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Editorial: Tests or no tests, students need to achieve

Sat., May 30, 2015

Testing or learning?

Somehow in the political whirl of education reform, the notion that this is an either/or proposition has taken hold. As if the measurement of progress is an impediment to gaining greater knowledge. As if dumping standardized testing would return us to a yesteryear of high achievement.

Increasingly, parents are choosing to hold their children out of testing as states transition into the Common Core standards while still grappling with the overbearing annual requirements of the No Child Left Behind Act. A congressional update of that federal law is long overdue.

Parents can’t be blamed for the confusion, because it has been a bewildering journey from the original WASL to end-of-course exams and other tests, such as the HSPE and MSP. That’s not to mention alternatives to these tests that come with their own trainload of acronyms.

What many people don’t understand is that some tests are mandated annually by the feds, some are being phased out and the Smarter Balance assessment, which is bearing the brunt of criticism from the opt-out movement, is being phased in. Today’s students are caught in this transition.

Before the rise in testing, half of the students meeting high school graduation requirements needed remedial courses in college. They were neither college-ready nor job-ready. That’s not the standard of learning we can afford to return to.

There’s no question that the state needs fewer tests, but what it doesn’t need is lawmakers pandering or panicking by calling for the elimination of testing.

In the final hours of a special session in which lawmakers were supposed to finalize the budget, the House revived and passed a bill that aims to simplify the testing regimen by dumping all of the alternative assessments. Instead, students who failed to pass particular tests would be required to take more courses in those subjects to earn a diploma. And just like that, graduation requirements would be lowered.

To its credit, the bill addresses one test that does need to be dumped, and quick. About 2,000 students statewide are at risk of not graduating in the coming weeks because they didn’t pass a biology exam that was ill-conceived from the outset and is being phased out anyway. The state does need a credible science assessment, but not one that covers a single subject to the detriment of others.

The State Board of Education agrees that the biology assessment should be dropped, but it does not agree to the elimination of alternative assessments under HB 2214. The Senate did not take up the bill before the special session ended on Thursday. The Legislature should drop the biology-test requirement and call for a study of the rest.

A full review of standardized testing is in order, but lawmakers must move slowly and thoughtfully. Plus, they need to remember that the call for accountability addressed a legitimate concern: underachievement.