tag:theconversation.com,2011:/ca-fr/topics/standardized-testing-15920/articlesStandardized testing – La Conversation2024-02-28T12:34:10Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2220442024-02-28T12:34:10Z2024-02-28T12:34:10ZHow educator Gloria Jean Merriex used dance, drills and devotion to turn around a failing elementary school in a year<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/577609/original/file-20240223-16-smmyyk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C3%2C1311%2C531&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Movement was an essential part of Gloria Merriex's lessons at Duval Elementary School in Gainesville, Fla.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Courtesy of Boaz Dvir</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>When Duval Elementary – a school that served mostly Black and poor students in East Gainesville, Florida – failed the state’s <a href="https://www.fldoe.org/accountability/assessments/k-12-student-assessment/archive/fcat/">high-stakes standardized</a> test in 2002, district leaders pressured the school’s educators to more closely follow the curriculum.</p>
<p>But Gloria Jean Merriex, who taught third and fourth grade reading and fifth grade math, wasn’t interested. She argued that doing more of the same would yield more of the same results. She rebelled by creating a customized curriculum and going out of sequence, teaching the hardest units first.</p>
<p>Opting for a more kinetic approach to learning, she introduced music and movement. She revamped math and reading instruction by infusing the lessons with hip-hop, dance and other innovations.</p>
<p>And she got results, leading Duval from an <a href="https://www.gainesville.com/story/news/2004/03/02/fcat-season-has-arrived/31659297007/">F to an A in 2003</a> and maintaining that academic excellence until she died of a diabetic stroke in 2008. Her students <a href="https://www.gainesville.com/story/news/2008/05/21/duval-math-teacher-remembered/31566316007/">achieved the greatest gains in math among all of Florida’s fifth graders</a>. </p>
<p>As one who has spent years researching Merriex’s career for “<a href="https://vimeo.com/manage/videos/832309250">Class of Her Own</a>,” a documentary set for national release on April 16, 2024, I believe the example she set could help students from economically poor families make up the <a href="https://www.gse.harvard.edu/ideas/news/23/05/new-data-show-how-pandemic-affected-learning-across-whole-communities">considerable ground they lost</a> during the COVID-19 pandemic.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/577582/original/file-20240223-18-59hove.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A movie poster shows a Black woman who is an educator with the words 'Class of her own' in a chalk-type font." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/577582/original/file-20240223-18-59hove.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/577582/original/file-20240223-18-59hove.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=864&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/577582/original/file-20240223-18-59hove.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=864&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/577582/original/file-20240223-18-59hove.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=864&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/577582/original/file-20240223-18-59hove.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1085&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/577582/original/file-20240223-18-59hove.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1085&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/577582/original/file-20240223-18-59hove.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1085&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Gloria Jean Merriex is the focus of a documentary titled ‘Class of Her Own,’ which is set to be released in April 2024.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Courtesy of Boaz Dvir</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The pandemic cost these students three-fourths of a year in math and more than a third of a year in reading, according to the <a href="https://educationrecoveryscorecard.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/ERS-Report-Final-1.31.pdf">Education Recovery Scoreboard</a>, a collaboration between educational researchers at Harvard and Stanford who are examining learning loss and recovery across the country. These students suffered more than twice the pandemic-induced math skills erosion than students from families of great economic means, the scoreboard shows.</p>
<p>Merriex’s students <a href="https://www.tmea.org/wp-content/uploads/Advocacy/CollegeBoardVoices_in_the_arts.pdf">consistently outscored their peers</a> until her <a href="https://www.gainesville.com/story/news/2008/05/23/duval-teacher-gloria-merriex-dies-at-58/31566470007/">death at the age of 58</a>.</p>
<p>Based on what I learned of her approach in the classroom, here are some of the most important takeaways from Merriex’s life and career:</p>
<h2>1. Meet your students where they are, from where you are</h2>
<p>Merriex breathed new life into this somewhat vague cliché by being uncompromisingly authentic. She wasn’t always that way. For much of her time at Duval, she followed the cookie-cutter curricula. But when Duval failed the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test, she felt she’d been letting down her students all those years. </p>
<p>Merriex started incorporating community and cultural concepts into her curriculum. </p>
<p>A church choir member, she also began keeping her students on task by snapping her fingers, lighting a fire under them by turning static class exercises into dance routines and engaging them in call-and-response. In one exchange depicted in the documentary, Merriex calls out “one-fourths equal,” “two-fourths equal,” and her class responds in unison “25%,” “50%” and so on until they reach 100%. </p>
<p>In another, after giving an incorrect answer, one of her fifth graders says: “I made a mistake.” Merriex calls out, “It’s OK. Why?” Her students respond, “Not too many.”</p>
<p>It was out of this authentic stance that Merriex wrote the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lB7B_7JdHUI&t=10s">“Math Rap” and other hip-hop-fueled educational songs</a>. Her teaching style exemplifies research that has found Black students learn best through “<a href="https://ecommons.luc.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1352&context=luc_diss">culturally relevant curriculum</a>” and by having classroom activities connected to “prior knowledge and … real life.”</p>
<p>Personally, <a href="https://www.centredaily.com/news/local/education/penn-state/article169726862.html">Merriex preferred other musical genres</a>, but she knew rap would resonate with her students. </p>
<h2>2. Make repetition a habit</h2>
<p>Merriex turned repetition into an art. She demonstrated that saying it once means simply mentioning it; to teach, you must repeat. And, through her reverse sequencing of teaching the most challenging concepts at the outset, she gave herself plenty of chances to revisit them throughout the year. </p>
<p>Several <a href="http://www.lingref.com/bucld/42/BUCLD42-16.pdf">domestic</a> and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1088/1755-1315/175/1/012148">international</a> studies illustrate the benefits of repetition to a <a href="https://www.doi.org/10.1128/jmbe.00158-21">variety of students</a>.</p>
<h2>3. Get parents involved</h2>
<p>Merriex believed parental involvement boosted student success – a notion that is <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10648-005-3949-7">backed up by research</a>.</p>
<p>“If a kid forgot their homework, she’d get on the phone with their mom,” University of Texas at San Antonio assistant dean of research Emily Bonner says in the documentary.</p>
<p>To enable parents to keep up with their children, Merriex offered them evening math and reading classes. “And she sometimes used to go by their house, especially kids that are really going through a lot,” parent volunteer Anthony Guice says in the documentary.</p>
<p>Guice continues to share Merriex’s math and reading raps and dance routines with North Florida residents. </p>
<h2>4. Show you care</h2>
<p>Merriex provided free after-school tutoring and Saturday sleepover test prep at Duval. She sewed school uniforms and graduation gowns. She cooked meals. “She put us before anything, before her own health,” former student Brittany Daniels says in the documentary.</p>
<p>A diabetic, Merriex could ill-afford to do that. Research shows overwork can be <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s10648-005-3949-7">hazardous to your health</a>, potentially even deadly.</p>
<p>“She only missed three days out of 30 years of school,” her daughter, Tayana Davis, a certified nurse, says in the documentary. “That’s when she was in the hospital.”</p>
<p>Thus, Merriex has provided us with two lessons, one unintentionally: Care, in a multitude of ways, for your students – and yourself.</p>
<h2>5. Embrace standardized testing</h2>
<p>Critics have long called standardized testing <a href="https://www.ascd.org/blogs/15-reasons-why-standardized-tests-are-problematic">inequitable and unfair</a>. Their <a href="https://www.nea.org/professional-excellence/student-engagement/tools-tips/history-standardized-testing-united-states">criticism reached a crescendo with passage of President George W. Bush’s 2001 No Child Left Behind Act</a>, which required yearly assessments and carried consequences such as being forced to restructure or or replace staff, including the principal, for schools that didn’t make adequate yearly progress.</p>
<p>In recent years, states have opted for less ominous evaluations through the <a href="https://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard/assessments/">National Assessment of Educational Progress</a>. Most universities have <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/michaeltnietzel/2022/11/15/more-than-80-of-four-year-colleges-wont-require-standardized--tests-for-fall-2023-admissions/?sh=5d7971887fb9">scrapped SAT and ACT requirements</a> from their applications. </p>
<p>Yet Merriex, who rejected other educational mandates, welcomed Florida’s standardized test. She viewed it as an equalizing factor. She used the exam to raise expectations and motivate her students. One of the means to a bigger end, it played a part in her mission to give her students the knowledge and skills needed to succeed in school and beyond.</p>
<p>Recent studies show she had a point. Researchers have found a correlation between <a href="https://www.pnas.org/doi/full/10.1073/pnas.1315746110">how K-12 students do on standardized tests and how they do in college</a>. For this reason, some universities, such as <a href="https://fortune.com/2024/02/07/dartmouth-college-admissions-sat-testing-standardized-exams/amp/">Dartmouth</a> and <a href="https://sg.news.yahoo.com/yale-university-brings-back-standardized-200720370.html">Yale</a>, have reinstated the SAT and ACT. </p>
<p>Florida’s test certainly leveled the playing field for Merriex’s students. Their success transformed Duval from an underserved school into a well-funded <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=AGFcXrLjKScC&pg=PA22&lpg=PA22&dq=On+the+2003+FCAT,+Merriex+led+Duval+from+an+F+to+an+A&source=bl&ots=MmUEPuN-8H&sig=ACfU3U3t-r3qFhHbMrUVONk1FeA9JkcZ0A&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjAnsyF0ryEAxVwrokEHZDjDtYQ6AF6BAgLEAM#v=onepage&q=Duval%20arts%20academy&f=false">magnet arts academy</a> in 2005.</p>
<p>It was quite telling that after her students took Florida’s state test every spring, Merriex continued drilling its concepts through the end of the year. </p>
<p>The most relevant Merriex lesson, however, has nothing to do with state tests or hip-hop or chanting. “You’ve got to know who your students are, and you need to teach those students,” Bonner, the research dean from Texas, says in the documentary.</p>
<p>Not every group of students responds to rap or chanting, but children respond to a teacher who knows and cares about them, seeks to genuinely connect with them and unleashes their true self in the classroom to bring out the best in them.</p>
<p>The year after Merriex died, 2009, <a href="https://www.gainesville.com/story/news/2010/03/06/students-pumped-up-about-fcat/31745230007/">Duval failed</a> the state test. The school never regained its academic footing and ultimately <a href="https://www.gainesville.com/story/news/2015/06/10/so-long-duval-elementary/31882978007/">closed in 2015</a>.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/222044/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Boaz Dvir receives funding from Kellogg and Smallwood Foundations for the production of the documentary </span></em></p>A new documentary highlights teaching techniques of an educator who went the extra mile for her students.Boaz Dvir, Associate Professor of Journalism, Penn StateLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2052442023-11-14T13:26:11Z2023-11-14T13:26:11Z1 in 4 Colorado 11th-graders skipped their state’s standardized test − geography and income help explain why<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/539579/original/file-20230726-19-nsluta.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=76%2C53%2C5035%2C3349&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">High school students in Colorado have protested the use of standardized tests. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/elevated-view-of-students-writing-their-gcse-exam-royalty-free-image/525409577?phrase=students+taking+an+exam&adppopup=true">Caiaimage/Chris Ryan via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>The <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/topics/research-brief-83231">Research Brief</a> is a short take about interesting academic work.</em> </p>
<h2>The big idea</h2>
<p>About one in four 11th-graders in Colorado <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/23328584231169735">exercised their right</a> to skip the <a href="https://www.cde.state.co.us/assessment/cmas">state’s official science test</a> each year between 2016 and 2019. More specifically, between <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/23328584231169735">23% and 27% of 11th-graders</a> did not participate in the science exam during those years. That’s what we found in a study published in <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/23328584231169735">AERA Open</a>. Our study was based on a geographical analysis of state data that revealed how many students decided to skip the test during the years in question.</p>
<h2>Why it matters</h2>
<p>Opting out of tests is part of a recent national educational movement across the United States. The opt-out movement garnered national attention in <a href="https://www.tc.columbia.edu/articles/2017/august/how-americans-view-the-opt-out-movement/">2015 and 2016</a> after growing <a href="https://www.tc.columbia.edu/media/news/docs/Opt_Out_National-Survey----FINAL-FULL-REPORT.pdf">dissatisfaction with high-stakes testing</a>, both as a tool to evaluate teacher performance and assess student learning. Many students and parents do not believe in the importance of standardized tests as a measure of academic achievement.</p>
<p>Much of the opt-out movement was led by parents who chose to keep their children home from school on the test day. They often acted in coordination with national groups such as <a href="https://unitedoptout.com/about/">United Opt Out</a>.
Colorado is a unique case, though, because high school students were actively involved <a href="https://co.chalkbeat.org/2015/7/27/21092318/after-widespread-test-protests-last-fall-opting-out-spread-during-spring-exams">in the opt-out movement</a> and were protesting the use of standardized tests. </p>
<p>Opting-out behavior varied dramatically among certain subgroups in Colorado. Generally, schools with higher proportions of white students and more students on free and reduced lunch plans had <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/23328584231169735">lower opt-out rates</a>. Students at charter schools were also <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/23328584231169735">less likely to opt out</a> of the 11th grade science exam. Schools with <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/23328584231169735">larger class sizes had higher opt-out rates</a>. </p>
<p>But the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/23328584231169735">state’s geography plays a critical role</a> – not all trends are the same across the state. The opt-out movement was more prominent in certain parts of the state and among certain groups. For instance, we found that poor students in more rural and politically conservative communities were more likely to opt out than poor students in other areas of the state, such as Denver, which is politically more liberal. </p>
<p>Rural schools in eastern Colorado tended to have higher test participation rates. At the same time, some of the rural schools along the I-70 corridor and on the Western Slope had substantially lower test participation rates. Charter schools tended to have lower opt-out rates than regular public schools. However, charter schools in Denver and northern Colorado tended to have much higher opt-out rates than charter schools across the rest of the state. </p>
<p>The findings from our study tell a complicated story of standardized test participation in Colorado. The findings show how demographics, school governance and geography all affect whether students participate in standardized tests in Colorado. </p>
<h2>What’s next</h2>
<p>Based on our analysis, we cannot determine the exact reasons students opted out of tests. We also could not determine to what extent youth led the movement to opt out of 11th grade science exams. We plan to find out how and why students decided to opt out of tests in Colorado through survey and qualitative research studies beginning in fall 2023. We also plan to look at opting-out trends in other states.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/205244/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sherman Dorn is affiliated with the National Education Policy Center. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Carlos Casanova, Kathryn Chapman, and Lydia Ross do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The opt-out movement caught on heavily in Colorado in the late 2010s. A group of education scholars is exploring the reasons why.Lydia Ross, Assistant Professor of Educational Leadership and Innovation, Arizona State UniversityCarlos Casanova, Assistant Professor of Education, Arizona State UniversityKathryn Chapman, Clinical Assistant Professor of Early Childhood Studies, University of FloridaSherman Dorn, Professor of Education, Arizona State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2026912023-03-31T18:15:47Z2023-03-31T18:15:47ZDeclines in math readiness underscore the urgency of math awareness<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/518595/original/file-20230330-1139-7yolln.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C73%2C6134%2C4000&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Math scores plummeted during the COVID-19 pandemic. What will it take to raise them back up?</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/girl-solving-mathematical-addition-royalty-free-image/950609102?phrase=math%20classroom&adppopup=true">Ridofranz / iStock / Getty Images Plus</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>When President Ronald Reagan <a href="https://ww2.amstat.org/mam/98/what.is.maw.html">proclaimed the first National Math Awareness Week</a> in April 1986, one of the problems he cited was that too few students were devoted to the study of math.</p>
<p>“Despite the increasing importance of mathematics to the progress of our economy and society, enrollment in mathematics programs has been declining at all levels of the American educational system,” Reagan wrote in his proclamation.</p>
<p>Nearly 40 years later, the problem that Reagan lamented during the first National Math Awareness Week – which has since evolved to become “<a href="https://ww2.amstat.org/mathstatmonth/aboutmathstatmonth.html">Mathematics and Statistics Awareness Month</a>” – not only remains but has gotten worse.</p>
<p>Whereas 1.63%, or about <a href="https://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/d21/tables/dt21_325.65.asp">16,000</a>, of the <a href="https://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/d12/tables/dt12_310.asp">nearly 1 million</a> bachelor’s degrees awarded in the U.S. in the 1985-1986 school year went to math majors, in 2020, just 1.4%, or about <a href="https://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/d21/tables/dt21_325.65.asp">27,000</a>, of the <a href="https://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/d12/tables/dt12_310.asp">1.9 million</a> bachelor’s degrees were awarded in the field of math – a small but significant decrease in the proportion.</p>
<p>Post-pandemic data suggests the number of students majoring in math in the U.S. is likely to decrease in the future.</p>
<p>A key factor is the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/10/24/us/math-reading-scores-pandemic.html">dramatic decline in math learning</a> that took place during the lockdown. For instance, whereas 34% of eighth graders were proficient in math in 2019, test data shows the percentage <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/10/24/us/math-reading-scores-pandemic.html">dropped to 26% after the pandemic</a>.</p>
<p>These declines will undoubtedly affect how much math U.S. students can do at the college level. For instance, in 2022, only <a href="https://www.act.org/content/dam/act/unsecured/documents/2022/2022-National-ACT-Profile-Report.pdf">31% of graduating high school seniors were ready for college-level math</a> – down from 39% in 2019.</p>
<p>These declines will also affect how many U.S. students are able to take advantage of the growing number of <a href="https://www.bls.gov/ooh/math/home.htm">high-paying math occupations</a>, such as <a href="https://www.bls.gov/ooh/math/data-scientists.htm">data scientists</a> and <a href="https://www.bls.gov/ooh/math/actuaries.htm">actuaries</a>. Employment in math occupations is projected to <a href="https://www.bls.gov/ooh/math/home.htm">increase by 29%</a> in the period from 2021 to 2031.</p>
<p>About <a href="https://www.bls.gov/ooh/math/home.htm">30,600 math jobs</a> are expected to open up per year from growth and replacement needs. That exceeds the 27,000 or so math graduates being produced each year – and <a href="https://www.bls.gov/ooh/field-of-degree/mathematics/mathematics-field-of-degree.htm">not all math degree holders</a> go into math fields. Shortages will also arise in several other areas, since math is a gateway to many STEM fields.</p>
<p>For all of these reasons and more, as a <a href="https://manilsuri.umbc.edu/">mathematician</a> who thinks deeply about the <a href="https://wwnorton.com/books/9781324007036">importance of math</a> and what it means to our world – and even to <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?view_op=view_citation&hl=en&user=lFWFsSkAAAAJ&sortby=pubdate&citation_for_view=lFWFsSkAAAAJ:j3f4tGmQtD8C">our existence as human beings</a> – I believe this year, and probably for the foreseeable future, educators, policymakers and employers need to take Mathematics and Statistics Awareness Month more seriously than ever before.</p>
<h2>Struggles with mastery</h2>
<p>Subpar math achievement has been endemic in the U.S. for a long time. </p>
<p>Data from the National Assessment of Educational Progress shows that <a href="https://www.nationsreportcard.gov/mathematics/nation/achievement/?grade=12">no more than 26% of 12th graders</a> have been rated proficient in math since 2005.</p>
<p>The pandemic <a href="https://www.nationsreportcard.gov/mathematics/nation/groups/?grade=4#nation-gaps-gaps">disproportionately affected</a> racially and economically disadvantaged groups. During the lockdown, these groups had <a href="https://www.nationsreportcard.gov/highlights/mathematics/2022/#student-experiences">less access to the internet and quiet studying spaces</a> than their peers. So securing Wi-Fi and places to study are key parts of the battle to improve math learning.</p>
<p>Some people believe math teaching techniques need to be revamped, as they were through the <a href="https://www.vox.com/2014/4/20/5625086/the-common-core-makes-simple-math-more-complicated-heres-why">Common Core</a>, a new set of educational standards that stressed alternative ways to solve math problems. Others want a return to more traditional methods. Advocates also argue there is a need for colleges to <a href="https://www.nctq.org/publications/Teacher-Prep-Review:-Building-Content-Knowledge">produce better-prepared teachers</a>.</p>
<p>Other observers believe the problem lies with the “<a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/44330/mindset-by-carol-s-dweck-phd/">fixed mindset</a>” many students have – where failure leads to the conviction that they can’t do math – and say the solution is to foster a <a href="https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/feduc.2021.784393/full#B21">“growth” mindset</a> – by which failure spurs students to try harder.</p>
<p>Although all these factors are relevant, none address what in my opinion is a root cause of math underachievement: our nation’s ambivalent relationship with mathematics.</p>
<h2>Low visibility</h2>
<p>Many observers worry about how U.S. children fare in <a href="https://data.oecd.org/pisa/mathematics-performance-pisa.htm">international rankings</a>, even though math anxiety makes <a href="https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED536509.pdf">many adults in the U.S.</a> steer clear of the subject themselves.</p>
<p>Mathematics is not like art or music, which people regularly enjoy all over the country by visiting museums or attending concerts. It’s true that there is a National Museum of Mathematics in New York, and some science centers in the U.S. devote exhibit space to mathematics, but these can be geographically inaccessible for many.</p>
<p>A 2020 study on media portrayals of math <a href="https://doi.org/10.29333/iejme/8260">found an overall “invisibility of mathematics</a>” in popular culture. Other findings were that math is presented as being irrelevant to the real world and of little interest to most people, while mathematicians are stereotyped to be singular geniuses or socially inept nerds, and white and male. </p>
<p>Math is tough and typically takes much discipline and perseverance to succeed in. It also calls for a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1088/1742-6596/947/1/012029">cumulative learning approach</a> – you need to master lessons at each level because you’re going to need them later. </p>
<p>While research in neuroscience shows almost everyone’s brain is <a href="https://blogs.ams.org/matheducation/2019/02/01/everyone-can-learn-mathematics-to-high-levels-the-evidence-from-neuroscience-that-should-change-our-teaching/">equipped to take up the challenge</a>, many students balk at putting in the effort when they don’t score well on tests. The <a href="https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/feduc.2018.00026/full#B6">myth that math is just about procedures and memorization</a> can make it easier for students to give up. So can <a href="https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1304392.pdf">negative opinions</a> about math ability conveyed by peers and parents, such as declarations of not being “<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/24/well/family/fending-off-math-anxiety.html">a math person</a>.”</p>
<h2>A positive experience</h2>
<p>Here’s the good news. A 2017 Pew poll found that despite the bad rap the subject gets, <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/social-trends/2018/01/09/many-americans-say-they-liked-math-and-science-in-school-thought-about-a-stem-career/">58% of U.S. adults enjoyed their school math classes</a>. It’s members of this legion who would make excellent recruits to help promote April’s math awareness. The initial charge is simple: Think of something you liked about math – a topic, a <a href="https://www.mathsisfun.com/puzzles/">puzzle</a>, a fun fact – and go over it with someone. It could be a child, a student, or just one of the many adults who have left school with a negative view of math.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Three seashells are shown under the words " src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/518209/original/file-20230329-24-bfj94q.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/518209/original/file-20230329-24-bfj94q.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=430&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518209/original/file-20230329-24-bfj94q.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=430&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518209/original/file-20230329-24-bfj94q.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=430&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518209/original/file-20230329-24-bfj94q.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=540&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518209/original/file-20230329-24-bfj94q.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=540&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518209/original/file-20230329-24-bfj94q.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=540&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Math exercise for shells can be downloaded at https://www.manilsuri.com/assets/shell_patterns.pptx.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Manil Suri</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Can something that sounds so simplistic make a difference? Based on my years of experience as a mathematician, I believe it can – if nothing else, for the person you talk to. The goal is to stimulate curiosity and convey that mathematics is much more about <a href="https://theconversation.com/pi-gets-all-the-fanfare-but-other-numbers-also-deserve-their-own-math-holidays-200046">exhilarating ideas that inform our universe</a> than it is about the school homework-type calculations so many dread.</p>
<p>Raising math awareness is a first step toward making sure people possess the basic math skills required not only for employment, but also to understand math-related issues – such as gerrymandering or climate change – well enough to be an informed and participating citizen. However, it’s not something that can be done in one month.</p>
<p>Given the decline in both math scores and the percentage of students studying math, it may take many years before America realizes the stronger relationship with math that President Reagan’s proclamation called for during the first National Math Awareness Week in 1986.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/202691/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Manil Suri does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Nearly four decades after President Ronald Reagan proclaimed the first National Math Awareness Week, math readiness and enrollment in college math programs continue to decline.Manil Suri, Professor of Mathematics and Statistics, University of Maryland, Baltimore CountyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1976582023-01-25T13:24:02Z2023-01-25T13:24:02ZThe SAT and ACT are less important than you might think<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/505209/original/file-20230118-11-d766pp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=54%2C0%2C6019%2C4000&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Whether on paper or computerized, standardized tests may be in decline.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/young-multi-ethnic-female-students-writing-exam-royalty-free-image/1171004870">Klaus Vedfelt/DigitalVision via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>College admission tests are becoming a thing of the past.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.insidehighered.com/admissions/article/2022/01/24/will-test-optional-become-new-normal-admissions">More than 80%</a> of U.S. colleges and universities do not require applicants to take standardized tests – <a href="https://fairtest.org/test-optional-list/">like the SAT or the ACT</a>. That proportion of institutions with test-optional policies <a href="https://www.urban.org/research/publication/how-test-optional-college-admissions-expanded-during-covid-19-pandemic">has more than doubled since the spring of 2020</a>.</p>
<p>And for the fall of 2023, <a href="https://www.insidehighered.com/quicktakes/2022/11/15/use-test-optional-and-test-free-admissions-keeps-rising">some 85 institutions</a> won’t even consider standardized test scores when reviewing applications. That includes the entire University of California system. </p>
<p>Currently, <a href="https://www.insidehighered.com/admissions/article/2022/11/21/early-admissions-numbers-are-good">only 4% of colleges that use the Common Application system</a> require a standardized test such as the SAT or the ACT for admission. </p>
<p>Even before the pandemic, <a href="https://www.smithsonianmag.com/innovation/has-pandemic-put-end-to-sat-act-180978167/">more than 1,000 colleges and universities</a> had either test-optional or so-called “test-blind” policies. But as the pandemic unfolded, <a href="https://www.smithsonianmag.com/innovation/has-pandemic-put-end-to-sat-act-180978167/">more than 600 additional institutions</a> followed suit. </p>
<p>At the time, many college officials noted that <a href="https://www.insidehighered.com/admissions/article/2020/09/14/pandemic-has-seen-rise-test-blind-admissions">health concerns</a> and other logistics associated with test-taking made them want to reduce student stress and risk. <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/15/us/SAT-scores-uc-university-of-california.html">Concerns about racial equity</a> also factored into many decisions.</p>
<p>Other institutions are what some call “<a href="https://scholarship.shu.edu/dissertations/2823/">test-flexible</a>,” allowing applicants to submit test scores from Advanced Placement or International Baccalaureate exams in place of the SAT or ACT.</p>
<h2>Tests under fire</h2>
<p>For many years, advocates and scholars have fought against the use of standardized tests, in general, and for college admission.</p>
<p>One critique is simple: Standardized tests aren’t that useful at measuring a student’s potential. <a href="https://doi.org/10.3102/0013189X20902110">Research has repeatedly shown</a> that a student’s high school GPA is a better predictor of college success than standardized test scores such as the SAT or ACT. </p>
<p>But there are deeper issues too, involving race and equity. </p>
<p>The development and use of standardized tests in higher education <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-sats-new-adversity-score-is-a-poor-fix-for-a-problematic-test-117363">came out of the eugenics movement</a>. That movement claimed – and then used misleading and manufactured evidence to support the idea – that people of different races had different innate abilities.</p>
<p>“Standardized tests have become the <a href="https://www.bosedequity.org/blog/read-ibram-x-kendis-testimony-in-support-of-the-working-group-recommendation-to-suspendthetest">most effective racist weapon</a> ever devised to objectively degrade Black and Brown minds and legally exclude their bodies from prestigious schools,” according to Ibram X. Kendi, director of the Center for Anti-Racist Research at Boston University. </p>
<p>Kendi is not alone in highlighting the historic links between standardized tests and discrimination. Joseph A. Soares, editor of “The Scandal of Standardized Tests: Why We Need to Drop the SAT and ACT,” has documented “<a href="https://www.tcpress.com/blog/dismantling-white-supremacy-includes-racist-tests-sat-act/">[t]he original ugly eugenic racist intention behind the SAT</a>, aimed at excluding Jews from the Ivy League.” He says that goal has now “been realized by biased test-question selection algorithms that systemically discriminate against Blacks.” In his work, Soares draws attention to the practice of evaluating pilot questions and removing from the final test version questions on which Black students did better than white students. </p>
<p>My colleague Joshua Goodman has found that Black and Latino students who take the SAT or the ACT are less likely than white or Asian students to take it a second time. They perform less well, which <a href="https://doi.org/10.1257/pol.20170503">contributes to disproportionately low representation</a> of college students from low-income and racial minority backgrounds.</p>
<p>Those factors – as well as a <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/15/us/SAT-scores-uc-university-of-california.html">lawsuit arguing discrimination</a> based on test performance – were behind the May 2020 decision by the University of California’s Board of Regents to <a href="https://www.tcpress.com/blog/dismantling-white-supremacy-includes-racist-tests-sat-act/">discontinue using SAT and ACT scores</a> in admissions decisions. </p>
<h2>Economics of higher education</h2>
<p>Colleges and universities tend to seek applicants with good grades and other achievements. They are often seeking a diverse pool from which to build their classes. Colleges that did not require standardized tests in applications for students arriving in fall 2021 “generally received more applicants, better academically qualified applicants, and <a href="https://thehill.com/changing-america/enrichment/education/586321-harvard-ditching-standardized-testing-requirements-for/">more diverse pools of applicants</a>.” That’s according to Bob Schaeffer, executive director of FairTest, an advocacy group working to “end the misuses and flaws of testing practices” in higher education and in the K-12 sector.</p>
<p>In addition, birth rates are declining, and the number of 18-year-olds <a href="https://hechingerreport.org/college-students-predicted-to-fall-by-more-than-15-after-the-year-2025/">seeking to enter college is decreasing</a>. Many institutions are seeking to <a href="https://www.insidehighered.com/admissions/article/2022/07/18/direct-admissions-takes-individual-colleges">make it easier for people to apply to college</a>. </p>
<p>As a result of these factors, I expect to see high school students begin to choose where to apply based at least in part on whether colleges require standardized tests, consider them or ignore them entirely. According to <a href="https://www.usnews.com/education/best-colleges/the-short-list-college/articles/top-colleges-that-still-require-test-scores">U.S. News & World Report</a>, most of the colleges in the U.S. that still require test scores are located in Southern states, with the highest count in the state of Florida.</p>
<h2>The testing business</h2>
<p>The test-taking business, including preparatory classes, tutoring and the costs of taking the tests themselves, is a <a href="https://marker.medium.com/a-slippery-slope-for-big-test-cf3f6f64e28b">multibillion-dollar industry</a>.</p>
<p>As more institutions reduce their attention to tests, all those businesses feel pressure to reinvent themselves and make their services useful. The College Board, which produces the SAT and other tests, has recently tried to make its flagship test more “<a href="https://newsroom.collegeboard.org/digital-sat-brings-student-friendly-changes-test-experience">student-friendly</a>,” as the organization put it. In January 2022 it released an online SAT that is supposed to be easier for test sites to administer and easier for students to take.</p>
<p>In recent conversations <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=pI7szcYAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">I</a> have had in research into higher education policies, admission directors at selective universities tell me that standardized test scores have become an optional component of a portfolio of activities, awards and other material, that applicants have at their disposal when completing their college applications.</p>
<p>Institutions that have gone test-blind have already decided that the SAT is no longer part of the equation. Others may join them.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/197658/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Mary L. Churchill does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>An increasing number of colleges aren’t interested in seeing applicants’ standardized test results.Mary L. Churchill, Associate Dean, Strategic Partnerships and Community Engagement and Professor of the Practice, Boston UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1790622022-07-11T12:30:32Z2022-07-11T12:30:32ZGifted-student screenings often miss poor students who should qualify<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/468296/original/file-20220610-28923-w6iof2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=36%2C81%2C5973%2C3919&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Some students aren't identified as gifted but should qualify.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/school-children-teacher-having-class-outside-with-royalty-free-image/1049275916">Klaus Vedfelt/Digital Vision via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>The <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/topics/research-brief-83231">Research Brief</a> is a short take about interesting academic work.</em></p>
<h2>The big idea</h2>
<p>High-achieving students from low-income backgrounds are half as likely to be placed in a gifted program as their more affluent peers, according to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/01623532211063936">a study we published in 2022</a>.</p>
<p>Arkansas, like all the other states, has a unique process for identifying gifted kids. We wondered whether <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/0963721412455052">academically advanced</a> students – the top 5% of scorers in math and literacy, who are ready for greater academic challenges – would be placed as gifted irrespective of their socioeconomic background. We examined test scores of third grade students from 2014 to 2019. </p>
<p>We found that of the 4,330 students who made up the top 5%, 1,310 – about 30% – were left out of gifted programming. This rate of identification was about equal across various racial backgrounds, but economic differences mattered. Among low-income students, about 37% were missed, a greater proportion than the overall number.</p>
<p>Once we statistically controlled for variation in district enrollment, location, region and differences in gifted selection or school policies, being from a low-income family was associated with a 50% lower likelihood of being identified as gifted relative to similar peers from higher-income backgrounds.</p>
<h2>Why it matters</h2>
<p>States have <a href="https://www.nagc.org/gifted-state">different gifted identification policies</a>. In Arkansas, students are first <a href="https://dese.ade.arkansas.gov/Files/20201223145241_2009_GT_Revised_Program_Approval_Standards.pdf">nominated</a> by parents, school personnel or community members. Next they are evaluated on multiple measures, including a creativity test. Finally, a team of educators uses all the information to make the placement decision.</p>
<p>Nationally, students from disadvantaged communities, such as low-income communities and communities of color, are <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/001698620605000103">underrepresented</a> and are <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/0016986216656256">less likely to be nominated</a> for <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/2332858415622175">gifted programs</a> than other students. </p>
<p>Other research has found that when nomination is a first step, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/0016986216656256">some gifted students are missed</a>, particularly <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177%2F2332858415622175">those from low-income backgrounds</a>. </p>
<p>But <a href="https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1605043113">screening all students</a> significantly improves the chances that a disadvantaged student who is gifted will be identified for gifted programs.</p>
<p>We suggest using state standardized tests as universal screeners to increase the number of low-income and other disadvantaged students in gifted programs. These tests are already given to all students, so districts could use the tests without added expense.</p>
<h2>What still isn’t known</h2>
<p>We do not know what specific measures were taken into account when students were placed into their school’s gifted programs or not. </p>
<p>We examined gifted identification rates of students scoring in the top 5% in both math and literacy in Arkansas. We do not know why so many high-achieving students from low-income backgrounds were not identified as gifted, but we hypothesize the difference may be the result of inconsistent identification practices. </p>
<p>Wealthy parents may be more active in seeking and providing services for their children. And low-income families may lack information, available programs or <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/0016986219833738">access</a> to testing services to identify gifted students.</p>
<h2>What’s next</h2>
<p>Future research can provide insight into why academically advanced students from economically struggling backgrounds are left out of gifted programs. We would like to know more about how decisions are being made and what criteria are being used to identify students for gifted programs. In addition, ensuring programming matches student needs might lead to serving more students who are ready to learn something new each day.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/179062/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jonathan Wai receives funding from the Walton Family Foundation, Schmidt Futures, and the Institute for Education Sciences for projects related to gifted education.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span><a href="mailto:scmcken@uark.edu">scmcken@uark.edu</a> receives funding from the Walton Family Foundation.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Bich Thi Ngoc Tran does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Common methods for identifying gifted students often miss students from lower-income families who should qualify for gifted programs.Bich Thi Ngoc Tran, Research Associate, The Dartmouth Institute, Dartmouth CollegeJonathan Wai, Assistant Professor of Education Policy and Psychology and Endowed Chair, University of ArkansasSarah McKenzie, Executive Director of the Office for Education Policy, University of ArkansasLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1843012022-06-05T12:22:46Z2022-06-05T12:22:46ZOntario can close students’ access and opportunity gaps with community-led projects<p>The COVID-19 pandemic has <a href="https://theconversation.com/schools-after-coronavirus-seize-teachable-moments-about-racism-and-inequities-142238">exacerbated existing systemic</a> inequities. It’s also presented <a href="https://doi.org/10.47326/ocsat.2021.02.34.1.0">new hardships for marginalized families and under-resourced communities</a> associated with loss of income, lack of access to social support services, increased care responsibilities and a rise in depression and anxiety. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.edglossary.org/learning-loss/">Learning loss</a> has become a buzz word since the onset of the pandemic, referring to general loss of knowledge and skills due to education disruptions.</p>
<h2>Ontario standardized testing</h2>
<p>Ontario introduced standardized tests administered by the <a href="https://www.eqao.com/about-eqao/">Education Accountability and Quality Office (EQAO)</a> in grades 3, 6, 9 and 10 to hold the education system accountable for promised education quality.
