Miami Herald's Fred Grimm: Florida flunked the test, failed the kids.

[madfloridian]

Crossposted at Daily Kos. Linked to Twitter

The Miami Herald's Fred Grimm said it very well the last week.

Fred Grimm: Florida flunked the tests and failed the kids

Imagine a 10th grade kid coming into class on test day, already stressing out, knowing his high school graduation hinges on test scores. He tries to log on. He can’t. Or he logs on, begins to take the test, but the computer crashes. Or the server fails. Some kids managed, amid the fits and starts, to finish the test on the allotted day. Others had to return and try again the next day. Some returned to a partially finished test. Others began anew.

Thousands of students in at least three dozen school districts suffered these intermittent computer failures. Yet their scores will be measured against results from schools and districts that weren’t up against these problems. Commissioner Pam Stewart, testifying last week before a state Senate education committee, said that the integrity of the results is dandy. At least I think that’s what she meant when she said, “We are certain that the content of the test is absolutely psychometrically valid and reliable.”

Perhaps Stewart could employ psychometrics to measure the frustration of school teachers, whose raises and perhaps their continued employment hinge on the outcome of this testing fiasco. Test scores belched out by computers that were outfitted with faulty software and breached by hackers — over and over again, according to the DOE — provide the basis for half the teacher performance evaluations. “If nothing is changed in the next 60 days by the Florida Legislature, this mess will provide the baseline for next year’s teacher salaries,” Fedrick Ingram, president of the United Teachers of Dade, told me Wednesday afternoon.

It’s not just the teachers’ unions begging legislators to take a time-out and fix the glitches before students, teachers and schools are subjected to the punitive consequences of unreliable testing. Miami-Dade Schools Superintendent Alberto Carvalho, who called the testing regime “catastrophic,” asked the state for a two-year moratorium before forcing school districts to take these lousy numbers seriously.

He sums it up in one sentence in his last paragraph. He says "The rush job was ordered because it was politically expedient. It was about politics. Not about education."

Girl finished essay, there was no submit button. Essay was lost.

Today I got to see the frustration and anger on a kids face. She had finished her essay and was ready to submit, but there wasn’t a submit button. The test was saved and then paused. Moved to another computer. Logged in and …. Nothing. All her work was gone. Case opened with FSA. The young lady was really angry. Who could blame her? She refused to “rewrite the essay” or even “submit the test” which was now blank. This is where testing has gone too far. How many students have had to deal with this statewide?

From Orlando Sentinel reporter Leslie Postal: Florida’s new online testing system lost the writing exams of more than 300 Central Florida students who took the test this month. Most of the essays have since been recovered, but about 50 remain missing.

.....“The test was not hacked as the attackers never gained access. Since student responses were not accessed, there is no reason not to use the test results,” Meghan Collins, the department’s communications director, wrote in an email.

Collins repeatedly responded to questions about the validity of the tests by saying only that the department was “proud” that 90 percent of students had successfully taken the writing portions of the new assessments as of Friday.

One spokesperson said it was hacked, this one says it was not. I would not be trusting the scores if I had a child taking this test.

When did it become acceptable to boast that 90% of the students finished without problems?

The other 10% matter.

[Historic NY]

1. What ever happened to paper and pencils?

there is too much reliance on the computer.

[madfloridian]

2. The lower grades usually do the bubble stuff.

Trouble is this test is not really testing what they have learned in class. It is setting the goals the reformers want, only no one yet knows what to expect. So much pressure.

[chervilant]

3. "Is our children learning," indeed... n/t

[madfloridian]

4. ....

Learning how to take tests...and whatever else can fit in. If there's time.

[chervilant]

6. I still wish I could teach,

but the corruption in our schools is a pernicious deterrent.

[madfloridian]

5. Shameless kick for Fred Grimm.