George Cunningham KY: NEW TESTS ARE STW, NOT OBE AND TOO DAMN HARD From: gkcunn01@ulkyvm.louisville.edu Date sent: Wed, 26 Nov 1997 12:40:00 -0500 To: education-consumers@tricon.net, conserv-exceledu@listproc.bgsu.edu Subject: Re: Fwd: Colorado (successful Core Knowledge results) At 04:22 PM 11/21/97, Arthur Hu wrote: >Colorado is one of the states that has adopted the wacko new >"performance based tests" that are skewed towards progressive >education values, this school is further proof that schools that >concentrate on the basics also tend to do the best even on the >new tests. > >The new tests are not true OBE tests, since they combine problem >solving with needing to know a lot of basic facts as well. A true OBE >test would have to test to a lower academic level of proficiency, >and pass everyone who had the correct attitudes. The new tests tend >to flunk everybody, especially in math. > > >Colorado is one of the states that has adopted the wacko new >"performance based tests" that are skewed towards progressive >education values, this school is further proof that schools that >concentrate on the basics also tend to do the best even on the >new tests. > >The new tests are not true OBE tests, since they combine problem >solving with needing to know a lot of basic facts as well. A true OBE >test would have to test to a lower academic level of proficiency, and >pass everyone who had the correct attitudes. The new tests tend to >flunk everybody, especially in math. > I would like to take the opportunity to make some comments about performance-based tests or performance assessments. I see a few misconceptions here. For anyone interested in a more detailed description of this sort of assessment you might want to check out _Assessment in the Classroom: Constructing and Interpreting Tests_ which I just had published by Falmer Press (ISBN 0 7507 -732). Performance Assessment was all the rage in the early 90s and was a prime example of progressive education. What was originally meant by this term was having students perform hands-on, real-world tasks. Evaluating performance in an art class by evaluating a painting or sculpture, a birdhouse made in a woodshop, or a students ability to identify an unknown substance in a test-tube for a chemistry class are all examples. Social studies classes might be assessed by their ability to actually get a law passed in an aldermanic council. When this was latched onto as the way to eliminate the hated multiple-choice format in large scale testing its advocates were hit by a large dose of reality. Such assessment is too expensive and impractical. The assessment was taken out of the hands of progressive educators and turned over to the STW crowd. I can't emphasize enough that the two are not the same. In Kentucky, the state where I work and with which I am most familiar administers essay questions and calls them performance assessments. They then have the nerve to justify their incredible expense by talking about the expensive logistics of real world performance assessment. Here are some example of what Kentucky means by hands-on, real-world performance assessment. These qustions are for 11th graders. Historically, the north has been an industrial, urban area and the South has been a rural, agricultural area. In the latter part of the 20th century, however, the characteristics of both regions have been changing quickly. Explain reasons for these changes. (1997 Social Studies, Question B) Explain how the United States assumed the role of "world power." Desscibe the role of the United States in the world today, providing relevant examples to support your answer. (1997 Social Studies, Question D) Some objects sink in water, some float, and others remain suspended. Explain in detail how each occurs. Use an example of each to support your explanation. (1997 Science, Question B) These are just ordinary essay questions. Calling them performance assessments does not alter the character. Calling tests like these performance assessments is a hoax but this is occurring all over. Most claimed performance assessments administered by states are just common, ordinary essay tests. What the STW influence has been is to make the tests very difficult. The failure rates can be expected to be extremely high, particularly among minorities. This is one indication of the difference between STW and progressive education. In Washington state the failure rate for minorities on their new test is 95%. Here is the type of tasks the New Standards Project expects high school students to master before they get a CIM. giving a report on the basic uses of logarithmic scales in log-log and semi-log plots, in analog computing devices and in physical phenomena, such as pH scales(acidity), decibel scales (sound intensity), and Richter scales (earthquake intensity). solving the following problem: For a regular m-gon, which "rolls" around a (stationary) regular n-gon of the same side length, figure how many time the m-gon (1) rotates about the n-gon and (2) revolves on its axis before the staring po-sition is reached again. solving the following problem: Given the formula for height of an object thrown upward with velocity v: h(t) = h + vt+(1/2)gt (the last t is squared and the h after = has 0 as subscript) use quadratic functions and the quadratic formula to an-swer questions about the motion of projectiles and falling objects. As for OBE, the concept is dead and has been replaced by the STW standards movement. Even William Spady, its founder admits that the term is only used now as a term of opprobrium. OBE was captured by progressives who distorted it, and ultimately destroyed it. George K. Cunningham University of Louisville EDUCATION CONSUMERS CLEARINGHOUSE