assessment

http://www.projo.com/opinion/contributors/content/CT_regents4_05-04-08_E...

Lisa Guisbond: Resist the testing bandwagon

01:00 AM EDT on Sunday, May 4, 2008

LISA GUISBOND

CAMBRIDGE

THE RHODE ISLAND Board of Regents will discuss on May 15 proposed changes to the state’s high-school-graduation requirements that may increase the weight placed on state test scores. The board should think twice before going down this road.

Testing Our Children:

A Report Card on State Assessment Systems

Introduction

Executive Summary:
Preliminary Findings March 2004

[ FairTest copied this from another website, failed to capture the title, the file is no longer on the website that is noted at the end of this document.]

This Executive Summary of Preliminary Findings incorporates
the June 2003 Preliminary Findings. All data are for the 2000-2001
school year.

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Proposition 227 and Skyrocketing Test
Scores: An Urban Legend from California

Stephen Krashen
The Journal of the Texas Association for Bilingual Education (in
press)

SELECTED ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY ON
LANGUAGE MINORITY ASSESSMENT
1995

Ascher, C. "Testing Bilingual Students: Do We Speak
the Same Language?" PTA Today (March 1991, pp. 7-9).

Discusses cultural and linguistic bias issues in bilingual
testing, options for administering tests to bilingual students,
and problems associated with these options. Includes a short
description of an alternative, "dynamic assessment."

Deborah Meier

Alfie Kohn

All of us, as parents and citizens, want to make sure our schools
are doing a good job and our children are learning. Unfortunately,
the MCAS exams-and the "tougher standards" philosophy
that they reflect-not only fail to provide meaningful information
but actually interfere with the goal of providing students with
a high-quality education.

By TAMAR LEWIN
March 18, 2002
Peter DaSilva for The New York Times

PITTSBURG, Calif. — Kyle Stofle, a 10th grader at Pittsburg
High School who has dyslexia and virtually unreadable handwriting,
has been in special education since second grade. But Kyle, 15,
has always expected to get his diploma along with the rest of
the class of 2004.

As we enter into a national debate on school improvement and greater public school accountability with a heavy emphasis on testing, educators are concerned that a solitary focus on testing ignores important opportunities to help all students achieve at high levels. Overreliance on testing could have the unintended consequence of hurting more than helping.

February 28, 2003
 
Dear Representative: