Uneven testing results fuel move for shared standards
Our views: High bar needed
The Oklahoman Editorial
Comments 
9
Published: November 2, 2009
Nobody paying attention to education in Oklahoma should be surprised by a new report’s findings that our expectations for students on state-mandated tests are relatively low compared with academic tests in most other states. But it should serve as a reminder that whether students know enough to do well in higher education and the work force is so much more important than any momentary warm fuzzies that come from artificially high test scores.
Oklahoma students are heading into a world that’s increasingly competitive. Other countries have ratcheted up their education systems to give their students a leg up in the global job market. Corporate executives from some of the country’s biggest companies have said time and again that it isn’t enough to compare students from state to state. Those serve some purposes but under-sell the vast worldwide competition for jobs awaiting young people.
The most recent study compared reading and math performance levels on state tests in 2005 and 2007 to levels of the National Assessment of Educational Progress, which includes a sample of students from nearly every state. The issue isn’t necessarily about whether the academic standards are too tough or too easy. They may be just fine, but the tests may set a low bar for how many test items students must answer correctly to perform at a proficient level.
That concern, based on a similar previous study and tremendous political pressure, are undoubtedly part of what finally convinced Oklahoma education officials to require higher scores on last year’s state tests and to push forward with more difficult math standards for elementary and middle schools that will take full effect next year. Both moves were needed to get a better, more realistic picture of where Oklahoma’s students are academically.
Nationally, the performance and standards disparities have added fuel to a movement for states to adopt a common core of academic standards. Oklahoma is among a group of states working on that effort, and the
Obama administration is offering up federal money to help develop tests that reflect common standards.
It’s probably an idea whose time has come. Ideally, states would be holding all students to a high standard because that’s the right thing to do. But that wasn’t happening before
No Child Left Behind, and as studies like this one show, states are finding ways to look better without doing better. No one should be OK with that.
Consider these words from
U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan: "At a time when we should be raising standards to compete in the global economy, more states are lowering the bar than raising it. We’re lying to our children when we tell them they’re proficient but they’re not achieving at a level that will prepare them for success once they graduate.”
Nationally, the performance and standards disparities have added fuel to a movement for states to adopt a common core of academic standards.
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One thing you have to consider is that lower cut scores are acceptable, to an extent, if the test items have more rigor. However, with the cut scores this low, it either means the test items are out of balance or that our expectations are too low.
Why blame a sixth grade student or teacher trapped by meaningless lessons? Teachers are frustrated. Students check out.
The missing element is reality. Instead of insisting that students learn another sixteen formulae, we need to involve them in tangible life projects. And the task must be interesting.
Project-oriented math engages kids. It is fun. They have a reason to learn the math they may have ignored in the standard lecture format of a class room.
Alan Cook
info@thenumberyard.com
www.thenumberyard.com