No one wants to go back… to the status quo

A few weeks ago, in the midst of the COVID pandemic, a friend shared this meme:

Then, this week, Facebook presented me with a memory from 2013 (from the very early days of my education advocacy efforts):

April 15, 2013

“This FCAT nonsense is out of control! When driving my nervous, straight A, fourth grader to school today, I reassured her with the old ‘you are prepared, relax, do your best, it is only one test’ to which she replied ‘ONLY A TEST! Don’t you know my teachers could lose their JOBS if I don’t do well…Teachers have been caught cheating on the test and lost their job and have been sent to jail!’ (apparently one of her teachers told her that last part).

We need to stop the insanity…

Later, my first grader confided in me: ‘I never want to go to a school that has FCATs.'”

Before COVID, high stakes, test-and-punish accountability was the status quo for education in Florida. It resulted in anxious students, fearful of letting their teachers down and first graders worried that someday it would be their turn. During testing season, children routinely told stories of classmates sobbing or vomiting (an occurrence that happened frequently enough that state testing protocols include instructions for what to do when children vomit during testing.) Before COVID, childhood anxiety levels were already going through the roof. In a 2018 Pew Research Center survey, 70 percent of teens said anxiety and depression were “major problems among their peers.”

Instead of informing instruction, in pre-COVID Florida, state test scores were used to determine promotion, retention and high school graduation. Test scores were used to determine teacher and principal pay and contract renewal. Test scores, which correlate closely with family income, were used to rank and grade schools. Wealthy neighborhoods routinely had A-rated schools, which were rewarded with extra funding, while low income neighborhoods struggled to maintain Cs. Pro-privatization lawmakers declared public schools “failure factories” and devised processes, called “turnaround,” requiring low income schools to improve their test scores or face closure or conversion to a private option. Lawmakers constantly referred to public school children as “trapped” in their neighborhood schools and offered “escape” to children in schools they labeled as “low-performing” in the form of privatized options (vouchers, charters, virtual school). This resulted in the deliberate and consistent defunding of traditional public schools, decimating the public school systems, particularly in our neediest communities. Political appointees in Tallahassee relied on a discredited formula, purported to measure “learning gains” (i.e. test scores), to micromanage turnaround schools from afar, requiring districts to remove teachers (even after their school year had begun) and principals when test scores didn’t increase to their satisfaction. What they caused was disruption, and NOT in a good way.

Eventually educators, who should have known better, buckled under the pressure and, fearing for their jobs, changed the way students were taught, in order to focus on obtaining the most passing scores on state mandated assessments. They called it “data driven” but we all knew it as “teaching to the test.” Curriculum narrowed to focus almost exclusively on math and reading, the tested subjects. Districts purchased computer programs designed to prepare children for the exams, sacrificing face-to-face interactions with their teachers. Social studies curriculum was specifically designed to allow practice for reading exams. Schools saw the elimination of libraries, arts, music and other creative endeavors. Until parents fought to get it back, recess, deemed less important than test preparation, had been eliminated from many elementary schools across the state.

Not all teachers buckled under the pressure, of course. Many continue to connect and engage with our children in meaningful and creative ways. But the toll on them has been great. Nearly 10 years ago, Governor Rick Scott signed SB736 into law which lawmakers promised would boost teacher pay, by tying teacher pay to test scores, and ultimately draw better quality teachers to the field, and that those better teachers would produce better student results. Instead, almost a decade later, teacher pay has not increased (in 2019 Florida ranked 46th in teacher pay) AND student performance (when measured by NAEP, ACT and SAT) has been mostly “stagnant,” continuing to lag behind other states. What Florida does have is a massive teacher shortage and a disgruntled work force, who have been walking away from the profession in the equivalence of a “silent strike.” 

