Someone just invented the wheel
Big Education is at it again. Seeing the failure of standardized testing regimes, a new “non-profit” has issued a report on what states can do to “fix” the problem of students struggling in the classroom.
The report explores different approaches states are taking to develop “through-year assessments,” which administer multiple tests throughout the school year and aggregate results into a single summative score. Through-year assessments, they say, aim to better align testing with instruction, provide more useful data to educators, and change perceptions about testing time and burden. The report profiles 18 models in 13 states. Key design choices include: assessing all standards or just a subset each test; aligning tests with scope and sequence; connecting tests to curriculum; using just the final test or aggregating for a summative score. Louisiana is connecting tests to curricula to promote engagement and equity. Montana and others are aligning to scope and sequence. Most states assess all standards on each test.
Might there be a problem?
Looking just below the surface, whilst the goal of more closely connecting testing and instruction is positive, the report's focus is very technical without discussing broader issues of inequities in the education system. There is no discussion of how standardized testing has historically disadvantaged students of colour, for example, and whether these new assessment models can mitigate or exacerbate those issues. The report does not analyze if these models will impact opportunity gaps and racial disparities in achievement and special education identification. States should engage communities of colour in the assessment development process to ensure the assessments reflect cultural contexts. But they won’t.
Digging deeper, the report fails to question the broader purposes of standardized testing to sort students and maintain class hierarchies. The through-year models shift time and resources towards new testing systems without analyzing costs or benefits. There is no discussion of how these models serve capitalist interests like producing compliant future workers, or opening education services to private testing companies. Can capitalism save us from the problems created by capitalism?
Neither does the report address accommodations or modifications for disabled students or analyze ableism in standardized testing. Frequent standardized testing is particularly detrimental for disabled students. States should consider exemptions for disabled students from frequent testing requirements. Assessments should be redesigned to provide flexible options that measure learning in ways not restricted by disability. Universal design for learning principles should be incorporated so assessments are designed for accessibility from the start rather than retrofitting accommodations after the fact.
I’m struggling with these issues, and more, in the status quo. I don’t think we need these greedy profiteers to come in and siphon off funds for their “solutions” to problems they helped to create, furthering their enormous bottom lines.