LIHUE — Hawaii is steps ahead of the federal government when it comes to standardized testing. For a year already, the state’s education system has been trimming excess testing from the school day, which is the essence of a plan
LIHUE — Hawaii is steps ahead of the federal government when it comes to standardized testing.
For a year already, the state’s education system has been trimming excess testing from the school day, which is the essence of a plan released by the U.S. Department of Education in October.
The Testing Action Plan recommends students only spend 2 percent of their time filling in those little bubbles, and provides seven principles for fewer and more efficient tests. It also outlines a plan to reduce over-testing and asks Congress to step in and put a cap on the percentage of time students spend testing in the classroom.
During the 2014-15 school year, the Hawaii Department of Education reviewed the state- required assessments that students are taking in school.
“We made significant changes to reduce the amount of testing in our schools this year,” said Superintendent Kathryn Matayoshi. “Tests play a role in supporting teaching and learning, but that role must be balanced with the critical importance of instruction and student supports.”
The department eliminated five of those tests for the secondary level schools this year and is hashing out the fate of a sixth. That means students in middle and high school in Hawaii will only be taking five state-mandated tests this school year.
“The reduction of these tests will allow for more instructional time to support the teaching and learning process of our students,” said Bill Arakaki, superintendent for Kauai Complex Area.
Michael Kline, a special education teacher at Kilauea Elementary, said teachers have been asking for fewer standardized tests and he’s happy they’ve been heard.
“I appreciate Superintendents Kathryn Matayoshi and Stephen Schatz for listening to input from teachers and principals to reduce the amount of testing,” Kline said. “I think teachers in Hawaii are being heard more by the DOE and together we can improve our schools in meaningful ways.”
Effects on learning
When kids are preparing for and taking tests, they’re losing learning time, and in many cases, those tests have little to no impact on the students themselves, according to teachers.
“(Many of those tests) provide limited useful information and not in a timely manner,” said Jonathon Medeiros, a language arts teacher at Kauai High School.
Last year, Medeiros’s students spent around two weeks of focused instruction in math and the same amount of instruction time in English to prepare for the Smarter Balanced Assessment.
“We do not get the SBAC results until after the summer,” Medeiros said. “That means we can’t use the data to adjust our teaching in time to impact those students.”
In addition, standardized testing funnels student time toward a small group of core subjects, pushing other classes to the sidelines.
“It forces schools to focus too much on math and reading at the expense of other valuable subjects such as music, art, p.e., and social studies,” Kline said. “Teachers want to teach the whole child, not just reading and math.”
Results from standardized tests are woven into the jobs of everyone who is involved in education. Those tests help determine how much federal funding schools receive and teacher pay scales, for example.
“When (testing) is connected to rewards and punishments for schools and when it is connected to teacher evaluation systems and our pay, it really becomes highly punitive and stressful for teachers and students alike,” Kline said.
Kline explained standardized testing is a high-stakes situation for teachers because if their students don’t do well, their job could be on the line.
“(Teachers) can possibly get terminated and won’t get the pay raises they deserve if their students don’t do well,” Kline said. “That creates undue pressure on teachers, schools and ultimately the students.”
Collecting the data
One reason for standardized testing is to collect data from students on their achievement levels, and Arakaki said Kauai schools have been able to get the data they need to submit at the state and national levels, even with the reduction in testing.
“Data is the million-dollar word in education these days,” Kline said. “Yes, we should be looking at some data, but we should be talking more importantly about whole-student needs.”
That means focusing more on teaching methods, what subjects and skills are taught, and how to “effectively differentiate instruction in order to meet all of our students’ needs,” Kline said.
Medeiros said that, though teachers are required to collect certain data from standardized tests, it’s difficult to get immediate applicable information.
“We are required to collect and discuss data, and the state mandated standardized tests rarely provide us with that data,” Medeiros said. “We rely on our own real time assessments.”
A drop in testing time frees up more learning time in the classroom, which both Medeiros and Kline said should be happening in the first place.
“If standardized testing is reduced in number and length of tests, the extra time will be used as it should be used — for teaching and learning,” Kline said. “We should not forget that these tests are being delivered to students at the expense of time originally set aside for classroom learning.”
