![]() What sort of game our we playing? It’s like we’re stranded in the desert, racing toward a well of water that turns out to be nothing but a mirage. And schools across the country do the same thing, resulting in higher and higher scores, despite lower and lower levels of actual knowledge. So we are quite literally training our students to answer this one set of questions correctly. Apparently the test makers only revise the test every few years. However, today I was informed that this year’s test will be *identical* to last year’s. Teachers are pressured to study copies of last year’s test (legal? ethical?), instructional coaches design unit tests to mirror exactly the questions that appeared on last year’s TerraNova, students are prepped extensively on the importance of filling in only one bubble, and all dialogue about student learning has been framed around what they “need to know for the TerraNova.” Of course none of this is uncommon in schools such as mine. Since the start of the school year, administration has drilled staff on the importance of this one test. Our status as a DC charter, our funding, our esteem in the reform community and our enrollment all hinge on the TerraNova scores that we report out. One telling example: my school has adopted the TerraNova as our indicator of choice. Even if scores were left unaltered, and even if these tests measured knowledge that we as a society deem important, we mustn’t forget that these assessments are so poorly designed that they lack validity or reliability. The accounts of cheating on which you report are certainly appalling and unsurprising, but – as you’ve mentioned – they are only the tip of the iceberg. I teach Kindergarten at a “no-excuses” charter school in Washington, D.C. She asks for advice about the TerraNova tests. She provides interesting insight about how charter schools can manufacture high test scores. A comment came in last night from a KIPP teacher in DC.
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