Indiana Coalition for Public Education--MCSCI February 24, 2014
Contact: Jennifer Livesay, Board Member FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Cell Phone: 812-334-0764
Email: [email protected]
INDIANA COALITION FOR PUBLIC EDUCATION PRESENTS A DISCUSSION CIRCLE ON ISTEP AND OTHER STANDARDIZED TESTS
Local authors will facilitate dialogue
Bloomington, Indiana--One day before high-stakes ISTEP testing begins in schools throughout Indiana, our community will have an opportunity to engage in a conversation about how standardized tests are developed and how the results are used. Parents, teachers, and community members are invited to "Making Sense of ISTEP and Other Standardized Tests: A Discussion Circle with Authors Phil and Joan Harris" on Sunday, March 2, from 1 to 2:30 p.m. at the new Northwest YMCA. The event is free and open to the public.
ISTEP has been used primarily to measure schools' performance since the inception of No Child Left Behind in 2002. In the last two years, the stakes for schools have increased with the implementation of the A-F grading system for schools and the new requirement that teachers' evaluations be based, in part, on their students' ISTEP scores. With ISTEP results being used as a major indicator of school quality, the test itself deserves some scrutiny: How are questions chosen? What is the difference between passing and failing? Will an individual class of students be like the group on which the test was "normed"? When students bring such variety of experience to the table, can any multiple choice test be fair to all? And does ISTEP actually measure what it purports to measure, student achievement?
Phil and Joan Harris are the authors, with Bruce Smith, of "The Myths of Standardized Tests: Why They Don't Tell You What You Think They Do." Their book contends that much of the commonly accepted knowledge about standardized tests is simply wrong, and that these misunderstandings have led to the distortion of the education of children and the judgments made about them, their teachers and schools. Phil Harris was on the faculty at Indiana University, in education and psychology, for twenty-two years, and is the executive director of the Association for Educational Communications & Technology. Joan Harris recently retired after many years teaching at University Elementary School.
This event is sponsored by the Indiana Coalition for Public Education--Monroe County and South Central Indiana (https://www.facebook.com/pages/Monroe-County-Coalition-Public-Education/374573205902510).
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For further information, please contact Jennifer Livesay at 812-334-0764.
Contact: Jennifer Livesay, Board Member FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Cell Phone: 812-334-0764
Email: [email protected]
INDIANA COALITION FOR PUBLIC EDUCATION PRESENTS A DISCUSSION CIRCLE ON ISTEP AND OTHER STANDARDIZED TESTS
Local authors will facilitate dialogue
Bloomington, Indiana--One day before high-stakes ISTEP testing begins in schools throughout Indiana, our community will have an opportunity to engage in a conversation about how standardized tests are developed and how the results are used. Parents, teachers, and community members are invited to "Making Sense of ISTEP and Other Standardized Tests: A Discussion Circle with Authors Phil and Joan Harris" on Sunday, March 2, from 1 to 2:30 p.m. at the new Northwest YMCA. The event is free and open to the public.
ISTEP has been used primarily to measure schools' performance since the inception of No Child Left Behind in 2002. In the last two years, the stakes for schools have increased with the implementation of the A-F grading system for schools and the new requirement that teachers' evaluations be based, in part, on their students' ISTEP scores. With ISTEP results being used as a major indicator of school quality, the test itself deserves some scrutiny: How are questions chosen? What is the difference between passing and failing? Will an individual class of students be like the group on which the test was "normed"? When students bring such variety of experience to the table, can any multiple choice test be fair to all? And does ISTEP actually measure what it purports to measure, student achievement?
Phil and Joan Harris are the authors, with Bruce Smith, of "The Myths of Standardized Tests: Why They Don't Tell You What You Think They Do." Their book contends that much of the commonly accepted knowledge about standardized tests is simply wrong, and that these misunderstandings have led to the distortion of the education of children and the judgments made about them, their teachers and schools. Phil Harris was on the faculty at Indiana University, in education and psychology, for twenty-two years, and is the executive director of the Association for Educational Communications & Technology. Joan Harris recently retired after many years teaching at University Elementary School.
This event is sponsored by the Indiana Coalition for Public Education--Monroe County and South Central Indiana (https://www.facebook.com/pages/Monroe-County-Coalition-Public-Education/374573205902510).
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For further information, please contact Jennifer Livesay at 812-334-0764.