Competency tested

Jacob Plumley of Minnesota finally got his diploma the other day, two months after the rest of the Harding High School Class of 2000 got theirs. He got it after a summer spent in remedial classes. Unlike his classmates, he got it in a near-empty gym with no pomp and under regrettable circumstances.

Mr. Plumley was not held up by a late term paper or overdue library books. He is among a growing number of American students, from elementary through high school, taking standardized competency tests as a prerequisite for advancement. He is also among an exploding number being victimized by error-filled computerized scoring.

Some 47,000 Minnesota students, seventh throuh 12th grade, got incorrect scores on the statewide math exam they took this year. The mistake in scoring – the testing company, National Computer Systems, used the wrong answer key – resulted in failing grades for nearly 8,000.

Fifty-four seniors, like Jacob Plumley, were denied participation in commencement exercises. Instead of working summer jobs, packing for college or just enjoying their last summer before adulthood, they were catching up on studies in which they were never behind. As long as grades are being handed out, consider the transcript being compiled by the standardized testing industry. Last summer, more than 8,000 New York City elementary pupils were sent to summer school or told they would be held back because CTB/McGraw-Hill gave them lower scores than they earned. In Arizona, 12,000 sophomores in March received lower math test scores, including 142 who were told they had failed, because National Computer Systems used an incorrect answer key. Yes, the dog ate NCS’s homework twice.

There’s more. In California, Harcourt Education Measurement put 250,000 students fluent in English into the nonfluent category, forcing them into unneeded remedial classes. Similar mistakes in Florida, Indiana, Michigan, Missouri, Nevada, Ohio, South Carolina, Tennessee, Washington and Wisconsin have left their students with incorrect scores or comparative rankings. When the subject is competency tests, the obvious question is who’s testing the testers.

According to the Education Commission of the States, a Denver nonprofit that tracks national education trends, the errors are a symptom of increased reliance on standardized tests. Half of the states now require or are making plans to require students pass a test before they get a diploma or are allowed to advance to the next grade. Maine is not among that herd and there now is particularly good reason not to join the stampede.

Tests scored by computer, with their veneer of scientific objectivity, have undeniable appeal to policy makers wanting an easy answer to the difficult question of educational attainment. Classroom grades given out by teachers – that combination of homework, participation, attitude, quizzes and exams – are rather messy, smewhat subjective and, not that it seems to matter, much more indicative of achievement. Mistakes do happen, but if a classroom teacher used the wrong answer key, chances are good that teacher would recognize the discrepancy between classroom performance and test scores, plug the right key in and probably even apologize.

Call it the personal touch. It’s a touch standardized-testing advocates seem determined to remove from education. It’s much easier to blame the dog.