TESTING TO GRADE TEACHERS: A DANGEROUS OBSESSION

Article Reflection

http://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2011/05/30/testing-students-to-grade-teachers/execessive-testing-is-a-dangerous-obsession

Darling-Hammond, L. (2011, May 30). Testing to Grade Teachers: A Dangerous

Obsession. The New York Times Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com

            I have selected this opinion piece from the New York Times because it covers such topics as the merit of testing to ensure teacher accountability, the degree of testing that is beneficial as opposed to disadvantageous to student learning, and varying forms of effective assessment.  Darling-Hammond critiques the overemphasis on testing in U.S. education, and her position is especially clear in the closing remark of her piece: “At the end of the day, stronger learning will result from better teaching, not more testing, as leading notions having long understood.”

            I believe that Darling-Hammond utilizes strong points and evidence to underline the weaknesses of the U.S. emphasis on testing or standardization.  Darling-Hammond points to top scorers such as Finland and Korea, which we’ve examined in class, to highlight that the U.S. policymakers’ turn to testing in order to cure ills within the school system is misguided.  Korea and Finland are top scorers on the Program for International Assessment, and their success may be attributed to the elimination of crowded testing. Darling-Hammond further underscores the fallacy of the U.S.’s over-reliance on standardization by arguing that “American students, who spend weeks of every school year from 3^rd grade to 11^th grade bubbling in answers on high-stakes tests, currently perform well bellow those of other industrialized countries in math and science, and have more trouble writing, analyzing and defending their views, because they have much less practice in doing so.”   

Many of our readings and discussions, particularly those which have focussed on moving to the Fourth Way, have underlined the fallacy of this approach to improving student learning and quality of instruction.  The article by Alma Harris (2011) entitled, “Reforming systems: Realizing the Fourth Way” strongly upholds Darling-Hammond’s position that the heavily standardized system of the U.S. does not produce better results, or enhance the development of learning or skills.  Harris (2011) argues that such imposed policies are ineffective in the long-term as they are based on government needs to acquire quick solutions in the short-term; “the time rate for change in terms of policy makers and politicians is much shorter than the time for real, sustainable change in schools and school systems.”  The poor results of U.S. students on an international level, which Darling-Hammond notes, seems to verify Harris’s (2011) argument that short-term approaches based on “soulless standardization” do not provide a way of “securing higher standards and better outcomes” (p. 162).  The reforms have not produced results because U.S. policy makers are fixated with the “nature, type, and focus of change,” as opposed to the outcomes of change, or the children themselves (Harris, 2011, p. 161).

            I believe that Darling-Hammond makes a compelling argument in her statement that the current desire to attach tests to teacher evaluation will make matters worse: tests are error-prone and do not adequately measure teachers; they result in teachers teaching to the test; and they may cause teachers to avoid special education and ESL students whose learning is not adequately measured by testing.  As shown in Darling-Hammond opinion piece, a system dependent on testing leads to the distrust and de-professionalization of teachers, as curricular programs become “teacher-proof” (Harris, p. 161).   Sahlberg (2010) argues that such test-driven systems overlook the broader aims of learning, and lead to a suspicion of teachers and schools. According to Salberg (2010), the presence of trust does not guarantee improved educational performance, but its absence signals failure” (p. 53)

            The focus on tests in the U.S. has not only failed to improve the learning or international results of American children, but has ultimately led to an absence of trust in teachers and the school system as a whole.  An absence of trust in teachers is a mark of failure in an education system. Darling-Hammond thus makes a strong case against the U.S. obsession with testing in order to grade teachers.

Works Referenced

Harris, A. (2011). Reforming systems: Realizing the Fourth Way. Journal of Educational 
                Change. (12), 159-171.  DOI: 10.007/s10883-011-9156-z

Sahlber, P. (2010). Rethinking Accountability in a Knowledge Society.  Journal of

            Educational Change. (11), 45-61. DOI: 10.007/s10883-088-90898-2.