Tests and curricula must match, Times columnist says

Aligning curriculum and assessment tests is the key to increasing the standards and accountability of the nation’s schools, New York Times education columnist Richard Rothstein said last night at Simmons College.

The lecture was third in a series of four Simmons lectures devoted to debating the role of high-stakes testing in public schools. Rothstein said such testing is currently “inaccurate for accountability.”

One problem with the tests, Rothstein said, is “they generally have nothing to do with the standards,” citing New York state Regents exams as an example of tests not based on curriculum.

Rothstein urged educators to increase emphasis on accreditation, a system in which representatives examine each aspect of a school’s performance, including testing. This eliminates having “accountability based on a single test,” he said.

Relying on one test, Rothstein said, is a poor determination of a student’s overall progress.

“No student performance can be determined by a single test,” he said.

Rothstein compared a student’s performance on a single day to baseball player Mike Piazza’s batting average during a random week, saying while Piazza’s overall average is exceptional year after year, he might have a bad week filled with strikeouts and walks.

One result of the difference between assessment tests and school curriculum is that teachers end up “teaching to the test,” something Rothstein said he would not oppose if “the tests were aligned to the standards.”

Rothstein also spoke about the standards and accountability movement, saying a major misdiagnosis initially caused the movement.

The movement began during the first Bush administration after politicians and education officials feared the academic success of Japanese and Western European students would lead to a decrease in American power. Rothstein said this conclusion was a mistake.

In fact, Rothstein said, “They didn’t beat us. The United States economically left them in the dust.”

Regardless of mistakes made, education officials “can’t properly design reform if we have the wrong analysis of the problem,” Rothstein said.

The other key factor that Rothstein said improves test scores is the family situation students live in.

“The single most important predictor is the size of the family,” he said, explaining that smaller families usually produce higher academic achievement.

Rothstein added personal hygiene and health play a large role in a student’s performance, noting that students participating in school lunch programs reap greater benefits than those who do not.

Money will make the ultimate difference in the movement, Rothstein said.

“Since the ’60s, we’ve doubled school spending,” he said. “Clearly, we should get two to three times more achievement.”