LETTERS - Letter to the Editor

School Administrator, March, 2001

A High-Stakes Balance

Your December 2000 issue provided a balance of perspectives on high-stakes testing and the potential of such tests to improve achievement.

Several authors underscored vital elements of appropriate test use, for example that a single test should never be used as the sole basis of a high-stakes decision, that standards should not be set at levels that ensure defeat for all but the few, that tests should yield timely feedback that can constructively shape teaching and learning, and that instruction should not be reduced to test drill and practice.

We especially appreciated James W. Popham's point that parents and educators need to become literate in assessment. Such information increases the likelihood that well-constructed, standardized tests will be used in ways that are commensurate with the important but limited amount of information they provide.

Our own forthcoming book, Raising Standards or Raising Barriers? Inequality and High Stakes Testing in Public Education, is similarly aimed at educating policymakers, educators and the wider public. In the absence of such widespread understanding and action based upon it, many policymakers will continue to assert that high-stakes decisions for students, educators and schools should be based largely or exclusively on the results of a standardized test. This will greatly exacerbate our nation's existing educational inequalities.

GARY ORFIELD and MINDY KORNHABER

Civil Rights Project, Harvard University, Cambridge, Moss.

Predictable Lasers

Peter Sacks has written an enlightening article in the December 2000 issue ("Predictable Losers in Testing Schemes") on the downfalls of standardized tests.

His anecdote about the mother in Boise, Idaho, is especially poignant. She has a son who could pass the tests, yet she feels that he learns very little in school.

In my teaching practice, I have run into many of the same type of students. They get good marks, but I really question if they are actually learning anything. The message is that standardized tests are not the be-all and end-all of assessment.

In Alberta, we are having much of the same struggles as are educators in the United States. Politicians are the ones who set educational policy, and they are more concerned with a political agenda than an educational one. Perhaps the work of Sacks and others will make the changes that are necessary.

DALE E. WALLACE

English Teacher, Lord Beaverbrook High School, Calgary, Alberta

In Australia, we look in amazement at America's infatuation with the use of standardized tests to measure the efficacy of teachers, students, principals, superintendents and anyone else working inside the school gates.

Our federal government has introduced some fairly innocuous tests in literacy and numeracy at grades 3, 5 and 10, but we live in dread of American-style accountability by standardized testing crossing the Pacific.

NEIL MacNEILL

Principal, Ellenbrook Primary School, Perth, Australia

Kudos for Peter Sacks' well-written and intelligent assessment of the testing juggernaut.

Having taught in Japan for six years and seeing what a messed-up society their exam-driven (to the total exclusion of real learning) school system has created, I was somewhat taken aback to see so many people jumping on the testing and accountability bandwagon when I arrived back here.

I will play my part in upsetting the apple cart by disseminating his article as widely as possible.

BRIAN BAILEY

Education Assistant to the Associate Superintendents, Vancouver School Board, Vancouver, British Columbia

Wonderful Rules

In his guest column ("10 Rules for Daily Living," December 2000), David Smith has beautifully put in to words the values I try to practice every day. It's sure easier some days than others!

I especially like this thought: "I've discovered that I'm now more impressed with people who are kind than with people who are smart." I couldn't agree with him more.

I'm sharing his column with my administrative team as a reminder to all of us on the right way to behave in our relationships.

KATHRYN ROBBINS

Superintendent, Leyden High School District 212, Franklin Park, Ill.

Value of Followership

I really enjoyed the article by Stephen L. Kleinsmith and Sheri Evert-Rogers ("The Art of Followership," September 2000) and have shared it with my management staff.

The balance between leadership and followership is critical to the success of any organization, and the two of them did a nice job of defining that balance.

MARC LIEBMAN

Superintendent, Marysville Joint Unified School District, Marysville, Calif.

"The Art of Follwership" is an outstanding piece on the important role followers play in school districts.

As the authors so aptly point out, little can be accomplished in any organization without a dedicated group of people who are willing to carry out the vision of the organization. Followers are absolutely essential to success and yet very little has been written about this role.

CARTER D. WARD

Executive Director, Missouri School Boards' Association, Columbia, Mo.