“Testing Students This Spring Would Be A Mistake”- Especially in Florida

Lorrie A. Shepard, PhD is a University Distinguished Professor at the University of Colorado Boulder in their Research and Evaluation Methodology program in their School of Education.  Her research focuses on psychometrics and the use and misuse of tests in educational settings. This week she published a comprehensive op-ed in Education Week outlining why “Testing Students This Spring Would Be a Mistake.”

Florida’s Department of Education and Commissioner Richard Corcoran should take notice. (You should read it, too.)

She writes:

“As an assessment researcher who has studied both high-stakes statewide tests and very different classroom-assessment processes, I am alarmed when testing advocates claim that test data will automatically serve equity goals. Advocates do not acknowledge any potential harm from testing for the very students in communities of color most traumatized by COVID-19. If the downsides were factored in, I believe most, even all, state tests would be canceled for 2021.

Even under normal circumstances, high-stakes testing has negative consequences. State assessment programs co-opt valuable instructional time, both for weeklong test administration and for test preparation. Accountability pressures often distort curriculum, emphasizing testlike worksheets and focusing only on tested subjects.

Recent studies of data-driven decisionmaking warn us that test-score interpretations can lead to deficit narratives—blaming children and their families—instead of prompting instructional improvements. High-stakes tests can also lead to stigmatizing labels and ineffective remedial interventions, as documented by decades of research.”

In Florida, the high stakes attached to state assessments are endless: mandatory retention, course placement, denied graduation, teacher evaluations and pay, and a school grade-based turnaround process that mandates closure or privatization of low scoring public schools, to name a few. In response to the pressures of the test-focused accountability system, many of Florida’s schools have resorted to a data driven, test focused curriculum, ever narrowing to focus only on tested subjects, reducing or eliminating arts, music and physical activity programs and focusing on multiple choice questions, worksheets and computer programs. In 2017, parents had to fight to restore recess, which had been pushed out by test prep, in Florida’s elementary schools. In Florida’s high schools, where Advanced Placement and state-created End of Course exams are added to the mix, virtually the entire month of May is devoted to testing. It is nearly impossible to imagine how, in the midst of the Covid pandemic, this Spring’s testing cycle could occur in a fair and socially distanced/safe way.

Dr. Shephard continues:

“Some advocates, alert to the potential for harm, have argued in favor of testing but without accountability consequences. Clearly it would be unfair to hold schools and teachers accountable for outcomes when students’ learning opportunities have varied because of computer and internet access, home learning circumstances, and absences related to sickness or family disruption.”

Administering the spring assessments but holding districts harmless for resultant school grades is the current position publicly advocated for by many members of the Florida Association of District School Superintendents, whose formal 2021 Legislative Platform is currently pending. The Florida School Boards Association’s 2021 Legislative Platform calls for a “pause” of all of the “negative consequences of the accountability system,” asking that 2021 spring assessment data be used only to “measure student performance and provide diagnostic information to teachers and parents.”

At the November Board of Education (FLBOE) meeting, Commissioner Corcoran made it clear that he has no intention of pausing spring assessments. As for the negative consequences attached to those test scores, he said “We’re going to move forward and have that accountability, then when we see those results, we can make those determinations based on fact.” So… he’s going to decide on the consequences only after he sees the test scores? What could go wrong?

Dr. Shephard goes on to say we already have all the data we need to justify the federal investments needed to combat the effects of Covid on student learning:

“One of the main arguments for testing this spring is to document the extent of learning loss, especially disproportionate losses affecting poor children and communities of color. We are told those data would then be used to allocate additional resources to support students who have fallen the furthest behind.

Indeed, massive investments are needed—especially for summer school and individual tutoring to redress educational inequities exacerbated by the pandemic. Marc Tucker at the National Center on Education and the Economy, for example, urges that we invest in a national tutoring program like that being developed in the United Kingdom.

We already have enough evidence of COVID impacts to warrant federal investments. At the state level, there may not be new monies to allocate because of budget cuts.”

Florida districts received some much needed relief last month, when Commissioner Corcoran issued EO-07, an Emergency Order extending the funding stability provided to school districts during the earlier EO-06 and ensuring parents the ability to chose distancing learning options during the Covid pandemic without financial repercussions to their home district. While school finance officers are breathing a temporary sigh of relief, the long term impact of Covid on the economy and education funding remains concerning. The post-Covid costs of education, which will include offering extra support to students most impacted by the pandemic, will remain high and the economic fall-out from Covid will be far reaching.

Dr. Shephard warns that administration of assessments during a pandemic will be problematic:

• Remote testing requires security protocols that would violate privacy laws in some states, and even with such protocols, remote and in-person test results could not be aggregated or compared as if they were equivalent.
• Bringing all students into schools for testing when some are still learning remotely is unfair and, in many areas, unsafe.
• Many students who are now absent from remote learning may also be absent from testing, skewing results compared with previous years. In Florida, any school testing fewer than 95% of its students is, by law, issued a grade of “Incomplete.”

Dr. Shephard continues: “Given the likely inaccuracies in 2021 state test scores, other data sources might be just as good depending on the intended purpose for testing.” Indeed, Florida schools are already collecting the data necessary to identify struggling students in need of additional support. Under this year’s two Covid-related Emergency Orders, Florida’s districts are mandated to provide “robust progress monitoring and requisite interventions must be extended to all students with tiered support for students who are not making adequate progress.”

Dr. Shepard reminds us that state mandated spring assessments, designed to provide “accountability,” provide little real value to the individual student:

“Bear in mind that state tests do little to guide instruction for individual students. Knowing which students are below proficient does not tell teachers what skills they have already mastered nor what understandings students still need. Assessments embedded in high-quality curriculum or key assignments are the best way for teachers to gain substantive insights about children’s thinking, plan instruction, and share information with parents.”

This has been a common complaint regarding the state’s FSA, and the FCAT which proceeded it – the data gathered is too non-specific to provide real insights for individual students and arrives too late to provide appropriate interventions. Students suffering during the pandemic can’t wait for the results of spring assessments, they need support now.

Dr. Shephard questions whether, “even with flawless rollout of COVID-19-vaccination programs,” a large enough majority of students will be back to full-time, in-school learning to allow for fair and valid standardized assessments by May and suggests “If such a condition can be met, state officials should still weigh the value of going ahead with testing, making explicit how test results will be used to benefit students. What actions will be taken based on the test scores?”

Dr. Shepard concludes:

“This all feels depressingly like the same argument I had with civil rights leaders around the testing provisions of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2002. My colleagues believed that calling out test scores for Black and brown children would force attention to inequities. Some admit today that congressional appropriations did not follow on the scale that was hoped for or needed and that negative side effects were greater than intended.

Before the pandemic, inequities were as great or greater than in 2002 and now are devastatingly worse. Let’s not repeat old testing mistakes.”

In Florida, unfortunately, we specialize in creating old testing mistakes.

Increasingly, in Florida, state test scores and school grades have been used to highlight the current inequities in the system and, then, to encourage the privatization of our public school system through “school choice.” It is by design. The plan has been to disrupt, defund and dismantle public schools.

Floridians should question why our Department of Education insists on standardized testing in the midst of a global pandemic? What are the benefits? As Dr Shepard suggests, “they must acknowledge any potential harm from testing for the very students… most traumatized by COVID-19.” In Florida’s current Accountability system, the repercussions of low test scores can be harsh; the potential harm could be immense. Deciding whether and where to apply such repercussion only after administering state assessments and analyzing the data defies reason.

We already have collected the progress monitoring data necessary to show where interventions are needed. Florida’s state assessments, and all their repercussions, should be canceled for 2021.