Teachers are speaking out on social media and elsewhereabout the inordinate amount of time spent testing kids this month, using either iReady orMAP, whose uselessness I previously wrote about here. A former DOE administrator emailedme to say that despite their claims, the DoE did not allow a single high schoolto use a differentscreener than MAP exam.This person also described how the results of these inherently unreliableexams will be misused. Though my informantsaid that students are not allowed to opt out, we have heard from some parentsthat their principals are indeed honoring such requests this, so I urge you togo to NYC Opt out’s website for asample letter/form to send to your school. The message I received follows:
Whenprincipals were commanded to "select" a screener at the end of July(when probably 75-90% were on vacation), there was a "superintendentapproved alternative" option. I know that more than forty high schoolsselected that option. Probably many, many more. None were approved …High schools had only one option, btw, except for kids with IEPs andELLs. Everyone else gets the MAP….
We learned from a DoE employeethat there have been weekly meetings with Academic Policy, which is focusing on“academic recovery and interventions” using the results of the screeners.The MAP data is being jointly managed by NWEA (which publishes MAP) and theDoE, which has also built a data system for its own use - superintendents (andeveryone above) can use the system to compare schools within and acrossdistricts.
Instructional interventions arebeing prepared for use by schools based on the MAP data, starting withinterventions for students with IEPs but then expanding for use by all studentswith lower scores.
[First Deputy Chancellor] Donald Conyers informed all superintendents that parentsare not allowed to opt their children out of the MAP - if they don’t want tohave their child tested, they must keep them home on test day, and, presumably,the test make up day. While this may not affect high school so much, itobviously makes it nearly impossible for elementary school parents to opt theirchildren out. This is a severe policy -the State Education Department recognizes the parental right to opt childrenout of state testing.Why is the City being so strident?
Taken together we believe itis becoming clearer and clearer that these tests will have serious consequencesfor all schools, even if they do not have high stakes attached for students.(The privacy issues in the data-handling remain considerable for students, aswell.)
If the system is being built sothat central admin (sups and above) can compare school performance, it won't belong until principals are called on the carpet (Edustat/comstat style)….Andthat rolls downhill to teachers in schools with low scores.
Myown belief, shared by most of those in my progressive education circles, isthat these tests have almost zero value, especially in high school. WhenJesse Hagopian led the MAP boycott in 2013, one of the reasons was that themargin of error exceeds the expected growth for high school students, renderingthe test invalid. I'm 99% sure that is still the case.
