Regents Blink On Mandatory Field Testing - For Now

From LoHud:

In response to a barrage of criticism from parents and educators about excessive testing, the Board of Regents is tabling a vote on a resolution that would have made standalone field tests in grades 3-8 mandatory.

The resolution would have prevented school districts from refusing to administer the controversial tests, which try out questions that may be included on future exams. The measure was scheduled to be voted on Feb. 25.

Instead, the board is requesting $8.4 million in the state budget to enable the Education Department to print more versions of the regular tests with the field test questions embedded in them.

"Pending action on that request, the board will not act on the proposed regulation at this time," said Education Department spokeswoman Jeanne Beattie.

And what caused the blink?

This:

The proposed regulation, making the standalone filed tests mandatory, caused a public outcry, and thousands of letters were sent to the Education Department in opposition to the plan during the 45-day public comment period, which ended Jan. 20.

It seems even the unaccountable members of the NY Board of Regents are starting to feel some pressure on their education reform agenda.

Still, as NYSAPE notes, this may not be the end of the mandatory field testing push from the Regents:

Anna Shah of the NYS Allies for Public Education, an advocacy group that includes about 50 parent and educator groups, said she found the tabling of the resolution problematic.

...

Shah said the Education Department had made no effort to post the public comments or respond to inquiries from the public on any of the their concerns.

Asking for a large amount in funding from the state is just a way for the Education Department to avoid answering questions, she said.

"The $8.4 million is a pipe dream," said Shah. "They are just making a show of a good-faith effort."

And when that good-faith effort gets shot down by the pols in charge, we may see mandatory field testing shoved through anyway.

NY Board Of Regents Aid Opt-Out Movement By Moving To Mandate Field Tests

Jessica Bakeman at Capital NY:

ALBANY—The state Board of Regents on Monday moved toward finalizing a new regulation that make explicit a requirement that school districts to participate in "field testing."

State education department officials argued that the action was necessary to combat a growing movement of parents keeping their children from participating in field testing—the practice of administering test questions that aren't scored but serve to generate feedback for future exams.
...

The move comes at a time when parents and teachers’ unions have railed against standardized testing, especially relatively new state exams that are aligned to the Common Core standards. Parents have instructed their children to refuse tests, and unions have pushed state officials to increase transparency.

At least one Regent saw the problem with moving to mandate even more testing for children:

During debate at the meeting on Monday, Kathleen Cashin, a member of the Board of Regents who represents Brooklyn, questioned the timing of the regulation, given the controversy over testing in New York and nationally.

“Is this the time to mandate it, considering what we’ve been through in terms of testing?” she said. “I’m not refuting what you’re saying about validity. What I’m cautioning us to be aware of is, at a time when there is a tremendous anti-testing movement … why are we mandating it if we don’t have to?”

Indeed, one of the best things that could happen here is for Regents Chancellor Tisch - the Doyenne of Testing, as Diane Ravitch dubbed her - to move her Regents to mandate the field tests for districts.

There's been growing support for the opt-out movement, with more parents joining year by year.

You can see that in the numbers of opt-outs as well as the pushback Tisch and NYSED Commissioner King got on their "Common Core Tour."

But if the Regents vote to mandate the field testing for districts, they're going to start a fight with parents and teachers that makes the uproar King got in Poughkeepsie over Common Core look like a little skirmish.

So I say, go on Chancellor Tisch, mandate the field tests, punish districts that do not comply.

In the end you're only aiding the op-out cause by fanning the flames of anger and resentment over testing.

Juan Gonzalez: Ending Failed Education Policy Means Cleaning House At Tweed

In Juan Gonzalez's column on the Pearson field test protests arising around the state this week is this:

Students and teachers at 1,100 city schools — plus an additional 3,000 statewide — are confronting more state-mandated tests this week.

For the third straight year, the state and its testing company, Pearson, are conducting stand-alone field testing for several hundred thousand pupils — tests that don’t count but are used to identify possible items for next year’s state tests.


...

“We’re so overtested it’s beyond belief,” William Calla, the superintendent of the Fairport Central School District in suburban Rochester, said. That’s why he is among some 20 school superintendents who have rebelled this time.

“There’s absolutely nothing in the commissioner’s regulations or federal education law that requires us to give these tests,” Calla said. “I just shipped the test package back unopened.”

Their revolt is one more sign of the spreading furor nationwide against politicians’ obsession with test-taking.

City Schools Chancellor Carmen Fariña has joined the furor — at least in words. She has already declared standardized tests will no longer be used as a sole measure of performance in city schools.

“We understand the frustration among parents and educators with the frequency of testing,” Fariña’s spokeswoman, Devora Kaye, said. “This (field testing) is one of many practices we plan to review this summer and evaluate for the coming year.”

