Valuing Testing vs. Testing Values

Resetting instructional priorities in the absence of high-stakes tests.

DR. ROBERTA LENGER KANG
Center Director, CPET
​updated September 2021

Across the US, state tests are high-stakes exams that have become a driving force in educational policy, funding, accountability, curriculum development, and achievement for students, teachers, and school leaders. 

No Child Left Behind and its counterpart, Race to the Top, were the national policies that dominated education spaces and shifted the focus from school and district autonomy to a culture of testing. While the Every Student Succeeds Act lessened some of the federal mandates on state testing programs, some individual states, like New York, have redoubled their efforts to use high-stakes assessment data as a way to evaluate education at every level. That is, until 2020 when COVID-19 systematically closed schools, reshaped instruction into hyper-customized blends of in-person and remote learning systems, and fundamentally prevented large groups of students from sitting in the same place, at the same time, to take a paper and pencil, fill-in-the-bubble test, like the generations of students who came before them.

​This might sound like an exaggeration, but it isn’t — in its 200-year history, 2020 was the first year in which state tests were canceled. Now that schools around the country are coming back in person almost exclusively, we're looking at a school year that will formally assess student performance for accountability for the first time in almost three years. 

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What will you teach?

For the past twenty years, rigorous high-stakes state tests have become the leading influence on curriculum development and instructional priorities for most public schools. These structures for accountability send a direct message to educators — the only knowledge that is important is the knowledge that aligns with the test. 

State tests are directly connected to the following evaluation and accountability processes:

• Student promotion, grades 3-12
• Student graduation 
• Teacher ratings
• Principal ratings
• School ratings & statewide rankings
• District accountability
• College admissions
• Curriculum design & implementation

Traditionally, almost the entire schooling experience, at every entry point, is connected to a test which reviews, monitors, and evaluates performance. Many schools have used this mandated external guidance as a way to vet their curriculum, solidify their unit and lesson plans, set the plan and pace for their instruction, and set specific goals for students. While, “you need to know this for the test” isn’t always a compelling reason for students to become interested in a specific topic, it has certainly been a driving force for teachers in the past. But without the guidance provided by the test, many educators were free to ask, what should I teach?

After getting over the initial shock of the tests’ absence, many teachers developed thoughtful, dynamic, and innovative curriculums to capture their students’ interest in the content, even while learning through difficult times. As the exams come back into focus, are we at risk of losing this personalized curriculum in order to return to the kill and drill of test-driven instruction? 

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Shifting your approach

​What should we be teaching, and who should decide?

After two decades of test-informed planning and two years of freedom from exams, how do we decide on our next steps?

It is my hope that we can use this as an opportunity to take an honest look at who gets to set the agenda for learning, and in doing so, acknowledge the reality that while oversight is absolutely necessary in education, high-stakes testing is limited, and limiting. We have to be able to move from simply valuing the test, to testing what we value in each subject area — and teachers and local school communities should have a say in what that looks like. 

Even as testing returns, there are three approaches to unit planning that we can use to frame instruction that is relevant, personalized to students' interests, and prepares them for future exams. 

Project-based learning
Focus on student engagement through short- and long-term project-based learning opportunities that lean into student choice and generate momentum through interest and intellectual curiosity.

As students return to schools after a long period of interrupted learning, student engagement is at the forefront of everyone’s minds and teachers can use every tool available to capture and keep student attention long enough to build essential habits and skills.

When designing instruction with the purpose of building engagement, we can open up subject area topics and create space for students to self-select their areas of interest. If we conceive of instructional units in 1-2 week blocks with a short project due at the end, this routine can create opportunities for students to dig into a topic they’re naturally interested in, and it also resets student expectations on a regular basis so that those who are looking to re-engage always have an opportunity to restart. 

Using a commonly tested topic as a whole class case study to explain the basis, model a skill, or communicate essential information, students can work in interest groups on related topics of their choice. By having a class topic and a small group case study, students learn the essential tested information without sacrificing their own interests. Using test questions as formative assessments along the way to a short-term project can also give teachers valuable insights into students’ progress and next steps for teaching. 


Foundational skills
Focus on foundational skills in a wide range of content topics, and maximize personal connections to minimize learning “slippage” or learning loss, equipping students with the skills needed to build capacity quickly when they return.

​If project-based learning isn’t an option for everyday instruction, consider shifting to a focus on critical thinking, reading, writing, and reasoning. While there are grade level benchmarks, content knowledge spirals from grade to grade — we can be fairly confident that students who missed some information in 4th grade Social Studies will encounter a similar unit in 6th grade Social Studies, in 8th grade Social Studies, and in high school History courses. If we focus on student skill-building, we can grow content knowledge at a faster pace now that kids are back in class. 

Some skills are essential components of learning across content areas: reading for the main idea, drawing inferences or making connections between information in multiple sources, and using textual evidence to support an opinion. When students build these types of skills on a wide range of topics, their reading levels will increase, and their writing skills will evolve as they encounter more complex texts. In STEM programs, students will need to continue practicing with the relationships and patterns between numbers, data sets, or variables. Students will benefit from skill-based work that increases math and science literacy such as reading maps, charts, and graphs, interpreting information using a resource (periodic table, framework, data set), and asking questions to further the inquiry process. These critical thinking skills are essential for learning, problem-solving, and even for test taking. 


Formative assessments
Focus on formative assessments that mimic the state test so that you can track student progress with relevant data and make adjustments to keep students “on track.”

If you aren’t in a position to embrace project-based learning or let foundational skills be the focus of curriculum, we can still find creative ways to support student learning while state tests are on hold. Since testing programs are so prolific, there is some level of transparency when it comes to test content, design, structure, and focus. Many states will release a test sampler that includes a few questions from each section of the exam, while others release the exam in its entirety. Alternatively, some states choose to publish a blueprint or a manual which provides insight into the structure and design of the exam. We can use these vetted materials as a model when generating our own classroom-based assessments, mirroring the expectations of the state test.

Focusing on these formative assessments will give us real-time data we can use to target students who are struggling, and identify patterns and trends across classes, which will be informative for our instruction. By developing our own versions of the exams, we’re keeping ourselves and our students rooted in the standards and familiar with the testing culture, while continuing to be flexible about the specific topics we’re addressing in our unit and lesson plans. ​​​​​

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Considerations for policy makers
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To our partners and colleagues who are decision-makers — big and small — we know you have a bird's-eye view of the now and the next. While we’re waiting, consider (or possibly reconsider) the enormous weight we’ve placed on a single day exam. Current policies give the test a monopoly on setting the values for an entire generation of students, and silence the voices of classroom teachers and school leaders who work directly with students on a daily basis.

These educators have insight into what we could be valuing across fields, and how student progress and performance can be reflected to increase student achievement. We have a rare, once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to rethink the role of high-stakes tests and shift the structure of accountability to one that incorporates true multiple measures, embraces diverse learning needs, and reflects the population of students we’re serving. 

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Reflecting on our values and focusing our instruction on what will help students get engaged, stay engaged, and keep coming back day after day is where we should invest our time and energy. After what we've been through, our instruction should look different than it did before. We have a unique opportunity to apply our new skills, refine what we've designed, and return to “normal” a bit more evolved than when the pandemic began. 

UNPACKING NYS ACCOUNTABILITY

FORMATIVE ASSESSMENTS ONLINE

TESTING & TEACHING