High-Stakes Testing and the Myth of the Texas Miracle in Education
Angela Valenzuela
Associate Professor, University of Texas, Austin
30 April 2004: TTU College of Education Jones lecture
Wrote book" Substractive Schooling"
was involved in a court case against the state of Texas, involving limited
English profient learners
- found in study that these learners were under-evaluated/assessed
concern: state testing system was misrepresenting the performance and abilities
of those students
when students end up in middle school and high school from Mexico often they are
not supported and provided services adequately
- through research was able to demonstrate there is a relatively high achieving
group (can read, write, think, many have had ethics courses) yet are subjected
to a significantly dumbed down curriculum because the view is they have to learn
English first
- so a lot of skills are lost in that time
- many immigrant children report that they used to know math, for instance
with respect to "the Texas miracle" and high stakes testing
- this sub-population is consisitently overlooked, it is growing at the highest
rate in our state and nationallyy
- they are very neglected with respect to any aspect of assessment
EXIT level is so language dependent it can't possibly represent the skills and
talents we have in our school system
did a study at Stanford on assimilation in the Bay area schools
- immmigrant students were outperforming others
- wanted to test these hypotheses about assimilation in Houston
-- found in sample of about 281 students in population of about 2000, also had
lots of qualitative data, found this pattern of immigrant achievement held up
only when kids were in the regular curriculum
-- not for honors track
some assumptions about assimilation are very negative
- idea that urban youth will all become hoodlums
- in popular press: assimilation promotes adversarial groups and negative
achievement
-- others find this is really mediated by the quality of the curriculum
-- if you are in the honors track you will have really devoted teachers, smaller
class sizes, networking with others in extracurricular activities, etc.
- school was about 45% immigrant, 55% native born, was no statistical difference
between students placed in that track
-- that eliminated the differences
-- the role the school structure plays in mediating these outcomes really should
not be underestimated (this is not taken into consideration with these press
reports concerning downward assimilation)
Maldev trial as a scholar and researcher gave me the entire file for the state
- let me see what I hadn't seen before
- behaviors at the ground level of schooling has a lot to do with how the
testing system is setup
Linda Neil at Rice was a collaborator with me on this
- her book: "Contradictions of Reform" - is a chapter that looks at the
evolution of the accountability system in Texas going back to the Perot years,
relationship of teacher organizations
We now have a power structure that congradulates itself on the good job it has
done for education in Texas
- these people are NOT open to critique even when it comes to research
- we
Book "Leaving Children Behind" comes out Oct 2nd, has latest data on Texas
accountability system
- in 1 chapter, Linda Neil really looks at TAAS and takes the rhetoric to task
political goals of the left have been appropriated by the right
- by proclimation that is now happening at the national level
-- if you really look at the interests which are being served and met, you can't
be to comfortable with this
-- Linda Neil looks at high school completion rates, ACT/SAT/TASP tests, you can
look at anything and you look at all correlations and can conclude that the only
thing going up in Texas are the state test scores
- 93-94 was a key time because that was when perverse incentives were written
into law that marginalize both curriculum and children
-- system of rewards and punishments
in a good district you are not likely to challenge it because you don't profit
from it
- if you are in a "bad district" you don't have legitimacy to criticize it
Houston ISD finally said they are going to start retaining high schoolers
- reason is why should we hold them back for 10th because
- federal legislation requires that at least 90% of the population is being
tested
No one seems to care (publicaly) that the Texas Miracle was the "Texas Fraud"
Texans for Quality Assessment group is a lot of organizations
- viewed as "the detractors" - a marginal group criticizing the accountability
system
- superintendents and administrators have not come out against this
-- they are somewhat victims of this system
- Where have you heard publically that administrators need to be instructional
leaders
Klinker: lynchpin the movement may focus on is "educatioinal rights"
software program: "triand"-- aggregates all the way down to the classroom level,
what scores are by objective by student
- this is going to happen, the legislature in Texas is likely going to mandate
this with the rationale that we have a dropout tracking system
-- one of the people developing this developed Internet Explorer for Microsoft
- this will have data in real time
one concern: they will be able to track back to the graduates of our programs,
both teachers and principals
- so based on this they will be able to justify certain moves against higher
education
- looking for causual relationships with higher education, to take action
against certain colleges of education, in areas of educational leadership and
C&I
Idea is they want to get rid of 2 teacher education programs in Texas (not sure
which one)
at least at the level of the school for the length of a student's career you can
digitize and upload examples of all their work that they have created
me: this sounds like a statewide electronic portfolio system
this could really serve the purposes of equity
Beginning in fall 2004 we as educational researchers will have access to this
- cost now is $1 per student
In Houston when there was a new superintendent, people would adopt divide and
conquer strategies
- Rod Paige appointment was a closed deal that violated open meetings act
- challenged the Ron Paige appointment on the basis that he was not qualified
(he wrote a dissertation related to football, he was a line coach)
Don Adam's book describes our hispanic coalition as the major barrier at that
time
Projecting into the future: I feel a lot of optimism because I see things coming
together
- the national policy will help us as states respond in increasing numbers to
federal legislation
- on NEA website, 27 states are are not complying in full with federal
guidelines for one reason or not
I lobbied against NCLB in Washington, it was frightening
- they didn't know what was happening, unless there are dead bodies on the track
this thing is going forward
-
this session we do have a chance
- it is payback time for James Liginer (one of the most powerful people behind
educational politics)
-- his work led to 3 new state board members that are very conservative,
pro-vouchers
most the legislators are not pro-voucher, but the most powerful people in
positions of leadership in the
- this is class warfare and greed
- Bill Bennett was testifying for prime charter initiative (he would benefit for
this: K-12 Inc)
- in Florida: very strong movement against vouchers
-- they bailed out the Edison project with their money, that was retaliation
against the teachers by the governor because of their position on vouchers
Burley: had lunch with state board member who got accidentally invited to a
conference on the future of education, and that a particular brand of
conservatives must destroy colleges of education and then public schools
- they were trying to position themselves to take advantage of this new era:
have stock in education corporations, people are already making plans for how to
exploit what will happen
Where is the last place where money is concentrated: in public education system
- we have had a breakdown in the generational compact
- now it is "each to his own" - part of a market based, global economic system
that views no need for a welfare system
-- view that we need highly efficient system: relate as consumers not as
communities of interest
-- we are to choose our schools like we choose a pair of pants or a home
-- now you see test scores on realtor websites right next to house info
this is also an attempt to destroy the democratic party, and maybe democracy as
a whole
lay people who hear these things it is like the dots get connected, they say
"oh....."