Unlike Superintendent Calla, however, Fariña allowed the state field tests to go ahead.

In doing so, she appears to be heeding those top-level holdovers from the Bloomberg era who, inexplicably, still surround her at Tweed.

(You don’t get rid of a failed policy, Chancellor, by keeping the very people who championed it.)

I understand that Farina took over mid-year and so it was difficult to do a total overhaul of both Tweed and the Bloomberg policies this academic year.

But here's an important question:

Will de Blasio and Farina end the failed Bloomberg education policies by cleaning house at Tweed over the summer or will the Bloomberg holdovers still be here in September?

Because if they are, then as Juan Gonzalez points out, the failed Bloomberg policies will still be here too and that means despite the words we have heard from both de Blasio and Farina about a new era of collaboration between educators and parents, a new era when students are more than their test scores, nothing of substance will have really changed from the Bloomberg Years to the De Blasio Years.

State Needs To Release ELA/Math Tests In Their Entirety

Gotham Schools reported that the state, anticipating pushback on their standardized testing regime with scores expected to fall significantly on the new Common Core test results to be released this week, is going to let the public see a “significant number” of questions from the new Common Core-aligned tests that students took in April.

The release of some test items by the state is meant to short-circuit criticism over the quality of the Pearson-developed tests.

But releasing some test questions (the state says a "significant" number of test questions, but the meaning of the word "significant" is open to interpretation) is not going to short-circuit the criticism of the tests in the least.

The state need to release the exams in their entirety, as children saw them, with field test items included, as well as the grading rubrics and scoring charts, so that parents can see just what their kids were up against last April.

Releasing some questions from each test in isolation of the test as whole without the context of the grading rubric and scoring charts will not allow parents or the public to gauge how fair or well-designed these tests were.

This release of some test items is a propaganda move by NYSED Commissioner John King and Merryl Tisch, meant to sway parents and the public to the state's assertion of the validity of the tests without truly giving scrutiny to the testing regime.

It's much like Nixon releasing his own edited version of the White House tapes to prove he wasn't a crook.

It takes the whole body of the tapes, just as it takes the whole body of the testing regime, along with grading rubrics and scoring charts, to get true transparency and give real scrutiny.

Unless Tisch and King release the exams in their entirety, as children saw them, with field test items included, as well as the grading rubrics and scoring charts, this move by the state proves nothing other than they're the pressure and criticism from the growing number of opponents and critics of their corporate testing cause.

Fred Smith: What Passage Topics Were Field Tested In The 3rd-8th Grade ELA Tests?

Fred Smith left a comment on this post I wrote about the Daily News editorial that took Pearson to the woodshed over the G&T test fiasco but left them unscathed over the Common Core tests.

Fred wants to know the passage topics from each of the various test forms in each grade, 3rd-8th, so we can know which one's Pearson was field testing.

Here's what he wrote:

The likelihood and level of incompetence extends to the April 2013 Common Core ELA and Math tests. And to hide the operational items from scrutiny, to fail to issue technical information on the tests in a timely way, to conceal basic information on the structure of the statewide exams and to forbid teachers and principals from uttering a word about the exams is an automatic condemnation of their quality and worth.

Perdido, I saw the Grade 5 ELA (Form C) Book 1 at the Daily News last week.I know the subject of all six reading passages on that form. Do you think we could ask 5th grade teachers who gave the other three forms (A, B and D) to share their recollections about the passages on the form they administered? We're not asking about the specific content or about the multiple-choice items. We're asking about the topics that were covered (similar to the way the Daily News described: A poem "Aloneness;" What are Wind Tunnels;" and "From Rock into Soil.")

That way we would know what the readings dealt with and we could figure our which passages were being field tested. Those would be the passages that were unique to each form. Thus, since SED and Pearson won't even tell us how many items were field tested, we would have a way to know and to determine how many of the Book 1 items actually counted and how many were being taken to help Pearson develop the next round of tests--which we're paying for twice--to develop and to sell to us--all the while keeping us in the dark.

It's a way to break the veil of secrecy and give parents and teachers a chance to say they're are a part of the equation--not sheep to be led around in silence.

The field testing Pearson is conducting in these state exams is one more reason why the tests should not be used for high stakes decisions.

One of the biggest criticisms of the tests was that students didn't have enough time to finish all the items on the exams.

One of the reasons why students couldn't finish their tests is because Pearson was field testing exam passages and questions for future state tests, taking away precious time from students to work on the exam questions that counted toward their scores.

That Pearson, the NYSED and the Regents continue to think they can keep these test contents secret is outrageous.

I am sure Governor Andy will back them up on that, but it will be interesting to see what the courts say when the first lawsuits make their way there.

Especially if these tests are used to hold back students, evaluate teachers or close schools, as is expected (despite assurances from Merryl Tisch and John King to the contrary.)