In the last two posts, I’ve opened a discussion on the high-stakes testing in Georgia.  More than 80% of the students who took the social studies test failed, and about 40% of the students failed the math CRCT (Criterion Referenced Competency Test).

The Georgia State Department of Education is at a loss to explain these dismal results.  Oh, they offer the excuse that the Standards are new and more rigorous, and that students may not be quite ready for news tests “aligned” to these new Standards.  Furthermore, the tests were developed by an outside contractor, not by teachers and other educators in Georgia.  Yes, teachers and educators “review” the contractors test questions, and they even did a trial test.  In the end, the test does nothing more than reinforce mastery learning, and an overemphasis on teaching to the test.

High stakes and accountability type testing has taken hold not only in Georgia, but in all of the other states in the U.S.A., and most countries around the world.  There are also two very large international tests (PISA and TIMSS), the results of which are used to compare and contrast academic performance of students across countries.

In Georgia the situation is an embarrassment for the State, and unnecessary assault on students, parents and teachers.  It’s so bad that the State decided to throw out the social studies results, and now many parents are calling for the ejection of the math results.

Major changes need to be made, not only in Georgia, but at the national level.  In Georgia, the state needs to develop alternative ways of ensuring parents that their students are getting a good education.  Simply relying on a number, a test score, is an insult to the educational community, parents and students.  Now, more than 800 universities and colleges are NOT using either SAT or ACT test scores in admission processes, instead opting for alternative data.  At the national level, the mandated testing required by the NCLB act has been a failure.

The students’ grades in school are more reliable measurement of performance in schooling, and should be the fundamental way that student progress is assessed.  There have been enormous strides made in the field of assessment including ways to use diagnostic and formative assessment strategies to improve student learning, and we have developed a whole score of alternative summative methods of assessment.

The National Center for Fair and Open Testing (Fair Test) has called for a critical examination of high-stakes testing, and has supported the development of alternative ways to ensure that evaluation of students, teachers and schools is fair, open, valid and educationally beneficial.  Clearly, the assessment that occurring in Georgia is not fair, and not very beneficial when huge numbers of students fail.

It’s the State that has failed the test.