Assessments and Poverty

Say what you will about the "Every Child Succeeds Act," it ain't no Race to the Top, nor is it No Child Left Behind. Yes, there are issues, but it is better than the current system. 

Best of all, it brings the fight regarding accountability, among other things, to the states.

I took this week's House passage of the ECSA, and combined it with some unsettling news about poverty rates in the city where I live, threw in the annual study that illustrates that standardized testing measures poverty better than anything else, and delivered the message to my legislators.

We have spent a long time and a lot of money on an assessment system that does a terrible disservice to our children. It's time for it to change. Check out the letter below, then go contact your reps as well. 

Senator and Representative Manning,

I hope this finds you well and in anticipation of the holiday season. I also hope that you had the opportunity to read the Plain Dealer article regarding the correlation between test scores and poverty. If not it can be found here...

http://www.cleveland.com/metro/index.ssf/2015/12/poor_kids_do_poorly_affluent_do_better_on_ohios_state_tests_-_again.html

Perhaps you read the similar report at the Columbus Dispatch here...

http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/local/2015/12/02/test-scores-correlate-to-income.html

Put simply, the only thing that our system of standardized tests is accomplishing is indicating to us which students are wealthy and which are poor. This corroborates the evidence found in studies from previous years which indicated the exact same thing. Schools with high poverty rates will perform at lower levels on standardized tests than those with low rates of poverty. I would be so bold as to predict that if we continue testing for another hundred years the same would be true.

What is at least equally problematic are the Lorain County poverty statistics shared by the Chronicle Telegram this week. In case you missed it, the article is here...

http://chronicle.northcoastnow.com/2015/12/03/local-census-data-released-reeling-from-recession/

Median income countywide has dropped from $57,357 to $52,610. 

In my city, Elyria, the poverty rate has climbed from 15.9% to 20.3%.

Obviously, these economic conditions have an incredible impact on the students that I encounter daily at Elyria High. If we were to couple the findings that I've mentioned here, add in an atrocious new testing system and graduation policy, then I believe that we could predict overall lower test scores in years to come as well as lower graduation rates. 

It doesn't have to be this way. We test far more than the federal mandate in Ohio, and at higher stakes. As you know, requiring tests for graduation is not federal law, nor is the 3rd grade reading guarantee. And it gets better...other news this week indicates that the revision of ESEA (No Child Left Behind), the so-called "Every Student Succeeds Act" has passed the House, will likely pass the Senate, and is nearly certain of a Presidential signature. The bill is not great, but it is far better than the "test and punish" philosophy of the current law. There is some information on that bill in a Wall Street Journal article here...

http://www.wsj.com/articles/no-child-left-behind-replacement-plan-shifts-power-to-states-on-education-1448928806

We have spent a ridiculous amount of time and money on assessment here in Ohio and found that we can consistently measure levels of poverty, not achievement. The federal government is about to provide us with an opportunity to dramatically scale back this senseless system, and I look forward to continuing our dialogue on doing just that. Perhaps then we can allocate our resources to more valuable ends like supporting programs that help to remediate the effects of the growing poverty in our communities.

Thank you, as always, for your work and consideration. 
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you and your families.

Matt Jablonski