1 ALFIE KOHN TALK AT THE UNIVERSITY OF REGINA MARCH 2014 On Standardized Testing RETRIEVED FROM: https://www.youtube.com/watch?

v=blhh6W4QCoY NOTES COMPLIED BY LISA HOWELL Research shows that Standardized provincial tests are ONLY useful for measuring the size of the homes near the schools and socioeconomic status of the families...you can predict 80% of the variance between schools without knowing what is going on in the classrooms based on how much money the parents make and how big the houses are. It is a standardized test when all children are given the same test with the same conditions BUT what would happen if the scores went up without the demographics changing? There are two possible responses. 1. The Moderate response: So what? That does not mean the teaching or learning improved. 50-80% of increase or decrease in scores are due to having different kids or different environments. The more pressure there is to raise scores, the more likely the game will be played of who takes the test and who doesn't to make the adults look good. How is the game played? -Explicit cheating, erasing scores and legal cheating (teaching to the test) - You can train a kid on how to take a test without ever helping them become better students! And while doing this, you are taking time away from other awesome stuff! - The more time you spend getting kids accustomed to a test or assessment the less valid the results of the assessment are because you are teaching to the test. (Its like giving someone a glass of cold water and then taking their temperature). 2. The Radical response: That is bad news...not only are the higher tests scores meaningless but they are also unfortunate. Think how often you have kids who you know are really good thinkers but don't do well on assessments.

2 **Standardized testing simultaneously over and under estimates students. **** Deeper thinkers- ask questions as they read, go back over, make connections between what they are learning and what the know. Shallow thinkers tend to go for what they think is the right answer. ****There is a correlation between high scores and shallow thinkers vs. deep thinking and lower test scores. ****** WE MUST ASK!!!!! What are we sacrificing for all the time spent on raising test scores? At what cost??? We are turning schools into test prep factories. Parents and Teachers need to be asking: Do we still have: Time for recess? Time for the arts? Our children still engaged in democratic classrooms? Community based learning? Interdisciplinary projects Rich meaningful electives? Do we have a learner centred environment? Some standardized tests are bad and some are horrible. Every hour we spend trying to make students into test takers is an hour not spent engaging students in critical activities. ****Multiple choice Questions******* Designed so that lots of students who understand the ideas are tricked into choosing the wrong answers. You cannot generate a response, or even explain a response so you cannot really get a sense of what kids understand let alone what they can DO with what they understand. A multiple-choice test can be tricky but not authentic. Children can show they understand ideas in conversations but do horribly on tests. Formative assessment does not mean much.... it is a political notion. It does not mean you have improved instruction or learning. SUGGESTIONS 1.Look past the language 2. Educate and organize the parents, as school boards are more likely to listen to

3 parents than educators! Make parents your allies! Educate them to what is going on (myth vs. fact) Organize a committee to educate...involve students! The more we are focused on testing, the less we are focused on learning. Have parents tell stories about kids who have done poorly on these tests and feel like they are dumb. The tests unmotivated them. 3. Make it clear that you, as an educator, are not afraid of being held accountable but let's be clear- accountable for what and to whom? - Never ever confuse high quality schools with scores on a standardized assessment. - THINK- If my classrooms feels like a factory, with students passively listening, working out of textbooks and writing standardized tests and then having to work a second shift on homework despite evidence that homework before high school has ZERO benefit, you should hold my feet to the fire! - Never criticize me for low-test scores or congratulate me for high-test scores. - Hold me accountable for LEARNING AND STUDENT ENGAGEMENT. 4. Even teacher designed tests are typically not a good way to gage thinking that matters...most require kids to memorize facts and spit them out on command. Research shows that the most talented teachers almost never give tests! WHY NOT? 1. Tests measure what matters least...intellectually. 2. They do not need them! Teachers with classrooms that are engaging and democratic and collaborative and problem solving centred, do not need tests! Teachers are watching and listening.... which proficiencies are lacking and who needs help.... why would we stop this learning and have a test? We need to be careful that we are not replicating standardized tests with tests of our own. USE AUTHENTIC ASSESSMENT!!!!! Examples of authentic assessments: -designing bedrooms -restaurants