EQAO was established in 1996 as an arms-length government agency and costs <a href="https://www.thestar.com/opinion/commentary/2013/06/21/standardized_school_tests_stress_students_and_system.html">about $33 million annually to administer</a>.</p>
<p>Many teacher unions, <a href="https://etfovoice.ca/feature/eqao-standardized-testing-barrier">educators</a> and <a href="https://edication.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/PUBLISHED-Eizadirad-2020-External-Assessment-as-Stereotyping-Standardized-Testing-in-Elementary-Schools.pdf">parents oppose</a> the testing. They argue that it doesn’t fulfil its mandate, has led to a <a href="https://etfovoice.ca/article/our-message-government-eliminate-eqao-president">narrow measure of student achievement</a> and contributes to fear of failure. </p>
<p>As my book <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-27462-7"><em>Decolonizing Educational Assessment Ontario Elementary Students and the EQAO</em></a> explores, the administration of the current model of EQAO is based on false assumptions that <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8VFaN2p5RXY">standardized tests accurately</a> and objectively capture student achievement levels.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A student seen in a 'We the change' shirt stands at the front of a math class with another student and a teacher, and they're all wearing face masks." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/466961/original/file-20220603-18-cuau8e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=12%2C138%2C4013%2C2492&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/466961/original/file-20220603-18-cuau8e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/466961/original/file-20220603-18-cuau8e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/466961/original/file-20220603-18-cuau8e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/466961/original/file-20220603-18-cuau8e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/466961/original/file-20220603-18-cuau8e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/466961/original/file-20220603-18-cuau8e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Quality education must respond to school community needs.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Ardavan Eizadirad)</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Equity lens</h2>
<p>NDP and Liberal election positions on revisiting the EQAO reflected findings from a 2018 report <a href="https://www.oise.utoronto.ca/preview/lhae/UserFiles/File/OntarioLearningProvince2018.pdf">led by six expert researchers</a> who, at the time, were Ontario’s education advisers to the provincial government. </p>
<p>Part of their concern was that while assessments like EQAO identify how students are doing, they tell us little about how students may have gotten there or why they are underachieving. </p>
<p>It’s important that <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/ontario-election-2022-results-ford-horwath-del-duca-1.6473595">Ontario’s new government</a> engages in community discussions about the validity of EQAO testing and other aspects of schooling that affect student achievement.</p>
<h2>Barriers in opportunities</h2>
<p>Since EQAO testing was introduced in Ontario, achievement gaps across different <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-27462-7">social groups and communities have not drastically reduced and have instead further widened</a>. Widening gaps pertain to students with <a href="https://www.eqao.com/provincial-report-elementary-2019-pdf">special education needs, students who are English language learners</a> and across race and socio-economic status in comparison to non-racialized students and higher socio-economic communities.</p>
<p>EQAO does not currently collect race-based data. But data from the Toronto District School Board (TDSB) — one of the <a href="https://www.tdsb.on.ca/About-Us">largest boards in North America</a> — show <a href="https://colourofpoverty.ca/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/cop-coc-fact-sheet-3-racialized-poverty-in-education-learning-3.pdf">Black and Indigenous students have been more likely to be streamed into non-academic programs</a> than white students. <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-adversity-impacts-the-disproportionate-suspensions-of-black-and-indigenous-students-177676">Black, Indigenous</a> and some groups of racialized students have been disproportionately expelled from TDSB schools.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/ending-streaming-is-only-the-first-step-to-dismantling-systemic-racism-in-ontario-schools-142617">Ending ‘streaming’ is only the first step to dismantling systemic racism in Ontario schools</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>The data show worse school achievement for Black and racialized students: For example, 57 per cent of TDSB students are at the provincial standard, according to the Grade 9 2018 EQAO mathematics assessment, compared to 18 per cent for Black students. This <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-27462-7">achievement gap is due to</a> opportunity gaps — the intersection of systemic inequities that create barriers for students to access and secure opportunities to achieve their full potential. </p>
<p>Focusing on achievement gaps prioritizes differences in outcomes as the barometer for identifying education inequities. Focusing on opportunity gaps provides a more holistic community lens beyond individual student outcomes. This focus allows us to to examine systemic inequities that serve as barriers impacting student achievement.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/T_wsmA4rZqY?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Webinar about the Community School Initiative.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The <a href="https://www.compareschoolrankings.org/">Fraser Institute</a> think tank ranks schools annually based on EQAO results over a five-year period. These rankings have gained so much currency <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/no-pressure-realtors-say-eqao-test-scores-can-have-a-6-digit-impact-on-housing-prices-1.4129638">that they influence property values</a>. </p>
<p>Although the Fraser Institute rankings specify the percentage of English as a Second Language learners and students with special needs, they don’t capture the systemic barriers impacting school communities.</p>
<h2>Closing achievement gaps: Alternative approaches</h2>
<p>Even if the province revamps assessment, what won’t help is pressuring teachers to devote more time to preparing students for tests. What’s needed is alternative approaches to meeting local community needs.</p>
<p>One example is the <a href="https://yaaace.com/">Youth Association for Academics, Athletics and Character Education (YAAACE)</a>.</p>
<p>This community organization seeks to close the achievement gap for students living in the Jane and Finch Community in Toronto. It was founded in 2007 <a href="https://www.thestar.com/yourtoronto/education/2016/10/05/devon-jones-wins-praise-for-changing-lives-for-the-better.html?rf">by Devon Jones</a>, an educator with the TDSB and a local community activist.</p>
<p>YAAACE focuses on creating access to opportunities for community residents by mitigating the risk factors that keep students and families from achieving their full potential. It prioritizes providing continuity of care through year-round affordable and accessible programming. </p>
<p>For example, YAAACE aims to ensure students have access to a caring adult at all times in a 24-hour cycle, particularly outside of school hours, on weekday evenings and weekends — when they may be exposed to risks.</p>
<p>YAAACE offered an evening and weekend supplementary academic program between September 2020 to May 2021 in partnership with <a href="https://spiritofmath.com/">Spirit of Math</a>, an after-school math enrichment program. The <a href="https://www.communityschoolinitiative.com/">Community School Initiative</a> offered a structured math curriculum to students in grades 2 to 8 at a subsidized cost.</p>
<p>A team of caring adults, including coaches and Ontario certified teachers supported this program. A final <a href="https://www.communityschoolinitiative.com/final-report">February 2022 report</a> shares how the Community School Initiative created access to academic opportunities that were affordable and socio-culturally relevant, and minimized achievement gaps by mitigating opportunity gaps.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="InstagramEmbed" data-react-props="{"url":"https://www.instagram.com/p/CSVICJpFkH-","accessToken":"127105130696839|b4b75090c9688d81dfd245afe6052f20"}"></div></p>
<h2>Narrowing inequities</h2>
<p>No one is arguing that the province shouldn’t seek to collect data pertaining to effective schooling. But governments need to consider how it can be collected more effectively in partnerships with school boards, educators and community agencies to better support the local needs of students and their families.</p>
<p>This requires a policy and practice shift to an equity lens. We need to invest in programs and policies that view education as symbiotic with the larger community.</p>
<p><em>Devon Jones, the founding director of YAAACE, and Tamasha Grant, YAAACE’s public safety consultant, co-authored this article.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/184301/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ardavan Eizadirad receives funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council. </span></em></p>Revamping standardized testing needs to be accompanied with tangible actions to mitigate students’ opportunity gaps at the community level, particularly for racialized students.Ardavan Eizadirad, Assistant Professor, Faculty of Education, Wilfrid Laurier UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1495142021-02-10T13:14:46Z2021-02-10T13:14:46ZWhy are so many 12th graders not proficient in reading and math?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/370608/original/file-20201121-13-wg5ccq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C8%2C5382%2C3649&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">More students are taking algebra II in high school – but many aren't actually learning it.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/santa-ana-high-school-senior-jazmin-franco-works-on-math-news-photo/1033376058">Leonard Ortiz/Digital First Media/Orange County Register via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>Math and reading scores for 12th graders in the U.S. were at a historic low even before the COVID-19 pandemic forced a massive shift to remote learning, according to results of the <a href="https://www.nationsreportcard.gov/mathematics/supportive_files/2019_infographic_G12_math_reading.pdf">2019 National Assessment of Educational Progress</a> released in late 2020. We asked three scholars to explain why so many high school seniors aren’t proficient in these critical subjects.</em></p>
<h2>Elizabeth Leyva, director of entry-level mathematics, Texas A&M University-San Antonio</h2>
<p>One might expect the jump from high school to college mathematics to be a natural progression, or a small step up in difficulty or expectations. But over time it has actually <a href="https://postsecondary.gatesfoundation.org/report/remediation-higher-educations-bridge-to-nowhere/">become a chasm</a>, and that chasm continues to grow.</p>
<p><a href="https://nces.ed.gov/fastfacts/display.asp?id=97">More students</a> are taking advanced coursework – algebra II or higher – in high school. But studying the material doesn’t mean that a student has truly learned it. As a result, a student can pass a course which should be a college preparatory course, such as algebra II, yet fail a standardized placement exam, or not score high enough on SAT/ACT tests to be deemed “college ready.”</p>
<p>Most high school teachers hold their students to a different set of expectations than college faculty do. In many cases, the policies are set by the school district, so high school teachers are simply upholding rules that the community and parents have pushed for. This can include allowing students to submit late work, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/parenting/wp/2017/12/04/more-schools-are-offering-test-retakes-but-does-that-make-kids-less-resilient/">retest on assessments</a> they performed poorly on and use a calculator for most assignments.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.weareteachers.com/test-retake-policy/">rationale is well intentioned</a>; high school students are young learners, and may need multiple opportunities to master a concept.</p>
<p>Multiple opportunities to pass means more students pass. But this generous assessment strategy has <a href="https://www.edutopia.org/article/do-no-zero-policies-help-or-hurt-students">unintended consequences</a> on student motivation and accountability. The effect is that students can earn a passing grade but not retain or master the material in a meaningful way. This is how a student can receive a B in algebra II, for example, but land in a developmental class when they enter college.</p>
<p><iframe id="3rxNJ" class="tc-infographic-datawrapper" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/3rxNJ/1/" height="400px" width="100%" style="border: none" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
<h2>David Purpura, associate professor of human development and family studies, co-director of the Center for Early Learning, Purdue University</h2>
<p>When looking at the striking data for 12th graders from the <a href="https://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard">national report card</a>, policymakers, researchers, parents and teachers often ask: What’s going on with high school math? Should we change math instruction at this age? </p>
<p>However, the performance trends <a href="https://www.nationsreportcard.gov/highlights/mathematics/2019">at middle and elementary schools</a> are similar.</p>
<p>Math is often taught with few explicit connections across individual classes. Sometimes these classes follow a certain order: for example, algebra I and algebra II. But the content in and across the classes isn’t being thoroughly connected. For example, in the early elementary years, we talk about addition and subtraction, then multiplication and division. We move on to fractions, and then algebra. Yet this still treats these concepts as separable rather than integrated.</p>
<p>But math is an interrelated web of knowledge with new information building on previously learned information. And, this acquisition of knowledge begins early. There are significant individual differences in children’s math performance <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jecp.2020.104846">even prior to kindergarten</a>.</p>
<p>I believe children aren’t receiving a strong enough foundation for basic math skills in the earliest years. Preschool teachers spend less than <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/10409289.2013.817753">five minutes per day</a> on numbers. Nearly a third of classrooms provide no number instruction at all. </p>
<p>In kindergarten, the level of math instruction is typically well below what <a href="https://doi.org/10.3102/0162373712461850">children already know</a> and can do. The misalignment could be attributable to the low expectations set forth in the <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-common-core-explained-56484">Common Core Standards</a> – the academic standards shared across the majority of states. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/2332858420968546">Over 85% of children</a> are able to meet certain end-of-kindergarten expectations before they even enter kindergarten. These disparities continue <a href="https://doi.org/10.3102/0013189X20909812">through elementary school</a>.</p>
<p>So, the question in my mind isn’t: Why are so many high school seniors not proficient in math? The question is: How can teachers better link math concepts across all grade levels and improve learning? </p>
<p>To start, I believe schools and communities need to make math a bigger <a href="https://www.naeyc.org/sites/default/files/globally-shared/downloads/PDFs/resources/position-statements/psmath.pdf">priority in the earlier years</a> – even before kindergarten. Research shows that <a href="https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2002883117">testing students regularly</a> and tailoring lessons to meet their <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jsp.2017.04.005">individual needs</a> can build their math skills appropriately.</p>
<p><iframe id="Z7tKO" class="tc-infographic-datawrapper" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/Z7tKO/1/" height="400px" width="100%" style="border: none" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
<h2>Emily Solari, professor of reading education, University of Virginia</h2>
<p>How kids learn to read is a well-researched aspect of human learning. Scientists have identified <a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/300532/reading-in-the-brain-by-stanislas-dehaene/">what happens in the brain</a> when children learn to read and why some children have difficulty mastering this skill. Despite this wealth of evidence about how reading develops, only <a href="https://www.nationsreportcard.gov/highlights/reading/2019/g12/">37% of 12th graders</a>read at a proficient or advanced level, according to the national assessment. </p>
<p>While standardized tests are not the perfect measure of reading ability, they do provide a pulse of reading attainment across the country. Importantly, the scores show significant differences in reading performance between particular groups of students. Profound gaps exist <a href="https://www.nationsreportcard.gov/highlights/reading/2019/g12/">between white and Black students</a> and <a href="https://www.nationsreportcard.gov/highlights/reading/2019/g12/">white and Hispanic students</a>. </p>
<p>The education system is fraught with inequities that have a greater negative impact on historically marginalized students – particularly those who are <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/blog/brown-center-chalkboard/2020/02/21/categorical-inequalities-between-black-and-white-students-are-common-in-us-schools-but-they-dont-have-to-be/">Black</a>, <a href="https://www.insidehighered.com/views/2021/01/04/educations-racial-and-wealth-inequality-should-be-priority-new-education-secretary">Hispanic, poorer</a> or <a href="https://hechingerreport.org/georgia-program-children-disabilities-separate-unequal-education/">have a disability</a>. Recent data suggests the COVID-19 pandemic has <a href="https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/public-and-social-sector/our-insights/covid-19-and-learning-loss-disparities-grow-and-students-need-help">exacerbated these gaps</a>. Improving the system, and how students are taught reading, is a matter of equity. </p>
<p>Why, if there is solid evidence on how children learn to read, has this not translated into classroom practice and better reading outcomes for students? </p>
<p><a href="https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED444126">Studies show</a> that children should be taught the alphabetic system – the relationship between the sounds of letters and their written form – in order to learn how to read words. The ability to read words combined with vocabulary and language development is <a href="https://www.readingrockets.org/article/simple-view-reading">essential to reading comprehension</a>. </p>
<p>In addition to what is taught, how children are taught to read is also important. Reading instruction should have a clear scope and sequence, with skills building on each other over time. </p>
<p>However, a recent survey suggests that <a href="https://www.edweek.org/research-center/early-reading-instruction-results-of-a-national-survey">about 75% of teachers</a> use curricula that teach early reading using a cueing approach. And, <a href="https://www.edweek.org/research-center/early-reading-instruction-results-of-a-national-survey">65% of college professors</a> teach this approach to new teachers. This method does not align with the scientific evidence of how children learn how to read. </p>
<p>Sometimes called “MSV” – shorthand for meaning, syntactical and visual – the cueing approach emphasizes reading whole words over learning the alphabetic code. This method of teaching reading can be especially <a href="https://www.edweek.org/teaching-learning/is-this-the-end-of-three-cueing/2020/12">problematic for children who are having difficulties</a> learning how to read.</p>
<p>To improve students’ reading ability, <a href="https://www.the74million.org/article/solari-to-stem-the-nations-reading-crisis-made-worse-by-covid-19-teachers-districts-states-must-push-multiple-levers/">I believe</a> schools, districts and states must push multiple levers simultaneously. This includes making sure instruction, curriculum and testing all align with the science of reading, and that teachers and administrators are provided adequate professional development about reading instruction. </p>
<p>Further, teacher education programs must commit to preparing teachers who understand how reading develops in children’s brains and how to implement teaching practices that are based on current evidence.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/149514/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Three education experts explain why students aren’t learning the basics.Elizabeth Leyva, Director, Entry-Level Mathematics, Texas A&M University-San AntonioDavid J. Purpura, Associate Professor of Human Development and Family Studies, Purdue UniversityEmily Solari, Professor, University of VirginiaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1370492020-05-06T12:19:17Z2020-05-06T12:19:17ZSkipping standardized tests in 2020 may offer a chance to find better alternatives<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/332549/original/file-20200504-83740-rsnp5z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C5121%2C3411&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Not in 2020.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/students-taking-a-test-in-classroom-royalty-free-image/170126270">Compassionate Eye Foundation/Robert Daly/OJO Images/Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The <a href="https://www.ed.gov/news/press-releases/helping-students-adversely-affected-school-closures-secretary-devos-announces-broad-flexibilities-states-cancel-testing-during-national-emergency">Education Department</a> is letting states cancel standardized tests. The move is a practical one: <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/education/2020/04/21/coronavirus-schools-reopen-closures-fall-2020/5167726002/">School buildings across the nation are closed</a> due to the coronavirus pandemic, even though distance learning efforts are widespread.</p>
<p>As a result, 2020 is the first year without federally mandated standardized testing in nearly two decades. Washington has required all states to use these tests to evaluate students, teachers, principals, schools and entire school systems, first in accordance with accountability measures shaped by the 2002 <a href="https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/schools/nochild/nclb.html">No Child Left Behind Act</a> and later under the 2015 <a href="https://www.ed.gov/essa?src=rn">Every Student Succeeds Act</a>. </p>
<p>Until now, students in <a href="https://www.understood.org/en/school-learning/your-childs-rights/basics-about-childs-rights/every-student-succeeds-act-essa-what-you-need-to-know">third through eighth grade</a> were taking standardized tests annually for language arts and math, and then at least once again in high school. In addition, they took at least one science standardized test in elementary, middle and high school. All told, not counting practice sessions and drills, students <a href="https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED569198">spend between 20-25 hours a year</a> taking standardized tests. By the time many Americans graduate from high school they’ve taken approximately 112 of them.</p>
<p>As an <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=VCyO-rYAAAAJ&hl=en">educational researcher</a> who explores the concept of assessment in my book “<a href="https://rowman.com/ISBN/9781475812930/Teaching-with-Purpose-An-Inquiry-into-the-Who-Why-And-How-We-Teach">Teaching with Purpose: An Inquiry into the Who, Why, and How We Teach</a>” and the father of two school-aged children, I do believe students should be assessed on a regular basis. But I wonder whether they are taking too many standardized tests and if there are better ways to evaluate whether students are on track.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/332510/original/file-20200504-83725-1txo2l8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C33%2C5531%2C3009&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/332510/original/file-20200504-83725-1txo2l8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C33%2C5531%2C3009&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/332510/original/file-20200504-83725-1txo2l8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/332510/original/file-20200504-83725-1txo2l8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/332510/original/file-20200504-83725-1txo2l8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/332510/original/file-20200504-83725-1txo2l8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/332510/original/file-20200504-83725-1txo2l8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/332510/original/file-20200504-83725-1txo2l8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Between kindergarten and high school, students take more than 100 standardized tests.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/exam-royalty-free-image/470151253">gece33/Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Evaluating teachers</h2>
<p>States get to decide how their public schools use standardized test scores when they <a href="https://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2017/11/15/are-states-changing-course-on-teacher-evaluation.html">evaluate teachers</a>. For example, scores in New Mexico count as 35% toward evaluation, while Florida school districts choose how much weight they give test scores for this purpose. Some states, including Alaska, Arkansas, Kansas, Kentucky, North Carolina and Oklahoma no longer include scores in their system of teacher evaluation.</p>
<p>There are states, including Colorado, Georgia, Louisiana and Mississippi, that have <a href="https://www.ecs.org/wp-content/uploads/State-Info-Request-Teacher-Evaluations-During-COVID-19-Closures.pdf">suspended or waived their teacher evaluations</a> altogether for the 2019-2020 school year. Others, such as Delaware, New Jersey and Pennsylvania have waived some of their requirements. And still others, such as Ohio, Texas and Virginia have granted school systems flexibility and discretion.</p>
<h2>Guiding instruction</h2>
<p>Teachers may use <a href="https://www.ericdigests.org/2003-4/standardized-test.html">test data</a> to guide instruction. For example, if a student gets a low score on a portion of a standardized test, the teacher might focus on that area of weakness to better meet the needs of that student through individualized or small group instruction. However, this practice isn’t always helpful because <a href="https://inservice.ascd.org/can-standardized-tests-inform-instruction/">as many as four months can elapse</a> between when students take tests and teachers get to see their scores.</p>
<h2>Telling parents about their child’s progress</h2>
<p>At least in theory, standardized test scores are supposed to let parents and other guardians know if their children are on track. In practice, that’s not always the case. It’s <a href="https://theconversation.com/want-to-understand-your-childs-test-scores-heres-what-to-ignore-62155">usually quite challenging</a> for anyone unfamiliar with educational terms and metrics to decipher what the results indicate.</p>
<h2>Alternatives</h2>
<p>Standardized testing is a fraught issue. Many educators and parents are concerned that there are <a href="https://theconversation.com/test-data-misuse-reaches-absurd-levels-42585">too many of them and that the scores are misused</a>. Other widespread concerns are that schools are narrowing the curriculum by <a href="http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational_leadership/mar11/vol68/num06/High-Stakes_Testing_Narrows_the_Curriculum.aspx">overemphasizing subjects like math and reading</a> and that high-stakes testing is <a href="https://theconversation.com/stressed-out-the-psychological-effects-of-tests-on-primary-school-children-58913">making children suffer high levels of anxiety</a>. </p>
<p>Many teachers and educational researchers question <a href="https://www.epi.org/publication/bp278/">whether test scores say anything about teacher performance</a> and whether the <a href="https://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2012/11/29/13testcosts.h32.html">costs of administering them</a> are justified.</p>
<p>Nevertheless, school systems can’t function without assessing their students and teachers. They will need to figure out how to proceed without standardized tests.</p>
<p>Moving forward, in my view, school systems and other authorities can take advantage of this remarkable time to <a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/ed/2015/01/06/371659141/what-schools-could-use-instead-of-standardized-tests">seek alternatives</a> to standardized tests. One good option is a portfolio-based assessment system that includes a diverse range of student work, along with systematically giving students <a href="https://ncte.org/statement/formative-assessment/">immediate feedback</a> on their work. </p>
<p>For a broader sense of whether all students are learning, I think that the <a href="https://www.nationsreportcard.gov/">National Assessment of Educational Progress</a>, also known as the Nation’s Report Card, is very valuable in providing data on how students are progressing in reading and math. Large representative samples of fourth and eighth graders who attend public and private schools take this standardized test every other year.</p>
<p>[<em>You’re smart and curious about the world. So are The Conversation’s authors and editors.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=youresmart">You can read us daily by subscribing to our newsletter</a>.]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/137049/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>James D. Kirylo does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Washington has made all states use these tests to evaluate students, teachers, principals, schools and entire school systems for nearly two decades.James D. Kirylo, Professor of Education, University of South CarolinaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1301902020-01-21T20:20:21Z2020-01-21T20:20:21ZMike Harris’s ‘common sense’ attack on Ontario schools is back — and so are teachers’ strikes<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/311182/original/file-20200121-117954-1tyoweo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C118%2C2818%2C2311&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Susan Hoenhous and other teachers of the Elementary Teachers' Federation of Ontario participate in a full withdrawal of services strike in Toronto on Jan. 20, 2020. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Nathan Denette</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>This week, Ontario <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/ontario-teachers-strike-labour-action-1.5425586">teachers have planned provincewide rotating strikes</a>. The Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario says <a href="https://twitter.com/ETFOeducators/status/1218155436181987333">this is the first time in more than 20 years</a> that four education unions have moved into a strike position. </p>
<p>This news comes after months of discontent among teachers’ unions and a <a href="https://globalnews.ca/news/6281418/osstf-second-one-day-strike/">December job action</a> by the union representing Ontario secondary school teachers. </p>
<p>For some residents, this disruption in education under Doug Ford’s Conservative government may come as a surprise. </p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/311194/original/file-20200121-117927-dyhxbw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/311194/original/file-20200121-117927-dyhxbw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/311194/original/file-20200121-117927-dyhxbw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=351&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/311194/original/file-20200121-117927-dyhxbw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=351&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/311194/original/file-20200121-117927-dyhxbw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=351&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/311194/original/file-20200121-117927-dyhxbw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=441&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/311194/original/file-20200121-117927-dyhxbw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=441&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/311194/original/file-20200121-117927-dyhxbw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=441&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Protesters against cuts in education in Ontario march outside an Ottawa hotel, site of the Ontario Conservative Party Leadership debate, January 2002.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">CP PHOTO/Fred Chartrand</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>However, to those who have followed developments in how the province has managed education over the past two decades, it is in many ways a chilling reminder of the school fallout of 1995-2002, when Mike Harris was premier.</p>
<p>In 1997, an Ontario-wide teacher strike affecting <a href="https://ottawasun.com/2012/09/12/the-1997-teachers-strike/wcm/9dbd6b87-b1c0-4487-8fc2-2ea26c161cb7">more than two million students was at the time the largest teacher strike in North American history</a>, according to media reports. </p>
<h2>Manufactured crisis</h2>
<p>Harris’s Progressive Conservative government shaped educational policy <a href="https://www.tvo.org/video/archive/mike-harris-on-the-common-sense-revolution">through his vision of a “Common Sense Revolution.”</a> The Ontario premier believed that schools, school districts and teaching staff were ineffective and inefficient. His “revolution” sought to bring a degree of restraint to a system that he deemed was <a href="http://ofl.ca/wp-content/uploads/1998.11.01-Report-OAB-EducationFunding.pdf">out of control and in chaos</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/311189/original/file-20200121-117938-1bg691h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/311189/original/file-20200121-117938-1bg691h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=663&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/311189/original/file-20200121-117938-1bg691h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=663&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/311189/original/file-20200121-117938-1bg691h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=663&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/311189/original/file-20200121-117938-1bg691h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=833&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/311189/original/file-20200121-117938-1bg691h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=833&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/311189/original/file-20200121-117938-1bg691h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=833&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">John Snobelen, then the province’s education minister, walks through the Ontario Legislature in Toronto in October 2002.</span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In September 1995, Harris’s education minister, <a href="https://legacy.oise.utoronto.ca/research/field-centres/TVC/RossReports/vol5no1.htm">John Snobelen, was caught on tape announcing his government’s mandate to create a crisis in education</a> in order to <a href="https://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/chalk-lines-drawn-over-ontarios-education-policies/article1031880/">gain public support for reform</a>. The tape became public and efforts to control the damage began.</p>
