State Senator Larry Obhof, Medina Republican, had some things to say in the Plain Dealer today, including the idea that Ohioans don't have a problem with the American History and American Government tests at the High School level. He indicated that the public confuses them for PARCC tests (they are written by the American Institutes for Research), but then he said the same public only has issues with PARCC tests, not AIR. Obviously, this is quite inconsistent if they believe they are PARCC tests and Obhof himself says the public opposes PARCC tests. He doesn't see it that way, and claims the A.H. and A.G. tests are not a part of our issues with over-testing. I humbly disagree. They are a part of the new double window testing system requiring two testing sessions in an incredibly disruptive and unnecessary process.
The article also features Obhof praising himself for his very patriotic "Founding Fathers Bill" SB165 which requires the teaching of American Historic Documents (like the Federalist Papers, Constitution, Northwest Ordinance, and Ohio Constitution) at multiple grade levels in the Ohio curriculum, tested at multiple levels (I assume still not a part of our over-testing problem). I have no issue with Ohio students learning historic documents, but I do take issue with the redundant nature of re-teaching them at multiple levels. I also take issue with their inclusion in the 10th grade American History curriculum completely out of context. The course curriculum, created in Ohio, spans 1865 through the present, while the documents are all from far earlier. They are also required by the American Government curriculum in 11th grade.
If you're interested in the article featuring Senator Obhof, copy and paste this
http://www.cleveland.com/metro/index.ssf/2015/03/some_high_school_students_opt_out_of_new_tests_on_americas_founding_fathers_and_documents.html#incart_river
The following is the email I sent to the good Senator. I hope he is willing to consider my point of view.
I am a history teacher at Elyria High School writing to address comments you made in an article today in the Cleveland Plain Dealer. First, stakeholders in education, administrators, parents, students and teachers ARE in fact concerned about the AIR tests in American History and American Government. You said yourself in the article that people use the term PARCC for all of the tests. While we know this is inaccurate, it does indicate that there are issues with ALL tests. Yes, some complaints are PARCC specific regarding inappropriate common core standards and reading levels on the tests. The issue you are choosing to ignore that includes the social studies tests is that they were designed to be PARCC-like. They use the same faulty technology, have the same issues with multiple source questions, and force testing in two windows, Feb/Mar and Apr/May. Contrary to your comments in the PD, this is still too much testing. I have been, and will remain active in the political process to limit testing to the former, OAA/OGT, system, if not something even less intrusive than that. You and your colleagues have created an assessment mess in Ohio that needs to be fixed. I do not seek, however, to place blame, only to facilitate positive change.
I realize that this testing shift was not created by your SB165. That bill, however, is problematic in itself. While I appreciate your patriotism and dedication to these historic documents, I believe that requiring them at multiple grade levels is a bit redundant, and has them taught outside of their historic context in American History. The A.H. curriculum in grade 10, as I'm sure you are aware, deals with content between 1865 and the present. The documents are all relative to events prior. Now, as professional educators we are actively looking for ways to meaningfully include the documents in this odd context. I would, however, argue that they are better suited for the government curriculum in which they also appear.
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