| mySPIN |
 State Gets an “F” In Testing Program
by Tom Campbell
September 7, 2006
The latest delay of last year’s math test scores is further proof that North Carolina needs to get out of the development and implementation of testing for public education students. We have scored an “F” for the system, the process, the evaluation and scoring of results in our testing system.
We are not advocating an end of testing, merely the end of our state conducting the tests. Parents, administrators, teachers and the public have a right to know how well our students are doing, but we need a testing program in which we can get results in a timely manner and results in which we can have confidence.
Not only does the testing program need to be scrapped but so also does the bonus system attached to it. Part of the dismay over the delay of the math test scores is not whether students should be promoted; it is whether or not teachers will receive bonuses for the work they performed last year.
When the ABC’s accountability program was developed there was a genuine desire to link student performance to teacher pay. The intent was that teachers would be given bonuses for achieving excellence. The evidence is that this system, much like the testing program, isn’t working the way it was envisioned.
We need to hold educators accountable, but this includes all in the system, especially principals and superintendents. Let’s begin with a system which pays for excellence, then demands it. If we want the best teachers in our classrooms let’s pay them accordingly. Evaluating excellence may seem problematic, but our experience is that concerned parents can tell you who the best teachers are, and they can also tell you which principals are getting the job done and which ones let unruly students or problem teachers get away with too much. Accountability begins with the school board, then the superintendent and administration, flowing down to the principal in the local school and finally, to the classroom teacher.
We are saying we want zero tolerance for failure in the school room; we should apply that same yardstick to our testing program. Releasing the test scores of last year’s math tests sometime this fall is a colossal failure and we should have zero tolerance for yet another failing of our testing program. There are national testing programs available and North Carolina should make haste to adopt and use them. |
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