<p>One of the major ways that governments respond to such issues are to reinforce measures of control. As Oscar Wilde, the Irish poet and playwright said, “<a href="https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780191843730.001.0001/q-oro-ed5-00011525">Nothing succeeds like excess</a>.” Snobelen later admitted he had made the case for greater accountability in education <a href="https://journalhosting.ucalgary.ca/index.php/cjeap/article/view/31168">sound more critical than it actually was</a>. </p>
<h2>Neoliberal education</h2>
<p>While Harris introduced a comprehensive program that aimed to reduce taxes while balancing the budget and reducing the size and role of government, his plan closely mirrored the politics of British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and U.S. President Ronald Reagan. These governments drew on 19th-century neoliberal ideas associated with laissez-faire economics and free market capitalism. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/what-exactly-is-neoliberalism-84755">What exactly is neoliberalism?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/311195/original/file-20200121-117962-1gf6udq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/311195/original/file-20200121-117962-1gf6udq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/311195/original/file-20200121-117962-1gf6udq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=797&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/311195/original/file-20200121-117962-1gf6udq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=797&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/311195/original/file-20200121-117962-1gf6udq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=797&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/311195/original/file-20200121-117962-1gf6udq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1001&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/311195/original/file-20200121-117962-1gf6udq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1001&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/311195/original/file-20200121-117962-1gf6udq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1001&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Harris and his finance minister, Ernie Eves, stand beside a display of scales meant to illustrate the balance between tax cuts and jobs, health, education and infrastructure in Toronto in May 2000.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(CP PHOTO/Frank Gunn)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Creating a crisis in education by calling into question teacher professionalism has become a <a href="https://journalhosting.ucalgary.ca/index.php/cjeap/article/view/31168">familiar strategy by neoliberal educational policy-makers</a>. </p>
<p>Journalist Naomi Klein has argued that advocates of neoliberal free market policies have sought to <a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.ca/books/93662/the-shock-doctrine-by-naomi-klein/9780676978018">exploit or even create crises in order to push controversial policies on citizens while they are too distracted</a> to mount resistance. </p>
<p>The neoliberal model for analyzing education examines students primarily as <a href="https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000247328">human capital who must become more economically competitive as future workers</a>, and must develop the <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/ontario-education-minister-lisa-thompson-increases-class-sizes-high-school-benefits-1.5064285">skills and attitudes</a> to compete efficiently and effectively. </p>
<h2>Math scores first attacked</h2>
<p>In Harris’s Ontario, student math scores were attacked, followed by literacy scores. However, these attacks soon became a general call for greater accountability overall, including the <a href="https://professionallyspeaking.oct.ca/september_1999/re-certification.htm">periodic testing and re-certification of teachers</a>.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/ontario-math-has-always-covered-the-basics-115445">Ontario math has always covered 'the basics'</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Harris’s government called for standardized testing and the <a href="https://www.ola.org/en/legislative-business/bills/parliament-36/session-1/bill-30">Education and Quality Accountability Office Act</a> (EQAO) was passed into law in 1996.</p>
<p>Currently, the EQAO oversees reading, writing and mathematics testing for grades 3, 6, 9 and 10. Although the process may have been somewhat clandestine, the message was obvious. The attack on education to justify outcomes quantified as scores had begun.</p>
<h2>Outcomes-based education</h2>
<p>Standards-based education fits in current contexts of neoliberalism, in which schools are often viewed as consuming huge amounts of money without producing adequate results. </p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/310754/original/file-20200119-118343-9eixc8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/310754/original/file-20200119-118343-9eixc8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/310754/original/file-20200119-118343-9eixc8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=448&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/310754/original/file-20200119-118343-9eixc8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=448&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/310754/original/file-20200119-118343-9eixc8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=448&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/310754/original/file-20200119-118343-9eixc8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=563&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/310754/original/file-20200119-118343-9eixc8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=563&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/310754/original/file-20200119-118343-9eixc8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=563&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Harris gestures at a news conference in front of posters about testing students, schools and teachers in Oakville, Ont., in May 1999.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">CP PHOTO/ Rene Johnston</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>But isn’t it more costly to society — and to the economy — if cuts erode opportunities to <a href="https://theconversation.com/high-school-dropouts-cost-countries-a-staggering-amount-of-money-115396">positively shape young people’s lifelong success through early and ongoing quality education</a>?</p>
<p>Neoliberal educational reform had its beginnings in the United Kingdom, and the <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/ofsted">Office for Standards in Education</a> (OFSTED) continues to monitor the success or failure of public schools to improve student achievement scores in Great Britain. The United States and other countries have followed suit with outcomes-based education wedded to standardized testing. </p>
<h2>Compulsive standards?</h2>
<p>Education researcher Linda McNeil of Rice University notes in her book <a href="https://www.routledge.com/Contradictions-of-School-Reform-Educational-Costs-of-Standardized-Testing/McNeil/p/book/9780415920742"><em>Contradictions of School Reform</em></a> that high student scores doesn’t necessarily mean students are learning for the long-term. </p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/311170/original/file-20200121-117958-1uygjmt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/311170/original/file-20200121-117958-1uygjmt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/311170/original/file-20200121-117958-1uygjmt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=467&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/311170/original/file-20200121-117958-1uygjmt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=467&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/311170/original/file-20200121-117958-1uygjmt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=467&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/311170/original/file-20200121-117958-1uygjmt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=587&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/311170/original/file-20200121-117958-1uygjmt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=587&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/311170/original/file-20200121-117958-1uygjmt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=587&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Harris resigned in 2002, and Ernie Eves became premier. Eves walks past a campaign bus with a promise to ban teachers’ strikes after attending an education roundtable in London, Ont. in September 2003.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">CP PHOTO/J.P. Moczulski</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Students become adept at test-taking, she argues, but do not retain what they’ve learned because it never moves to the long-term memory. Tests typically rely only on short-term memory, which is why progressive education tends to be more projects-based than exam-based. </p>
<p>Her analysis also points to the compulsive nature of standardizing education whereby teachers are forced to take time away from teaching the curriculum to prepare students for tests. This is becoming a global phenomenon in the name of a vibrant economy.</p>
<p>As standards-based education has grown and teachers’ credibility or professionalism is besmirched, private corporations have benefited.</p>
<p>Multi-trust academies have <a href="http://www.lse.ac.uk/social-policy/Assets/Documents/PDF/Research-reports/Academies-Vision-Report.pdf">benefited financially by taking over failing schools in the U.K.</a> Companies that offer education modules, tutoring or lesson plans reap benefits as fee-for-service providers. Indirectly, they may also benefit if teachers, strapped for time and resources, rely on free corporate lesson plans, such as through <a href="https://nature.disney.com/educators-guides">Disney lesson plans</a>. While the impacts are global, the implications are local. </p>
<p>In Ontario, educators’ rotating strikes are drawing attention to the needs of their students. Will the solution be to offer more standardized tests and more competition? Only time will tell. </p>
<p>In the meantime, Yogi Berra, the famous baseball player, may have said it best: “<a href="https://www.today.com/news/its-deja-vu-all-over-again-27-yogi-berras-most-t45781">It’s like déjà vu, all over again</a>.” We have been here before.</p>
<p>[ <em>Like what you’ve read? Want more?</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/ca/newsletters?utm_source=TCCA&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=likethis">Sign up for The Conversation’s daily newsletter</a>. ]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/130190/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Stephanie Chitpin receives funding from SSHRC, KNAER</span></em></p>For some teachers, this week’s rotating strikes in Ontario are a chilling reminder of the school fallout of 1995-2002, when Mike Harris was premier.Stephanie Chitpin, Professor of leadership, Faculty of Education, L’Université d’Ottawa/University of OttawaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1180962019-06-04T22:19:55Z2019-06-04T22:19:55ZProblems with PISA: Why Canadians should be skeptical of the global test<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/277415/original/file-20190531-69091-1c83c55.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=46%2C0%2C5184%2C3453&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Focusing on narrow PISA measures may increase skill levels but cause students to miss out on the kinds of learning that generates higher-order thinking.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The <a href="http://www.oecd.org/pisa/">Program for International Student Assessment (PISA)</a> — the Organization for Economic
Co-operation and Development’s (OECD) global standardized test of student achievement — is frequently used by commentators to compare and rank national or <a href="https://theconversation.com/canadian-schools-spend-more-as-enrolment-and-test-scores-fall-116945">provincial education systems</a>. </p>
<p>PISA, which has now spread into 80 countries as a <a href="https://simonbreakspear.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/Breakspear-PISA-Paper.pdf">best education practice</a>, presents itself as a tool to <a href="https://www.oecd.org/pisa/aboutpisa/">help countries make their systems more inclusive leading to equitable outcomes</a>.
But PISA is far more ambiguous and <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/education/2014/may/06/oecd-pisa-tests-damaging-education-academics">controversial</a>. </p>
<p>Many academics and educators critique PISA as an economic measurement, <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/03050068.2016.1143278">not an educational one.</a> The media generally use PISA results to <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/03050068.2018.1425243">blame and shame</a> school systems. And the way that some politicians, policy-makers and researchers have used PISA is more closely aligned to a <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/berj.3120">political process</a> than an educational one.</p>
<p>There are many reasons to be skeptical about PISA rankings and how they’re used to compare student achievement or to identify best practices or solutions for educational problems. </p>
<h2><em>1. A narrow measurement</em></h2>
<p>PISA numbers are limited in what they can explain and the conclusions they can support.</p>
<p>PISA measures math, science and reading skills, not more <a href="https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000247444">holistic educational goals</a> or <a href="https://en.unesco.org/themes/literacy">understanding of literacy</a> as defined by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization <a href="https://en.unesco.org/">(UNESCO)</a>. PISA is a narrow measure of educational achievement.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/testing-literacy-today-requires-more-than-a-pencil-and-paper-114154">Testing literacy today requires more than a pencil and paper</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>PISA typically samples 5,000 to 10,000 15-year-old students from about 500 randomly selected schools in each country every three years. Up to 53 students are randomly selected in each of these schools. </p>
<p>In small countries with fewer than 5,000 students, all 15-year-old students are sampled. The two-hour test relies heavily on multiple choice and rating scale questions. </p>
<p>PISA ignores the importance of engagement and <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/14767724.2018.1531234">positive attitudes to learning</a> for future success. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/277413/original/file-20190531-69051-1s2yzrc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/277413/original/file-20190531-69051-1s2yzrc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/277413/original/file-20190531-69051-1s2yzrc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/277413/original/file-20190531-69051-1s2yzrc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/277413/original/file-20190531-69051-1s2yzrc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/277413/original/file-20190531-69051-1s2yzrc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/277413/original/file-20190531-69051-1s2yzrc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The capacity for teamwork resists measurement but is significant for student and lifelong success.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Educational outcomes that are important for future citizens or a well-rounded education are not captured: for example, democratic participation, understanding of history and politics, teamwork, well-being, moral values, creativity, aesthetic skills, athletic talent or communication skills. </p>
<h2><em>2. Relation to Indigenous schools, special needs students</em></h2>
<p>In Canada, <a href="https://www.cdhowe.org/media-release/measuring-indigenous-education-outcomes-key-progress">federally funded Indigenous schools are not considered in PISA data</a> and would likely impact provincial scores. The absence of Indigenous schools may help mask disparities in educational equity in Canada and marginalize the significance of <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/cbcdocspov/features/first-nations-schools-are-chronically-underfunded">chronic under-funding of Indigenous-controlled education</a> and <a href="https://policyoptions.irpp.org/magazines/july-2018/gaping-holes-ottawas-indigenous-fiscal-policy/">basic infrastructure</a> necessary to Indigenous child well-being.</p>
<p>Differing levels of how <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/0969594X.2017.1421523?journalCode=caie20">special needs students are integrated in distinct jurisdictions</a> also confound PISA results.</p>
<h2><em>3. Statistical uncertainty</em></h2>
<p>PISA tests a sample of students and the results are then adjusted to reflect a whole population of 15-year-old students. The scores therefore include a measure of statistical uncertainty and PISA <a href="http://www.oecd.org/pisa/pisafaq/">can only report a range of positions</a> (upper rank and lower rank) where a country can be placed. </p>
<p>There is a <a href="https://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ1022498">co-relation between poverty and lower test results</a>: the OECD notes that up to <a href="https://www.oecd.org/pisa/keyfindings/pisa-2012-results-volume-I.pdf">46 per cent of the differences in PISA mathematics scores among OECD countries</a> can be explained by socio-economic disadvantage.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/psychometrics">Psychometric</a> experts, who examine the fitness and effects of particular methodological choices and the validity and reliability of modelling and calculations, <a href="https://scholarworks.iu.edu/journals/index.php/ried/article/view/616">criticize PISA for downplaying the problematic nature of its calculations</a>, and its <a href="https://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ1056717">lack of transparency in reporting uncertainties</a>.</p>
<p>The majority of nations fall in the middle PISA rankings. However, small differences in mean scores can shift rankings by 10 to 20 places.</p>
<p>Relying on a small number of questions also means scores are highly affected by completion rates. In some jurisdictions, higher scores may result from greater significance being placed on <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/01596306.2014.930020">PISA completion</a> by parents and school authorities.</p>
<h2><em>4. Pressure to narrow curricula</em></h2>
<p>As an instrument of international comparison, PISA has <a href="https://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ1033739">created pressure for states to narrow curricula</a>, relegating subjects such as the arts and social studies to second-class status, and to introduce <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/1478210316652009">testing cultures to monitor performance and achievement</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/277412/original/file-20190531-69067-g3yofy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/277412/original/file-20190531-69067-g3yofy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/277412/original/file-20190531-69067-g3yofy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/277412/original/file-20190531-69067-g3yofy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/277412/original/file-20190531-69067-g3yofy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/277412/original/file-20190531-69067-g3yofy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/277412/original/file-20190531-69067-g3yofy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Testing culture has been linked to a dislike of schools and learning.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Testing culture and curriculum narrowing have been linked to students dropping out, students and teachers cheating, students undergoing <a href="https://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/education/nurture-joy-of-learning">stress and anxiety disorders</a>, teachers leaving the profession, a fear of failing and a <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/01596306.2014.930020">dislike of schools and learning</a>. </p>
<h2><em>5. Overlooking inquiry-based learning</em></h2>
<p>As school systems narrow curricula to focus on testable concepts, students may reach high levels of proficiency in a few subjects but lose out on programs of study based on active, inquiry-based processes and content.</p>
<p>Countries with the highest PISA scores appear to have the lowest levels of inquiry-based learning. High levels of inquiry-based science appear to have a negative association with <a href="https://www.europhysicsnews.org/articles/epn/pdf/2017/04/epn2017484p17.pdf">PISA science scores</a>. Focusing on PISA may <a href="https://search.informit.com.au/documentSummary;dn=337192064494253;res=IELAPA">increase skill levels but cause students to miss out on learning</a> that generates higher-order thinking. </p>
<h2><em>6. Cultural specificity</em></h2>
<p>Even though PISA use is spreading globally, and is translated into national languages, it is still framed by Western understandings and <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1474904116658299">may distort</a> results from students with <a href="https://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ752980">diverse social and cultural histories</a>. This will become more of a challenge as <a href="https://theconversation.com/new-global-testing-standards-will-force-countries-to-revisit-academic-rankings-115199">PISA’s ambition is to move beyond testing skills to assess attitudes that promote student success</a>.</p>
<h2><em>7. Corporate partnership in the age of digital surveillance</em></h2>
<p>Finally, <a href="https://newint.org/features/2016/04/01/edu-businesses-impact">journalists</a> and <a href="https://bctf.ca/uploadedFiles/Public/Issues/Privatization/PearsonGutsteinReport.pdf">researchers have expressed concerns</a> about <a href="https://www.pearson.com/corporate/news/media/news-announcements/2014/12/pearson-to-develop-pisa-2018-student-assessment-21st-century-fra.html">PISA’s partnership with Pearson</a>, a global educational business enterprise that boasts it operates <a href="https://www.pearsonglobalschools.com/index.cfm?locator=PSZqAo">more than 70 countries worldwide, reaching 100 million people</a>. </p>
<p>The partnership is a worrisome conflict of interest. PISA assesses and ranks school systems and Pearson is a <a href="https://worldsofeducation.org/en/woe_homepage/woe_detail/4858/unmaking-the-market-maker-pearson-in-the-global-south">provider of global</a> and <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-pearson-outlook/virtual-schools-keep-pearson-on-course-for-return-to-profit-growth-idUSKCN1MR0S0">online</a>
<a href="https://www.connectionsacademy.com/news/pearson-acquisition">charter schools</a>, tests and <a href="https://www.pearson.com/us/higher-education/why-choose-pearson/thought-leadership/online-blended-learning/online-learning-services.html">education consulting</a>. Additionally, in an age of rising concern about <a href="https://www.alrc.gov.au/publications/9.%20Overview%3A%20Impact%20of%20Developing%20Technology%20on%20Privacy/surveillance-technologies">digital surveillance and data privacy</a>, it is reasonable to ask how data on students and teachers that’s collected globally may be used, and to what end. </p>
<h2>What needs to change</h2>
<p>Other democratically governed organizations such as UNESCO should play a larger role in the collection of international educational data. This would ensure students’ and teachers’ rights are protected and children have the vibrant and democratic educational structures, processes and relationships they are entitled to. </p>
<p>PISA has shifted education discussion globally in alarming ways. The OECD needs to listen to critical voices and rethink its PISA strategy and framework.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/118096/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sarfaroz Niyozov works for the University of Toronto.
He received funding from SSHRC in 2009.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Wendy Hughes does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>There are many reasons to be skeptical about PISA rankings, and their use to compare student achievement or to identify best practices or solutions for educational problems.Sarfaroz Niyozov, Associate Professor, OISE, University of TorontoWendy Hughes, EdD student, OISE, University of TorontoLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1151992019-04-16T22:46:02Z2019-04-16T22:46:02ZNew global testing standards will force countries to revisit academic rankings<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/269405/original/file-20190415-147508-1d0brgm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Policy-makers must remember that the social consequences of a test are just as important as the test's content.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Since 2000 when the <a href="https://www.oecd.org/about/">Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)</a> launched a global academic benchmark for measuring student outcomes by testing 15-year-olds, many global education systems have been impacted by what sometimes looks and feels like a race to rank high. </p>
<p>When the OECD launched <a href="http://www.oecd.org/pisa/">the Programme for International Student Assessment — PISA</a> — the idea was to enable countries to make cross-national comparisons of student achievement using a common/standard metric to increase human capital. In other words, higher academic achievement should corelate with earnings in the future and a country’s standard of living. As PISA states, it publishes the results of the test a year after the students are tested to help governments shape their education policies.</p>
<p>As PISA has developed, through seven global testing rounds <a href="http://www.oecd.org/pisa/aboutpisa/">every three years</a>, with the first in 2000 and the most recent in 2018, for some <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/education/2008/dec/11/primary-maths-science-politics">it has gained a reputation as the “Olympics of education”</a> given the widespread <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/pisa-worldwide-ranking-of-math-science-reading-skills-2016-12">attention</a> <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/canada-s-15-year-old-students-among-best-global-performers-in-science-math-1.3883341">that country rankings receive</a> following <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/av/uk-wales-25203445/pisa-ranks-wales-education-the-worst-in-the-uk">the release of results</a>.</p>
<p>Recent cross-cultural research suggests <a href="https://www.routledge.com/The-PISA-Effect-on-Global-Educational-Governance-1st-Edition/Volante/p/book/9781138217416">the influence of PISA is growing around the world</a>. Indeed, in countries such as Germany and Canada assessment systems have been developed that mirror the PISA test. Further, governments look to PISA results twinned with other <a href="http://www.oecd.org/pisa/Equity-in-Education-country-note-Canada.pdf">social outcome measures such as equity in education and social mobility</a> or <a href="https://cmec.ca/Publications/Lists/Publications/Attachments/343/AMatters_No9_EN.pdf">immigrant success</a>.</p>
<p>Now, partly in the face of criticisms, PISA is looking at expanding how and what it tests. Collectively, changes to PISA will likely spur a shift in priorities by national governments — particularly since <a href="https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/home/education/news/kvs-jnvs-and-chandigarh-schools-to-participate-in-pisa-2021/articleshow/68887781.cms">countries are keen to achieve good outcomes</a> and to rank high.</p>
<p>As this process unfolds, policy-makers must remember that the social consequences of a test are just as important as the test’s content. Putting a new face on PISA will undoubtedly present various opportunities and challenges. </p>
<h2>What PISA now tests</h2>
<p>To date, PISA has been restricted to what is generally called the “cognitive” side of learning, focusing on reading, mathematics and scientific literacy. In addition to test questions, students and school principals fill out questionnaires to provide contextual information on student and school environment characteristics that can be associated with more or less favourable performance.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/269606/original/file-20190416-147483-1z0ar8g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/269606/original/file-20190416-147483-1z0ar8g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/269606/original/file-20190416-147483-1z0ar8g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/269606/original/file-20190416-147483-1z0ar8g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/269606/original/file-20190416-147483-1z0ar8g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/269606/original/file-20190416-147483-1z0ar8g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/269606/original/file-20190416-147483-1z0ar8g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Keeping up with rankings can drive an emphasis on a narrow range of measurable aspects of education.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Countries that excel in PISA tests, such as Finland, a country with less than six million people, have become <a href="https://www.routledge.com/The-PISA-Effect-on-Global-Educational-Governance-1st-Edition/Volante/p/book/9781138217416">regarded by policy-makers as a “global reference society”</a> — an ideal to aspire to — due to their high performance in PISA rankings. </p>
<p>Asian countries or jurisdictions like Singapore, Hong Kong (China) and Japan tend to consistently achieve exceptional PISA performances and hence <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/03054985.2015.1028525">get a lot of attention from other countries wishing to emulate their success via borrowing policy.</a>
For example, England <a href="https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/773320/MTE_main_report.pdf">flew teachers out to China to study mathematics teaching</a>.</p>
<p>Yet even as countries strive to keep pace with preparing students for PISA, criticism — which largely follows any large-scale test that has important implications — has emerged. Some policy-makers, educators and researchers decry that keeping up with <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1478210316652009">rankings drives an emphasis on a narrow, rather than broad, range of measurable aspects of education</a>.
Crude interpretations of country rankings and policy lessons can easily be used to promote rigid reforms. </p>
<p>Perhaps the most notable resistance to PISA was expressed in an open letter in <em>The Guardian</em> headlined “<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/education/2014/may/06/oecd-pisa-tests-damaging-education-academics">OECD and PISA tests are damaging education worldwide — academics</a>,” signed by a group of more than 80 high-profile global academics. </p>
<p>Clearly, the OECD has been aware of criticisms of PISA. In 2015 and in 2018, the test covered new areas respectively of collaborative problem solving and financial literacy and then global competence. In 2015, the OECD also changed the model on which <a href="https://ec.europa.eu/jrc/en/publication/insights-survey-errors-large-scale-educational-achievement-surveys">previous PISA scores were based with the aim of reducing measurement error</a>.</p>
<p>More recent statements from the director of PISA, Andreas Schleicher, suggest significant changes are on the horizon because the modern world <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/education/international-education-testing-program-set-to-change-20190324-p516zq.html">doesn’t reward us for what we know but for “how we apply knowledge</a>.”</p>
<p>Schleicher recently acknowledged “<a href="https://qz.com/1540222/how-changing-the-pisa-test-could-change-how-kids-learn/">PISA is, at the moment, a partial picture of what is important</a>.” But future testing innovations seem likely to fall flat if they are taken up by governments in a prescriptive manner. </p>
<h2>Not ‘back to basics’</h2>
<p>In the next administration in 2021, PISA will tackle creative thinking, trying to find ways to assess, and have <a href="https://qz.com/1540222/how-changing-the-pisa-test-could-change-how-kids-learn/">students assess, flexibility in thinking and habits of creativity such as being inquisitive and persistent</a>. The PISA team is also developing a way of <a href="https://www.devex.com/news/pisa-founder-andreas-schleicher-on-the-future-of-the-education-ranking-94561">testing students’ digital learning, which should be ready in time for the 2024 assessment</a>.</p>
<p>Recently, and somewhat ironically, the highest-ranking global country on PISA tests, Singapore, made waves when its education minister announced that it would be scaling back testing in the country to try to find balance with the “<a href="https://www.moe.gov.sg/news/speeches/opening-address-by-mr-ong-ye-kung--minister-for-education--at-the-schools-work-plan-seminar">joy of learning</a>.” </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1058539355181064192"}"></div></p>
<p>Collectively, these statements run somewhat <a href="https://www.springer.com/gp/book/9789400740945">against a dominant standards-based reform agenda</a> that has emphasized <a href="https://www.springer.com/gp/book/9789400740945">“back to basics” in math and language since the late 1980s and early 1990s in the United Kingdom and then the United States</a>.</p>
<h2>Policy learning and borrowing?</h2>
<p>The OECD has stressed <a href="https://www.oecd.org/about/secretary-general/betterpoliciesforbetterlives.htm">“better policies for better lives.”</a> For the most part, policy-makers have largely agreed with Schleicher’s position that the PISA can help <a href="https://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ865075">facilitate public education system improvements through the lessons learned from top performing nations or economies</a>.</p>
<p>However, it should be remembered that education policies from high achieving nations don’t migrate across international boundaries without consideration given to national and cultural contexts.
