BCT Editorial – 9/15/13

This page was last updated on September 17, 2013.

PSSA: A limited education; Beaver County Times; September 15, 2013.

Below is a detailed critique of this column.

“As classrooms all across the state kick off the 2013-14 school year, local educators yet again return to the ball and chain sort-of curriculum that has developed out of the Pennsylvania System of Schools Assessment (PSSA) test.”

[RWC] For Heaven knows what reason, the BCT has an editorial history of opposing tests to evaluate what K-12 kids learn, whether the tests are mandated by the feds (which I oppose as noted here) or the states. Previous examples include “Educational boondoggle,” “Testing,” “Test results,” “Test happy,” and “Incomplete grade.” One of the gripes is the use of tests pushes teachers to “teach to the test” as if that’s something bad. Isn’t the purpose of standardized tests to ensure students learn those things we as a society deem important to learn? Therefore, doesn’t it make sense to “teach to the test?” By “teaching to the test,” teachers are teaching students what we’ve determined is important.

Then, after claiming tests don’t tell us what kids learn, the BCT publishes editorials asserting this or that school district is failing its students and taxpayers and uses test scores as proof! Using the BCT own logic, how do we know those allegedly failing school districts aren’t really doing a top notch job? In none of its editorials decrying testing has the BCT suggested a means to “measure of the quality of education.” This editorial continues that tradition.

It’s important to remember why we have these tests. Via methods like inflated grades, grading on a curve, and so on, schools/teachers were passing students from grade to grade who had not mastered even basic skills like reading, writing, and arithmetic. That’s how we get high school grads who can’t read or make change and a reason colleges have been increasingly forced to add remedial classes for students arriving unprepared for what used to be considered college level work.

“The discussion predates No Child Left Behind and has sculpted this century’s approach to both primary and secondary education: Do we determine the quality, not to mention designated government funding, of our state’s teachers, students and schools based on a standardized exam? By agreeing to this, we have confined curricula across the board and taught students that intelligence comes down to a Scantron sheet and No. 2 pencil.

“But beyond focusing on teaching students to be tested, we have subjugated, and potentially discouraged, students that don’t fit the mold of the assessment exam.”

[RWC] What does this sentence mean?

“Take a look at the 2012 total PSSA exam scores — it is clear this system is not working.

“In math, across the board, 82 percent of white students achieved scores that ranked above a designation of basic, meaning that they scored in either advanced or proficient levels. 52.2 percent of black students rank above basic in math.

“In reading, 78.9 percent of white students achieved scores above basic, while only 47.9 percent of black students ranked in advanced or proficient.

“The trend is the same for the remaining subjects, science and writing. While we recognize that many factors impact a students [sic] ability to take the PSSA, it still seem [sic] undeniably obvious that the test is flawed and not right for all of students. Wide gaps between race [sic] should be an immediate concern for the credibility of this exam and for teachers across the state.”

[RWC] Though the editorial asserted “many factors impact a students [sic] ability to take the PSSA,” predictably it focused on skin color. What about the education level of the parents? What about kids in single-parent homes? What about family income? What about where the family lives? What about the school attended? All else being equal, does the alleged black/white disparity still exist?

What about the NBA and the NFL? In the NFL (2011 season), the black/white participation rates were 67%/31% and in the NBA (2011-2012 season) the rates were 78%/18%. Since whites were underrepresented, is it “undeniably obvious that the [evaluation process] is flawed and not right for all of [players]?”

“Alternative education isn’t necessarily a way around the PSSA either. In a report conducted by The Times in 2012, PA Cyber schools failed to reach the state’s adequate yearly progress (AYP), which is determined through proficiency in reading and math on PSSA, in addition to school attendance and graduation rate.

“We encourage our governing bodies to consider the flaws of the PSSA. This exam limits teachers and requires students to learn only though examination.”

[RWC] What does “learn only though examination” mean?

“While testing can be a helpful means for education, it is incredibly narrow to assess students exclusively through this method and to assume that fits all culturally and intellectually.”

[RWC] Shouldn’t this position also apply to tests in individual courses? That is, if I fail the tests in an engineering course, should I still receive a passing grade?

“It is limiting to individual curricula and to the broader mission of education — which is meant to prepare, excite and instruct our students, not just to test them.”

[RWC] As I noted above, the BCT provides no suggested remedy for the problem it sees. One place I worked had a simple rule to encourage constructive discussion; stated succinctly it said, “If all you can say is something sucks, shut up.”