kids to take hours upon hours of tests – time they could spend actually learning something – in service of measuring their school system.

If we already know how they’re going to do on the tests, then we already know what the answer we’re going to get will be. And if we don’t already know how they’re going to do on the tests, it’s either a really bad test or a school so out of touch with students that it should be obvious in multiple other ways.

I can say unequivocally, however, as an educator and as a parent, that the M-STEP given last spring was just plain a waste of my children’s time.

Please Take the M-STEP Student and Parent Surveys

The Michigan Department of Education has put out parent and student surveys on the M-Step. I understand (at least on the parent survey) there is a comment section where you can put text. Use it!


Take the survey for students by June 12, 2015.

Take the survey for parents by June 19, 2015.



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Pine River Superintendent Speaks Out--Eloquently--Against the M-STEP

The Pine River Area Superintendent, Matt Lukshaitis, sent an excellent letter to the district's local legislators, school staff, and the school board. His points are different from mine--as they should be, because his point of view is different--but I think they are really important points.

I wish that more superintendents would speak out as he has.


I had to look up where the Pine River area is--it's south of Cadillac. Here's a map to help orient you.

Honorable Gentlemen,

So far, the M-STEP process is a painful invasion of teaching and learning and really, state testing has become an oxymoron. The testing process is not good for kids.

17 different days of testing for 11th grade students? Really? This is the best we can do? We "improve" the test by going from 3 days to 17? Have we collectively lost our minds?

At Pine River, our computer labs are tied up from April 13 to June 4 for testing. This is a good use of taxpayer dollars? I cannot fathom how many great minds it takes to change a state system from one day of juniors taking an ACT test on a Saturday morning in a high school cafeteria to a system testing K-12 students over a period of two months, but I'm pretty sure between the MDE and the legislature that we have discovered the formula. I'm saddened by this.

Education is not happening.

Principals and teachers are in high stress mode. Students are not learning, they are in Sarcasm 101 mode--how hard they try is going to be a true turkey shoot.

Terri and I have five children. Number five is a senior. Looking at what we are doing to the students in our public schools, I am truly glad to know this fact.
How many people have to be in charge of the local school districts? It seems like the state and the fed have over M-STEPped their boundaries.

How about the growing resentment coming from parents who are starting to demand that we excuse their students from the testing process? And the onus of responsibility is on the LEA to make these kids test? The state is setting up public schools for imminent failure. There will be test cases in our courtrooms soon. This testing system is pushing public schools over a cliff. I am afraid there may be a long, terrifying drop into jagged rocks....

I know a lot of really smart people came up with this wonderful theory of testing. The practice of teaching and learning however, is the provenance of the LEAs. Perhaps we should all take a giant step back and allow the schools to answer the needs of their community with more freedom?

Please stem the tide of this testing. It is just too much. Listen to those of us in the schools. Sitting in an office in Lansing does not help you understand the issues. Come visit us at Pine River Area Schools. Visit every district. Go see the schools while the testing is happening and talk to the teachers and the principals. Help us help the kids.

Respectfully,

Matt Lukshaitis, Superintendent
Pine River Area Schools
Go Bucks!

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Worth Your Time! Parent Presentation to AAPS Assessment Committee on Opting Out of the MSTEP

Angie Smith, one of the parents on the Ann Arbor Schools Assessment Advisory Committee, shared this powerpoint presentation with the committee this week, and has given me permission to share it with the rest of the world.

One more thing: in the "settings" on Google Slides (the little wheel option on the right side of the black bar at the bottomo), you can choose to look at the speaker notes, and I think you will find them helpful.





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Michigan's Got Pesky, Wasteful Standardized Testing--You Can Opt Out

The Bird is Back--it's Spring!
Photo by Ruth Kraut

If it's Spring--and I really think it is, because the Bird has emerged from under her snow blanket--then you know that it is also, in the schools, TESTING TIME.

This is true at many ages, but most especially in grades 3-8 and grade 11. For grades 3-8 there is still the NWEA MAP test (for the third time this year), and also there is the M-STEP, the MEAP replacement (but really it's like the MEAP on steroids). For the 11th grade there is the M-STEP, but there has already been the ACT and the Work Keys. And I think I might be forgetting another standardized test. [I've written about the NWEA a lot. If you do a blog search you will find numerous posts. so I'm not putting in any links here.]

And here's where I tell you: 

I am fully in support of you, as a parent, deciding to Opt Out your children from these tests. [Look for sample Opt Out letters this week.]

And/Or

I am fully in support of you, as a parent, telling the schools that you REFUSE to let your student participate in practice testing for these tests. [Practice testing definitely takes up even more time than the actual testing, distracting from the core mission of the schools!]

And/Or

I am fully in support of you, as a teacher, telling the schools that you REFUSE to do any practice testing. [Gutsy]

And/Or

I am fully in support of you, as a teacher, telling the schools that you REFUSE to administer these tests. [Really gutsy; maybe dangerous if you want to keep teaching.]