Rather, innovations and changes in education require teachers to have the time and opportunity to <a href="https://theconversation.com/culturally-responsive-teaching-in-a-globalized-world-109881">re-educate themselves in relation to more recent insights in what it means to get the best out of children</a>.</p>
<p>The OECD will need to respond to <a href="https://ec.europa.eu/jrc/en/publication/insights-survey-errors-large-scale-educational-achievement-surveys">previous critiques and provide greater transparency around newer test instruments and the choices made to arrive at rankings</a>. The latter is no small challenge since the future focus of PISA is based on topics which seem more difficult to evaluate than math, science or reading skills.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/115199/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Louis Volante receives funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC). </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jo Ritzen, John Jerrim, and Sylke Schnepf do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The stakes could be highest for students around the world as education systems decide how to respond to the changing shape of global standardized testing.Louis Volante, Professor, Brock UniversityJohn Jerrim, Lecturer in Economics and Social Statistics, UCLJo Ritzen, Professor of International Economics of Education, Science and Technology, Maastricht UniversitySylke Schnepf, Senior researcher, European Commission's Joint Research CentreLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1141542019-04-09T22:14:00Z2019-04-09T22:14:00ZTesting literacy today requires more than a pencil and paper<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/267432/original/file-20190403-177199-1pqgbts.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Large-scale literacy testing has not kept pace with how literacy is practiced in classooms, assessed by teachers and mandated by curriculum.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">tim gouw/unsplash</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Large-scale testing, or what many know as standardized testing,
often carries important consequences for students. The results of large-scale tests may be used by schools or policy-makers to make important decisions <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/09695940802164226">such as grouping students by ability or assessing how well schools are doing</a>.</p>
<p>Yet when it comes to literacy testing, <a href="https://www.routledge.com/Literacy-Lives-in-Transcultural-Times/Zaidi-Rowsell/p/book/9781138225169">while the competencies of literacy have changed in our digital, globalized world</a>, the methods that many educational systems use to assess literacy have not. </p>
<p>One recent analysis of standardized tests in the United States, for example, found tests haven’t changed much over the last 100 years: tests are <a href="https://ed.stanford.edu/news/history-high-school-english-told-through-100-years-exams">mostly multiple choice, with questions geared toward assessing skills like vocabulary, recall and comprehension</a>.</p>
<p>In Canada today, on such large-scale standardized tests, students are <a href="https://www.edcan.ca/articles/standards-accountability-and-student-assessment-systems/">likely to read a passage and answer a series of multiple-choice questions</a>. Students might have an opportunity to write a short answer or essay response. Provincial tests, for the most part, continue to prioritize measuring traditional literacy skills of reading and writing with answers primarily communicated via pencil-to-paper. Such a testing structure forms the basis for public accountability in many provinces. </p>
<p>Across Canada, researchers and educators have documented the need <a href="https://www.edcan.ca/articles/large-scale-assessment/">to transform how the provinces assess literacy</a> and consider more innovative designs. Testing should accurately capture what children are learning <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2019/03/04/if-all-that-testing-had-been-improving-us-we-would-have-been-highest-achieving-nation-world-heres-what-does-work-school-reform/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.1755420d9ed6">without detracting from authentic teaching and learning</a>.</p>
<h2>What literacy means today</h2>
<p>Formerly, literacy was broadly understood to encompass four domains: reading, writing, speaking and listening. But today, how we define literacy has changed. </p>
<p>Firstly, literacy is now understood to involve skills and knowledge related to all modes of visual representation and digital communications. Today’s students tend to read shorter texts within a variety of platforms on social media, websites and apps. Schools now teach literacy through visual, moving image and even sound-based texts that children and teenagers encounter when reading and writing online. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/268414/original/file-20190409-2921-1i7tobc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/268414/original/file-20190409-2921-1i7tobc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/268414/original/file-20190409-2921-1i7tobc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/268414/original/file-20190409-2921-1i7tobc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/268414/original/file-20190409-2921-1i7tobc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/268414/original/file-20190409-2921-1i7tobc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/268414/original/file-20190409-2921-1i7tobc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Pencil-to-paper tests won’t capture the full range of competencies involved with literacy today.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Secondly, literacy today is also understood to be about <a href="https://www.routledge.com/Re-theorizing-Literacy-Practices-Complex-Social-and-Cultural-Contexts/Bloome-Castanheira-Leung-Rowsell/p/book/9780815368625">how students can use knowledge and skills related to personal and citizen engagement and agency</a>. According to the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), literacy involves the <a href="http://www.unesco.org/education/GMR2006/full/chapt6_eng.pdf">“capacity for social awareness and critical reflection as a basis for personal and social change</a>.” </p>
<p>These forms of literacy teaching and learning — both multimedia literacy related to varied forms of representation <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/07370008.2015.1029609?journalCode=hcgi20">and expression</a> and applied literacy — <a href="https://www.springer.com/gp/book/9789462092006">are called multiliteracies</a>.</p>
<p>Large-scale literacy testing needs to keep pace with how the skills related to these concepts are practised in classooms, assessed by teachers and mandated by provincial curriculum. </p>
<p>Overall, curriculum is increasingly emphasizing <a href="https://www.tcpress.com/critical-encounters-in-secondary-english-9780807756232?page_id=95">a more holistic concept of literacy development</a>. <a href="http://www.edu.gov.on.ca/eng/curriculum/secondary/english910currb.pdf">The English curriculum in Ontario</a> acknowledges students’ literacy development is not understood solely as reading and writing. <a href="https://curriculum.gov.bc.ca/curriculum/english-language-arts/10/new-media">B.C</a> <a href="http://www.learnalberta.ca/ProgramOfStudy.aspx?lang=en&ProgramId=404703#">and Alberta</a> similarly recognize the changing nature of literacy. </p>
<h2>Revamping large-scale testing for the 21st century</h2>
<p>The need to <a href="https://www.routledge.com/The-PISA-Effect-on-Global-Educational-Governance-1st-Edition/Volante/p/book/9781138217416">reconsider large-scale testing formats</a> was recently acknowledged by <a href="http://www.oecd.org/education/andreas-schleicher.htm">Andreas Schleicher</a>,
director for the directorate of education and skills for the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) — the organization that administers the most prominent cross-comparative test in the world, <a href="http://www.oecd.org/pisa/">the Programme for International Student Assessment </a> (PISA). He recently <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/education/international-education-testing-program-set-to-change-20190324-p516zq.html">said PISA is trying to move away from multiple choice to have more adaptive, engaging formats</a>.</p>
<p>In Singapore — <a href="http://www.oecd.org/pisa/pisa-2015-results-in-focus.pdf">the country that performs highest in PISA global tests</a> — the minister of education recently announced a <a href="https://www.moe.gov.sg/news/speeches/opening-address-by-mr-ong-ye-kung--minister-for-education--at-the-schools-work-plan-seminar">reduction in testing for students to better balance rigour and “the joy of learning</a>.”</p>
<p>When we understand literacy to also be about developing adaptive and connective <a href="https://theconversation.com/reduce-childrens-test-anxiety-with-these-tips-and-a-re-think-of-what-testing-means-111730">skills in our rapidly changing world</a>, we can see that such decisions to transform assessment are not potentially downplaying literacy, but rather, potentially enhancing it. </p>
<p>In Canada, assessment reforms and innovations are slowly taking shape.
For example, British Columbia <a href="https://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content/education-training/k-12/administration/program-management/assessment/foundation-skills-assessment/fsa-samples">revised its Foundational Skills Assessments in 2018 to include collaboration and self-reflection</a>. Alberta also made changes to large-scale provincial achievement tests to focus on <a href="https://globalnews.ca/news/548713/alberta-gets-rid-of-provincial-achievement-tests/">assessment <em>for</em> learning rather than assessment <em>of</em> learning</a>. </p>
<p>And in Ontario, a 2018 report to the premier recommended <a href="https://www.oise.utoronto.ca/preview/lhae/UserFiles/File/OntarioLearningProvince2018.pdf">replacing the Ontario secondary school literacy test</a>, now a graduation requirement. Researchers who conducted the review (including one of the authors of this story, Carol), as well as those invited to comment as assessment experts (Chris and Louis), made a number of other recommendations including integrating technology for large-scale asessment of students’ learning and progress. </p>
<p>If we are to support literacy skills for the 21st century then we must explore how large-scale testing might capture students’ contemporary literacy competencies, and also how the testing itself might integrate contemporary practices and <a href="https://en.unesco.org/themes/literacy-all">understandings of literacy</a>. </p>
<p>For example, computerized testing could allow for timely feedback that would close the gap between testing and feedback for learning. Right now, any curricular changes to address demonstrated gaps in learning are often communicated months after the large-scale test.</p>
<p>We need to change how we assess literacy. Ministries of education have the expertise and capacity to modernize our assessment systems. We are hoping there is the political will to do so.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/114154/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Louis Volante receives funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC).</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Carol Campbell led the Independent Review of Assessment and Reporting for the Government of Ontario (2017-18).</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Christopher DeLuca receives funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Lorenzo Cherubini received funding from The Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (previously funded). </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jennifer Rowsell does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Are current forms of standardized literacy tests really measuring children’s capacity to read and interact with our rapidly-changing world?Louis Volante, Professor, Faculty of Education, Brock UniversityCarol Campbell, Associate Professor of Leadership and Educational Change, Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, University of TorontoChristopher DeLuca, Associate Professor in Classroom Assessment and Acting Associate Dean, Graduate Studies & Research, Faculty of Education, Queen's University, OntarioJennifer Rowsell, Canada Research Chair in Multiliteracies, Brock UniversityLorenzo Cherubini, Professor, Brock UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/796262017-06-27T01:04:06Z2017-06-27T01:04:06ZElite public schools that rely on entry exams fail the diversity test<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/175401/original/file-20170623-17473-1dgwqa0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Stuyvesant High School students arrive on the first day in 2015.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">AP Photo/Mark Lennihan</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The jewels in many an urban school district’s crown are their exam schools, competitive public schools that base enrollment on test scores. With a school like New York’s <a href="http://stuy.enschool.org/">Stuyvesant</a>, <a href="http://www.bls.org/">Boston Latin</a> or <a href="http://www.wpcp.org/">Walter Payton</a> (in Chicago) on their transcript, students are grouped with other, high-achieving peers, receive rigorous instruction and complete several Advanced Placement courses – all helping to clear a straight path to college and career success.</p>
<p>Hailed as <a href="http://observer.com/2007/08/stuyvesant-high-school-the-ultimate-meritocracy/">promoting meritocracy</a>, exam schools in fact <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/22/opinion/the-truth-about-new-york-citys-elite-high-schools.html">promote inequity</a>, especially for black and Latino students.</p>
<p>Working for over 25 years at the K-12 and higher education levels (as both a faculty member and administrator), I’ve seen this skewed enrollment pattern play out over and over again. However, several elite U.S. colleges and universities are embracing new admissions policies – policies that, if also implemented by top-tier exam schools, could promote greater access for all students.</p>
<h2>The minority enrollment gap</h2>
<p>When it comes to student diversity, elite high schools leave much to be desired.</p>
<p>Take New York City, for example. This past spring, the city’s eight exam schools (among them <a href="http://stuy.enschool.org/">Stuyvesant</a>, <a href="http://www.bths.edu/">Brooklyn Tech</a> and <a href="http://www.bxscience.edu/">Bronx Science</a>) accepted 5,078 rising ninth grade students solely based on test scores. This, despite New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio’s <a href="http://nyckidspac.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/NYC-Kids-PAC-Questionnaire-Bill-de-Blasio.pdf#page=4">campaign promise</a> to base admissions to all schools on more “holistic” factors. </p>
<p>Black and Latino students will make up only <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/22/opinion/the-truth-about-new-york-citys-elite-high-schools.html">10 percent</a> of this year’s incoming class – though they account for 70 percent of public school students in New York City. At Stuyvesant this fall, only 13 students out of almost 1,000 incoming freshmen will be black.</p>
<p>Even with <a href="https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2017/05/09/admissions-boston-latin-school-other-exam-schools-lacking-diversity-advocates-say/hwlwBqU9zNm0ZfRzMQeSVJ/story.html">recent efforts</a> to improve racial and ethnic diversity among its exam schools, Boston has also faced enrollment equity challenges. At Boston’s flagship public exam high school, Boston Latin School, the student body remains significantly white and Asian. The school’s incoming seventh grade class, for example, is only eight percent black and 14 percent Latino, in contrast to district-wide rates of approximately 32 percent black and 42 percent Latino.</p>
<iframe src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/JdDX2/3/" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" allowtransparency="true" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen" webkitallowfullscreen="webkitallowfullscreen" mozallowfullscreen="mozallowfullscreen" oallowfullscreen="oallowfullscreen" msallowfullscreen="msallowfullscreen" width="100%" height="537"></iframe>
<h2>Rethinking admissions policies</h2>
<p>As long as admission to exam schools is based solely on test scores or grades, this pattern may very well continue indefinitely.</p>
<p>Black and Latino students are just as capable and deserving of exam classroom seats as other students. However, they must contend with a range of factors that often don’t impact their nonminority counterparts, including <a href="https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/04/100422153804.htm">poor-quality instruction</a> at lower grades; unequal access to <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2015/06/inequality-public-schools/395876/">tutoring, test prep and enrichment</a>; low <a href="https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2015/07/19/scrutiny-for-superintendent-tommy-chang-plan-expand-access-advanced-work-classes/ZHxmuOLCRvPTRgzrQJafjL/story.html">placement of elementary students</a> into advanced classes; and <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/blog/brown-center-chalkboard/2017/03/20/the-insidiousness-of-unconscious-bias-in-schools/">unconscious bias</a>. Minority students also can contend with <a href="http://www.apa.org/research/action/stereotype.aspx">stereotype threat</a>, a phenomenon where they conform – often unintentionally – to negative stereotypes about their race’s ability to perform well within academic settings.</p>
<p>These factors can all negatively affect success on the standardized tests and grades that exam schools use for admissions.</p>
<p>A solution to breaking this pattern may come from several elite colleges and universities that are rethinking their admissions policies. Led by <a href="http://mcc.gse.harvard.edu/">Making Caring Common</a>, a project of the Harvard Graduate School of Education, these institutions are piloting new admissions policies that focus less on numbers and more on “ethical engagement.”</p>
<p>In a report released in January 2016, Making Caring Common argued for elite colleges and universities to include opportunities for candidates to submit <a href="http://mcc.gse.harvard.edu/files/gse-mcc/files/20160120_mcc_ttt_execsummary_interactive.pdf">authentic demonstrations of empathy, service to others and commitment to the common good</a> as part of their application. They contend that these important values are worth promoting to students and families. In fact, research suggests that strength of character and “grit” are <a href="https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.92.6.1087">key determinants of future academic and career success</a>.</p>
<p>Importantly, these new metrics could weigh social and emotional attributes that students across all backgrounds could exemplify in some way.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/175392/original/file-20170623-29849-1b465u0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/175392/original/file-20170623-29849-1b465u0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/175392/original/file-20170623-29849-1b465u0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/175392/original/file-20170623-29849-1b465u0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/175392/original/file-20170623-29849-1b465u0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/175392/original/file-20170623-29849-1b465u0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/175392/original/file-20170623-29849-1b465u0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Bronx Academy for Software Engineering hosted a community service day in May 2017.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/jmannion/33788452493/">Jon Mannion</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>A movement gaining traction</h2>
<p>Since the report’s release, <a href="https://mcc.gse.harvard.edu/collegeadmissions">over 175 colleges and universities</a> – including Harvard, Yale, Boston College, MIT, Michigan State and the University of Chicago – have endorsed this admissions framework, with the goal of increasing student diversity. Boston public schools and several Boston-area private schools have endorsed the report as well.</p>
<p>Yet Boston, New York and other cities with exam schools must now “walk the walk” by implementing concrete approaches, such as asking for examples of ethical engagement or empathy as part of the application process. A school might give special consideration, for example, to candidates who worked to support their families at an early age, served as caregivers to younger siblings, organized efforts to support a needy classmate or led a food drive to help a local shelter.</p>
<p>Exam schools across the country could team with Making Caring Common and its growing list of higher education partners to determine how best to validly and reliably collect, evaluate and weight these types of student experiences. </p>
<p>If this new strategy to promote enrollment equity is gaining traction at Harvard and Yale, it should be considered by exam high schools as well. Otherwise, future incoming classes at Stuyvesant and Boston Latin will continue to look much the same.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/79626/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jake Murray does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Elite exam schools are some of the least diverse public schools in the US. Here’s how colleges like Harvard could teach high schools like Stuyvesant to improve their admissions process.Jake Murray, Faculty Director for Professional Education, BU School of Education, Boston UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/786602017-06-21T10:31:01Z2017-06-21T10:31:01ZChallenging the status quo in mathematics: Teaching for understanding<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/174303/original/file-20170618-28772-1vhqkpw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">How can we change math instruction to meet the needs of today's kids?</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://flic.kr/p/97aGY8">World Bank Photo Collection / flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Despite decades of <a href="http://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED372969.pdf">reform efforts</a>, mathematics teaching in the U.S. <a href="http://www.jstor.org/stable/20405948">has changed little</a> in the last century. As a result, it seems, American students have been left behind, now ranking <a href="https://nces.ed.gov/pubs2017/2017048.pdf#page=31">40th in the world</a> in math literacy. </p>
<p>Several state and national reform efforts have tried to improve things. The most recent <a href="http://www.corestandards.org/Math/">Common Core standards</a> had a great deal of promise with their focus on how to teach mathematics, but after several years, <a href="http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.3102/0013189X17711899">changes in teaching practices</a> have been minimal. </p>
<p><iframe id="Grc6N" class="tc-infographic-datawrapper" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/Grc6N/1/" height="400px" width="100%" style="border: none" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
<p>As an education researcher, I’ve observed teachers trying to implement reforms – often with limited success. They sometimes make changes that are more cosmetic than substantive (e.g., more student discussion and group activity), while failing to get at the heart of the matter: What does it truly mean to teach and learn mathematics?</p>
<h2>Traditional mathematics teaching</h2>
<p>Traditional middle or high school mathematics teaching in the U.S. <a href="http://www.jstor.org/stable/20405948">typically follows this pattern</a>: The teacher demonstrates a set of procedures that can be used to solve a particular kind of problem. A similar problem is then introduced for the class to solve together. Then, the students get a number of exercises to practice on their own.</p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/174300/original/file-20170618-28759-1jyothn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/174300/original/file-20170618-28759-1jyothn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=686&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/174300/original/file-20170618-28759-1jyothn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=686&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/174300/original/file-20170618-28759-1jyothn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=686&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/174300/original/file-20170618-28759-1jyothn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=862&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/174300/original/file-20170618-28759-1jyothn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=862&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/174300/original/file-20170618-28759-1jyothn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=862&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The basics of math instruction have changed little since George Eaton taught at Phillips Academy (1880-1930).</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://flic.kr/p/jKrzFZ">Phillips Academy Archives and Special Collections / flickr</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>For example, when students learn about the area of shapes, they’re given a set of formulas. They put numbers into the correct formula and compute a solution. More complex questions might give the students the area and have them work backwards to find a missing dimension. Students will often learn a different set of formulas each day: perhaps squares and rectangles one day, triangles the next. </p>
<p>Students in these kinds of lessons are learning to follow a rote process to arrive at a solution. This kind of instruction is so common that it’s seldom even questioned. After all, within a particular lesson, it makes the math seem easier, and students who are successful at getting the right answers find this kind of teaching to be very satisfying.</p>
<p>But it turns out that teaching mathematics this way can actually <a href="http://www.jstor.org/stable/3696735">hinder learning</a>. Children can become dependent on <a href="http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.5951/teacchilmath.21.1.0018">tricks and rules</a> that don’t hold true in all situations, making it harder to adapt their knowledge to new situations.</p>
<p>For example, in traditional teaching, children learn that they should distribute a number by multiplying across parentheses and will practice doing so with numerous examples. When they begin learning how to solve equations, they often have trouble realizing that it’s not always needed. To illustrate, take the equation 3(x + 5) = 30. Children are likely to multiply the 3 across the parentheses to make 3x + 15 = 30. They might just as easily have divided both sides by 3 to make x + 5 = 10, but a child who learned the distribution method might have great difficulty recognizing the alternate method – or even that both procedures are equally correct.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/174582/original/file-20170619-22075-1mmjc2g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/174582/original/file-20170619-22075-1mmjc2g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=320&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/174582/original/file-20170619-22075-1mmjc2g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=320&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/174582/original/file-20170619-22075-1mmjc2g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=320&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/174582/original/file-20170619-22075-1mmjc2g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=402&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/174582/original/file-20170619-22075-1mmjc2g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=402&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/174582/original/file-20170619-22075-1mmjc2g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=402&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Students who learn by rote drilling often have trouble realizing that there are equally valid alternative methods for solving a problem.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Kaitlyn Chantry</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>More than a right answer</h2>
<p>A key missing ingredient in these traditional lessons is conceptual understanding. </p>
<p>Concepts are ideas, meaning and relationships. It’s not just about knowing the procedure (like how to compute the area of a triangle) but also the significance behind the procedure (like what area means). How concepts and procedures are related is important as well, such as how the area of a triangle can be considered half the area of a rectangle and how that relationship can be seen in their area formulas. </p>
<p>Teaching for conceptual understanding has <a href="http://math.coe.uga.edu/Olive/EMAT3500f08/instrumental-relational.pdf">several benefits</a>. Less information has to be memorized, and students can translate their knowledge to new situations more easily. For example, understanding what area means and how areas of different shapes are related can help students understand the concept of volume better. And learning the relationship between area and volume can help students understand how to interpret what the volume means once it’s been calculated.</p>
<p>In short, building relationships between <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s10648-015-9302-x">how to solve a problem and why it’s solved that way</a> helps students <a href="https://doi.org/10.1037//0022-0663.91.1.175">use what they already know</a> to solve new problems that they face. Students with a truly conceptual understanding can see how methods emerged from <a href="https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-0663.91.1.175">multiple interconnected ideas</a>; their relationship to the solution goes deeper than rote drilling.</p>
<p>Teaching this way is a critical first step if students are to begin recognizing mathematics as meaningful. Conceptual understanding is a key ingredient to helping people think mathematically and use mathematics outside of a classroom.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/174193/original/file-20170616-537-p8ad2j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/174193/original/file-20170616-537-p8ad2j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=412&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/174193/original/file-20170616-537-p8ad2j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=412&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/174193/original/file-20170616-537-p8ad2j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=412&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/174193/original/file-20170616-537-p8ad2j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=517&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/174193/original/file-20170616-537-p8ad2j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=517&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/174193/original/file-20170616-537-p8ad2j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=517&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Procedural learning promotes memorization instead of critical thinking and problem solving.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/math-study-exam-set-book-pencil-250606378">m.jrn/shutterstock.com</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>The will to change</h2>
<p>Conceptual understanding in mathematics has been recognized as important for <a href="http://www.nctm.org/uploadedFiles/About/President,_Board_and_Committees/Board_Materials/MLarson-SF-NCTM-4-16.pdf">over a century</a> and widely discussed for decades. So why has it not been incorporated into the curriculum, and why does traditional teaching abound? </p>
<p>Learning conceptually can take longer and be more difficult than just presenting formulas. Teaching this way may require additional time commitments both in and outside the classroom. Students may have never been asked to think this way before.</p>
<p>There are systemic obstacles to face as well. A new teacher may face pressure from fellow teachers who teach in traditional ways. The <a href="https://www.thoughtco.com/high-stakes-testing-overtesting-in-americas-public-schools-3194591">culture of overtesting</a> in the last two decades means that students face more pressure than ever to get right answers on tests. </p>
<p>The results of these tests are also being <a href="https://tcta.org/node/13251-issues_with_test_based_value_added_models_of_teacher_assessment">tied to teacher evaluation systems</a>. Many teachers feel pressure to teach to the test, drilling students so that they can regurgitate information accurately.</p>
<p>If we really want to improve America’s mathematics education, we need to rethink both our education system and our teaching methods, and perhaps to <a href="http://www.nea.org/home/40991.htm">consider how other countries approach mathematics instruction</a>. Research has provided evidence that teaching conceptually has <a href="http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational-leadership/feb04/vol61/num05/Improving-Mathematics-Teaching.aspx">benefits</a> not offered by traditional teaching. And students who learn conceptually typically do <a href="https://doi.org/10.3102/0034654310374880">as well or better</a> on achievement tests. </p>
<p>Renowned education expert <a href="https://pasisahlberg.com/">Pasi Sahlberg</a> is a former mathematics and physics teacher from Finland, which is renowned for its world-class education. He <a href="http://www.smithsonianmag.com/innovation/why-are-finlands-schools-successful-49859555/">sums it up</a> well:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>We prepare children to learn how to learn, not how to take a test.</p>
</blockquote><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/78660/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Christopher Rakes receives funding from the National Science Foundation. </span></em></p>Math instruction is stuck in the last century. How can we change teaching methods to move past rote memorization and help students develop a more meaningful understanding – and be better at math?Christopher Rakes, Assistant Professor of Mathematics Education, University of Maryland, Baltimore CountyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/791632017-06-14T02:23:32Z2017-06-14T02:23:32ZMatchmaker, matchmaker, find me a school: College admissions in China<p>High school students in the United States work hard under great pressure to get into their chosen colleges. They must maintain high grades in challenging courses throughout high school, score well on ACT or SAT exams, painstakingly fill out applications – and then wait and hope.</p>
<p>It’s not easy, and it can be heartbreaking if students’ top choices reject them.</p>
<p>But at least they don’t have to go back to high school, repeat their senior year, retake their exam and then reapply to college.</p>
<p>For 40 years, that’s what routinely happened to <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=iRvlAAAAMAAJ&q=%E4%B8%AD%E5%9B%BD%E9%AB%98%E8%80%83%E5%8F%B2&dq=%E4%B8%AD%E5%9B%BD%E9%AB%98%E8%80%83%E5%8F%B2&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwi5uu6toLvUAhVi0oMKHQFmDVYQ6AEIJjAA">millions of students</a> in China under a centralized, student-to-college matching system that only recently has been radically changed.</p>
<p>As a professor in the University of Michigan School of Information (UMSI), I worked with Onur Kesten from Carnegie Mellon University to analyze <a href="http://doi.org/10.1086/689773">these student-to-college matching systems</a> in China. We found that, in fact, things are getting better for Chinese students. And – perhaps surprisingly – the new Chinese system has implications for similar processes in the United States.</p>
<h2>Winning but losing</h2>
