‘One-size-fits-all’ testing ineffective

While our attention is understandably focused on major issues of se-curity and safety impacting our nation, Congress is also engaged in important work on the most sweeping federal education reform package in decades. These reforms – known as the reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) – will help to shape the direction of public education in America, and in Maine, for years to come.

Much is right about the president’s proposals and the emerging compromises in Congress: the commitment is to set high standards for all students, help students meet these standards, and hold schools and states accountable for performance. But as the details hang in the balance, some aspects of these proposed reforms are cause for concern here in Maine.

The proposed reforms include a heavy emphasis on required, annual testing for elementary and middle school children in grades 3-8. This requirement risks putting testing above results, upsetting Maine’s own statewide reform efforts, while violating our traditions of local control and academic freedom. Maine is not afraid of accountability, and we are not opposed to testing. Both the Maine Department of Education and our local school systems welcome accountability and broad reporting on student progress to our public.

Maine supports high academic standards. The state and our citizens have agreed on the “ends” of learning – our Learning Results – but with academic freedom for local school districts and their educators regarding how to help students get there, what teaching strategies to employ, and what instructional materials to use.

This is wise public policy that respects the state role and the local role. Washington should take sage counsel from Maine: hold us accountable for results, but don’t prescribe how we measure teaching and learning.

But requiring the use of annual standardized tests comprised primarily of multiple-choice items erodes Maine’s work on standards and accountability, shortens student learning time, and would provide only limited data to teachers as they seek to modify instruction to better assist students who are having difficulty.

This proposed new federal policy would undo a major component of Maine’s Learning Results: the belief and the practice of using multiple measures to determine student progress.

Maine gets results. Maine has a history of exceptionally strong performance on national testing over the past decade. This year, Maine’s eighth-graders – who tied for first in the nation as fourth graders in 1996 – were third in the country in Mathematics on the National Assessment of Education Progress (NAEP) tests, and Maine’s fourth graders also scored among the top 10. In 1998, Maine eighth-graders were first in the nation in reading and second in the nation in writing, while Maine fourth-graders scored fourth in the nation in Reading. In 1996, our eighth-graders topped the charts in science.

There is no evidence that annual standardized testing leads to high performance. The most recent National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) results rank the top ten performing states in reading and math in grades 4 and 8. Among these high-performing states, including Maine, only one state tests its students every year in grades 3-8.

In Maine we have accountability that goes far beyond our state test, the Maine Educational Assessment (MEA), to a comprehensive system that relies on valid and reliable local assessment systems in companion with our state MEAs.

The MEAs, administered to all students at the grades 4, 8 and 11 levels, have been in place since 1985-86, one of the nation’s longest standing testing programs. These are rigorous exams that cut across six subject areas and include open-ended test items, not just multiple-choice questions. It is through our experience with statewide testing and our analysis of the research on assessment that led the Maine Legislature to opt for a mix of measures, rather than using just

standardized testing.

The progress of Maine schools and students is to be assessed through varied measures including the MEA, but also through portfolios, projects, exit exhibitions, writing prompts, and so on. Maine’s policy is instructionally sound, and it reflects the best thinking about what constitutes good teaching, good learning, and how to improve student achievement.

Our commitment to Maine’s standards-based school reform efforts spans four terms of Govs. Angus King and John McKernan, as well as eight Legislatures. Our Legislature is one of only a few who actually voted on the particulars of the state’s standards.

I stand ready to certify to the federal government that Maine’s assessment system appropriately measures student and school performance on our standards: the Learning Results. Reporting performance and progress in this way is a far more meaningful commitment than certifying student performance based on a single test.

Maine will hold low-performing schools accountable. We are doing it the “Maine way,” offering teams of Maine educators to help coach teachers and administrators in best practices aimed at elevating student achievement. We will require supportive interventions rather than simply punish low-performing schools.

Funding for Maine’s own, comprehensive reforms may be diverted to pay for the proposed federal testing requirement. The federal government contributes a sizable amount of money to public education in our state, but only a modest fraction (5.9 percent) of the total costs of K-12 education in Maine. State and local taxpayers are the primary financial supporters

of our schools.

The federal share of the proposed testing program has been set at 50 percent, and we wonder if this amount will ever materialize. If Maine has to pay for the state share of the new federal testing program, it will have to come out of the current funds for education – not in addition. This will mean a reduction in our state and local education reform efforts in order to fund the federal agenda.

Recently, 23 leading Maine education organizations joined me in sending a strong statement to the members of Maine’s congressional delegation reiterating these concerns and urging them to persist

in advocating on Maine’s behalf for accountability that is balanced

and sensible, and consistent with the “Maine way.”

Maine citizens deserve results; Maine students deserve a rich education that prepares them for life and work in a complex world. But we don’t need a prescriptive, “one-size-fits-all” testing program. Washington’s focus on high standards for all of our students is to be applauded – it’s the right target at the right time – but the recipe for how to get the job done is best determined at the state and local levels.

J. Duke Albanese is the Maine commissioner of education.