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 more complete 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 number of hours volunteered
each week
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.
