Standardized testing results may force teachers to work toward increasing test scores rather than students’ knowledge, panelists said yesterday at the Data-Driven Student Achievement forum.
The panel of state and city education administrators said in order to effectively change and improve teaching methods teachers need more help analyzing data collected from the annual Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System that is administered to public and charter school students statewide.
“We are losing ground to other countries, especially in math and science,” said Massachusetts High Technology Council President Chris Anderson. “In order to change, we need data.”
Local educators denied that teachers have been encouraged to “teach to the test” to improve scores.
All public and charter school students in grades three through 10 take the MCAS test in May. It tests language arts, mathematics, science and technology and history and social science skills. Currently, 10th graders must pass the MCAS language arts and math sections to graduate.
Keynote speaker Michael Sentence, a U.S. Department of Education regional administrator, repeatedly emphasized how the test forced “accountability” upon educators.
Data analyst Bruce Bean said administrators need to analyze the student scores over time and consider how a school compares with the state and individual results.
“On one test, 36 percent of students thought that 2.58 was equivalent to two and five-eights,” Bean said. “Teachers need to know data like that so that they can adjust.”
Bean said this data should help teachers adjust their curricula to fit the needs of the students.
“It’s almost like a science and an art,” he said. “You need the data to show what you need to put into the kids’ heads and then you use the art of teaching to put it there.”
This attitude can lead to teaching the curriculum, said Brookline School Committee member Ruth Kaplan.
“Teachers are getting the message that results matter,” she said. “Teachers and educators need to be informed by this data, not driven by it.”
“We put too much weight on one test,” Kaplan said. “If we could use other methods in conjunction with it, it would work better.
“Even though I’m against them, since we do have the MCAS, we need to give teachers help in analyzing the results,” Kaplan continued.
Joseph Rappa, executive director of the Massachusetts Office of Educational Quality and Accountability, said standardized tests carry imperfections.
“We have increasing complexity and we’re looking for simple solutions,” Rappa said. “We need multiple solutions. We’ve started, but we’re not there yet.”