<p>In 1952, China instituted the National College Entrance Exam, also known as gaokao, taken by all high school seniors in the country over a grueling two-day period each year. After receiving their exam scores and learning their ranking, students apply to the universities of their choice. </p>
<p>The students select universities based on factors like exam scores, the schools’ prestige, how likely it is that they’ll be accepted and their own willingness to take risks.</p>
<p>Until 2001, there was just a single method used to assign students to universities. In this “sequential” system, a student would rank the schools in order of preference and receive immediate acceptance (or rejection).</p>
<p>Unfortunately, in this system, if students are denied acceptance by their top-ranked schools, their second, third or fourth choices might already be filled. (Those schools were likely the first choice of thousands of other students.) So, the system continues down a student’s list and, often, issues an acceptance from a low-ranked school – or worse, no acceptance at all – and the student is forced to repeat a year of high school.</p>
<p>This is, in fact, very similar to the kind of open enrollment plans that many U.S. states use to place students in public schools of their choice. In 2007, an estimated <a href="https://nces.ed.gov/pubs2010/2010004.pdf#page=19">16 percent of U.S. public school students</a> participated in a plan like this.</p>
<p>For instance, in Boston, students are allowed to submit preferences for which of the dozens of public high schools in the city they’d like to attend. Those preferences were once used in <a href="https://doi.org/10.1257/000282803322157061">a series of rounds</a> to assign students to schools. In the first round, only the first choices of the students were considered. Students left unassigned would have their second choices considered in the second round, and so on, until all students were assigned a seat. As in China, families would rank their choices and frequently find themselves <a href="http://doi.org/10.1016/j.jet.2004.10.006">pushed out of their top choices</a>.</p>
<p>In both China and Boston, this led to a number of students attempting to game the system: Top students frequently chose not to list their actual first choice, fearing that they wouldn’t be accepted and would be shut out of any desirable school. Instead, they would place a lower-ranked school at the top, with the hope that it would guarantee them an acceptance.</p>
<p>As one parent in China said:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“My child has been among the best students in his school and school district. Unfortunately… after his first choice rejected him, his second and third choices were already full. My child had no choice but to repeat his senior year.”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Repeating their senior year is the most common way students can retake the gaokao and reapply for university acceptance.</p>
<h2>There’s got to be a better way</h2>
<p>In 2001, Hunan province was the first to roll out a different approach to college admission: the so-called “parallel” system.</p>
<p>The parallel approach allows students to submit several “parallel” desirable choices within a band, or tier, of choices. For example, a student could list three universities in the first band and three more in a second band, in decreasing levels of desirability within each band.</p>
<p>Allocation within each band is temporary until all students’ choices are considered. The system attempts to match as many students as possible in their first band before moving on to the second band.</p>
<p>We found that every newly adopted parallel system was <a href="http://doi.org/10.1086/689773">more stable than the sequential program it replaced</a>. That is, the resulting matches were more desirable and “envy-free.” For example, when Shanghai switched to a parallel mechanism in 2008, the number of students who refused to attend colleges they were matched with <a href="http://www.cnsaes.org/homepage/saesmag/jyfzyj/2009/7/gj090708.htm">decreased by 40 percent</a>.</p>
<p>We also found that the number of choices allowed in each tier matters. To date, the most successful parallel system is employed in Tibet, which allows up to 10 choices in the first band.</p>
<h2>Improving the odds</h2>
<p>Every June, 9 to 10 million high school seniors take the gaokao. They are vying for just <a href="https://doi.org/10.1086/689773">6 million college seats</a>.</p>
<p>This year, <a href="http://gaokao.chsi.com.cn/z/gkbmfslq/zszc.jsp">all but three of China’s 31 provinces</a> are using the new system, giving more students more satisfactory choices – and far less chance of having to repeat their senior year of high school. This, in turn, incentivizes truthful ranking and discourages students from attempting to game the system. It also avoids wasting scarce university seats when students unsatisfied with their matches decline admission.</p>
<p>There are lessons here for school choice programs in the U.S. and around the world.</p>
<p>Systems much like China’s sequential method are still being used in <a href="https://www.povertyactionlab.org/sites/default/files/publications/840%20Heterogeneous%20Preferences%20May%202009.pdf">Charlotte, North Carolina</a>; <a href="https://www.minneapolisfed.org/publications/the-region/gaming-the-school-system">Minneapolis</a>; <a href="https://doi.org/10.1257/aer.101.1.399">Seattle</a>; <a href="http://www.tampabay.com/news/education/k12/playing-the-school-choice-lottery-in-pinellas/2259893">Tampa</a>; and other cities where students have a choice as to which public school they attend.</p>
<p>However, for about 12 years, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1257/000282805774669637">Boston</a> and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1257/000282805774670167">New York</a> have used an updated model more like China’s new parallel approach. These newer systems use an algorithm to grant temporary placement until all students have received one of their top choices. And these systems universally place more students in the schools they want to attend.</p>
<p>Our recommendation is that more places – including the remaining Chinese provinces – abandon the outdated sequential method. And, for those that have already adopted the new method, we hope that they will allow more choices within each tier.</p>
<p>Student-to-school matching has profound implications for the educational and professional outcomes for students. They deserve a system that’s more favorable – and more equitable – for all.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/79163/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Yan Chen receives funding from the National Science Foundation through grant number SES-0962492. </span></em></p>Every year, 9 million students in China compete for just 6 million college admission spots. The systems that match students with schools are being overhauled. But will that improve outcomes?Yan Chen, Professor of Information, University of MichiganLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/618992016-07-14T22:28:05Z2016-07-14T22:28:05ZAfter Fisher: affirmative action and Asian-American students<p>After eight years, the <a href="https://theconversation.com/explainer-crucial-texas-case-on-race-considerations-in-college-admissions-44117">Abigail Fisher</a> case finally <a href="https://theconversation.com/after-supreme-courts-fisher-decision-what-we-need-to-know-about-considering-race-in-admissions-59784">has been put to rest</a>. In a landmark judgment on June 23, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of race-conscious affirmative action in university admissions. </p>
<p>Abigail Fisher, a white woman, had sued the University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin) for its race-conscious admissions policy after she was denied admission. She had argued that the university violated the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.</p>
<p>Supporters of race-conscious admissions programs are understandably gratified. But has the case resolved the larger moral and political disagreements over affirmative action?</p>
<p>Roger Clegg, president of the <a href="http://www.ceousa.org/">Center for Equal Opportunity</a>, which supports colorblind policies, has already called the decision just “<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/24/us/politics/supreme-court-affirmative-action-university-of-texas.html?_r=0">a temporary setback</a>.”</p>
<p>Indeed, over the last 40 years, affirmative action opponents have repeatedly strategized anew after important Supreme Court decisions in favor of affirmative action. They did so after the 1978 decision in <a href="http://www.casebriefs.com/blog/law/constitutional-law/constitutional-law-keyed-to-chemerinsky/equal-protection/regents-of-the-university-of-california-v-bakke/">Regents of the University of California v. Bakke</a>, when the Supreme Court, while allowing race to be one of the factors in choosing <a href="http://nepc.colorado.edu/files/Moses_TheDiversityRationale.TheIntellectualRootsofandIdeal.pdf">a diverse student body</a>, held the use of quotas to be “impermissible.” </p>
<p>And they did so after the 2003 decision in <a href="https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/539/306/case.html">Grutter v. Bollinger</a>, when the high court again ruled that race-conscious affirmative action was constitutional.</p>
<p>We are scholars who study affirmative action, race, and diversity in higher education. We believe that the disagreement about affirmative action will not
end anytime soon. And it may well center on lawsuits on behalf of Asian-American college applicants. </p>
<h2>Here is what is coming next</h2>
<p>Through his organization, the <a href="https://www.projectonfairrepresentation.org/">Project on Fair Representation</a>, Abigail Fisher’s advisor, Edward Blum, is currently engaged in a <a href="https://studentsforfairadmissions.org/">lawsuit challenging</a> Harvard University’s race-conscious admissions policy. </p>
<p>What is different about the <a href="http://studentsforfairadmissions.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/SFFA-v.-Harvard-Complaint.pdf">Harvard lawsuit</a> is that the lead plaintiff in the case is not a white student. The plaintiff is an Asian-American student. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/130611/original/image-20160714-23365-137rvqu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/130611/original/image-20160714-23365-137rvqu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/130611/original/image-20160714-23365-137rvqu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/130611/original/image-20160714-23365-137rvqu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/130611/original/image-20160714-23365-137rvqu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/130611/original/image-20160714-23365-137rvqu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/130611/original/image-20160714-23365-137rvqu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Asian-Americans participate in an Advancing Justice conference.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/justiceconf/15364290448/in/photolist-ppG1gs-ppEvQx-ppKxNw-pE4tMS-fjpnxG-oKkpH2-oKioP3-ppHAfX-ppDjC4-pG9Svz-pG8YoZ-ppG1qf-pE4uUm-pE3uKL-oKmiSx-pG8XtT-ppGYWb-fjaaza-oKioG9-pFU68K-ppKtHh-ppJvdo-pFVaor-pGefe3-ppJxjY-fjoUu7-pE4oZA-ppHDCP-oKiruy-ppJowh-ppHBEa-ppEuFD-ppGTMy-pE3vFd-fjpa2y-pE4uiw-oKmmzg-pE4usQ-oKik3f-ppKtKG-oKisgd-pE3pYb-pE4qTf-pGeeEs-pFVbe4-pE4px9-ppKvjd-pGefJ1-pGedjw-ppGUdU">Advancing Justice Conference</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/">CC BY-NC-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>“Students for Fair Admissions,” an arm of the Project on Fair Representation, filed a suit against Harvard College on November 17, 2014, on behalf of a Chinese-American applicant who had been rejected from Harvard. The lawsuit charges that Harvard’s admissions policy violates <a href="http://www.hhs.gov/civil-rights/for-individuals/race/index.html">Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964</a>, which bars federally funded entities from discriminating based on race or ethnicity.</p>
<p>The “<a href="http://harvardnotfair.org/">Harvard University Not Fair</a>” website greets readers with a photo of an Asian-American student accompanied by the following text: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>“Were you denied admission to Harvard? It may be because you’re the wrong race.”</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>How it started</h2>
<p>This controversy over how Asian-Americans are being treated in selective college admission was jump-started in 2005, when sociologists <a href="https://www.princeton.edu/%7Etje/">Thomas Espenshade</a> and <a href="http://scholar.princeton.edu/sites/default/files/cchung/files/chang_y_chung.pdf">Chang Chung</a> published <a href="https://www.princeton.edu/%7Etje/files/webOpportunity%20Cost%20of%20Admission%20Preferences%20Espenshade%20Chung%20June%202005.pdf">findings</a> from their study on the effects of affirmative action bans on the racial and ethnic composition of student bodies at selective colleges and universities. </p>
<p>Espenshade and Chung found that if affirmative action were to be eliminated, the acceptance rates for black and <a href="https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2015/12/08/students-adopt-gender-nonspecific-term-latinx-be-more-inclusive">Latino</a> applicants would likely decrease substantially, while the acceptance rate for white applicants would increase slightly. But more than that, what they noted was that the acceptance rate for Asian-American applicants would increase the most by far. </p>
<p>As the researchers explained, Asian-American students “would occupy four out of every five seats created by accepting fewer African-American and Hispanic students.” </p>
<p>Such research has been cited to support claims of admissions discrimination against Asian-Americans. </p>
<p>In the complaint against Harvard, Espenshade’s research was cited as evidence of discrimination against Asian-Americans. Specifically, the lawsuit cited research from 2009 in which Espenshade, this time with coauthor <a href="https://www.rti.org/expert/alexandria-walton-radford">Alexandria Radford,</a> <a href="http://press.princeton.edu/titles/9072.html">found</a> that Asian-American applicants accepted at selective colleges had higher standardized test scores, on average, than other accepted students. </p>
<p>These findings, especially that Asian-American applicants seem to need a higher SAT score than white applicants or other applicants of color in order to be admitted to a selective college are being used as proof that elite institutions like Harvard are discriminating against Asian-Americans in their admissions processes. </p>
<h2>The picture is more complicated</h2>
<p>As we know, selective admissions processes are much more complicated than SAT score data can show. There are many factors that are taken into consideration for college admission. </p>
<p>For example, in the “holistic” admissions processes endorsed by the Supreme Court in Grutter v. Bollinger, standardized text scores are not the only, or even the main, criterion for admission. <a href="https://www.aamc.org/initiatives/holisticreview/about/">“Holistic” review</a> takes many relevant factors into account, including academic achievement, of course, but also factors such as a commitment to public service, overcoming difficult life circumstances, achievements in the arts or athletics, or leadership qualities.</p>
<p>So, why would the plaintiff in the Harvard case conclude that the disparities in SAT scores shown by Espenshade and Radford necessarily indicate that Asian-American applicants are being harmed by race-conscious affirmative action? </p>
<p>Legal scholar <a href="http://apahenational.org/?page_id=402">William Kidder</a> <a href="http://media.asian-nation.org/Kidder-Negative-Action.pdf">has shown</a> that the way Espenshade and Radford’s findings have been interpreted by affirmative action opponents is not accurate. The interpretation of this research itself rests on the faulty assumption that affirmative action is to blame if an academically accomplished Asian-American applicant gets rejected from an elite institution. </p>
<p>Based on his analysis, Kidder concluded, </p>
<blockquote>
<p>“Exaggerated claims about the benefits for APAs [Asian Pacific Americans] of ending affirmative action foster a divisive public discourse in which APAs are falsely portrayed as natural adversaries of affirmative action and the interests of African American and Latinos in particular.” </p>
</blockquote>
<p>In our opinion as well, focusing on simplistic ideas about standardized tests as the primary evidence for who “deserves” to be admitted to elite institutions like Harvard may serve to stir up resentment among accomplished applicants who get rejected.</p>
<p>As the “Harvard Not Fair” website and accompanying lawsuit demonstrate, these findings have been used to fuel a <a href="http://www.jaconlinejournal.com/archives/vol26.1-2/banning-politics.pdf">politics of resentment</a> among rejected Asian-American applicants.</p>
<p>When speaking with reporters, Espenshade himself has acknowledged that <a href="http://www.thecrimson.com/article/2015/5/16/complaint-federal-harvard-admissions/">his data are incomplete</a> – given that colleges take myriad factors into account in admissions decisions – and his findings have been overinterpreted and actually <a href="https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2009/11/03/elite">do not prove</a> that colleges discriminate against Asian-American applicants. </p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/130456/original/image-20160713-12389-1m8kj97.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/130456/original/image-20160713-12389-1m8kj97.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/130456/original/image-20160713-12389-1m8kj97.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/130456/original/image-20160713-12389-1m8kj97.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/130456/original/image-20160713-12389-1m8kj97.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/130456/original/image-20160713-12389-1m8kj97.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/130456/original/image-20160713-12389-1m8kj97.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Are Asian-American students a monolithic group?</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/brainchildvn/3005463222/in/photolist-5zzMvq-4E3x4k-gZVoyq-6fVSsc-hyi8DC-8x8MvT-dkX8eD-4E3x56-dkY496-dkX8gg-4Tenr6-gZWMk2-5zziDu-4TAeVw-5zzTqq-5zzX5C-gZWopW-5zzZ8G-5zviMz-4VFbik-bDyRg3-5zzbuG-5zzRBs-dkX8ec-r4DrgY-4WEYRg-5zzUpu-5zzhcm-5zvyzF-5zvdua-9wAUG5-5zvhUB-dkY4de-5zvpVg-5zuXBV-5zvQtz-5zv7a2-5zvoRZ-5zAbwj-5zvAs2-aEfpT3-reqP2q-foRaAe-5zvYLt-5zzY33-5zA4fL-5zv12i-5zvxrk-5zvagc-5zuUp2">Charlie Nguyen</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Moreover, in using <a href="http://harvardnotfair.org/">images of Asian-American students</a> to recruit complainants against Harvard and other highly selective institutions of higher education, the Project on Fair Representation <a href="https://www.upress.umn.edu/book-division/books/chains-of-babylon">relies on the idea</a> that Asian-Americans comprise a monolithic group. In fact, the term “Asian-American” refers to a <a href="https://theconversation.com/is-there-an-asian-disadvantage-in-higher-ed-44070">diversity of Asian ethnicities</a> in the United States, whose educational opportunities and achievements vary widely. </p>
<p>The 2010 census question on race included check boxes for six Asian groups – Asian Indian, Chinese, Filipino, Japanese, Korean, and Vietnamese – along with a box for “Other Asian,” with a prompt for detailed responses such as “Hmong, Laotian, Thai, Pakistani, Cambodian, and so on.” </p>
<p>In addition, by casting plaintiffs as meritorious and deserving of a spot at an elite university, it also conveys the <a href="http://press.princeton.edu/titles/10134.html">stereotypical received wisdom about Asian-American “model” students</a> who are wronged by race-conscious affirmative action programs. </p>
<h2>The Harvard lawsuit comes next</h2>
<p>At this time, Students for Fair Admissions v. President and Fellows of Harvard College, filed in the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts, is pending. </p>
<p>Now that Fisher has been decided, this case is the next front in the divisive politics surrounding race-conscious affirmative action in higher education admissions.</p>
<p>Relevant to the Harvard case is that a civil rights complaint alleging that Princeton University discriminates against Asian-American applicants was dismissed in 2015 after a long federal <a href="http://www.princeton.edu/main/news/archive/S44/30/14M00/index.xml?section=topstories">Office of Civil Rights investigation</a>.</p>
<p>Although public disagreement about the policy continues, affirmative action is an imperfect, but as yet necessary tool that universities can leverage to cultivate robust and diverse spaces where students learn. June 23’s <em>Fisher</em> ruling underscores that important idea. </p>
<p>Related to the coming public discussions about the Harvard lawsuit, we are of the opinion that race-conscious policies like affirmative action need to be supported. The fact is that “Asian-Americans” have diverse social and educational experiences. And many <a href="https://secure-media.collegeboard.org/digitalServices/pdf/professionals/asian-americans-and-pacific-islanders-facts-not-fiction.pdf">Asian-Americans benefit from affirmative action policies</a>.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/61899/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Christina Paguyo receives funding from the National Science Foundation and in the past has received funding from the American Educational Research Association. She is a owner and consultant for Data Luminaries, LLC. She is affiliated with the Democratic Party and is a member of the American Educational Research Association, American Evaluation Association, American Society for Engineering Education, and the Association for the Study of Higher Education. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Daryl Maeda and Michele S. Moses do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Here’s why disagreement about affirmative action will not end any time soon. Coming up next is a lawsuit brought by Asian-Americans challenging Harvard’s race-conscious policy.Michele S. Moses, Professor of Educational Foundations, Policy, and Practice, University of Colorado BoulderChristina Paguyo, Post Doctoral Fellow, Colorado State UniversityDaryl Maeda, Associate Professor of Ethnic Studies, University of Colorado BoulderLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/562512016-03-31T10:24:34Z2016-03-31T10:24:34ZWhy the new SAT is a reminder to improve the teaching of writing<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/116668/original/image-20160329-13679-1d2t9zt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Are students learning how to write?</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/crdot/6855538268/in/photolist-brNqFE-db2aKJ-eJKCHJ-kEMZke-mcuR3H-buUjMR-cA3tts-8A6Fn2-8UPwXP-pvGN7k-dxibZr-dUowip-9ycMU8-oHjddW-rELhmW-9rh3Bc-5pfsQc-9aZxLZ-ecY2Ea-dBjE43-dSWdUM-nJvHcJ-aCaWDc-ptx8vs-boAXE1-o2C9tv-dHTXxS-e5Jgq7-dKj95M-awdh7B-bKwtyi-a54Joi-6HMuMf-cZJDAo-9fHRHp-rbLxf-9GQKXS-ecpKNd-81dsiX-oZQdqv-az6RJH-egCeuV-9tp4so-qwKd3g-inZMmu-9gVrcs-a8WANE-kaBCdF-dQUQ1Y-dprBwc">Caleb Roenigk</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The SAT, the test that many schools require to check for college readiness, has recently gone through a makeover. Perhaps the most significant change is to the writing portion of the SAT, which presents students with new and more complex reading and and writing challenges.</p>
<p>College Board, the nonprofit that administers the test, had earlier announced that the essay in the writing section <a href="https://theconversation.com/heres-what-will-change-with-the-new-sat-53319">would be optional</a>. However, many schools in the U.S. require their students to take the writing exam. </p>
<p>Connecticut, New Hampshire and Michigan are examples of such states, where the SAT, including its writing exam, is required, not optional. What’s more, scores from these tests are critical beyond their acceptance and placement in <a href="http://blog.prepscholar.com/which-states-require-the-sat">some colleges</a>. </p>
<p>The SAT serves as the measure of the educational progress for all students in each state that adopts the SAT for that purpose. In such cases, the SAT is more than a bridge between high school and college. SAT has become a “high-stakes” K-12 assessment. In fact, the stakes couldn’t be higher.</p>
<p>But are schools preparing students adequately to take the new SAT?</p>
<p>I have been working for a number of years with K-12 writing teachers in Michigan on designing more effective approaches to learning in writing as part of my research. I believe the new writing test is complex and requires skills that U.S. schools are not teaching students.</p>
<h2>The new SAT</h2>
<p>First, let’s take a look at what’s different about the new writing assessment. </p>
<p>In a break from most standardized writing assessments, the new essay task is not designed to elicit students’ subjective opinions. Rather, <a href="https://collegereadiness.collegeboard.org/pdf/essay-analyzing-a-source.pdf">its aim is to assess</a> whether students are able to comprehend an appropriately challenging source text and craft an effective written analysis of that text. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/116672/original/image-20160329-13715-68s156.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/116672/original/image-20160329-13715-68s156.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=428&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/116672/original/image-20160329-13715-68s156.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=428&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/116672/original/image-20160329-13715-68s156.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=428&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/116672/original/image-20160329-13715-68s156.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=538&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/116672/original/image-20160329-13715-68s156.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=538&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/116672/original/image-20160329-13715-68s156.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=538&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Students need to discuss real-world topics in the revised SAT.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/vancouverfilmschool/6313359946/in/photolist-aBTBXy-egpTjT-8Sxq1K-egvLTC-egq1Ve-egvM6q-5uicmm-oJ7kmM-7seazU-egpTDK-fJcGX9-4xKcjg-egq236-9noruU-p6tU9b-fJcKRj-5JVo1Y-fHVfrz-aBQRrR-r5D2Uu-7TY9pV-9gMELM-fJcL3J-e3rEKs-5SoAnt-egpXTc-g7yxvi-6oZ6fH-raNsz8-63pHfi-g6pVkz-c9xpMY-6ixoAp-egvEfE-dAA9wK-egq1cF-9Ag4Qx-iMeym-egvJYN-g7yExp-StfP-ndHVym-egvLyY-egvKP7-egvMps-nX2F7T-fJcGub-oCxSb2-oCxXsp-oCwdyh">Vancouver Film School</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>For years, the formula for success on high-stakes writing assessments has been to craft a five-paragraph structure: thesis paragraph, three supporting paragraphs and a concluding paragraph. Within that structure, students are more or less free to say anything, and the more creative and engaging that “anything” is, the better. </p>
<p>Les Perelman, the former director of MIT’s Writing Across the Curriculum program, who helped create MIT’s writing placement test, <a href="http://www.slate.com/articles/life/education/2013/10/sat_essay_section_problems_with_grading_instruction_and_prompts.html">summed it up, when he said</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>It doesn’t matter if [what you write] is true or not…In fact, trying to be true will hold you back.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>As Perelman noted, “in relaying personal experiences, students who took time attempting to recall an appropriately relatable circumstance from their lives were at a disadvantage.” </p>
<p>The revised SAT, therefore, is a major shift from “subjective opinion” to an analysis based on a real-world nonfiction persuasive passage. </p>
<p>The table below provides a quick overview of what the revised SAT asks of students. The five paragraph structure is still there, but the intellectual work required of students is vastly different.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/116667/original/image-20160329-13709-edk81u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/116667/original/image-20160329-13709-edk81u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=364&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/116667/original/image-20160329-13709-edk81u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=364&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/116667/original/image-20160329-13709-edk81u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=364&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/116667/original/image-20160329-13709-edk81u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=458&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/116667/original/image-20160329-13709-edk81u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=458&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/116667/original/image-20160329-13709-edk81u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=458&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The revised SAT.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Jeff Grabill</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Students read a nonfiction argument that may be in the form of speeches, opinion editorials or articles that tend not to have simple for or against arguments but convey more nuanced views. Students are expected to marshal evidence about how the author builds a persuasive argument. </p>
<h2>What makes the test challenging?</h2>
<p>The first significant challenge is that the new prompt asks students to read rhetorically. Rhetorical reading is a form of analysis that is different from more literary forms of analysis that are likely taught in schools.</p>
<p>For example, the new SAT prompt asks students to notice how an author achieves a purpose, shapes a text for an audience and organizes information to achieve a goal. Students need to be able to analyze an argument pulled from topics across the disciplines.</p>
<p>For students to be able to do this, teachers need to help students become better rhetorical readers and better writers. This new way of reading and teaching reading must be layered into already overloaded existing curricula.</p>
<p>The second significant challenge, of course, is the writing itself.</p>
<p>In the past, success on “high-stakes” writing tests like the SAT could be achieved by following a highly structured formula. </p>
<p>That will no longer work. Instead, students will be asked to make arguments based on their own analytical reasoning. They will be required to marshal real evidence – not made-up events – drawn from the passage to be analyzed. </p>
<p>And students will be required to do this quickly, within a time frame in which they will already be engaged in more complex reading practices.</p>
<h2>Writing instruction in schools</h2>
<p>The reading and writing required by the new SAT will be new for students and many teachers. Rhetorical reading requires “reading like a writer” and answering questions such as “Why did the author do it this way?” Students will then have to write up that analysis in a way that makes evidence-based arguments.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/116675/original/image-20160329-13718-1vgog83.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/116675/original/image-20160329-13718-1vgog83.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=444&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/116675/original/image-20160329-13718-1vgog83.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=444&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/116675/original/image-20160329-13718-1vgog83.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=444&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/116675/original/image-20160329-13718-1vgog83.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=558&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/116675/original/image-20160329-13718-1vgog83.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=558&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/116675/original/image-20160329-13718-1vgog83.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=558&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">What’s missing in the English writing curriculum?</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/dennissylvesterhurd/2096246853/in/photolist-4cePa8-dM3mG2-fJ3aBq-bwhMGo-dC8qpo-dykeD3-aEWzpW-pX58DW-dYRkt7-agfcea-c1Rfjj-at9De7-iKH4Mt-dKEEZk-cdzU6d-dGkneA-abs5TR-cbHQnL-9j8VZJ-dxDDv5-nBrjcm-odYQkN-cdzUNu-cdzVAU-cdzUzW-d9nPZG-bWdzLx-6pycfv-BKwaAM-e1Wtsq-jyBueq-e4T7sB-9toirA-b4SfXM-cdzVmS-aW1WBT-9Fcg8h-eaD7vp-dZkK9p-fEaNGn-ajYNrc-dJZ4J3-9nnVu3-aESKje-9zpE2k-9iFzfr-buzjtD-onxG37-aESJQr-pAHTHb">Dennis S. Hurd</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Any examination of English Language Arts curriculum in U.S. middle and high schools will reveal a nearly complete focus on literary forms and genres <a href="http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.541.4136&rep=rep1&type=pdf">with relatively little writing</a>. The basic values and focus that give us our “English” curriculum <a href="http://www.siupress.com/(S(jmrnwp2y3nl0armvvzc1aufz))/catalog/productinfo.aspx?id=635&AspxAutoDetectCookieSupport=1">date back to a 19th-century shift</a> <a href="https://books.google.com/books/about/A_Short_History_of_Writing_Instruction.html?id=G9EP_on94CIC">from classical modes of education toward the study of literary texts</a>. It was a shift from Latin and Greek models of discourse, and, most importantly, instruction in speaking and writing, to a shift to literature in English and a focus on reading and analysis.</p>
<p>The curriculum that resulted from these broad changes over time is “English,” and direct instruction in writing has never recovered. The <a href="http://www.nwp.org/cs/public/print/doc/about.csp">National Commission on Writing for America’s Families, Schools, and Colleges</a>, a project to help improve the teaching of writing, argues that writing is the “neglected R” in education. That same report notes that little time is spent on writing instruction – at best less than three hours a week. In a recent survey, 82 percent of teens report that their typical school writing assignment <a href="http://www.collegeboard.com/prod_downloads/prof/community/PIP_Writing_Report_FINAL.pdf">is a paragraph to one page</a> in length.</p>
<p>This evidence is consistent with education researchers <a href="http://www.albany.edu/etap/Arthur_Applebee.php">Arthur Applebee’s</a> and <a href="http://www.albany.edu/etap/Judith_Langer.php">Judith A. Langer’s</a> findings in their <a href="http://store.tcpress.com/0807754366.shtml">comprehensive study of writing instruction</a> across the United States. <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=esRhaTQTTQ4C&pg=PA27&lpg=PA27&dq=langer+Writing+as+a+way+to+study,+learn,+and+go+beyond--+as+a+way+to+construct+knowledge+or+generate+new+networks+of+understandings&source=bl&ots=Iu6Y767ySu&sig=uQtxItFwHtLged3KkTAItUMKADU&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjz75DPlebLAhXNsh4KHVQLCDIQ6AEIJDAC#v=onepage&q=langer%20Writing%20as%20a%20way%20to%20study%2C%20learn%2C%20and%20go%20beyond--%20as%20a%20way%20to%20construct%20knowledge%20or%20generate%20new%20networks%20of%20understandings&f=false">As they say</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>[T]he actual writing that goes on in typical classrooms across the United States remains dominated by tasks in which the teacher does all the composing, and students are left only to fill in missing information, whether copying directly from a teacher’s presentation, completing worksheets and chapter summaries, replicating highly formulaic essay structures keyed to high-stakes tests, or writing to “show they know” the particular information the teacher is seeking. </p>
</blockquote>
<h2>Let’s not teach to the test</h2>
<p>I work with teachers and schools quite anxious about how to respond.
