More testing: A science test added to deny diploma

[Moses]

Science Test Seen Mandatory for Class of 2010

How many ways can corporate America deny a high school diploma? Let us count the ways.

BOSTON --Today's seventh-graders would have to pass a state-mandated science test to be eligible for a high school diploma, under a proposal by Education Commissioner David Driscoll.

Driscoll has asked the Board of Education to give preliminary approval Tuesday to his revised MCAS science testing schedule, under which the class of 2010 would be the first that must pass a science exam.

The science test would be in addition to existing English and math MCAS tests which are graduation requirements.

Driscoll hoped to require the class of 2009 to pass science, but his new timeline allows for more preparation.

A Department of Education analysis found 90 percent of students take either biology, chemistry, physics or engineering/technology courses by the end of their sophomore year.

Biology was the dominant course, with 90 percent taking it by the end of 10th grade.

Three-quarters of students don't take a chemistry course by the end of their sophomore year, and just 18 percent take a physics course, the analysis showed. Only 2 percent take an engineering/technology course.

However, students need only pass a test in one discipline: biology, chemistry, physics, or engineering/technology.

"In general, the data suggest that if we notify schools of the requirement in the near future, they will have sufficient time to make any curricular and instructional changes that may be necessary," Driscoll wrote in a memo to the board.

Fifth- and eighth-graders now take the science component of the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System tests. Last year, 31 percent of eighth-graders failed the science test.

— Associated Press
Boston Globe
2005-03-28
www.boston.com/news/education/k_12/mcas/articles/2005/03/28/science_test_seen_mandatory_for_class_of_2010/

[Moses]

Proposed Massachusetts Science Graduation Test Will Hurt Students, Narrow the Curriculum, Not Help the Economy

For immediate release March 29, 2005

For more information, contact Monty Neill 617-864-4810

The proposal offered by Commissioner David Driscoll to require students to pass a science test in order to earn a diploma from a public school in Massachusetts was sharply criticized by FairTest (the National Center for Fair & Open Testing).

"If implemented, this proposal will result in far fewer high school graduates," said FairTest co-director Monty Neill, Ed.D. "Children of color and low-income children will be most hurt because they too often lack access to certified science teachers, as well as to laboratories and texts. The state has no plan to meet these huge gaps in learning opportunities. The Board of Education continues to put accountability on the backs of our children. Since dropouts earn less and are more likely to end up unemployed and in prison, this will hurt, not help, the state's economy, contrary to the assertions of Governor Romney."

Dr. Neill added that the Massachusetts Coalition for Authentic Reform in Education (CARE) had reviewed the previous high school science test and found it an unacceptably poor measure of science learning. "All but about two of the multiple-choice items asked students to name or identify a concept, such as photosynthesis. The test did not measure if the students understood or could use the concept. Already Jim Peyser has indicated it will be OK to just have pencil-and-paper science tests. Across the nation, such tests lead to rote drill and kill instruction that fails to help students learn the heart of science – inquiry, conducting and analyzing experiments, grasping science concepts, and applying knowledge to science and to social issues. Dumbing down science instruction to pass a standardized test will not help students succeed in college and will not help the economy." Neill is also on the CARE steering committee.

"Massachusetts will produce fewer graduates, graduates who only know what can be measured by simplistic tests in three subjects," Neill concluded.

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-- For more information, see www.fairtest.org and www.parentscare.org




— News Release
Fair Test
2005-03-29

[Moses]

Critics urge state to halt plans for science test requirement


Scientists, teachers, and a group of lawmakers are urging the state Board of Education to shelve or delay a plan to require the class of 2010 to pass standardized science tests to graduate.

A group, which calls itself Massachusetts Coalition for Authentic Reform in Education, today plans to announce its opposition, arguing that standardized tests will detract from the hands-on experiments that are crucial to science instruction.

The group is a mix of university scientists, teachers, and others who oppose standardized tests. Separately, 27 lawmakers plan to send a letter to the state urging a delay of the science test requirement for fear that students do not have time to prepare.

Science was always intended to be a graduation requirement, along with foreign languages and history, as a part of the 1993 Education Reform Act. But the state Board of Education has not set a date for science testing. Pressured by Governor Mitt Romney to act, the board plans to vote next month to make passing a science test a graduation requirement, beginning with the class of 2010.

