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When Oregon students return from spring break next week, they'll launch head first into an experiment that has roiled critics on the political left and right.
How? By taking the new, Smarter Balanced standardized tests that replace the Oregon Assessment of Knowledge and Skills.
Opposition to the tests—and the Common Core standards that underpin them—takes many forms. On the left, parents and educators worry that the tests needlessly punish students and schools with a one-size-fits-all approach. On the right, people worry about nationwide standards that obliterate local control of schools.
Into this brawl comes Steven Rasmussen, a math education consultant based in California. Rasmussen takes a different tack. The tests represent a reasonable idea executed poorly. "I was hopeful about the idea of better assessments," Rasmussen tells WW. "Big promises were made. These tests were done so quickly, with so much fanfare and fall far short."
In a 34-page report, Rasmussen dissects multiple questions from Smarter Balanced practice tests that are supposed to resemble what students encounter when they sit down to computer terminals this spring.
"The more you know about what you're looking at, the uglier it gets," he says. (If you don't have time to read 34 pages, there's a shorter version of his analysis here.)
In Portland Public Schools' "talking point" about Smarter Balanced assessment, a public information officer for the district writes that the new test is harder than the OAKS test.
"The tests may seem more difficult because they require students to think more critically and it's hard to guess the answer," PPS claims.
Rasmussen's analysis puts that statements in question. "A statement like that is wishful thinking," Rasmussen says. "Wouldn't it be nice if that were true?"
For example, a question on the 10th grade math test asks test-takers to calculate the fuel consumption of two cars. "Justin's car can travel 77 1/2 miles with 3 1/10 gallons of gas," the question begins. "Kim's car can travel 99 1/5 miles with 3 1/5 gallons. At these rates, how far can each car travel with 1 gallon of gas?"
Ok so far, but the computer then asks students to drag a little picture of a car to the number that corresponds to their answer. "If a student mistakenly obtains a non-whole number answer and tries to drag a car to that location, the car will "snap" to the nearest whole number when the student lets go," Rasmussen writes. "This might be good for students—changing an incorrect answer to a potentially correct one—but it's useless in determining what they do and don't know."
For several additional examples, read the full report.
WWeek 2015