Anxious parents – mostly parents of students who struggle with language or have learning disabilities – have asked me questions about the revised SAT.</p>
<p>Teacher preparation programs have historically provided little to no preparation in teaching writing to new teachers, <a href="http://scholarworks.wmich.edu/wte/vol2/iss1/9/">though this is slowly changing</a>. Surely, good teachers and attentive schools will develop well-designed approaches to the new SAT. But I believe responding to the exam is the wrong approach and misses the point. </p>
<p>What is required is a comprehensive change in how we value writing and writing instruction. If that were to happen, then more complex writing exams would be taken in stride because our approaches to learning in writing would exceed the demands of any high-stakes test.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/56251/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jeff Grabill is a co-founder of Drawbridge Incorporated, an educational technology company. Its product, Eli Review, is a peer learning technology used in environments in which writing is a resource for learning. </span></em></p>The writing part of the new SAT, considered optional, is required by many colleges and universities. What special challenges does it pose? And are schools ready to teach students those writing skills?Jeff Grabill, Associate Provost for Teaching, Learning and Technology, Michigan State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/549992016-03-25T09:41:03Z2016-03-25T09:41:03ZWill the new education law allow for teachers with lower qualifications?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/116399/original/image-20160324-17859-ala8y7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Will the new education law help the most vulnerable kids?</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/gibsonsgolfer/6364640471/in/photolist-aGqrSx-edqwHo-8hae8U-3AhYfz-M6zAX-fgsvSZ-cUT1o-8ha9Y9-7k916-Fpm2F-ah5bwa-3cinC-agCAEK-agCxKa-52xgwn-7k8ZT-4P2Xd1-ePVgFH-8h6Xpc-dvbq3y-a1eKau-3rSJpd-5F3g8e-dXGJDR-agFqW5-dk9RyV-a3xe6j-bTY7RK-aWQtC-8mkPzu-7k951-66sVQy-5JRF37-oWX2LJ-agCAqr-9NR32t-6oZV6B-65n5N6-g5qA1-agCG6H-7htvt-3jZGSN-mLaHU-7k99u-8h6Wvp-fgGnPm-NrkJA-2Dvce-fHoFh-4FiGbH">Bob Cotter</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/">CC BY-NC</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>On December 9, Congress passed the <a href="http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/campaign-k-12/2015/11/esea_reauthorization_the_every.html">reauthorization</a> of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, called the <a href="http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/campaign-k-12/2015/11/esea_reauthorization_the_every.html">Every Child Succeeds Act</a>. A replacement for the <a href="http://www2.ed.gov/nclb/overview/intro/execsumm.html">much criticized</a> <a href="http://www2.ed.gov/nclb/overview/intro/execsumm.html">No Child Left Behind Act of 2001</a>, the reauthorization gained support from groups as diverse as <a href="http://www.publiccharters.org/press/national-alliance-releases-statement-house-passage-student-succeeds-act/">The National Alliance for Public Charter Schools</a>, the <a href="http://www.nea.org/home/64705.htm">National Education Association</a>, the <a href="https://www.pta.org/newsevents/newsdetail.cfm?ItemNumber=4676">National Parent Teacher Association,</a> <a href="https://cdn-files.nsba.org/s3fs-public/reports/120715_NSBA_ESEA_Senate_Ltr.pdf?AWgmJxaOek35vswurnHvRFiSeXL.tzy8">The National School Boards Association</a>, the <a href="http://www.nga.org/cms/home/news-room/news-releases/2015--news-releases/col2-content/nations-governors-endorse-esea.html">National Governors Association</a> and <a href="http://www.fairtest.org/congress-vote-no-child-left-behind-overhaul">Fairtest</a>, an organization that addresses issues related to fairness and accuracy in testing. </p>
<p>With such overwhelming support, it could well be argued that it must be a sound legislation. But, is it?</p>
<p>We have been elementary and secondary school teachers as well as professors and researchers of elementary education, teacher education and teacher development for more than 35 years. And we believe that despite its efforts to redress the problems caused by NCLB, ESSA contains at least one disturbing provision. </p>
<p>We are alarmed by the section of the law that allows states to authorize the establishment of alternative-track teacher education academies, with lower standards and accountabilty for teaching qualifications.</p>
<h2>Teacher academies</h2>
<p>The support for the ESSA has largely come from its reducing much of the heavy-handed federal oversight of education. States and local school districts can now make more decisions about how best to support student learning. </p>
<p>We are happy that the ESSA <a href="http://www.ed.gov/news/press-releases/king-announces-guidance-states-help-reduce-testing">supports less testing</a>. In addition, it emphasizes a “well-rounded education.” <a href="http://www.arteducators.org/advocacy/advocacy-esea-reauthorization">Students will study arts</a> alongside the academic subjects that were favored under No Child Left Behind.</p>
<p>However, our concern is the inclusion in Title II of the ESSA of language which authorizes routes to teacher certification that attempt to fast-track the preparation of teachers for pre-kindergarten through 12th grade positions. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/116429/original/image-20160324-17840-1l8iwpz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/116429/original/image-20160324-17840-1l8iwpz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/116429/original/image-20160324-17840-1l8iwpz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/116429/original/image-20160324-17840-1l8iwpz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/116429/original/image-20160324-17840-1l8iwpz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/116429/original/image-20160324-17840-1l8iwpz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/116429/original/image-20160324-17840-1l8iwpz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The ESSA will reduce testing. But what about teacher certification?</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/albertogp123/5843577306/in/photolist-9UnRWS-fVKsw-aDhmtY-oJBHAS-dADXAU-oN12Lt-hFhsUk-niaHHt-8bZwYd-beBA2e-5gmRgy-8bVZpF-8bZiqC-8bZieb-kiPm9T-6kv8oX-fQNLfa-cDphCL-4KgiQw-b2fiNB-9NXZsk-ctAYKo-5JsjGp-9NYaL8-5qbe5L-nHok3V-9P1XH5-qbyPUU-8bWduk-9P1ZyQ-7RiX8C-kxeLJR-KQKNj-7RiWXw-peSg9Z-7zibzw-qtTg17-raPXsA-ij1N68-hFgdyF-dq2888-9P1C7u-9LjLS2-r94UqV-8bZiz3-9P1QTS-s2NAXY-9P1GdU-9P1QBW-9P1APG">Alberto G.</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Nationwide, in order for graduates of teacher education programs based in colleges and universities to gain state certification as a teacher, the <a href="http://teach.com/where">programs must follow state requirements</a> such as required entrance and exit exams and the number of credit hours in specific subjects such as reading, math and special education. </p>
<p>In the new ESSA legislation, the envisioned fast-track academies will be exempt from states’ teacher certification requirements. </p>
<p>In other words, they do not have <a href="https://aacte.org/news-room/press-releases-statements/504-aacte-commends-congress-on-esea-reauthorization-urges-responsible-implementation">to meet the standards for accountability</a> and accreditation required of university-based teacher education programs. </p>
<p><a href="https://education.uw.edu/people/faculty/kenzeich">Kenneth Zeichner</a>, a professor of teacher education at the University of Washington at Seattle, has described this as <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/answer-sheet/wp/2015/12/05/the-disturbing-provisions-about-teacher-preparation-in-no-child-left-behind-rewrite/">“promoting the growth of entrepreneurial teacher education programs.”</a></p>
<p>As Zeichner and another education researcher, <a href="https://www.tcrecord.org/AuthorDisplay.asp?aid=22645">César Peña-Sandoval</a>, note, while most of the new ventures in public education, including already <a href="http://auslchicago.org/">existing</a> <a href="http://www.relay.edu/">alternative certification programs</a>, are nonprofits, <a href="http://www.tcrecord.org/Content.asp?ContentId=17539">they gain serious tax advantages</a> from their public status. Such programs receive public funding, and <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/private-equity-and-venture-capital-look-at-public-schools-2012-8">contract out services to for-profit providers</a>, which in many cases are associated with the financial backers of the venture. </p>
<p>Indeed, with the market size of American public education at nearly US$800 billion and legislation friendly to private investment in public education increasing, education is <a href="http://www.thenation.com/article/venture-capitalists-are-poised-disrupt-everything-about-education-market/">the new great field for entrepreneurial profit</a>. </p>
<h2>Teachers without adequate qualifications?</h2>
<p>We find it troubling that the legislation allows states to use federal funding for the creation of academies and stipulates that its graduates will be recognized with the same state-issued certification as those who have completed a university-based teacher education program. </p>
<p>States may choose – but are not required – to use up to 2 percent of their <a href="http://www.ccsso.org/Documents/2016/ESSA/CCSSOComparisonofSelectElementsofESEA12142015.pdf">education budget to support the academies.</a></p>
<p><a href="https://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/114/s1177/text">But then, the legislation limits state oversight as well.</a> For example, states will not be allowed to require those teaching at the academies to have experience, degrees or training in education, to hold advanced degrees or to conduct academic research. </p>
<p>This leaves the door open for academies to hire faculty that suit their religious, moral or philosophical values. Or for supporting profit-making ventures, which include promoting the use of commercially manufactured curriculum materials, <a href="http://www.brookings.edu/%7E/media/research/files/reports/2012/4/10%20curriculum%20chingos%20whitehurst/0410_curriculum_chingos_whitehurst.pdf">which may not support student learning</a> as compared to research-based methods. </p>
<p>What’s more, the academies are not required to obtain accreditation.</p>
<p>And what this means is that state departments of education, which hold credentialing authority for teachers, will not be able to mandate that the academies require a specific number of courses or types of coursework such as courses on the teaching of reading or mathematics. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/116430/original/image-20160324-17817-1xenqji.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/116430/original/image-20160324-17817-1xenqji.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/116430/original/image-20160324-17817-1xenqji.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/116430/original/image-20160324-17817-1xenqji.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/116430/original/image-20160324-17817-1xenqji.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/116430/original/image-20160324-17817-1xenqji.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/116430/original/image-20160324-17817-1xenqji.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The new law will dilute standards for teacher certification.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/cityyear/6129766021/in/photolist-akEDT4-hsXvCX-8yArnp-9cXazR-aCncwM-akHrUN-8yAs28-akHtfm-65n5M8-bxUJ7K-N345a-akEDwc-akHs6E-5PvH34-6EkJRr-rmjgBg-89FwtD-9fyC1h-6MyJDn-3E8RNs-7Hy9g3-dRdSMd-93uqz-9tBFCn-p14HCx-e3qNSv-PdVS-7AahV9-5mVY9F-7muXqt-9BVnBh-9zaAoi-9GDUMs-gBY2gb-bX1sBF-nNvCHT-n8qYXx-arjs94-5sKKaE-4iWh2R-9qtHgw-aMGWEv-nZ4KHz-o7d7Gj-EpPeSQ-2qeM4M-94fDet-d14wbN-frpVnM-975JzC">City Year</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Additionally, the academies do not have to have physical infrastructure, paving the way for entirely on-line teacher preparation programs. </p>
<p>Once someone graduates from an academy, according to the legislation, the certificate may be treated as the equivalent of a master’s degree in education for the purposes of hiring, compensation, retention and promotion. <a href="https://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/114/s1177/text">Here</a> is what the act says.</p>
<h2>Back to testing?</h2>
<p>So why do we find the elimination of standards for teacher education in the ESSA so troubling? </p>
<p>We have two major concerns.</p>
<p>The first is the assumption in the new ESSA that if the teacher knows enough to pass a state-designated content exam in, for example, social studies, science, literature or math, then that teacher is prepared to teach the content. An understanding of how to teach and what is learned beyond testable content is ignored. </p>
<p>Content exams suggest that teacher candidates have the minimum level of knowledge to teach. Passing these tests, which is required in most states, is intended primarily to signal that candidates have a minimum level of knowledge and competency, but <a href="http://aer.sagepub.com/content/46/1/146.short">does not predict their future effectiveness</a> in the classroom in teaching that content. </p>
<p>Teacher education programs therefore include a strong emphasis on developing pedagogic knowledge and a research-based understanding of student learning. </p>
<p>Pedagogical knowledge – how students learn or fail to learn and how that understanding must be incorporated in approaches to teaching – <a href="http://www.jstor.org/stable/1167272?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents">is well established</a>.</p>
<p>It involves not only student learning of subject matter, but teaching in ways that support students to develop confidence in their own capacities to ask and answer questions in the world, as well as to <a href="http://www.jstor.org/stable/1167272?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents">to think and engage actively, creatively and critically</a>. </p>
<p>However, such pedagogical knowledge is not required for graduates of alternative academies.</p>
<p>By way of “quality control,” the legislation does require that the teacher candidate demonstrates that she or he is effective at boosting student achievement. The candidates must be placed in classrooms as teachers prior to the completion of their program. This does not require <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/answer-sheet/wp/2015/12/05/the-disturbing-provisions-about-teacher-preparation-in-no-child-left-behind-rewrite/">notification to parents of the teacher’s status</a>. </p>
<p>What it may mean to boost student achievement is not specified in the law.</p>
<p>Our second concern is that raising student test scores will be the primary metric of this assessment. </p>
<p>If testing remains, as it has been under No Child Left Behind and Race to the Top, the primary measure of a quality education, then once again it is the students, their families, communities and ultimately the nation that will be saddled with the fallout of a narrow and alienating curriculum.</p>
<h2>Who will be affected?</h2>
<p>We are also deeply troubled by the prospect that if virtually unregulated teacher certification academies with little academic quality control are allowed to proliferate, the employers of their graduates will be either charter schools, many operating in high-poverty communities, or traditional public schools that lack the resources to be selective and competitive in hiring the best-qualified teachers. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/116426/original/image-20160324-17859-19qwauh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/116426/original/image-20160324-17859-19qwauh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/116426/original/image-20160324-17859-19qwauh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/116426/original/image-20160324-17859-19qwauh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/116426/original/image-20160324-17859-19qwauh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/116426/original/image-20160324-17859-19qwauh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/116426/original/image-20160324-17859-19qwauh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The most vulnerable kids will be the ones most affected.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/departmentofed/9607323677/in/photolist-fCY3BF-9LTPbH-4eYFPY-b9wjYa-tRiKJ-qsdECK-nqrzAr-rKHjzu-dNpu5F-ddVJVs-EkKh5B-eLRoYK-pwHVu7-6pCMmY-6pCMa3-e6kGCa-6pCsff-pUGAhs-dtiHQs-dtihzL-EkKtfx-py7KjS-6dQ3Uk-qPVceP-b9wYDz-ejzKFQ-pcdJvz-s5Ct1X-6pCXV9-9cjSUX-npg6mN-r94Ape-rtQh5Q-8SiKDg-5fsoht-gc1F4t-cXJdEo-hx3G6s-4TQRjV-6pCXAb-b9wX5k-eVanCr-7mRtFW-dz27Mg-eLUYBv-dYzi6Y-b9wkkk-5UU9Le-dUo3ju-dtid33">US Department of Education</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The law itself describes its intention to prepare teachers to work in “high-needs” areas, which include both communities and subject or specialization areas experiencing teacher shortages. </p>
<p>High-poverty urban and rural schools are <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/how-can-students-learn-without-teachers-high-poverty-schools-often-staffed-by-rotating-cast-of-substitutes/2015/12/04/be41579a-92c6-11e5-b5e4-279b4501e8a6_story.html">far more likely to be subject to teacher shortages</a> than schools serving a wealthier population. These high-need schools are also most likely to be staffed by the <a href="http://people.terry.uga.edu/mustard/courses/e8420/Clotfelter-Teachers.pdf">less experienced, least effective teachers</a>.</p>
<p>Once again, as often happens under the privately managed charter school model, <a href="http://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ846746">underprepared teachers</a> will end up in the poorest and neediest schools, thereby exacerbating the problem of inequitable educational outcomes for children living in poverty. Studies have shown that the <a href="http://www.brookings.edu/research/articles/1998/03/spring-education-darling-hammond">student achievement gap widens</a> <a href="http://people.terry.uga.edu/mustard/courses/e8420/Clotfelter-Teachers.pdf">when teacher qualifications are unequally allocated</a> to students by race, income and location. </p>
<p>We believe that the provisions in the new law that have the potential to undermine teacher quality can and should be scrutinized before states begin their implementation. States do not have to elect to support these academies. </p>
<p>The American public can and should demand that our schools serve the civic good and the well-being of children and their communities by staffing schools with well-qualified teachers who are prepared to support all children as active, creative and critical thinkers.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/54999/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The ESSA, or the Every Child Succeeds Act, was considered to be a welcome replacement of the No Child Left Behind law. However, scholars point to some disturbing provisions in the new law.Gail L. Boldt, Professor of Education, Penn StateBernard J. Badiali, Associate Professor of Education, Penn StateLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/564842016-03-24T10:07:06Z2016-03-24T10:07:06ZThe Common Core explained<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/116248/original/image-20160323-28206-r4te0d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">What's the fuss about?</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/ari/9327636935/in/photolist-fdfzut-9cAuPJ-qxpofu-dJLVuJ-a9tYx-hw47eq-9HWt7-8ySdo9-zocEU-dF8HCa-9U75cV-oLLkkC-7CEytA-qM8hvw-bDu5zu-fdvdkS-fdv18C-k1UHwL-6RMvt-CUpjFF-DUHSpH-r3Rudf-h8oTcj-rdkwxH-BLo9sL-9NC5eF-ccYDPb-7XzqeY-ruFRRE-qM3en6-dTyX24-C3XJEc-rddRJJ-rsuERG-bftngV-fU9DQy-5KLZVv-9hzUHh-qJS4Gb-61GbU3-pQhgT3-ruF5Nc-fdfecn-8MPpEm-pRHiNE-quFNQL-qxZRgB-h8pkyB-3bpJEt-9hgKCU">Steve Rhodes</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Beginning in 2010, mathematics and English language arts standards, called the Common Core State Standards, were adopted in 45 of 50 U.S. states. </p>
<p>The Common Core Standards represent a substantial change from what was in place before. They are not just national (nearly) in scope, but also their content differs <a href="http://doi.org/10.3102/0013189X11405038">considerably</a> from prior state standards.</p>
<p>Initially, this change was welcomed by a <a href="http://educationnext.org/the-2013-education-next-survey/">majority</a> of the public. But more recent polls show a growing <a href="http://educationnext.org/2015-ednext-poll-school-reform-opt-out-common-core-unions/">opposition</a> to the standards. This opposition has been joined by several conservative groups and, more recently, by Republican presidential candidates.</p>
<p>More recent polls indicate that a large percentage of Americans still know <a href="http://edexcellence.net/articles/what-do-americans-really-think-about-education">very little</a> about Common Core standards. And quite alarmingly, often what they know is incorrect. </p>
<p>We are researchers leading a research initiative – <a href="http://c-sail.org/">Center on Standards, Alignment, Instruction, and Learning (C-SAIL)</a> – that has been studying the implementation and effects of these and other new standards adopted across the U.S. </p>
<p>Here is what you need to know about the Common Core.</p>
<h2>Why Common Core? And why the worry?</h2>
<p>Historically, the education system in the United States has been remarkably decentralized. Educational governance and funding have primarily been a <a href="http://www2.ed.gov/about/overview/fed/10facts/index.html?exp">state and local issue</a>, with about 90 percent of the funds and the vast majority of the policies coming from these levels.</p>
<p>Unlike many other countries, the U.S. does not have national content standards (documents indicating what students are supposed to know and be able to do at particular grade levels). </p>
<p>While there have been <a href="https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/why-national-standards-and-tests/book5237">numerous efforts</a> to develop a national curriculum, these have repeatedly failed due to political backlash. </p>
<p>Recognizing the failure of previous efforts, several groups came together in 2008-2010, funded by private philanthropies, to develop common standards that could be used across states. </p>
<p>They were motivated by a number of <a href="http://www.corestandards.org/about-the-standards/development-process/">arguments</a>. For example, the standards’ developers argued that teachers and schools would benefit because national standards are more efficient (in that educators can share resources across states) than state-specific standards. Others argued that common standards would benefit a highly mobile population where students often move across states.</p>
<p>As the standards have been adopted and implemented, however, opposition has arisen. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/116234/original/image-20160323-28182-hc2jky.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/116234/original/image-20160323-28182-hc2jky.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/116234/original/image-20160323-28182-hc2jky.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/116234/original/image-20160323-28182-hc2jky.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/116234/original/image-20160323-28182-hc2jky.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/116234/original/image-20160323-28182-hc2jky.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/116234/original/image-20160323-28182-hc2jky.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">What makes the Common Core so contentious?</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/ari/9327566591/in/photolist-fdfdzD-rdd6Tq-7E1AG5-am7ALL-p6vsyj-72LMn6-aiJCVE-pRHfKL-qw8srk-bs1bK7-9gv5sp-7NVd6E-8NmQen-qtpAZN-8DkkKh-fdv4bG-q8gEnX-qeYpAM-oJyJiq-pQvhrv-qsEWbu-rg2eQy-nbuP4Z-8UrK7s-bsGWaz-7vWwVX-7mgZn-bs19Y7-drSNdn-dfnMYL-5gBg9w-5sidGk-9NGcbW-awsNXz-6tSEB7-8wRhyR-qHV4e8-b5MUdM-qH5TDH-gnGoVD-quGZo6-8UoFak-8sqZph-gnEKpi-dS4civ-fdfMex-jiGXZd-9M9fjs-cRwyR3-7CAJf4">Steve Rhodes</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Perhaps the biggest Common Core controversy has to do with a perceived federal role in the adoption of these standards. Conservative groups in particular have voiced this objection. <a href="https://ballotpedia.org/2016_presidential_candidates_on_education">Most</a> Republican presidential candidates have opposed the standards due to this reason. </p>
<p>It is important to note that the Common Core standards were <a href="http://www.corestandards.org/about-the-standards/development-process/">not</a> developed by the federal government, nor were states required to adopt them.</p>
<p>It is true, however, that President Obama’s administration did encourage states to adopt the standards when it created a program called <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/issues/education/k-12/race-to-the-top">Race to the Top</a> that offered states extra funding in exchange for developing education reform agendas and policies. </p>
<p>In particular, states received more points in the scoring of their grant applications if they had adopted Common Core. </p>
<p>It is <a href="http://doi.org/10.1086/679389">not clear</a> how many states would have adopted the standards without this incentive.</p>
<h2>Testing students, curriculum</h2>
<p>Another major controversy has to do with the new standardized tests that states have adopted to measure student mastery of the Common Core standards. </p>
<p>Prior to Common Core, each state had its own state-specific assessments in each subject under the federal No Child Left Behind <a href="http://www2.ed.gov/nclb/landing.jhtml">law</a>. State assessments were also viewed by many as low-quality and <a href="http://doi.org/10.3102/0002831211410684">poorly aligned</a> with state standards.</p>
<p>After the adoption of Common Core, two testing consortia were funded by the federal government – <a href="http://parcc.pearson.com/">Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC)</a> and <a href="http://www.smarterbalanced.org/">Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium</a>. Almost all Common Core states joined one of the consortia, but over time the number of states involved in the consortia has <a href="http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/curriculum/2014/06/the_portion_of_students_not.html">decreased</a> as states have decided instead to create their own tests.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/116241/original/image-20160323-28192-1jflyck.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/116241/original/image-20160323-28192-1jflyck.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/116241/original/image-20160323-28192-1jflyck.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/116241/original/image-20160323-28192-1jflyck.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/116241/original/image-20160323-28192-1jflyck.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/116241/original/image-20160323-28192-1jflyck.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/116241/original/image-20160323-28192-1jflyck.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Protests against testing.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/bobbosphere/13073044533/in/photolist-kVdLFx-kVdCvp-kVd4pr-kVd6wx-kVdzCk-kVdKG8-kVeKBN-kVeJUA-kVdD74-kVdx6B-kVdzha-kVeLM3-kVeC5o-kVd7ca-kVdyHz-kVcWfr-kVd7xv-kVezSh-kHz38B-fGCgk-u5Zx-dAFdkk-kEJtvT-6x8Xrt-kVdE9V-kVeCXL-kVdBHH-kHAB9A-bfTv8i-ectTpp-eczqUh-ectP9B-ectQWX-ecztYm-ectKXX-eczs83-eczq5j-eczrWb-eczwS3-bAgvF7-ecu19e-eczzx9-ectKLv-eczv43-ectM7D-eczvVu-eczsW1-eczxTG-ectNTr-ectPXB">Bob Simpson</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/">CC BY-NC-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>These tests have also been criticized by the <a href="http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/teacherbeat/2014/07/common-core_resolution_calls_f.html">teachers’ unions</a> and <a href="http://fairtest.org/common-core-assessments-factsheet">anti-test groups</a> who say the tests are too long and too challenging.</p>
<p>While the new consortium tests are indeed somewhat longer than other assessments, and while the level of difficulty is higher, <a href="https://www.humrro.org/corpsite/sites/default/files/HQAP_HumRRO_High_School_Study_Final%20Report.pdf">recent</a> <a href="http://edexcellence.net/publications/evaluating-the-content-and-quality-of-next-generation-assessments">reviews</a> suggest these tests are indeed high-quality. These new tests measure the content in the Common Core standards better than the state tests they have replaced. </p>
<p>Finally, the standards have been criticized for some substantive reasons as well.</p>
<p>For instance, some have objected to examples of “<a href="http://www.vox.com/2015/4/9/8376937/common-core-math-why">Common Core mathematics</a>” that use methods different from traditional algorithms. Common Core standards differ from the traditional algorithm that most U.S. adults learned. For instance, most U.S. adults learned only one way to multiply – as shown <a href="https://www.everydaymathonline.com/pdf/teacher/algorithms_in_everyday_mathematics/4/multiplication/us_traditional_multiplication_standard/print_resources/algorithms_handbook/Teacher_Resources/Examples_Using_Whole_Numbers_pp_48-49.pdf">here</a>, but Common Core suggests alternative approaches. </p>
<p>These concerns generally neglect to note that the standards call for students to master both traditional algorithms and more conceptual approaches to mathematics. </p>
<p>Others have criticized the <a href="https://deyproject.org/2015/01/13/our-new-report-reading-instruction-in-kindergarten-little-to-gain-and-much-to-lose/">expectation</a> in the Common Core that kindergarteners be able to read. Proponents <a href="http://edexcellence.net/articles/is-common-core-too-hard-for-kindergarten">note</a> that standards are, by definition, merely goals, and that of course no kindergartner is required to learn reading if (s)he is not ready.</p>
<p>And finally, some object to the expectation that the majority of high school texts be <a href="http://www.heritage.org/research/reports/2012/12/questionable-quality-of-the-common-core-english-language-arts-standards">informational</a> (i.e., nonfiction), rather than literary. </p>
<p>However, the fact is this expectation applies to reading materials across all subjects, not just English language arts.</p>
<h2>What are states doing?</h2>
<p>While opposition to the standards has grown, the degree of opposition varies considerably from state to state.</p>
<p>In <a href="https://www.siena.edu/assets/files/news/SNY_October_2015_Poll_Release_--_FINAL.pdf">New York</a>, for instance, protests have been strong, with controversies about testing and teacher evaluation; whereas in <a href="http://edpolicyinca.org/projects/poll-california-voters-have-mixed-views-common-core-standards">California</a>, where implementation has been slower and there has been little accountability, opposition is weaker. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/116239/original/image-20160323-28192-1lupmym.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/116239/original/image-20160323-28192-1lupmym.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/116239/original/image-20160323-28192-1lupmym.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/116239/original/image-20160323-28192-1lupmym.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/116239/original/image-20160323-28192-1lupmym.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/116239/original/image-20160323-28192-1lupmym.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/116239/original/image-20160323-28192-1lupmym.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Parents protest against Common Core in California.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/ari/9330365114/in/photolist-fduyu3-bkbBWZ-qJrgJ1-r1Bwi1-bkbBLk-qHC2Se-q41oe3-qLf5ue-q3qdN6-8yJgxE-yB7LQc-q6SVJp-xWyTEw-ySAP9C-yB2LY7-yTCAxZ-yTyJWa-xWABrL-ySCTYd-yTBaCk-yB7vHD-yB1TEY-yB2u8o-xWwDWd-xWApos-yAYRVh-yTCT5X-ySCz6y-yB7wmT-yB2yEu-xWKotT-yRhrZu-xWJUrR-yUpPRD-yUo9Dc-xWJbb8-ySCEjj-yB6C4M-fduAvW-fduCCG-qZu1Gn-q3cCch-fdfNaZ-fdfBHv-q77JYj-fdfGAz-fdfVxZ-fduFtA-fdvaqC-fdfmac">Steve Rhodes</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Because of growing opposition, Indiana, South Carolina and Oklahoma have <a href="http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2015/04/22/traction-limited-in-rolling-back-common-core.html">repealed</a> the standards and others have renamed or tweaked them. </p>
<p>In states that have either repealed or tweaked the standards, it is too soon to tell how similar or different the new standards are – that would require carefully and systematically analyzing the new and the old standards.</p>
<p>Despite the growing opposition, however, implementation of the Common Core standards <a href="http://www.edweek.org/ew/section/multimedia/map-states-academic-standards-common-core-or.html">continues</a> in over 40 states. That is, the original Common Core standards remain the state standards of record in more than 40 states.</p>
<h2>Implementation</h2>
<p>What varies in these 40-plus states is the pace of implementation. Some states claim to have fully implemented the standards, including adopting new curriculum materials and administering new assessments, as early as 2012-13. Other states are just fully implementing the standards now. As a result, it is likely too early to see any effects of the standards on student achievement.</p>
<p>Still, researchers have found that a large number of teachers and administrators are <a href="http://www.cep-dc.org/displayDocument.cfm?DocumentID=441">receiving professional training</a> on the new standards. And this might already be having an effect on instruction.</p>
<p>For instance, one <a href="http://cepr.harvard.edu/news/harvard-center-releases-report-first-full-year-common-core-implementation">study</a> found that more than 80 percent of English teachers had increased the number of writing assignments where students are expected to use evidence to support their arguments (a hallmark of writing under the Common Core). </p>
<p>In general, educators remain <a href="http://cepr.harvard.edu/news/harvard-center-releases-report-first-full-year-common-core-implementation">enthusiastic</a> about the standards and their ability to improve outcomes for children.</p>
<p>Certainly there are implementation challenges – some of these are political, and others are more substantive. For example, this same study reports that teachers are challenged to identify quality materials to help them implement the standards. </p>