- I want someone to correct me if I am wrong, but I have not been corrected
Morgan-Fleming:
- anytime you have this much money going around, corruption and fraud should be
expected
- in vouchers low achieving struggling children would be a liability
The Enron model of accountability
You also need to educate the press: meet with the editorial boards of local
papers
we are imprisoned by the current framework to an extent
- interesting we never get breakdowns on stats for gender
- it has been suggested as a partial solution to come up with a statistic that
explains "opportunity to learn" (who has lab equipment, who does not)
- that still does not provide the qualitative story
- we should get rid of the public reporting system in newspapers because that
ends up being the driver for the system (Ch 39 of education code)
- we are moving toward a marketized conception of accountability
-- teacher associations are dealing with bread and butter issues: this leaves a
gap for someone to ariculate a professional model
We need to reprofessionalize our state: policy and leadership
- push for multiple criterai legislation
- next step: eliminate those drivers of teach to the test, marginalize
curriculum and students, by sunsetting certain aspects of the code so we can
move to another model
- we need to define that model, however!
Maybe we can look at Rhode Island
- district has option of using test scores
- but if used, can only be 10%
- RI, Maine, Illinois, and Nebraska looking at assessment from an educator's
perspective and turning it into policy
NY just approved social promotion
Issue is really the use of the test, not the test itself
-
My idea: the challenge before us is really to cast a vision / define the model
(what does outstanding education in the 21st century really look like)
Right now we are not even talking about the test, because we don't want to be
labeled "anti-test"
- just like college admissions: we want the test to just be 1 component
Benavides: we are seeing districts actually hold pep rallies for the test
Burley: some studies show lesser endowed districts spend most of their time in
test prep, more endowed districts spend less time
- the gap seems to be even wider if you look at the richness of the curriculum,
the types of experiences, etc.
Mendez-Morse: book on Equity and Excellence about
- criticism of book is that the study is only based on 3% of districts in Texas
Good analogy to use: some people have been moved out of the basement to the 1st
floor
- but maybe a lot of people have been moved out of the school, that was possibly
the reason for improvement
- what is the cost: teachers sacrified, curriculum, etc.
One of the self-professed architects of the accountability system has started to
figure it out
- we did not guarantee excellence
- we can't get to post-Algebraic understandings with MC tests
standards based reform really got morphed into a punishing system
- goals of the left were appropriated
- in fianance equity we are arguing that funding should be tied to performance,
you should be able to get the resources to implement the reform, not that the
test should be the reform
we are teaching kids that grades are
Mendez-Morse: this brings to mind Malcom Gladwell's book "The Tipping Point"
- how change happens in different arenas
- maybe we are at a tipping point for educational change right now
Burley: the conservatives ursurp metaphors that are very deep within our
language that most people buy into
- one of the biggest problems we took on was critical theory / Marxist theory:
no one could understand what we were talking about, but
- the linguist discussing here used Willie Horton: we need to understand deeply
what drives people within our culture
-- those images are powerful and force change
We must expose the agenda
Burley: Bill Moyers in show "Now" was talking about commercialization of
education
- NPR also had a report recently about young man George W Bush used in
convention, saved
- conservatives know how
Advice on advocacy:
work through our Dean and institutional channels
- if I am called to testify, I work with either omnibudsman or someone else to
make them aware of what is going on, time, etc
- say I am testifying as an individual, not on behalf of the university
- when you testify you can testify as an individual or organizationally
Cincinniti study of Ogbu
- culminates and reflects a lot of his earliest thought about ghetto schooling
- didn't do an institutional analysis, if he had spent time in schools studying
them it could have led to a different conclusion
- really reflects his personal biography as an immigrant
- what it comes down to is he would really like students to take school more
seriously
- concludes that students are in need of serious repair instead of the
institutions