4 -stores - traffic accident- what happened? Who, when, why

Authentic assessment =Learning in a context and for a purpose!! 5. BEWARE OF turning children into data-if you still talk about data enthusiastically where children are concerned, you may need a crap detector check up. Classrooms are not machines that produce widgets!!! *******If we are to assess children and learning, that is ok- but measurement suggests that we can and should reduce teaching and learning to numerical terms. If children groan when the dismissal bell rings- that is a meaningful indicator of success! If children come home chattering about what they learnt about in class, this is a meaningful indicator of success.... if children read because they want to read- not because they have to- that is a meaningful indicator of success. ******* The more focused we are in measurable outcomes, the more trivial the teacher will become. RUBRICS- data worship! -Less engaged in writing because it is now broken down into little bitty parts... -never give kids a rubric otherwise you are draining the authenticity of the assignments! ********MEASURABLE OUTCOMES MAY BE THE LEAST SIGNIFICANT RESULTS OF LEARNING. *********** Evaluation- A SIMPLE TABLE VS. Good signs Students achievements Real Children Possible reasons to worry Student achievement Data

LETS BE CLEAR- progressive education cares about excellence! WE DO WANT to Recognize and promote and nourish the kind of intellectual excellence that is not captured by data and indeed is undermined by a focus on data!

6. BEWARE OF GRADE LEVEL EXPECTATIONS*******beware of people who talk about expectations for kids about age and grade level************ Ex. Reading at grade level suggests a relentless march through a predictable pattern of expectation even though children develop at vastly different rates... Act of branding it as a problem that requires extra intervention may be more harmful. Notion of grade level is completely arbitrary...grade level is based on what Most kids can do but not everybody can...it's like saying, "ok kids line up for lunch and I want you all to be in the front part of the line." 7. STANDARDIZED CURRICULUM...PRESCRIPTIVE!!! A standardized Curriculum is Horrifying because all of this suggests a degree of standardization that means who your kids are this year, what their interests are, don.t really matter very much because everybody needs to learn about rocks and minerals in gr. 4. In terrific schools, each classroom should be doing different things... THINK:I will not be doing the same curriculum each year because I have DIFFERENT KIDS!!!!! Students should be able to inform the curriculum...teachers need to be flexible with it...and create interdisciplinary units based in the students wishes. Great teachers go with the students learning and great governments support teachers to do this. Amazing teachers spend most of their time actively ignoring or subverting the curriculum... 8. HOW WELL THEY ARE DOING VS WHAT ARE THEY DOING? Educational psychologists have discovered that there is a significant difference between a classroom/school that has a focus on how well kids are doing- and in classrooms/schools where the focus is on WHAT KIDS ARE DOING. Achievement and performance vs. making sense of ideas and learning. We end up making kids less engaged when they are trying to get a 4 on a rubric.

6 What is a kids goal when they come to school in the morning? LEARNING GOALS 1. Is there a different way to solve this math problem? 2. Why do the plants in the window grow more than the plants in the closet? 3. Why did the character in my book decide to run away? Vs. Goals of achievement I WANT TO SCORE A ONE HUNDRED PERCENT ON MY TEST. Learning question vs. Achievement Questions: Teach Parents! How did you decide what you wanted to write about? Did you know your ending before you started? Vs. What did you get on the paper? 9. NEVER PUT GRADES ON INDIVIDUAL ASSIGNMENTS. Learning is about making sense of ideas from the inside out.........projects that are centred around ideas and questions... Classrooms should be about thinking deeply, questions that matter and when the kids have lots of say about what and when they are leaning and why. ******If our goal is to create excited and enthusiastic learners we must never confuse that with testing******** We need to create progressive democratic classrooms that use authentic assessments... We need to rethink what we are doing in our classrooms.