Policymakers were continually warned about the negative impact that high stakes was having on our children and our schools.  When parents complained about the over-emphasis on these assessments, they were told that “testing is part of life” and reminded them that you need to pass  driver’s test before you receive your drivers license. When experienced educators questioned the consequences of high stakes testing they were accused of “not wanting any accountability at all.” But even researchers in the FLDOE were skeptics when they published the 2014 Florida Statewide Assessments (FCAT 2.0) Technical Report (released in 12/2014) and, on page 137, suggested that further studies were needed to verify some implication arguments. “This is especially true,” it read, “for the inference that the state’s accountability program is making a positive impact on student proficiency and school accountability without causing unintended negative consequences.” (emphasis mine)

Then came COVID-19. On March 13th, Governor DeSantis and Commissioner of Education, Richard Corcoran, announced an extension of school district spring breaks and a transition to distal learning, to allow for social distancing during the worsening pandemic. Initially calling for a 2-week postponement of state assessments, by March 17th, they had announced that remaining school readiness, voluntary prekindergarten and K-12 assessments had been cancelled for the 2019-2020 school year and that the A-F accountability system would not calculate school grades for 2019-2020.

The cancellation of the state assessments and the elimination of the school grade calculation was welcome relief and allowed districts to direct their attention where it was needed most: providing for the safety and well-being of their students during this crisis. Teachers rose to the challenge, creating virtual classrooms with the hope of remaining connected to their students and keeping them engaged in the learning process. With little guidance from the state, many districts allowed their teachers the freedom to create new learning experiences. The work is grueling, but teachers have, by and large, risen to the challenge.

Now attention is starting to focus on the re-opening of schools and how COVID might impact the 2020-2021 school year. Children will have increased needs: some will have been unable to navigate the online learning and need help catching up, many will be economically disadvantaged – some for the first time, families will be in disarray, they will be grieving, mental health services will be needed, social workers will be in high demand. The crisis will affect students’ ability to learn and teachers’ ability to teach. State test scores won’t be an accurate measure next year either.  

It is time to take a pause. 

Across the country, we annually spend approximately $1.7 billion on standardized tests. In Florida, it has been estimated that more than 25% of the school year is wasted on testing and test prep. The pause created by this pandemic is a good time to reconsider how we use these tests and whether the funds allocated towards testing could be better spent:

• Should we focus on addressing the equity issues exposed by the Covid crisis?
• Should we ensure that all schools have enough social workers, school nurses and mental health professionals?
• Should all schools have libraries and librarians?
• Should we restore robust art and music programs eliminated by the quest for higher test scores?

Florida’s teachers are demonstrating every day that they will continue to teach even without the threat of looming standardized test scores with which to evaluate them by. Perhaps it is time to repeal SB736’s test based/merit pay system and the annual contract that came with it? Perhaps it is time to stop micromanaging and return the classrooms to professional educators?

From Day One, we have been calling for a serious, state wide, discussion regarding the appropriate use of standardized test data in Florida. This COVID pause, is a perfect time for that conversation to occur. Similar conversations are starting across the country. Educator and author, Mercedes Schneider is calling on states to plan NOW to forego standardized testing in 2020-21:

With coronavirus threat already hanging over the 2020-21 school year, the time to cancel the testing is now. Now. Before the 2020-21 school year is scheduled to begin. Instead, put those resources (time, energy, and money, millions and millions of dollars in money) in reserve as a proactive measure for facing COVID-19 in 2020-21.

Doing so is a critical, timely investment.

State superintendents of education and local education agencies should begin petitioning the federal government en masse now to forego testing requirements associated with the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA). Beyond that, governors and legislators should just have the brass to move ahead with this plan and cancel testing contracts now to avoid having to pay later for tests that those states may well need to cancel anyway and that will devour precious class time– instructional time that it is especially important to bank now in the face of COVID-19 resurgence unknowns.

https://deutsch29.wordpress.com/2020/04/16/states-need-to-plan-now-to-forego-standardized-testing-in-2020-21/

Some educators, addicted to the promises of “data driven” education are probably going to need some detox, but let’s not waste this moment. People don’t want to go back to the test and punish status quo. No child should have to feel they are responsible for their teacher’s livelihood. No first grader should fear future testing. All children should have access to art, music, recess and libraries. Our children deserve better.

Nothing should go back to normal. Florida’s education accountability system wasn’t working. Don’t waste this moment. We can do better for Florida’s children.