'We don't need any more tests:' Participation, confidence in testing fall / by Alex Powers

Everyone has to take the tests.

Until they don’t.

Heather Kliever’s son was a grade-schooler when she first opted him out of mandatory English and math exams.

The mother of a Eugene schools student had for years viewed testing as a measure of a student’s success or of a teacher’s accountability. Then she came away from conversations with her son’s teachers with a growing sense of skepticism, feeling conflicted, she said, while discovering a disconnect between what she thought state-mandated tests measured and the reality of the classroom.

If standardized tests held teachers accountable, she said, they assumed too much homogeneity in those teachers’ students.

Her son was a fifth grader at Edison Elementary School when she first opted him out of battery of state-mandated tests in English and math in 2013. At the time, few sought to remove their children from the tests — doing so meant signing a form that objected to the tests on religious grounds.

But last year, fewer than two-thirds of Edison’s 380 students took the tests.

It was the lowest participation rate in the Eugene School District, even as the district at 86.7 percent in math falls far below the state participation average of 93.7 percent. In reading and writing, 88.9 percent of district students participated in tests while the state showed an average 94.6 percent.

A growing number of students are skipping state-mandated tests, spurred in part by parent and teacher activists who say annual testing is a waste of time. Eugene Parents Concerned About Testing, a local advocacy group, has drawn numbers to itself on Facebook as parents like Kliever become more vocal about their contention with state standards.

The parent

Kliever relied on metrics as a source of feedback for years. To keep track of her son in his first few years at school was, in part, to keep track of numbers — test results, grades, measures she believed help her see whether her son or his teachers were slipping up.

She supported the local branch of Stand for Children, she said, the local branch of a national education advocacy group that espoused a culture of accountability. Parents and community organizers believed if tests show that students at a particular school are failing to pass state standards in math or English, Kliever said, then a district potentially has impetus to improve those schools to bring them in line with state law.

“Then I realized I was a member of the wrong organization,” Kliever said.

She began following the writings of education analyst Diane Ravitch and asking teachers how they assess students, if not with tests.

At best, she said, the tests are measuring class diversity. She formed a vision of an average classroom with a couple of students who don’t speak English; a couple who are homeless; others with unstable home lives. One student may have special education requirements while others are in a talented and gifted program.

 Evaluating students on a baseline doesn’t give a complete picture when students don’t have the same amount of education, and holding teachers responsible for below-average results makes little sense, Kliever said.

“And that’s a hard place to be as a parent,” she said. “You’re sitting back and know in your bones this isn’t right for your student, but intellectually you’re dealing with organizations that are very good at getting their word out.”

Kliever’s objections reflect a growing national trend of opting out. Advocates contend that if tests don’t measure what they’re supposed to, then testing is eating up time that could be better spent in class.

The teacher

Carrie Ann Naumoff teaches fifth grade at Edison. She began 20 years ago, before No Child Left Behind first brought testing mandates to Eugene. In that time, she said, testing hours have encroached on class time, and meetings about testing take even more hours outside of class.

The time teachers spend preparing students for tests, administering tests and planning tests with other teachers amounts to a week each year that Edison teachers could spend on curriculum.

Teachers in the Eugene School District are free to give information, Naumoff said, but not required. Even if parents know what questions to ask about the tests, teachers don’t have to answer.

“People are afraid,” she said. “That’s not a good thing.”

Teachers at Edison fall across a spectrum, Naumoff said: Those who align with policy that maintains district-wide tests will come back to benefit teachers through additional funding or oversight and those who believe standardized tests overlook the capacity of teachers to individually evaluate their own students.

“In my experience, no amount of this testing has done anything to improve the curriculum,” she said. “It’s narrowed it.”

Oregon until 2015 had one of the shortest school years — 810 hours for grades 1-3, or 90 hours fewer than most other states at the time. Oregon lawmakers that year increased the requirement to 900 hours, in line with much of the rest of the nation.

So required tests — a time sink of a couple of days each year — became a contentious issue at the school level. Districts starting under No Child Left Behind in the early 2000s saw their funding increasingly tied to testing. That link, Naumoff said, left a lasting impression on districts that pressured schools to administer the tests even as pushback from educators and parents mounted.

Under state law, testing is the default — parents have to consent each year to remove their children from tests in English, math and science.

Oregon in 2016 passed legislation that requires districts to tell parents they have the right to opt their children out of tests, aligning the state with federal law that no longer tied Title I funding to test results. Every Student Succeeds Act that replaced No Child Left Behind the year before allowed for districts to fall under 95 percent participation — so long as the district finds another measure to show improvement to the state.

“It narrows the curriculum to ignore those deep conversations with students where the topics become relevant and students deeply engage,” she said.

 More parents are opting their children out of tests across the state. Just four years ago, student participation in Eugene School District was 95 percent or greater. Eugene parents could opt their students out on the grounds of religious belief or disability. They had to know where to find the form. 

The academic

Jerry Rosiek, a professor of education studies at University of Oregon, was opting his children out of testing at Edison in 2013. The educator and Eugene parent wrote a letter encouraging other parents to do the same, and ran for the school district board in 2016 partially on a platform of abolishing testing. He founded Eugene Parents Concerned About Testing, a community page on Facebook where parents and teachers can share concerns like those of Kliever and Naumoff.

State tests are inefficient and now with participation under 95 percent just don’t measure what they’re supposed to, he said. A randomized sample would provide statistically accurate data and cost less time and money for districts and students.

“We don’t need every single student to be taking eight days worth of tests to get comparative data,” he said.

And substitute tests make the state assessments superfluous, Rosiek said, while tests by the Advanced Placement and International Baccalaureate organizations are accepted as benchmarks by Eugene high schools.

“We don’t need any more tests to tell us how we’re doing,” he said.

Even if a parent wants to know how their child is doing, then state tests won’t tell them, Rosiek said. Results from the test are meant to reflect overall district performance.

The best way to tell how a student is doing is have a conversation with a teacher, he said. Rosiek said teachers are constantly assessing students — not just with test results, but by how students engage with and critically reflect on class material.

Rosiek believes students and teachers who take the tests see no benefit.

“So if the test gives no information, then why are they taking the test?” he said.

Rosiek’s arguments reflect a national movement to undo testing requirements; their hope is that the U.S. Education Department will drop state testing requirements with participation below 95 percent — that policymakers, too, will see that the hours spent each year on tests is better spent learning.

But district testing requirements for now stay in place.

District spokeswoman Kerry Delf said the district can only try to be in compliance. The state requires districts to test at least 95 percent of students in grades 3-8 and once in high school. The state also requires districts to alert parents they have the option to opt their children out of tests.

“There are two simultaneous expectations that contradict each other,” Delf said.

Rosiek said the district’s responsibility should be to the students who are taking a test he believes is invalid.

“That would be fine if it has no negative effects. But it does have negative effects,” he said. “The number one thing that increases student comprehension is time on task.”