Radio Commentary
High standards and accountability
are critical to school reform, and I strongly support both these areas.
I do worry that using test scores
as the sole measure of progress can mask the fuller picture. Here’s a quiz we
often use to illustrate the point:
Which of the following factors is
the most accurate predictor of a school’s standardized test scores?
A. The quality of the teaching staff
B. The percentage of students receiving free or
reduced lunches
C. The number of children who moved from another
school during the year
D. The average weekly volunteer hours
E. The number of mothers who hold a college
degree.
Interestingly, the answer is E.
Nationwide, schools with the
highest number of mothers with college degrees, have the highest test scores.
No other factor correlates as highly.
But the answer is also ‘all of the
above,’ because ALL the factors correlate with test scores as well.
Everyone agrees we must have a
means to evaluate how well a student has grasped the subject matter that’s been
taught, and good tests do just that.
But sometimes it is hard for
students to show on a test what they really know quite well. The problem is
dealing with the way a question is asked, not the information itself.
We need to know which students are
truly falling short in knowledge so that we can help them succeed. The
correlating factors remind us that when it comes to achievement, test scores
can’t ever tell us the whole story.
