(California) suspends use of test scores to measure school quality
Source: Los Angeles Times
State education officials moved Wednesday to dramatically recast California's system to evaluate school quality by suspending the use of standardized test scores as the major yardstick in favor of a broader array of measures.
The State Board of Education unanimously voted to suspend for a year the Academic Performance Index, which is based on standardized test scores and widely used to evaluate a school's performance in boosting academic achievement. Since the state is rolling out new tests this year, board members said they wanted at least two years of results to judge school progress.
Amid a national backlash against the overuse of test scores, board members also voted to shift from a school quality measure based solely on exam results to one that would include other factors. Possible additions include student attendance, dropout rates, suspensions, English proficiency, access to educational materials and performance in college-level classes.
"We have an opportunity to hit the reset button," board member Patricia A. Rucker said at the Sacramento meeting.
Read more: http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-test-scores-suspended-20150311-story.html
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Good for everyone who fought hard for this and best for the students! California leads the way!
Get the test corporations out of education!
Get the e-voting corporations out of our vote-counting system, too!
Get ALL the corporations out of government! May the Commons be reborn!
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A note on standardized tests: I'm old but I had a taste of current multiple choice testing recently, for a certification. And I can tell you that it's crap. If this is what our children are being subjected to--STUPID questions, STUPIDLY phrased, TRICK questions (twisted wording) that mean NOTHING as to the test-taker's knowledge, STUPID multiple choice answers that never cover all possibilities, STUPID-MAKING formats, NO CREATIVITY ALLOWED, NO RESPECT for the thinking person, TIME becoming a tyrant--as if thinking something through slowly and carefully means that you're dumb, test-taker tricks becoming the primary goal, not to mention ILLITERATE questions and answers, full of errors--then what can we expect from the young humans who are treated this way? Conformity or rebellion. The rise of the clever-at-being-stupid and the exit of the honest and the true!
Yikes! I was appalled at the wretched quality of the test I had to take. If this is the norm--and I suspect that it is, due to how passionately teachers, students and parents hate the tyranny of standarized, corporatized, test-crazy mis-education--we can expect a dysfunctional society, for one thing. And I am so glad that California's state board listened to public opinion and did the right thing! Wow! We don't see that often these days in our society.
Also, high praise for the teachers, students and parents who accomplished this wondrous feat!