<p>The truth is, whatever happens in the presidential elections, these standards are likely to remain in place for quite some time. We hope that our work will help build support to improve that implementation moving forward.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/56484/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Morgan Polikoff receives funding from the Institute of Education Sciences, U.S. Department of Education, through Grant R305C150007 to the University of Pennsylvania, Graduate School of Education. The opinions expressed are those of the authors and do not represent views of the Institute or the U.S. Department of Education.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>I receive funding from the Institute of Education Sciences, US Department of Education, through grant R305C150007 to the University of Pennsylvania, Graduate School of Education. Funding began July 1, 2015 and runs for five years in a total amount of $10 million. The opinions expressed are those of the authors and do not represent views of the Institute or the US Department of Education. I don't have any other relevant affiliations that should be disclosed</span></em></p>Polls indicate that a large percentage of Americans know very little about Common Core, the standards for teaching math and English language arts. Here are some Common Core facts.Morgan Polikoff, Assistant Professor of Education, University of Southern CaliforniaAndy Porter, Professor of Education, University of PennsylvaniaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/549922016-03-01T11:20:46Z2016-03-01T11:20:46ZHere’s how the method of testing can change student scores<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/113274/original/image-20160229-4096-1utqgcx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">What's the best tool for taking tests?</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/fordschool/24235662425/in/photolist-CVC75H-AZ1oTe-Ctv4Mb-daz5uW-dayrRm-dayqJB-dayvBo-dayqxB-daz8U5-dayoz4-daz69k-daz6pY-daz3iT-daz7HX-daz7jT-daypZ1-daz7Ux-dayq9Q-daza7G-daz6kD-daysUb-daz9hJ-daz8pz-dayvNW-daz9nw-daz83h-daz9uU-daypZg-daysvx-dayu4U-dayprn-daytED-daz8yx-daz8sS-dayspP-daytDN-daysaV-dayvaW-daxM5d-daz9rC-daz7uY-daz4WB-days2C-dayqS5-daz59c-dayqq3-daz7ab-daz8Bm-daz4mB-dazavj">Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy, University of Michigan</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Students who recently took the <a href="http://www.parcconline.org/">Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC)</a> <a href="http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2016/02/03/parcc-scores-lower-on-computer.html">scored lower</a> when they took the test on a computer than when they used paper and pencil. </p>
<p>This might not matter much if the results of these tests played a minimal role. But they do not. Test scores are used for accountability purposes at the federal, state and local level. In some states, test scores play a role in student graduation and the evaluation of teachers and principals. </p>
<p>The question is, does the method of test taking actually influence test results? </p>
<p>I have been researching factors that influence test performance when students write essays. Such essays are written with paper or pencil or on a computer. Based on <a href="https://www.carnegie.org/media/filer_public/37/b8/37b87202-7138-4ff9-90c0-cd6c6f2335bf/ccny_report_2011_informing.pdf">research</a> that I coauthored in 2011, the answer to this question is yes. But there are several caveats.</p>
<p>In contrast to the findings from the PARCC test, we found that students writing on a computer scored higher than students writing with paper and pencil. This finding did not apply to all students, though. Students with little experience using a computer to write had higher scores when writing by hand.</p>
<h2>Computer versus pencil-and-paper tests</h2>
<p>In the last five years, two partnerships of U.S. states funded by the federal program <a href="https://www2.ed.gov/programs/racetothetop-assessment/reports/parcc-year-2.pdf">Race to the Top</a> were tasked with developing assessments for determining if students were on track or ready for college and the world of work. </p>
<p>The consortia <a href="http://www2.ed.gov/programs/racetothetop-assessment/awards.html">developed</a> computer-based assessments that, among other things, would make scoring easier, sharing results faster and conducting assessments cheaper. Many, but not all states, agreed to use these tests to assess students’ academic progress in multiple grades across the school years.</p>
<p>For tests developed by one of the consortia, <a href="http://www.parcconline.org/">Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC)</a>, students <a href="http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2016/02/03/parcc-scores-lower-on-computer.html">obtained higher scores</a> in English/language arts on the paper pencil version versus the computer one. </p>
<p>By contrast, I obtained very different results in my review of seven scientific studies of factors that influence test results. Students’ writing performance on computer assessments was <a href="https://www.carnegie.org/media/filer_public/37/b8/37b87202-7138-4ff9-90c0-cd6c6f2335bf/ccny_report_2011_informing.pdf">21 percentile points higher</a> when compared to students who wrote via paper and pencil. </p>
<p>But then, <a href="https://www.carnegie.org/media/filer_public/3c/f5/3cf58727-34f4-4140-a014-723a00ac56f7/ccny_report_2007_writing.pdf">another review</a> I conducted of 18 scientific studies found the same 21 percentile advantage for writing when students used computer for writing in the classroom.</p>
<h2>Computer-based assessments</h2>
<p>So why are there differences between PARCC tests results and the finding from scientific studies I reviewed? A likely explanation involves students’ experience with the method of testing.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/113275/original/image-20160229-4110-1g7xiwq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/113275/original/image-20160229-4110-1g7xiwq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=402&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/113275/original/image-20160229-4110-1g7xiwq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=402&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/113275/original/image-20160229-4110-1g7xiwq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=402&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/113275/original/image-20160229-4110-1g7xiwq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=505&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/113275/original/image-20160229-4110-1g7xiwq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=505&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/113275/original/image-20160229-4110-1g7xiwq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=505&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Computers can underestimate writing achievements.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/21218849@N03/7984586335/in/photolist-daz6kD-daysUb-daz9hJ-daz8pz-dayvNW-daz9nw-daz83h-daz9uU-daypZg-daysvx-dayu4U-dayprn-daytED-daz8yx-daz8sS-dayspP-daytDN-daysaV-dayvaW-daxM5d-daz9rC-daz7uY-daz4WB-days2C-dayqS5-daz59c-dayqq3-daz7ab-daz8Bm-daz4mB-dazavj-daz9Yq-daz93Y-daz846-daz9Pj-dayuV7-dayt9Q-daz5iY-dayrjN-dayqKj-dayv27-dayqYL-daz6sg-daz42p-dayo92-dayuCh-daz4fx-daynXB-dayrB7-days1B">Samuel Mann</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><a href="https://www.carnegie.org/media/filer_public/37/b8/37b87202-7138-4ff9-90c0-cd6c6f2335bf/ccny_report_2011_informing.pdf">My review of four scientific studies</a> showed that students with little experience using computers as an assessment tool scored 18 percentile points lower than when they composed their essays using paper and pencil.</p>
<p>In other words, a student’s mastery of the method of testing matters. For students with little experience, computer assessments underestimate their writing achievement.</p>
<p>To get a sense of how method of testing can influence writing performance, imagine you are asked to write something for a test using a <a href="http://www.wired.com/2009/02/how-it-works-ch/">Chinese typewriter</a>. This is a very complex writing tool designed to create 6,000 characters. Top typing speeds are 11 characters per minute. </p>
<p>Even if you reach this benchmark, you will have no hope of typing fast enough to get all your thoughts down on paper before some of your ideas slip from memory. If you are not proficient with this typewriter, then the problem is even worse. As you hunt for the next character, your memory is taxed even further, resulting in even more ideas being lost. </p>
<p>As this example illustrates the method of testing can interfere with a students’ performance. If a student is not adequately familiar with the testing tool or it is cumbersome to use, time and energy most be devoted to using it. </p>
<p>This is time and energy that can profitably be devoted to answering test questions. </p>
<h2>Pencil-and-paper assessments</h2>
<p>These kinds of problems are not limited to tests taken on a typewriter or computer, they can occur for paper-and-pencil tests too. </p>
<p>Students handwriting is not always fast enough for them to record all of their ideas before some of them slip from memory. This is a problem even for college students. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/233140483_">In a study</a> with University of London undergraduates, handwriting fluency accounted for 40 percent of the variance in their scores on a timed-essay writing test.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/113276/original/image-20160229-4076-1mckjm8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/113276/original/image-20160229-4076-1mckjm8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/113276/original/image-20160229-4076-1mckjm8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/113276/original/image-20160229-4076-1mckjm8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/113276/original/image-20160229-4076-1mckjm8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/113276/original/image-20160229-4076-1mckjm8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/113276/original/image-20160229-4076-1mckjm8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Legibility of response can influence results on a pen-and-paper test.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/dennissylvesterhurd/4173660840/in/photolist-7mP6XE-e4hhNr-hynumR-hykPXa-hynwXx-azAmBU-isqBd1-bzUTpb-bzUTbw-CL5b6y-CVC75H-AZ1oTe-Ctv4Mb-DBXv-UiQr-daz5uW-dayrRm-dayqJB-dayvBo-dayqxB-DBWu-DBWy-daz8U5-dayoz4-daz69k-daz6pY-daz3iT-daz7HX-daz7jT-daypZ1-daz7Ux-dayq9Q-daza7G-daz6kD-daysUb-daz9hJ-daz8pz-dayvNW-daz9nw-daz83h-daz9uU-daypZg-daysvx-dayu4U-dayprn-daytED-daz8yx-daz8sS-dayspP-daytDN">Dennis S. Hurd</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>With paper-and-pencil tests, there is an additional complicating factor. Scores on handwritten tests can be influenced by the legibility of the response. Test responses that are less legible <a href="https://www.carnegie.org/media/filer_public/37/b8/37b87202-7138-4ff9-90c0-cd6c6f2335bf/ccny_report_2011_informing.pdf">can drop</a> scores by 35 percentile points compared to the same response that is written neatly and legibly. </p>
<p>Making the matter even more complicated, a typed paper is scored more harshly than the same handwritten paper. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.carnegie.org/media/filer_public/37/b8/37b87202-7138-4ff9-90c0-cd6c6f2335bf/ccny_report_2011_informing.pdf">In a review</a> of five scientific studies, I found that the score for a typed version of a handwritten text dropped by 18 percentile points. According to teachers involved in these studies, spelling and grammar errors were more visible in typed versus the handwritten version of the same paper. </p>
<p>So, method of testing makes a difference in the following ways: if students are not adept at taking a test on a computer, they score higher on the same paper-and-pencil test. If they are adept with a computer, they score higher on the computer test. Students performance is further moderated by handwriting fluency and legibility on paper-and-pencil tests and the number of spelling and grammar errors on computer tests. </p>
<h2>Why use digital tools</h2>
<p>What testing methods should schools use? Should computer-based assessments be abandoned, in view of recent PARCC results?</p>
<p>In the best of all possible worlds, students should be allowed to use the method of testing they are most proficient with when taking tests. However, this is unlikely to happen as it adds another level of complexity and costs to test taking. So, one alternative for groups like PARCC is to <a href="https://www.ets.org/Media/Research/pdf/LIVINGSTON.pdf">statistically adjust scores</a> to reflect the differences between test taking modes. </p>
<p>Abandoning computer-based tests would be a mistake. These assessments have the potential to move schools from 19th-century writing tools to 21st-century tools. </p>
<p>As high-stakes assessments go increasingly digital, schools will make word processing and other digital composing tools a common staple. Studies have shown that students who use such tools over time <a href="https://www.carnegie.org/media/filer_public/3c/f5/3cf58727-34f4-4140-a014-723a00ac56f7/ccny_report_2007_writing.pdf">become better writers</a> than those who continue to write with paper and pencil. </p>
<p>At the end of the day, testing must produce something positive. Better writing tools in the classroom would be a step in the right direction.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/54992/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Steve Graham received funding in the past from the Carnegie Corporation of New York to conduct reviews examining effective writing instruction and assessment. </span></em></p>Do students get better scores on a pen and paper test or on a computer-based test? It all depends on the student’s mastery of the method.Steve Graham, Professor of Leadership and Innovation, Arizona State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/533192016-02-01T11:07:45Z2016-02-01T11:07:45ZHere’s what will change with the new SAT<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/109714/original/image-20160129-3901-1d5j4x6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">What will change with the new SAT?</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.shutterstock.com/cat.mhtml?lang=en&language=en&ref_site=photo&search_source=search_form&version=llv1&anyorall=all&safesearch=1&use_local_boost=1&autocomplete_id=&search_tracking_id=gnCqfNiD4J4jCtOidftCbg&searchterm=students%20taking%20test&show_color_wheel=1&orient=&commercial_ok=&media_type=images&search_cat=&searchtermx=&photographer_name=&people_gender=&people_age=&people_ethnicity=&people_number=&color=&page=1&inline=234590473">Student image via www.shutterstock.com</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Starting in March 2016, students will be taking a new version of the SAT. The <a href="https://collegereadiness.collegeboard.org/educators/higher-ed/test-design">redesigned SAT claims</a> that it will,</p>
<blockquote>
<p>remove barriers to college, making it possible for more students to own their future. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>The redesigned SAT also claims to be returning to its original <a href="http://www.brookings.edu/research/articles/1999/12/politics-toch">1901 purpose</a>, which was to create greater access to higher education for a diverse population. College Board, the nonprofit that administers the test, aims to do so through <a href="https://www.khanacademy.org/sat">free practice tools</a>, more waivers of testing fees and increased scholarship opportunities. </p>
<p>The question is: will the redesigned SAT be able to deliver on these attempts to ensure greater equity, or will it merely continue to measure the achievement gaps (disparity in educational outcomes) as they exist in our society?</p>
<p>As a researcher of educational equity, I know how much our nation’s achievement gaps are a direct result of the underlying <a href="http://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/uploadedFiles/departments/clusteradmin/equity/educational%20debt.pdf">opportunity gaps</a> that result from the inequities in our stratified educational system. <a href="https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2009/03/26/sat">Research</a> has found that using standardized tests in general, and the SAT specifically, as a gatekeeper for access to higher education reinforces such inequities. </p>
<h2>A multi-billion industry</h2>
<p>Until 1994, the test was known as the Scholastic Aptitude Test: it was believed that the test measured innate ability. Subsequently, it was renamed the <a href="http://blog.prepscholar.com/why-was-the-sat-called-the-scholastic-aptitude-test">Scholastic Assessment Test</a> in recognition that the test measured achievement rather than aptitude. And since 1997, it has been officially known as the SAT.</p>
<p>Today’s SAT has been <a href="https://www.applerouth.com/blog/2015/10/05/cutting-edge-sat-research-in-publication/">proven to be coachable</a> – which means with tutoring and test preparation, students’ scores can rise. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/109702/original/image-20160129-3883-1r3xveu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/109702/original/image-20160129-3883-1r3xveu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/109702/original/image-20160129-3883-1r3xveu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/109702/original/image-20160129-3883-1r3xveu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/109702/original/image-20160129-3883-1r3xveu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/109702/original/image-20160129-3883-1r3xveu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/109702/original/image-20160129-3883-1r3xveu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Test coaching is a multi-billion dollar industry.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/easternarizonacollege/6264551147/in/photolist-axzsNx-axzsWi-axzsQD-axCaMq-adodTQ-axCaPC-axCaR1-8JKLrV-hyzRKt-9W3Wt4-ddPGTr-97mrhq-b3JkVg-9W6KYw-9W3Wut-9W3Wrx-9W3Wq4-9W6KQU-91WpPi-8ERjuu-9fsnDL-97igYk-5pPWpv-dj1CZD-dj1DbV-dj1BFm-5iGL9U-adoeKE-a17Df7-adkpVz-adkpGD-adoe81-adkq8g-adkqzi-adoetW-adkqhi-adoe11-adkq4t-adoeDo-adoegj-8JKKKr-5oZcpB-8ERjGb-dkdJYa-dj1Byb-dj1BD5-dj1Bvu-d9Yk2X-dj1DBa-dj1Dzg">Eastern Arizona College</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Consequently, test preparation has become a <a href="http://www.bloomberg.com/bw/articles/2014-10-08/sats-the-test-prep-business-is-booming">multi-billion dollar</a> industry in the U.S. as well as overseas. Students in elite schools in countries such as <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/27/world/asia/27seoul.html?_r=0">South Korea</a> focus on obtaining perfect SAT scores. Test prep courses could well range from US$300 a course to <a href="http://www.forbes.com/sites/evapomice/2013/11/21/do-sat-tutors-add-up-one-parents-journey-4/#53837e7242da4429d96d242d">$775 an hour</a> in the U.S. and up to <a href="http://www.wsj.com/articles/south-korean-students-turn-to-tutors-for-u-s-admissions-help-1416013874">$30,000 in South Korea</a> with college admissions <a href="http://www.barrons.com/articles/should-the-sat-be-scrapped-1431076096">counseling</a>. </p>
<p>The SAT is used for college admissions as a measure to predict how successful a student will be in college. However, <a href="http://www.cshe.berkeley.edu/sites/default/files/shared/publications/docs/UC%20and%20the%20SAT_Geiser.pdf">large-scale research</a> conducted by the University of California in 2001 found limited correlation for an earlier version of the SAT in predicting future success in college. </p>
<p>This <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/11/28/sat-act-not-required-colleges_n_2206391.html">research has led to</a> over 800 colleges an universities no longer requiring SAT or ACT. </p>
<p>In fact, a <a href="http://www.fairtest.org/university/optional">growing number</a> of colleges and universities no longer require SAT or ACT, another <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2013/08/04/education/edlife/where-the-sat-and-act-dominate.html?_r=0">widely used</a> college entrance exam, in large part because of the limited effectiveness of the tests in predicting success in college.</p>
<h2>What will change in the new SAT?</h2>
<p>The <a href="https://collegereadiness.collegeboard.org/sat?navid=gh-nsat">revisions to the SAT</a> to begin in March 2016 include a return to the original scoring system of 1,600 for combined math and the newly named “evidenced-based reading” subtests. </p>
<p>Writing an essay will now be optional. The current version (in use since 2004) requires the essay for a three-part test, with a maximum score of 2,400. This optional essay provides greater flexibility for students, particularly for those whose math skills may be much stronger than their writing skills. Such students will not be penalized for a lower writing score. </p>
<p>Importantly, there will be no penalty for guessing on questions – previously a wrong answer got a penalty of a quarter-point. The critical reading section, renamed evidenced-based reading and writing, will use <a href="https://www.collegeboard.org/pdf/founding_documents_and_the_great_global_conversation.pdf">historical documents</a> that have inspired individuals. Examples of this would be speeches by India’s leader of independence movement <a href="http://www.history.com/topics/mahatma-gandhi">Mohandas Gandhi</a>, American women’s rights’ activist <a href="http://www.biography.com/people/elizabeth-cady-stanton-9492182">Elizabeth Cady Stanton</a> and civil rights leader <a href="http://www.history.com/topics/black-history/martin-luther-king-jr">Martin Luther King Jr</a>. </p>
<p>The <a href="https://collegereadiness.collegeboard.org/sat/inside-the-test/key-changes">math revisions</a> are said to be aligned with the Common Core. This section will have less computation and more real-world problems. </p>
<p>But there are varying views on math revisions.</p>
<p>Schools across the nation are in different places in their implementation of Common Core State Standards. So students in different places may or may not be taught in ways that align with the revisions. For example, James Murphy, a test preparation tutor, in his article in the [Atlantic](http://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2015/01/new-sat-new-problems/384596/ “) suggests that the revised SAT math questions will potentially have the greatest detriment for most vulnerable students – low-income and nonnative English speakers – because of their lack of adequate preparation for these type of questions. </p>
<p>Some <a href="http://blog.prepscholar.com/complete-guide-to-the-new-sat-in-2016">others</a> believe these revised SAT math questions are more straightforward and require clearer demonstration of math concepts.</p>
<p>What will be helpful to students is the change in the vocabulary section that has been redesigned to prioritize defining more commonly used words in context rather than the notoriously obscure SAT vocabulary of previous test versions. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/109704/original/image-20160129-3888-137hmfz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/109704/original/image-20160129-3888-137hmfz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/109704/original/image-20160129-3888-137hmfz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/109704/original/image-20160129-3888-137hmfz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/109704/original/image-20160129-3888-137hmfz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/109704/original/image-20160129-3888-137hmfz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/109704/original/image-20160129-3888-137hmfz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The redesigned vocabulary section will do away with obscure words.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/61508583@N02/13331177783/in/photolist-mj2LGP-6a7f4n-5Ne1em-5NdY8C-5N9JdM-5Ne2iQ-5N9HCg-doFD6B-e3Z5GP-5kzq4n-ozsr7L-5NaUzw-8GJJJT-5Ncoc8-5NgC8d-5NdVws-5Ne2NG-5N9FAk-5Ne4eo-8HeXKt-oRRCpC-5ipqdu-5N9AQT-5N9BSg-2rxURh-5NaSPj-2AaxZK-5oNa1d-fPgFDv-dGhbPp-fxLEda-9rseaL-9neFR9-bmT93N-7ws9zV-5Bmv1h-5qieRp-bedMiV-5MHs34-7K2JsG-5NaxJQ-ozpzWp-oRRATS-oPRGfj-oRRByQ-oRRDuo-ozoBRa-oRBAE2-oRTwHX-ozp4oS">Philipp</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>As with earlier tests, sample test questions will be <a href="https://collegereadiness.collegeboard.org/sample-questions">available</a> for practice.</p>
<p>For the transition period, many colleges will be accepting SAT scores from the previous version administered through January 23, 2016 or the revised version administered after March 5. </p>
<p>The College Board has created greater flexibility in the ways scores can be reported that <a href="https://collegereadiness.collegeboard.org/sat/scores/sending-scores/score-choice">students select</a> by test date. For example, students can choose to report the optional essay test score for a total score out of 2,400 or report just the math and reading sections for a total score out of 1,600. The College Board says this allows students to select their best scores for reporting to colleges and comply with what various colleges are requiring.</p>
<h2>SAT for school accountability</h2>
<p>Of late, the SAT has not only been used for college admissions, but <a href="http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2016/01/06/will-states-swap-standards-based-tests-for-sat.html">also as an accountability exam</a> required for high school students under the No Child Left Behind legislation and continuing under the Every Student Succeeds Act. </p>
<p>This was started by Maine in 2006, followed by Colorado, Connecticut and New Hampshire, to meet the mandates of the federal legislation. </p>
<p>Does the test actually measure how much students are learning? Along with the proven impact of high-cost private tutoring, the use of the SAT for school and teacher deserves more scrutiny. This is especially true because standardized tests are often a primary or even sole measure used in <a href="http://www.tcrecord.org/Content.asp?ContentID=18834">school report cards</a>. </p>
<p>In college admissions, the SAT is one of many measures of an applicants’ readiness – which is how it should be. </p>
<p><a href="http://teststandards.org/">Good measurement practice</a> says that no single assessment should be used for high-stakes decisions. Rather, multiple measurements in multiple formats at multiple points in time provide much more robust and accurate results. </p>
<p>So, the college application includes test scores, GPA, cocurricular activities, early college and/or AP credits, recommendation letters and essays. </p>
<p>Possibly, colleges could ask applicants to create and justify a "weighted formula” that demonstrates why an applicant’s total profile is a best fit for that institution for college admissions. This would require students to take ownership and advocate for their passions and successes as predictors of their future success. This type of measurement could serve everyone well. </p>
<p>The revised SAT can be one piece of a multidimensional system for college admissions for the over 4,000 colleges and universities in the U.S.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/53319/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Flynn Ross is affiliated with Scholars Strategy Network. </span></em></p>SAT prep is a multi-billion dollar industry today. Will the redesigned SAT restore its original goal of providing greater access to higher education for a diverse population?Flynn Ross, Associate Professor of Education, University of Southern MaineLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/528342016-01-06T15:15:44Z2016-01-06T15:15:44ZSouth Africa’s universities may not be ready for the latest crop of school leavers<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/107378/original/image-20160106-29944-1ujzfdy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Prospective students rush the gates of the University of Johannesburg during a deadly 2012 stampede. Are South Africa's universities ready for the latest crop of matriculants?</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Adrian De Kock/EPA </span></span></figcaption></figure><p>When South Africa’s annual matric results are announced, it is important to listen to what is said - and, more importantly, to what is not. </p>
<p>Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga offered a sober account of the 2015 results, particularly about the <a href="http://mg.co.za/article/2016-01-05-matric-pass-rate-drops-to-707">significant drop</a> in pass rate from 75% in 2014 to 70% in 2015. There were some reasons to celebrate: the ministry’s interventions to support “progressed learners” are to be commended. These are pupils who were pushed through from Grade 11 to matric even though their results didn’t qualify them to progress.</p>
<p>Nearly 40% of these learners passed and a not insignificant number obtained Bachelor’s passes, which means they can now apply for university study, and many were awarded distinctions, or “A” symbols. This suggests that the investment has been worthwhile. Many of these learners were given the opportunity to show their true potential.</p>
<p>But what about the things Motshekga didn’t say? In the higher education sector, we are interested in what the results say about the extent to which the 2015 matriculants are prepared for university study. To answer this question, one needs to look a little deeper.</p>
<h2>Methods of measurement</h2>
<p>There are two ways to measure admissions into and preparedness for university in South Africa. One is the National Senior Certificate, the other the National <a href="http://www.nbt.ac.za/node/89">Benchmark Tests</a>. The benchmark tests are taken by nearly 80,000 university applicants across the country each year. Together these measures offer complementary data for universities’ admissions decisions. The senior certificate is an indicator of learners’ past school achievement in a range of subjects. The National Benchmark Tests are an indicator of likely future performance against more general competencies, such as academic literacy, quantitative literacy and mathematics. </p>
<p>Not all university programmes require Maths and Science, but these subjects are good indicators of university preparedness. They are also essential for entry into programmes such as Science, Commerce, Engineering and Health Science and some specialisations in the Social Sciences arena. Motshekga said during the results announcement that the number of passes in Maths and Science increased between 2014 and 2015. She qualified this by noting, though, that the percentage pass had dropped. </p>
<p>A technical report is always released alongside the official results announcement. The detail about Maths and Sciences passes in <a href="http://www.education.gov.za/LinkClick.aspx?fileticket=JgmMMi8JtFI%3d&tabid=358&mid=1325">this report</a> is both interesting and important:</p>
<p>While the number of students enrolled for each of these subjects increased, the overall percentage of students enrolled from these subjects remained the same across the two years: 33% of learners in both 2014 and 2015 wrote Mathematics and 24% learners wrote Physical Science. In comparison the percentage of learners writing Mathematics Literacy increased from 46% to 49% between the two years. Mathematics Literacy is a subject introduced in 2006 and typically perceived to be <a href="http://www.bdlive.co.za/national/education/2014/07/24/department-prefers-pupils-to-take-maths-rather-than-maths-literacy">less academically challenging</a> than Mathematics.</p>
<p>In terms of performance, while <a href="http://www.education.gov.za/LinkClick.aspx?fileticket=JgmMMi8JtFI%3d&tabid=358&mid=1325">more learners</a> passed in each of these subjects the percentage of passes for Mathematics is down: in 2015 49% of those writing scored 30% and above, compared to 53% who scored the same in 2014. This means that of the 33% of learners who wrote Mathematics in 2015, only half scored above 30%, which constitutes a pass. Of the approximately 25% who wrote Physical Science as a subject, 59% scored 30% and above, down from 61% in 2014. </p>
<p>Overall these results are of concern for learners who want to go to university and study a science-related subject.</p>
<h2>A sobering picture</h2>
<p>The National Benchmark Test results for the 2015 writers provide an equally sobering picture of performance in these key competency areas. Pupils are scored against three benchmarks: basic, intermediate and proficient. These benchmarks are set by disciplinary experts around the country who represent most of South Africa’s universities.</p>
<p>‘Basic’ predicts that students will face serious challenges and require extensive and long term support. ‘Intermediate’ predicts that students will face some challenges and require some support. ‘Proficient’ predicts that students will be able to cope with regular programme of study. Here’s what the 2015 test results tell us:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>45% of those writing the Maths benchmark test scored ‘basic’. This means that they will have serious challenges with university level Mathematics. </p></li>
<li><p>Only 10% scored ‘proficient’, meaning that they would be expected to cope with regular mainstream provision. This provides strong evidence that, despite all the achievements of the Department of Basic Education, the overwhelming majority of matriculants are not prepared for university level study in science-based fields. </p></li>
</ul>
<h2>Are universities ready?</h2>
<p>There is a flip side to the issue of student preparedness: are universities ready for these incoming matriculants? The data I’ve outlined above provides a compelling body of evidence for universities to revisit their assumptions about what constitutes entry level readiness.</p>
<p>This requires a hard and critical look at the undergraduate curriculum. For instance, the University of Johannesburg is <a href="http://www.enca.com/south-africa/uj-ready-enrol-10500-new-students">preparing</a> to enrol 10,500 new students in 2016. To what extent does it have the necessary Maths and Science curriculum in place at entry level to cater for the diversity of educational preparedness among those new students? </p>
<p>Some will need no support. But the majority will need extensive academic guidance and help. </p>