I drew this as my "logo." (I'm happy to share it with others in
the Opt Out Movement.) I view the
Opt Out Movement as a Wave. Drawn by Ruth Kraut.

And here's where YOU say, "Well, that's easy for you to say. But you don't actually have any children in any of those grades." And that's true. I currently have a 10th grader and an exchange student who is a 12th grader attending Ann Arbor schools. I don't have any 3-8th graders, or any 11th graders.

So you might think that they are unaffected by all this testing. NOT SO.

Already this year, when the 11th graders were taking the ACT and Work Keys, the students in my house were sleeping in--because there was no school for 9th, 10th, or 12th graders, for 1-1/2 days that week. [And really--those half-days are useless, so it was more like losing 2 days of school.] And they didn't have school, so that somebody else could take a meaningless test. [Whatever you think about the ACT, I have no idea what the point, purpose, or use of WorkKeys is. But I'm pretty sure it's not helping those 11th graders with Reading, Writing, or 'Rithmetic. Or History, Science, Art or Health.]

Why Now?

Well, the M-STEP is a made up test. We were supposed to use the Smarter Balanced test, but our legislators got cold feet about its relationship to Common Core.

The M-STEP test has not been validated [tested in advance to see if it makes any sense in a statistical way], and based on the sample questions I've seen [see the link in the "quote" below] the clear answer is that NO, they don't make any sense. Plus it will be replaced next year by a different test. So there won't even be any comparison data.

Take a look at some sample M-STEP questions here: The MSTEP testing window is quicky approaching. Have you looked at the test? If not you can see the samples here https://wbte.drcedirect.com/MI/portals/mi/ott1 (Username is math#samp for math and ela#samp for English language arts, with # being replaced by the grade level you want (so math6samp for 6th grade math). The password is test1234.

So they have designated the M-STEP this year as a "pilot" year. It's not going to be used to count for anything as far as school participation goes, or as far as teacher evaluations go. It's ONLY going to be used to waste our children's time, and to divert our children from much more important (and interesting) activities.

Teachers I have talked to are terrified by the M-STEP. They are terrified about the idea that these tests will be used to judge them. They are terrified that students won't do well on them (probably true, when you see the questions you realize they are completely developmentally inappropriate).

But wait...there's more! There are, to my knowledge, very few protections as to how your child's data will be used. In other states, the testing agencies are surveilling social media (twitter, and more) to see if kids "give out" information about the tests.

Administrators are caught between a rock and a hard place. They are mandated to give these tests, but if they tell you that they can't "let you" opt your child out, just remind them that this is not their decision. You are the parent, and you decide what is best for your child. That is your right.

Tomorrow or the next day I will post some sample Opt Out letters.

In the meantime, here's why this is important. When we allow the tests to be given, we lose all the things that we hold dear in education.

The combination of the M-STEP and the NWEA MAP test means less time for everyone else in the computer labs, and fewer field trips. Fewer math problems. Fewer science experiments. Fewer books in free reading time. You get the idea. You don't have to allow it.

I encourage you to opt out, and to tell the district why. 

If you are thinking, "I agree with you, and yet I don't want to be disruptive, and I'm not comfortable going all the way," I should tell you that there is a third way, but it involves really engaging with your learner about why this testing is so disruptive. And it involves your student agreeing with you [not a guarantee, with peer pressure!].

Tell the school that your child may take the final test but is not to participate in any--any--any practice testing options.

Meanwhile, tell your child...

Tell your child that you don't care about this test. And mean it. 
Talk to your child about why this test is different from the math test the teacher will give next week, the one that you do care about.

Tell your child that you don't care if they answer "a" to every multiple choice question, and type gibberish in the box where they "write" an essay. 
Explain why that is different from the two page paper that you do care about--the one where they have to write about the cultures of Spain or Cameroon for the 8th grade Global Cultures curriculum.

Tell your child that you don't care if the only thing they do is put their name on the test. Tell your child that taking this test is this is the least important thing that they will do all year.

This "softer" opt out option might sound easier, but I think it might be more difficult. It's hard to sit in a test and not really do it--we've been trained to try our best, and that's what all of the "encouragement" will be. Plus if you are sitting there, there won't be anything else to do. And not-doing-anything boredom is different from doing-anything-boredom. Opt out, and maybe you get to do some math or read a book.

The other thing we all have to do--and this requires training ourselves, and it is hard--is IGNORE the test results. Don't validate them by discussing them. Ignore them.

I used to think that the testing wasn't really so harmful. I was wrong. It's part and parcel of a profit-making machine that has as its core mission the destruction of our beautiful public schools.

So in my mind, I envision the wave of opting out as part of a broader social movement to save our schools. Whatever you do in opposition, is worthwhile.

I'll close with a favorite quote of a favorite author, Audre Lorde: 

When I dare to be powerful - to use my strength in the service of my vision, then it becomes less and less important whether I am afraid.

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