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From the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:
Early testing gains foothold at MPS
Panel supports yearly standardized exams despite protests
By Joe Williams
of the Journal Sentinel staff
Last Updated: May 10, 2000
Despite strong opposition from teachers, education professors and some parents,
Milwaukee Public Schools officials pushed Tuesday to annually test students as young as
kindergartners to measure what they're learning.
Billed as a plan to provide more useful information about academic performance earlier
in a student's career, the School Board's Innovation/School Reform committee voted 3-2
Tuesday to begin a new standardized assessment system for the district's 100,000 students
as soon as next spring.
The proposed system would eliminate some "performance assessments" now used
in older grades, giving students standardized exams every year to measure academic
progress.
It also would require frequent assessments by teachers in the classrooms to determine
whether students are learning at levels considered standard by the district.
"We have to have a more systemic and available method to evaluate what is working
and not working in schools," said board member John Gardner, who said he disagreed
with most of the comments of a long line of teachers and parents who spoke at a hearing on
the plan.
Gardner said that with the exception of the district's writing exams, the current
system of testing has failed to improve learning at most of the schools in the district.
He said the district is "finding out what a student's academic skill levels are far,
far too late."
The plan was extremely unpopular with the several dozen teachers and parents who
attended the meeting, many of whom booed after the vote. One parent warned School Board
President Bruce Thompson, who spoke in favor of the proposal but is not a member of the
committee, to make a big pot of coffee on Saturday morning because there would be protests
outside his house.
"I don't want you to test my children to death, I want you to teach my children to
death," said board member Charlene Hardin, who voted against the plan, along with Don
Werra.
Joining Gardner in support of the plan were board members Joe Dannecker and Ken
Johnson. The full School Board will vote later this month.
Under the plan, intended to measure "value added" learning over the course of
each year, kindergartners would be given standardized reading tests. Beginning in first
grade, students would be tested each year in reading, writing, English and language arts,
and math.
Third graders now are the youngest students to participate in wide-scale standardized
testing, and many national education groups have frowned on the reliability of testing
before third grade.
"It's very controversial," said Mike Czerwinski, an administrator who
presented the plan Tuesday. "In all of the discussions we had, the issue of at what
age we start giving the tests was by far the most energized discussion."
Czerwinski said studies were conflicting about the effect of testing on young students.
"I think you'll find research that says it is harmful and some that says it is not so
harmful," he said.
Addressing concerns raised by Hardin that the district would be viewed as a test-driven
district, Czerwinski said, "I would prefer to look at it as a learning-driven
district rather than assessment-driven."
"We're not talking about simply giving more tests, we're talking about using the
tests differently, and I think that is a significant point," he said.
While some opponents cited arguments about testing methodology and reliability, others
raised questions such as whether the tests would be used to improperly judge teachers,
whether young students could handle the pressure of testing, how much it would cost the
financially strapped district and whether schools should have had more input into the
drafting of the plan.
"I don't think all of these tests are leading to better teaching and better
learning," said Andy Moss, a teacher at MacDowell Montessori Elementary School.
Robert Peterson, a teacher at La Escuela Fratney, urged the board not to test young
children and to take more time to seek teachers' input on the change.
"Right now, the people who are going to be your foot soldiers and implement this
aren't on board," Peterson said. He also complained that the district's proposed
budget already assumed the costs for the plan, suggesting a decision had been made without
public input.
Part of the new plan would align the district's testing and promotions policies with
the state's. Fourth- and eighth-graders, for example, would not be able to advance in
grade unless they met one of three criteria, one of which is standardized test scores.
There are no plans to hold students back in other grades based on how they score.
Tuesday marked the first chance that any board members or the public had to weigh in on
the plan. One of the selling points for approving it right away was that it needed to be
done now to begin it next year.
Appeared in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel on May 10, 2000.
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