<p>The reality is that until there is significant reform of South Africa’s undergraduate curriculum, with a particular focus on Mathematics and Science, universities will remain unprepared - even for those who made it through matric, obtained Bachelor’s passes and are, in Motshekga’s own words, “the best of the best” that the schooling system has to offer.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/52834/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Suellen Shay receives funding from the National Research Foundation and from Department of Higher Education and Training (both are research funding). </span></em></p>South Africa’s matric results and data from national benchmarking tests suggest that many school leavers aren’t ready for university. It’s also worth asking: are universities ready for them?Suellen Shay, Dean and Associate Professor, University of Cape TownLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/526042015-12-30T13:26:13Z2015-12-30T13:26:13Z2015, the year that was: education<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/106924/original/image-20151222-27894-1r46xgv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">2015 showed how much race still matters in education.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/illinoisspringfield/14028616900/in/photolist-nnEk4b-eiuvry-KDhJy-ej1W7q-55XtUM-eiVc1e-ej1W31-eiVcN4-eiVbVi-ej1Wgh-eiVbJt-nnE5di-nDRU4x-nE8SN7-nDRTSF-nnEixq-eiVd42-eiVcyz-4SzDm9-bXYQjm-bXYQfb-ekDWdG-ekyb2e-ekDW4N-eioLFi-nE8Vx5-eiVcng-ej1VDd-eiVc7n-eiVbRe-eiVbwp-eiVbpt-nDWs9C-nE9MZD-nE9Mx6-eiVbFa-ej1Wkm-ej1V2w-ej1UUC-ej2fzj-eiVvST-bWUZvG-nDWtLq-nDRVyB-nnE6BR-nnEjSE-nnE8qj-nFWawZ-nDWsDf-nDWstf">Illinois Springfield</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>As we approach 2016, we look back at the big stories of The Conversation’s education coverage over the past 12 months.</em></p>
<p>2015 was a year of much turmoil: higher education witnessed student activism not quite seen <a href="https://theconversation.com/heres-how-history-is-shaping-the-studentblackout-movement-51078">since the free speech movement</a> of the 1960s.</p>
<p>The spark for the protests came from the University of Missouri – where students’ demands for racial justice <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-long-and-troubled-racial-past-of-mizzou-50639">had gone unheard</a>. With the football team joining the protesting students, events took a different turn and resulted in the resignation of the president, Tim Wolfe. Thereafter, protests spread to <a href="https://www.eab.com/daily-briefing/2015/11/24/student-protests-spread-to-more-than-100-campuses-nationwide">over 100</a> other campuses.</p>
<h2>Racism on campus</h2>
<p>Over the past year, scholars writing for The Conversation have emphasized how much race continues to be a factor in students’ success – and not just in college, but even through their early school years.</p>
<p>As some have pointed out, academia suffers from a <a href="https://theconversation.com/inside-academia-black-professors-are-expected-to-entertain-while-presenting-46249">“stunning lack of diversity.”</a> Black scholars <a href="https://theconversation.com/reflections-of-a-black-female-scholar-i-know-what-it-feels-like-to-be-invisible-39748">describe experiences</a> ranging from <a href="https://theconversation.com/inside-academia-black-professors-are-expected-to-entertain-while-presenting-46249">racial slights</a> to outright discrimination. At the K-12 level, research shows that black students <a href="https://theconversation.com/with-harsher-disciplinary-measures-school-systems-fail-black-kids-39906">are more likely</a> to receive out-of-school suspensions for minor violations of the code of conduct. </p>
<p>On campuses, students have been <a href="https://theconversation.com/does-missouri-president-ouster-offer-lessons-to-universities-grappling-with-a-racist-past-50493">demanding for some time the renaming</a> of buildings whose names evoke a troubled racial past. Many universities and their past leaders were <a href="https://theconversation.com/unsurprised-by-missouri-scholars-on-the-roots-of-racial-unrest-on-campus-50636">intimately connected</a> to the slave trade and slavery. This year further escalated some of the tensions.</p>
<p>In this environment, Fisher v University of Texas, a <a href="https://theconversation.com/explainer-crucial-texas-case-on-race-considerations-in-college-admissions-44117">case</a> challenging the University of Texas’s race-conscious admissions policy, took on <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-scholars-emphasize-the-need-for-affirmative-action-43692">even greater significance</a>. The policy <a href="https://theconversation.com/ban-on-affirmative-action-in-medicine-will-hurt-all-39904">allows the university</a> to build a racially and ethnically diverse student body. But the case challenging it says it violates the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.</p>
<h2>Tenure, college costs, guns</h2>
<p>The debates on university campuses in 2015 were many, and not just to do with race. </p>
<p>The issue of academic freedom became a fractious one after Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker put forward a proposal to slash spending on education and <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-else-will-we-lose-when-wisconsin-faculty-loses-tenure-42929">modify the state laws</a> on tenure.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/106925/original/image-20151222-27890-phlnmb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/106925/original/image-20151222-27890-phlnmb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/106925/original/image-20151222-27890-phlnmb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/106925/original/image-20151222-27890-phlnmb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/106925/original/image-20151222-27890-phlnmb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/106925/original/image-20151222-27890-phlnmb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/106925/original/image-20151222-27890-phlnmb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">There were many issues of concern this year.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/dustpuppy/6852779/in/photolist-B86n-B6Lt-B6YW-B7Ps-B8mC-B84A-B8ht-B7nq-B87p-pjYumV-pztNyb-aExUV3-B6E4-B7MX-B8ck-B6FR-B7u4-B7HG-B7eu-B8f3-B7zp-B7Vz-B733-B835-B76t-B7BW-B7bp-B8ko-B6Rn-B71h-B7wz-B786-B7py-B81G-B6K3-B7L7-B7DZ-B6Xo-B6SS-B79N-B7Xb-B7jt-B6Q8-B7cL-B8ac-B6MU-B7Tj-8ZPW1y-ym1o-ym1c">Björn Láczay</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>All over again, issues of college affordability were <a href="https://theconversation.com/to-reduce-debt-give-students-more-information-to-make-wise-college-choice-decisions-46064">brought center-stage</a> by Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton’s announcement of a US$350 billion debt-free college plan. <a href="https://theconversation.com/clintons-debt-free-college-comes-with-a-price-tag-46378">Our experts argued</a> how such a large expansion in federal dollars would come at a cost. </p>
<p>And while students struggled with debt, smaller colleges struggled to keep student enrollment high enough. One of them, Sweet Briar, a women’s liberal arts college, was <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-can-we-learn-from-sweet-briars-near-death-44055">among those hit hard</a> by declining enrollment. While the board voted to close the doors, its alumnae made efforts to keep it going for at least another year.</p>
<p>In Texas, meanwhile, a “Campus Carry” gun law passed in spring 2015, <a href="https://theconversation.com/will-guns-on-campus-lead-to-grade-inflation-40748">raising faculty fears</a> about the possibility of grade inflation. </p>
<h2>Teachers, testing, new ESSA</h2>
<p>If higher education was in turmoil, so was K-12. </p>
<p>Testing pressures led to an ever-growing number of parents, teachers and students “opting out” of testing <a href="https://theconversation.com/students-are-opting-out-of-testing-how-did-we-get-here-40364">across all 50 states</a>. Some experts <a href="https://theconversation.com/arne-duncans-legacy-growing-influence-of-a-network-of-private-actors-on-public-education-48790">put the blame</a> on the influence of a “network” of private actors over the policies implemented under US Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, who will be leaving office at the end of this year.</p>
<p>A number of scholars commented on how policies have left schoolteachers <a href="https://theconversation.com/crisis-in-american-education-as-teacher-morale-hits-an-all-time-low-39226">highly demotivated</a>. In an effort to <a href="https://theconversation.com/a-somber-message-on-world-teachers-day-2015-our-teachers-are-at-risk-48550">improve the “annual yearly progress”</a> of their students, some schools not only <a href="https://theconversation.com/no-child-left-behind-fails-to-work-miracles-spurs-cheating-38620">resorted to unethical practices</a>, but also punished teachers for low scores. </p>
<p>How then are teachers being evaluated? It isn’t clear. Not least when music teachers can be <a href="https://theconversation.com/can-it-get-more-absurd-now-music-teachers-are-being-tested-based-on-math-and-reading-scores-47995">evaluated</a> based on the math and reading scores of students.</p>
<p>In answer to some of these concerns, before the end of the year, President Obama signed The Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) – which will replace the NCLB and end many of testing and evaluation policies, although <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-every-student-succeeds-act-still-leaves-most-vulnerable-kids-behind-46247">experts still urge caution</a> on wholeheartedly embracing the ESSA.</p>
<p>Despite the odds, schoolteachers and university professors remained unfailing in their commitment, innovation and dedication to their students. Indeed, innovative examples of teaching were among our best-read stories as well. Here are some:</p>
<p><a href="https://theconversation.com/how-understanding-the-prisoners-dilemma-can-help-bridge-liberal-and-conservative-differences-46166">How understanding the prisoner’s dilemma can help bridge liberal and conservative differences</a></p>
<p><a href="https://theconversation.com/want-more-innovation-try-connecting-the-dots-between-engineering-and-humanities-42800">Want more innovation? Try connecting the dots between engineering and humanities</a></p>
<p><a href="https://theconversation.com/a-teacher-uses-star-trek-for-difficult-conversations-on-race-and-gender-43098">A teacher uses Star Trek for difficult conversations on race and gender</a></p>
<p><a href="https://theconversation.com/through-the-brewing-class-what-beer-making-can-teach-students-about-business-42396">Through the brewing class: what beer-making can teach students about business</a></p>
<p><a href="https://theconversation.com/using-wikipedia-a-scholar-redraws-academic-lines-by-including-it-in-his-syllabus-39103">Using Wikipedia: a scholar redraws academic lines by including it in his syllabus</a></p>
<p><a href="https://theconversation.com/teaching-artists-creative-ways-to-teach-english-to-immigrant-kids-42588">‘Teaching artists’: creative ways to teach English to immigrant kids</a></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/52604/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
The year 2015 escalated many of the tensions that have existed on university and college campuses for a long time. It will be remembered as the year of student activism.Kalpana Jain, Senior Religion + Ethics Editor/ Director of the Global Religion Journalism InitiativeLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/505082015-11-18T11:03:12Z2015-11-18T11:03:12ZWhy 1904 testing methods should not be used for today’s students<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/102081/original/image-20151116-4973-132r5y6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Why are archaic tests being used today?</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/vauvau/22623931907/in/photolist-AtcyKv-Aa8Mpb-4z5yTe-4xzeXY-81PJfx-5HjpZb-7By9hL-eK5D5e-eKh3ab-a2DqCX-Cc5ox-7Byzk3-7ByBus-7RBJx3-9mAAqx-7oC7Ak-7BubBH-9N2PiA-4z9TEf-4z9PtS-nA26ci-92Jgs8-xEaccD-ai7pAx-axnUsb-7ByFVh-q2TrG9-7Bymfh-7BxUZ1-4z5vv8-4z9KYm-oYr82F-6wWsEo-7BuobK-47aeuC-4z9R97-5Gob14-9chSab-uZADFU-6onQVg-v2VdxM-7gqyTa-dByqUU-nB45bb-hN1djZ-zgE1QQ-4z9Pzq-w63Q5B-5SS5e1-3hkgb7">Clemens v. Vogelsang</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>When I was an elementary school student, schools in my hometown administered IQ tests every couple of years. I felt very scared of the psychologist who came in to give those tests.</p>
<p>I also performed terribly. As a result, at one point, I was moved to a lower-grade classroom so I could take a test more suitable to my IQ level. </p>
<p>Consequently, I believed that my teachers considered me stupid. I, of course, thought I was stupid. In addition, I also thought my teachers expected low-quality work from a child of such low IQ. So, I gave them what they expected.</p>
<p>Had it not been for my fourth grade teacher, who thought there was more to a person than an IQ test score, I almost certainly would not be a professor today.</p>
<p>You might think things have gotten better. Not quite. I have two generations of children (from different marriages), and something similar happened to both my sons: Seth, age 36, now a successful entrepreneur in Silicon Valley, and Sammy, age four. </p>
<p>Some children as young as Sammy take preschool tests. And almost all our students – at least those wanting to go on to college – take what one might call proxies for IQ tests – the SAT and ACT – which are IQ tests by another name. </p>
<p>Testing is compromising the future of many of our able students. Today’s testing comes at the expense of validity (strong prediction of future success), equity (ensuring that members of various groups have an equal shot), and common sense in identifying those students who think deeply and reflectively rather than those who are good at answering shallow multiple-choice questions. </p>
<p>How should today’s students be assessed? </p>
<h2>Intelligence tests in Halloween costumes</h2>
<p><a href="http://www.intelltheory.com/detterman.shtml">Psychology professor Douglas Detterman</a> and his colleagues have <a href="http://pss.sagepub.com/content/15/6/373.short">shown</a> that the <a href="http://www.iapsych.com/iqmr/koening2008.pdf">SAT and the ACT</a> are little more than disguised IQ tests. </p>
<p>They may look slightly different from the IQ tests, but they closely resemble the intelligence tests used by <a href="http://psychology.jrank.org/pages/599/Charles-Edward-Spearman.html">Charles Spearman (1904)</a>, <a href="http://psychology.about.com/od/profilesal/p/alfred-binet.htm,">Alfred Binet</a> and <a href="http://www.intelltheory.com/simon.shtml">Theodore Simon (1916)</a>, famous psychologists in Great Britain and France, respectively, who created the first IQ tests a century ago. </p>
<p>While these tests may have been at the cutting edge at the turn of the 20th century, today they are archaic. Imagine using medical tests designed at the beginning of the 20th century to diagnose, say, cancer or heart disease.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/102079/original/image-20151116-4980-1fz95rr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/102079/original/image-20151116-4980-1fz95rr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/102079/original/image-20151116-4980-1fz95rr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/102079/original/image-20151116-4980-1fz95rr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/102079/original/image-20151116-4980-1fz95rr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/102079/original/image-20151116-4980-1fz95rr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/102079/original/image-20151116-4980-1fz95rr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Multiple choice questions don’t teach life skills.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/40964293@N07/7674804806/in/photolist-cGco5N-8cNHkb-9h5S4K-dADXAU-bzH2FN-4LhoFG-fVKsw-4LhoMS-9UnRWS-7JVkQA-jGtJPV-5gmRgy-6kv8oX-5JsjGp-fQNLfa-zYmHu-5ufcu9-oN12Lt-4KgiQw-8bWduk-xEaccD-9NY2Sv-aeRkvo-7idb9N-9P1APG-b2fiNB-5qbe5L-hqX7E6-7MJyrn-9P1ZyQ-9NYaL8-9NXZsk-5CjozJ-5CjoMU-cDphCL-5Cf7ca-71utDm-5CjoGE-5Cf6Si-5Cf76D-8bVZfV-5Cf7i4-5CjotL-9P1hSd-8q2Jui-7zibzw-7RiX8C-9NXrLe-6ocpGG-9brUX">biologycorner</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/">CC BY-NC</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>People’s success today scarcely hinges on solving simple, pat academic problems with unique solutions conveniently presented as multiple-choice options. </p>
<p>When your kids (or colleagues) misbehave, does anyone give you five options, one of which is uniquely correct, to solve the problem of how to get them to behave properly? </p>
<p>Or, are there any multiple-choice answers for how to solve serious crises, whether in international affairs (eg, in Syria), in business (eg, at Volkswagen) or in education (eg, skyrocketing college tuitions)?</p>
<h2>How do we test for success?</h2>
<p>The odd thing is that we can do much better. That would mean taking into account that academic and life success involves much more than IQ.</p>
<p>In my <a href="http://psycnet.apa.org/index.cfm?fa=buy.optionToBuy&id=1996-13349-001">research</a> conducted with my colleagues who include <a href="https://psy.fsu.edu/faculty/wagner.dp.html">Florida State University professor Richard Wagner </a> and a former professor at the US Military Academy at West Point, <a href="http://www.bloomberg.com/research/stocks/private/person.asp?personId=104595478&privcapId=4361061&previousCapId=4361061&previousTitle=Westminster%20College%20-%20Missouri">George Forsythe</a>, we found that success in managerial, military and other leadership jobs can be predicted independent of IQ levels. </p>
<p>More generally, we have found that <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=13DPoQrmYWEC">practical intelligence</a>, or common sense, is itself largely independent of IQ. Moreover, <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=8tp9AAAAMAAJ&source=gbs_navlinks_s">my research</a> with <a href="https://www.uv.es/erasmuswop/doc/cv/Lubart.pdf">Todd Lubart</a>, now a professor at the University of Paris V, has shown that creative intelligence also is distinct from IQ.</p>
<p>My colleagues and I, including <a href="http://psychology.yale.edu/people/elena-grigorenko">Professor Elena Grigorenko at Yale</a>, have <a href="http://psycnet.apa.org/journals/amp/59/5/325/">shown</a> in studies on five continents that children from diverse cultures, such as Yup'ik Eskimos in Alaska, Latino-American students in San Jose, California, and rural Kenyan schoolchildren, may have practical adaptive skills that far exceed those of their teachers (such as how to hunt in the frozen tundra, ice-fish, or treat parasitic illnesses such as malaria with natural herbal medicines).</p>
<p>Yet teachers – and IQ tests – <a href="http://psycnet.apa.org/psycinfo/2004-16479-002">may view</a> these children as intellectually challenged.</p>
<h2>What are we testing, anyway?</h2>
<p>Our theory of <a href="http://www.cambridge.org/us/academic/subjects/psychology/personality-psychology-and-individual-differences/wisdom-intelligence-and-creativity-synthesized">“successful intelligence”</a> can help predict the academic, extracurricular and leadership success of college students. In addition, it could increase applications from qualified applicants and decrease differences among ethnic groups, such as between African-American and Euro-American students, that are found in the SAT/ACT. </p>
<p>The idea behind “successful intelligence” is not only to measure analytical skills as is done by the SAT/ACT, but also other skills that are important to college and life success. Although this does mean additional testing, it is an assessment of strength-based skills that actually are fun to take. </p>
<p>What are these other skills and assessments, exactly?</p>
<p>The truth is, you can’t get by in life only on analytical skills – you also need to come up with your own new ideas (creativity), know how to apply your ideas (practical common sense), and ensure they benefit others beside yourself (wisdom). </p>
<p>So, assessments of “successful intelligence” would measure creativity, common sense and wisdom/ethics, in addition to analytical skills, as measured by the SAT/ACT. </p>
<p>Here is how measurement of successful intelligence works:</p>
<p>Creative skills can be measured by having students write or tell a creative story, design a scientific experiment, draw something new, caption a cartoon or suggest what the world might be like today if some past event (such as the defeat of the Nazis in World War II) had turned out differently. </p>
<p>Practical skills can be measured by having students watch several videos of college students facing practical problems – and then solving the problems for the students in the videos, or by having students comment on how they persuaded a friend of some ideas that the friend did not initially accept. </p>
<p>Wisdom-based and ethical skills can be measured by problems such as what to do upon observing a student cheating, or commenting on how one could, in the future, make a positive and meaningful difference to the world, at some level.</p>
<h2>A new way to test</h2>
<p>My collaborators and I first tested our ideas between 2000 and 2005 when I was IBM professor of psychology and education and professor of management at Yale. We <a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S016028960600002X">found</a> (in our “Rainbow Project”) that we could double prediction of freshman-year grades over that obtained from the SAT. </p>
<p>Also, relative to the SAT, we <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00461520.2011.638882#.VkiwQ2SrTow">reduced by more than half</a> ethnic-group differences between Euro-Americans, Asian-Americans, African-Americans, Latino-Americans and American Indians. </p>
<p>Later in 2011, I engaged, in collaboration with <a href="http://admissions.tufts.edu/blogs/inside-admissions/author/lee-coffin/">Lee Coffin</a>, dean of undergraduate admissions at Tufts University, in a <a href="http://www.nacacnet.org/events/2012/session-archives/Documents/2009%20Documents/G714-combined.pdf">project called Kaleidoscope</a>. At the time, I was dean of arts and sciences at Tufts. Kaleidoscope was optional for all undergraduate applicants to Tufts – tens of thousands did Kaleidoscope over the years. </p>
<p>We increased prediction not only of academic success, but also of extracurricular and leadership success, while greatly reducing ethnic-group differences. </p>
<p>Then again, when I was provost and senior vice president of Oklahoma State University (OSU), in collaboration with <a href="https://news.okstate.edu/articles/wray-named-associate-vp-enrollment-management-and-marketing">Kyle Wray</a>, VP for enrollment management, we <a href="https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2011/08/29/oklahoma_state_university_gets_ready_to_ask_broader_questions_in_admissions">implemented</a> a similar program at OSU (called the “Panorama Project”) that also was available to all applicants. </p>
<p>The measures are still being used at Tufts and at Oklahoma State. These projects have resulted in students being admitted to Tufts and OSU who never would have made it on the basis of the high school GPAs and SATs. </p>
<p><a href="http://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674048232">On our assessments</a>, the students displayed potential that was hidden by traditional standardized tests and even by high school grades. </p>
<h2>The problem of being stuck</h2>
<p>So why don’t colleges move on? </p>
<p>There are several reasons, but the most potent is sheer inertia and fear of change. </p>
<p>College and university presidents and admissions deans around the country have revealed to me in informal conversations that they want change but are afraid to rock the boat. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/102080/original/image-20151116-4936-y43wxd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/102080/original/image-20151116-4936-y43wxd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=417&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/102080/original/image-20151116-4936-y43wxd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=417&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/102080/original/image-20151116-4936-y43wxd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=417&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/102080/original/image-20151116-4936-y43wxd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=524&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/102080/original/image-20151116-4936-y43wxd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=524&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/102080/original/image-20151116-4936-y43wxd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=524&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">There are other ways of testing kids.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/46097950@N02/6262296086/in/photolist-axnUsb-7ByFVh-q2TrG9-7Bymfh-7BxUZ1-4z5vv8-4z9KYm-oYr82F-6wWsEo-7BuobK-47aeuC-4z9R97-5Gob14-9chSab-uZADFU-6onQVg-v2VdxM-7gqyTa-dByqUU-nB45bb-hN1djZ-zgE1QQ-4z9Pzq-w63Q5B-5SS5e1-3hkgb7-z168jf-5ARzhA-6qEgiT-UssFg-6qEgse-yrqG2A-7DbWDg-dk8q7G-Cc5gm-7Lvw3b-2BUQoP-Cc5qg-Cc5m2-bn6kzs-bn6kAs-bn6kAW-dpBjvD-bn6kz5-Cc5sy-2BUQnF-8KTRYf-K6mDi-K6mDH-K6mDT">BarbaraLN</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Moreover, because the SAT, unlike our assessment, is <a href="http://us.macmillan.com/thebigtest/nicholaslemann">highly correlated</a> with socioeconomic status, colleges like it. College tuition brings in big money, and anything that could affect the dollars is viewed with fear. Students who do well on standardized tests are more likely to be full-pay students, an attraction to institutions of higher learning. </p>
<p>As I know only too well, colleges mostly do what they did before, and changes often require approval of many different stakeholders. The effort to effect change can be daunting. </p>
<p>Finally, there is the problem of self-fulfilling prophecy. We use conventional standardized tests to select students. We then give those high-scoring students better opportunities not only in college but for jobs in our society. </p>
<p>As a result, the tests often make their predictions come true. Given my family history, I know all too well how real the problem of self-fulfilling prophecies is.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/50508/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Robert Sternberg does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>When your kids (or colleagues) misbehave, does anyone give you five options, one of which is uniquely correct, to solve the problem? So, why do we continue to test students in this way?Robert Sternberg, Professor of Human Development, Cornell UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/502252015-11-05T11:19:46Z2015-11-05T11:19:46ZWe’ve tested seven-year-olds in schools before – here’s why we stopped<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/100797/original/image-20151104-29070-j43ip9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Could seven-year-olds be sitting SATs again?</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Monkey Business Images/www.shutterstock.com</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Nicky Morgan’s <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/nicky-morgan-one-nation-education">announcement</a> that seven-year-olds at state-maintained schools could have to sit national, standardised tests could re-open a can of worms that was shut when such tests were phased out in 2005. But the move is not surprising and echoes the current political rhetoric of school accountability and Whitehall’s micro-management of teachers. </p>
<p>Some tests are useful and valuable. For example, I want to know how my child is progressing as a reader or I want to be sure that the pilot who is flying me on holiday is capable and appropriately trained. So I have no principled objection to testing per se; rather my concern about this new proposal is the legitimacy of its goals. </p>
<p>Schools are still required to provide assessment of their pupils at the end of <a href="https://www.gov.uk/national-curriculum/key-stage-1-and-2">Key Stage 1</a>, when children are seven-years-old, but teachers administer the process and schools choose when it is carried out. Yet Morgan seems to be suggesting that this is not enough – or not good enough – and will consult on the reintroduction of national standardised tests. In a speech at the Policy Exchange think-tank she <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/nicky-morgan-one-nation-education">said</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>To be really confident that students are progressing well through primary school, we will be looking at the assessment of pupils at age seven to make sure it is as robust and rigorous as it needs to be.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>She argues that tests administered by an external body will drive up standards, yet there is very little evidence to support this idea. It is more likely that such test results will be used primarily as an accountability stick rather than as a carrot to improve achievement. </p>
<p>The tests themselves are not a bad thing – it is the way that the results are used that could undermine their validity.</p>
<h2>Tests first introduced in the 1980s</h2>
<p>Tests for seven-year-olds were introduced as the National Curriculum began to take shape in the late 1980s. These were the first national, standardised tests (commonly known as SATs) in primary schools and were introduced for seven-year-olds due to the fact that Key Stage 1 is the shortest key stage, lasting from age five to seven. But it was acknowledged at the time that <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00131880902891222">this was also a problem</a> as the large-scale testing of children at this age was unknown territory. </p>
<p>While teachers were adept at assessing pupils and reporting to parents on a relatively informal basis, the new system meant negotiation of a compulsory and universal testing regime. Development and administration of the tests was run by three external consortia, comprising universities (including the Institute of Education), publishers and local authorities.</p>
<p>The original intention was a positive one, to provide a broad system that allowed an individual child to “<a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00131880902891222">demonstrate their best”</a> – but this proved to be too challenging in such a large-scale testing situation. </p>
<p>The process of developing these tests provided unique data sets on infant classroom assessment and it changed many teachers’ perceptions of how to assess children. But problems with managing them, and the increasing concern about the effects of the tests on <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1080/0141192990250305/abstract">children</a> and their <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1080/01411920600775225/abstract">teachers</a> ultimately precipitated their demise. </p>
<p>The pressure from the testing regimes resulted in some resistance and notable demoralisation among the teaching profession, with unions declaring that the new systems reframed the role of teachers as coaches whose job it was to ensure their pupils passed standardised tests. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/100800/original/image-20151104-29079-1tudnd1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/100800/original/image-20151104-29079-1tudnd1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/100800/original/image-20151104-29079-1tudnd1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/100800/original/image-20151104-29079-1tudnd1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/100800/original/image-20151104-29079-1tudnd1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/100800/original/image-20151104-29079-1tudnd1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/100800/original/image-20151104-29079-1tudnd1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Testing culture came under pressure.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Mukhina Viktoriia/www.shutterstock.com</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The impact of this was <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books/about/Changing_English_primary_schools.html?id=hRlKAAAAYAAJ&redir_esc=y">clearly described in reports</a> from the early 1990s that found stressed teachers, stressed pupils and what was supposed to be a broad national curriculum being narrowed to ensure pupils were adequately prepared for the subjects that were most important: English and mathematics. The time allocated to preparing pupils for testing in these two subjects increased, and as a consequence reduced time allocated to other subjects.</p>
<h2>Teachers back in charge</h2>
<p>Public debates about the nature of school assessments in the 2000s revealed growing concern about the effects of testing in schools and this was deemed important enough for the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority to commission <a href="http://dera.ioe.ac.uk/4980/">research</a> into new assessments for seven-year-olds in 2004. </p>
<p>The results of trials for different assessment practices reversed the system, putting the emphasis back on teacher assessment, rather than national tests. This proved successful, so from 2005 this “new” system was <a href="http://www.nuffieldfoundation.org/sites/default/files/files/The-role-of-teachers-in-the-assessment-of-learning.pdf">used in all primary schools</a>. This was not simply a return to how it had been in the early 1980s, rather schools had to use approved tests and procedures as part of the assessment process, which was conducted by teachers. It has continued until <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/key-stage-1-assessment-and-reporting-arrangements-ara/end-of-key-stage-1-assessment-arrangements">today</a>.</p>
<p>Bearing in mind the fraught history of national standardised testing at a tender age, it seems perplexing that we may well see something similar reintroduced into state-maintained schools for seven-year-olds. While there is some evidence that the test results at the end of Key Stage 2, when children are 11, can provide <a href="http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201213/cmselect/cmeduc/writev/gcse/Q39%20-%20PREDICTING%20GCSE%20OUTCOMES%20Paper.pdf">a reasonable indicator</a> for future academic success at GCSE, there is no such evidence that advocates such a regime at the end of Key Stage 1.</p>
<p>Morgan is <a href="https://theconversation.com/squad-of-super-teachers-is-an-uncertain-cure-for-englands-failing-schools-50159">keen to recruit</a> more excellent teachers at a time when unprecedented numbers are <a href="https://theconversation.com/are-teachers-suffering-from-a-crisis-of-motivation-48637">thinking of leaving the profession</a>, many because they feel de-professionalised. If yet more layers of accountability and public judgement are inserted into our primary schools via tests for seven-year-olds, then teaching may become an even less appetising career choice. </p>
<p>It will also narrow the learning experience for our youngest pupils at the very time that it should be becoming broader. The bottom line is that teaching for a test is not a strong model for nurturing a love of learning.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/50225/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Mary Richardson receives funding from the Economic and Social Research Council. </span></em></p>A decade after they were phased out, the government could reintroduce national tests for seven-year-olds.Mary Richardson, Senior Lecturer in Educational Assessment, UCLLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.