Ignorance is not bliss. If American students aren't learning very much in school, it's better to know now than later, argues Robin Berkley, director of education the George W. Bush Institute, on The 74. That's why the federal requirement for annual state achievement tests is "mission-critical."
"Powerful special-interest groups" -- teachers' unions -- are trying to eliminate or weaken state tests, she writes. The Massachusetts Teachers’ Association funded the campaign to drop the state test of English, math and science as a graduation requirement. The test showed embarrassing achievement gaps.
"Without statewide assessments, parents, educators and policymakers lose access to clear, comparable information about student performance," Berkley writes. That makes it harder for parents to "make informed choices about their children’s education."
The Trump administration said it would not cut the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), which measures student achievement, but canceled a NAEP test of the math and reading skills of 17-year-olds, reports Evie Blad on Education Week. The test, which has been given for 50 years, allows for "comparisons of student achievement over decades of shifts in policy and practices."
The decision not to field the test, which was last administered to 17-year-olds in 2012, “will cripple our ability to understand the effectiveness and efficiency of our schools,” said Sean Reardon, a Stanford professor. It's important to know whether 17-year-olds are prepared for college and the workforce, he said.
California's state board of education will vote today on changing how test scores are reported. Currently, the labels are "Standard Exceeded," "Standard Met," "Standard Nearly Met" and "Standard Not Met." The proposal is to adopt NAEP's categories: "Advanced," Proficient," "Basic" and "Below Basic."
An earlier proposal, designed to promote "positivity," was criticized by advocacy groups as misleading in a letter to the state board, reports John Fensterwald in EdSource. "Standards not met" would have been replaced by "Inconsistent," and "Standard Nearly Met" by "Foundational."
“If a student is not at grade level, be direct about that," said Joanna French for Innovate Public Schools. "You cannot address a problem you cannot see.”
Tonya Craft-Perry, a teacher who is active in the Black Parent Network of Innovate Public Schools, said that “’Foundational’ could lead parents to believe their children are doing better than they are. It makes the district and teachers look better, but if a low score requires intervention, a parent needs to know that.”
In the 2023-24 results, a majority of students (53 percent) scored at the two lowest levels in English language arts, and 64.5 percent scored at the lowest levels in math, writes Fensterwald. Students in grades three through eight and grade 11 take the tests, as required by federal law.
Science scores were even worse: 69 percent scored at the two lowest levels. Students take the science exam in fifth and eighth grade, and once in high school.
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