The mere fact that students wishing to attend a charter school have to submit an application is the first sign of discrimination in admission policies. The requirement of a written application assumes that the parent or guardian of a child can read and or write. It also assumes the parent has access to the information that applications are both available and necessary. That means that those children whose parents lack the skills necessary to access the application will likely not be considered for attendance at a charter school. It also means that families with more skills and resources are more likely to have access to the charter school. Is it too much to assume that a child whose family lacks the skills or resources to submit an application might also have more difficulty with school or conversely the child with the support of a family that has the resources and access to the application process might better prepared for school and thus be more successful? What do you think?

The Fallacy of High Stakes Testing

High stakes testing is any assessment program used by government agency, such as the state, to assess student achievement.  These scores are often used in the aggregate to assess schools and school systems and their effectiveness in educating students.  In Massachusetts we have the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System or MCAS for short.  Tests administered under the umbrella of MCAS are given to different grade levels  at different times of the year and consist of assessments of knowledge in several areas of curriculum.  In order to graduate high school with a diploma, students are expected to pass MCAS tests in the areas of Reading and Math during grade ten.  Students who are unable to pass the test in these areas before the end of grade 12 may receive a certificate of attendance.  Students are generally allowed to retake tests they fail at different times during grades eleven or twelve and may or may not be offered remedial services.  Tests these students may take to pass the requirements increase in difficulty with each administration.

The fallacy of such an assessment is not in the value of assessing student performance but in the question of whether or not such an assessment actually evaluates what it is expected to evaluate.  In other words do the questions given as a part of the assessment actually measure knowledge of the subject area and with what level of accuracy does it do so.  In the realm of assessment these issues are known as Validity and Reliability.  Anyone involved in research will tell you that test data is only as good as the test given and assuring the validity and reliability of a test is complicated and time consuming.  Millions of dollars are spent each year to determine the effectiveness of various education programs. These measurements have not been applied to the testing given in Massachusetts and it is unlikely that companies that states pay millions to have done so in other areas.  If we are going to insist and high stakes testing as an evaluation of our students as well as our education system we should make sure that we know what exactly we are testing and that the tests we give and rely on for information are valid and reliable.