Controversial Testing Plan Goes to Milwaukee School Board

Later this year the Milwaukee School Board is scheduled to voteon a plan that would more than double the amount of standardizedtesting in the district.

The controversial plan has led to the formation of the Coalitionfor Responsible Assessment (CRA), a group of teachers, parents,and community organizations opposed to increased standardizedtesting.

The coalition is calling on the board to postpone its vote byat least one month and to keep the district's current assessmentplan in place for the current school year. It is also asking fora year-long dialogue among the central administration, schoolboard, teachers, and parents on how best to develop an assessmentsystem that will improve teaching and learning within the MilwaukeePublic Schools (MPS).

The coalition is organizing four community hearings this Septemberand October to gather public input on testing and assessment inthe district.

The call for increased testing surfaced last spring and initiallyincluded standardized tests for kindergarten and first-grade students.It immediately faced opposition from teachers and parents concernedabout a massive increase in standardized testing - particularlysince Milwaukee has been a national leader in alternative formsof evaluation such as student proficiencies and performance-basedassessments.

The current plan has been modified slightly due to opposition.Nonetheless, it would still more than double the number of standardizedtests that MPS students take during their K-12 years.

Critics are concerned, in part, because the district is callingits plan the Balanced Assessment System, when in fact it focuseson increasing standardized testing and downplays alternative formsof assessment.

"We need to make sure that as a community we are doing what isbest for kids," said Betty Smith, director of Milwaukee Catalyst,a community-based organization dedicated to education reform."I think a balanced assessment system is right on target, butwe have to be clear on what's best for our kids in MPS. We can'tbe pushed into creating something that we will realize 10 yearsfrom now is bad for kids and their learning."

Kelley Dawson, a fourth grade bilingual teacher and a coalitionmember, echoed Smith's concerns. "The current assessment systemis balanced," she said. "We administer standardized assessments,and we administer performance assessments. Many of us teachersdon't want to lose the performance assessments, because they giveus an in-depth picture of our students' progress and they havehelped many of us to become better teachers.

"The proposed system is actually imbalanced," Dawson continued.

Meanwhile the administration is continuing with its schedule forthe new assessment system. The plan was presented to all principalsin September, who are to discuss it with school councils and staffs.

"I certainly hope we are going to get the time to take a breathand really discuss this plan to determine what is in the bestinterest of children," said Cynthia Ellwood, principal of HartfordUniversity School for Urban Explorations. "We can only do thatby having a broad dialogue."

Last May, the board voted, somewhat contradictorily, to "delayadoption" of the plan for increased standardized testing, yet"adopt the system as a proposal". The plan was voted on only threedays after it was publicly released; at the single public hearing,testimony was limited to two minutes per person.

The new plan calls for annual standardized testing in reading,math, and possibly language arts to begin in the second or thirdgrade, depending on how the school board finally votes. The planis based on the concept of "value-added" testing to determinehow much a student learns in a given time. (For a critique ofthe "value-added" concept, see the article on p. 20.)

For kindergarten and first grade, the plan proposes "diagnosticliteracy assessment."

The district proposal also calls for "classroom-embedded assessments"to be administered twice a year in six subjects beginning in firstgrade. Details remain sketchy on how these will be administeredand tabulated districtwide.

Following the controversy last spring, the central administrationcreated a Standards and Assessment Committee to make recommendationson how to proceed. A number of opponents of the plan have criticizedthe process by which people were selected to serve on the committeeand what they consider a lack of sufficient community and teacherinput.

The Coalition for Responsible Assessment has been trying to raisepublic consciousness about the district's plan. The coalitionincludes individual parents, community people, and educators,and organizations such as Parents United for Public Schools, MilwaukeeCatalyst, FACETS, People Organized Working for Education Reform,Rethinking Schools, and School Councils Organized for ProgressiveEducation.

Stephanie Walters is an MPS teacher and a member of the Coalitionfor Responsible Assessment. For more information on the coalitionand its public hearings call 414-264-4010.

Fall 2000