I'm glad to see that some folks in a position of power are starting to speak out about the problem of field testing for state exams.

Place a group of school superintendents in a room, and the conversation inevitably turns to testing students.

At a recent meeting in Houston, the topic drawing the most wrath was state-mandated field testing. These are tests that don't count for anything but instead allow the testing company to try out questions for future exams to ensure fairness and reliability.

About 80 percent of schools in Texas had to give students at least one field test this year. In coming years, high school students could face more of these tryout tests because state lawmakers appear intent on replacing the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills at some grade levels with a dozen new end-of-course exams.

"With field testing, you're just testing kids to death," said David Anthony, superintendent of the Cypress-Fairbanks Independent School District. "The field testing's about to go out the roof if they pass the end-of-course exams. It will be worse."

Students could get some relief under pending legislation. The House has passed a bill that would limit field tests at a school to once every four years. The Senate's version would keep field testing to an every-other-year practice statewide — but only after the end-of-course exams are developed.

My school has lost at least one day a year to field testing every year in the last five -- and some of our most academically challenged kids have lost more due to their being pulled out of class for additional field testing of the specialized tests for special education and ESL students. Everyone knows these tests don't matter, so the kids simply do not try.

And then you get the objection that came from one of my students, who just failed her math TAKS by one question -- after taking a test with several embedded field test questions. Since those questions didn't count towards her score, isn't it possible that she actually met the standard on the test she took -- only to have enough correct answers excluded from her score to keep her from passing? Isn't it possible that she spent extra time on questions that didn't count, causing her to miss questions that did? I wish I had a good answer for her.

Posted by: Greg at 10:08 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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