The group of scientists and teachers want the state to halt the plan and focus resources on lab instruction instead of test preparation.

''If you're in Cape Cod, how do you teach about the aquasystem? You go to the seashore. That can't be on a standardized test that's written in some other state and scored by computer," said Jonathan King, a professor of molecular biology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a critic of standardized tests. ''So what happens is, you drop the field trip, you drop the real experiments, and you simply take the previous year's test and start drilling kids for the test."

But Education Commissioner David P. Driscoll said the critics were merely repeating the same fears long voiced by MCAS opponents.

''They put a science spin on it, but the same nervous Nellies that didn't like MCAS in the first place are back at it again," he said.

''We had the same problem with English and math. The sky was going to fall, the dropout rate was going to go up, all these kids were going to be denied their diplomas," Driscoll said.

''The fact of the matter is, we go at this very logically. What we ask these kids to know and to do will be minimal, as it is in English and math."

Students have shown dramatic improvement since the annual MCAS tests were launched in 1998, alleviating some fears about the test while increasing some concerns that schools have been focusing their instruction on passing MCAS. Ninety-five percent of the class of 2003 passed the test and 96 percent of the class of 2004 succeeded. [Global Capital's edu-propagandist for NYTimesCo types up the educrat's press release for us-- she doesn't mention that in fact the drop out rate in Mass DID increase and that the pass rate includes only those who bothered to continue w/ school since the test makes graduatiion for so many insurmountable. ]

Last year's results showed that four out of five sophomores passed the MCAS on their first try -- an increase from 75 percent in 2003 and 68 percent in 2001.

Fifth and eighth-graders now take science tests. In January, Governor Mitt Romney pushed the Board of Education to begin requiring the tests, saying high school students should pass one of four exams in biology, chemistry, physics, or technology/engineering before they graduate. This week, students are taking pilot tests in each of those subjects, but since the tests are still being honed, the students will not get the results, said education department spokeswoman Heidi Perlman.

The board has asked for public comment on making the science test a graduation requirement; depending upon the feedback, he expected the board would make it effective for the class of 2010. Students would begin taking the tests a few years before scores would count.

The state's schedule for the test would change if the passing rates are too low in 2006 and 2007, before scores would count, Driscoll said.

''If there's anything that concerns us, then I would recommend that we delay it," he said.

Representative Alice Hanlon Peisch, a Wellesley Democrat who wrote a letter expressing some lawmakers' concerns, said she believes students currently are not prepared well enough to succeed.

''I'm not necessarily averse to it sometime in the future," said Peisch, a former member of the Wellesley School Committee.

Joseph O'Sullivan, president of Brockton Education Association, who signed onto the science educators' letter, said schools don't get enough funding to meet the new requirements.

He also said that new immigrants are at a disadvantage in the high-stakes test.

''How would you like to go to Japan and take a test in Japanese that determines what you do for the rest of your life?" he asked.

As a science teacher for 19 years, O'Sullivan based more than half of students' grades on their lab reports because he wanted to be sure they could apply what they learned to experiments. He said a standardized test is an inadequate measure and that students who fail will unfairly be penalized for life.

— Stephanie Ebbert
Boston Globe
2005-05-26
tinyurl.com/bdubn

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Anne Wheelock has done important research in Massachusetts showing that the high standards and bar on social promotion is pushing kids out of school earlier. They used to drop out in high school; now they drop out in 7th grade. The middle school drop out rate has jumped 300 percent in the past five years. Wheelock says the increase corresponds to the sharp hike in the number of students retain in grade because of tougher promotion policies. Wheelock told a Boston reporter,  "There is no excuse for

having any 16-year-olds in middle school at all, but this is a crisis Boston creates through a combination of high stakes testing policies, rigid responses to kids at risk and indifference to the most vulnerable kids."

 I wonder if the people in charge of these oppressive policies consider what will happen to these kids. I wonder if the business leaders pushing this policy and their political cronies have any notion of the way society will pay for refusing to educate these 7th graders, for pushing them out. The cost will be horrendous.