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WPCNR STATE OF THE STATE EDUCATION 2025. By John F. Bailey. December 1, 2024: A WVOX Radio Commentary from 2013 UPDATED TO TODAY:
Editor’s Note: I delivered this commentary on WVOX RADIO 1460 “VOX POPULI” on the T.J. MCCORMICK Morning program in the fall of 2023 after assessment tests were first administered. It deserves remembering how badly the first assessment tests in the spring of 2013 were. Sadly with the suspension of assessments during covid and now last year’s resumption, we have no idea where the State Education Department on Regents Exams or assessments or how the new administration in Washington is going on national testing. As I see it we are now gone back in time to where we were. Interested parties in education and who have no idea what it is to teach think they want to change curriculums to teach “what they think” needs to be taught, conflicting with the same problems we parents faced in 2013. Here were my thoughts then.
DO YOU KNOW T.J. (McCormick) THAT LAST SPRING’S LIVE ADMINISTERING OF THE CONTROVERSIAL 2013 ENLISH AND MATH ASSESSMENTS WAS THE FIRST TIME THOSE TESTS HAD EVER BEEN GIVEN LIVE TO ANY GROUP OF STUDENTS? GOING IN TO THOSE TESTS THE STATE EDUCATION DEPARTMENT HAD NO IDEA IF THE TEST CONTENT COULD BE HANDLED BY STUDENTS IN THE TIME AVAILABLE FOR THE TESTS. NO IDEA HOW SMART STUDENTS, MEDIOCRE STUDENTS, OR UNDERACHIEVING STUDENTS, LET ALONE MINORITIES CAN HANDLE TESTS BUILT ON READING UNDERSTANDING. IT WAS LIKE THE FIRST ATOMIC BOMB. IT WAS MUCH TOO POWERFUL WAY BEYOND THE COMPREHENSION OF EVEN THE BEST AND THE BRIGHTEST. THAT SHOWED A DISCONNECT BETWEEN WHAT THE STATE THOUGHT STUDENTS COULD DO ONLY TO FIND THE REALITY HIGHLY CONTROVERSIAL. THEY WEREN’T READY.
WHY BECAUSE NO FULL LENGTH MOCK TESTS WERE ADMINISTERED TO SCHOOL POPULATIONS TO “TEST” THE TESTS. THIS IS WHAT WHITE PLAINS CURRICULUM HEAD TOLD ME ON PEOPLE TO BE HEARD THIS WEEK (in 2013).
ACCORDING TO JESSICA O’DONOVAN THE WOMAN WHO TURNED PORT CHESTER SCHOOLS MINORITY LEARNERS AROUND AND IMPROVED WHITE PLAINS MIDDLE SCHOOL AND ELEMENTARY SCORES THE FIRST THREE YEARS HERE – MOST WHITE PLAINS STUDENTS TOLD TEACHERS THE TESTS WERE TOO LONG AND THEY COULD NOT FINISH.
THE OVERWHELMING MAJORITY COULD NOT FINISH, HAD TO SPEND AN AVERAGE 10 MINUTES ON A QUESTION. O’DONOVAN SAID THIS WAS THE VAST EXPERIENCE WHITE PLAINS HAD ACROSS ALL 7 GRADE UNIVERSES. TO HER KNOWLEDGE SHE SAID THE PEARSON DEVELOPED TEST TRIED OUT QUESTIONS ON STUDENTS IN FIELD TESTS, BUT NO COMPLETE TESTS WERE CREATED AND GIVEN IN ACTUAL TEST CONDITIONS.
WHEN SHE TOLD ME THIS I NEARLY STOOD UP OUT OF MY INTERVIEW CHAIR. I SAID, ‘THAT IS INSANE.” O’DONOVAN ALSO SAID THE STATE HAD TOLD THEM TO EXPECT DROPS OF ALMOST 30% IN THE NUMBER OF STUDENTS PASSING. WELL GEE THE PARENTS COULD HAVE BEEN TOLD THAT.
NOW THE SPOTLIGHT HAS TO SHIFT ON HOW THIS TESTING COMPANY CAN POSSIBLY PUT A TEST FORMAT OUT THERE THAT HAS NEVER BEEN GIVEN IN ITS ENTIRETY TO LIVE SUBJECTS.
THE SPOTLIGHT HAS TO SHIFT ON THE REASONS WHY THE NEW YORK STATE BOARD OF REGENTS THOUGHT THIS WAS A GOOD START – WHEN THEY HAD NO EVIDENCE APPARENTLY THAT IT WOULD WORK?
PARENTS CAN COMPLAIN THE TEST WAS UNFAIR AND NOT A TRUE MEASURE OF THEIR KIDS, BUT MAYBE THE KIDS NEEDED MORE TIME AND SHORTER ESSAYS TO READ.
THE BOARD OF REGENTS HAS INADVERTENTLY SET BACK STANDARD TESTING FOR YEARS INTO PERIODS OF DUMBING DOWN THE TESTS TO SAVE THE FACE OF SCHOOL DISTRICTS ACROSS THE COUNTRY. SO LET’S HAVE PEARSON THE TESTING COMPANY UP THERE WITH COMMISSIONER JOHN KING AND THE BOARD OF REGENTS. PEARSON’S METHOD OF PUTTING TOGETHER THESE TESTS HAS TO BE DISSECTED. THEY DID A LOUSY JOB.
(Editor’s note: well no State Senate or Assembly leader at the time called for hearings with Pearson on why the scores were so bad. Nothing. Instead every politician and Superintendent said the tests were too hard, and of course, sided with teachers who said the same thing and parents who were outraged their children could not read or compute at grade mathematics level. This always happens when things are bungled. Politicians go with the wind of there must be something wrong with the messenger. No effort was made to find out what was wrong with the tests.)
UNFORTUNATELY, IT GIVES THE UNITED TEACHERS, AN ORGANIZATION STEEPED IN ANACHRONISM AND DEFENDER OF MEDIOCRITY, AMMUNITION AGAINST STANDARD TESTING AND TEACHER STANDARDS. DEFENDING THE MEEK IS A GOOD THING, BUT DEFENDING THE INCOMPETENT EXECUTION OF CREATING THE TESTS SACRIFICES OUR CHILDREN. BUT WE DID NOT FIND OUT WHAT WAS WRONG.
ONCE AGAIN WHEN IT COMES TO A HEALTH WEBSITE, A NATIONAL ASSESSMENT TEST, YOU CANNOT TRUST GOVERNMENT OR A GOVERNMENT CONTRACTOR TO DO IT RIGHT. THEY DON’T HAVE TO ANSWER TO ANYONE BECAUSE THEY ARE THE GOVERNMENT AND ARE NATURALLY INCOMPETENT AND THEY ARE A GOVERNMENT CONTRACTOR WITH ECONOMIC IMMUNITY DESPITE THEIR INCOMPETENCE.
THE CHILDREN SUFFER. MINDS, FUTURES ARE NEVER-TO-BE SAVED LOSSES DUE TO ARROGANCE OF ABILITY UNTEMPERED BY REASON.
(Editor’s note: Today we are at another crossroads facing the same problem. standardized tests are under attack and have been for five years, and thanks to suspension of testing during covid, we have just and a new test which results have not been fully explored. We should do that more rigorously in this state. Soon. Are the tests going to be dumbed down again this year or have the minority gaps compared to white student test scores been made easier on the perceived reduced level of competence across the state ( a side effect of covid). Were last year’s tests hard enough, or reflective of the skill set in the school population.)
