High Stakes Testing in the International Schools Arena

I've been trying to find a my voice on the issue of High Stakes Assessments, for quite a while, now.
I found inspiration in recent days, when all the world's attentions are focused on this High Stakes Election. But there are similarities -- the outcome of one can have dramatic impacts on our future - for good or ill. Regardless of a host of variables that may conceivably confound the result, ones fate, it would seem, rests squarely upon this one day, this one test or ballot, and the outcome at the end of it. But, I would say, that's not entirely so.

Whether its an election or a High Stakes Test, like the SAT, for example, there is always the counterbalance of free will, self determination, and the kindness of strangers.

The subject of high stakes testing has been on the hot seat, particularly over the past 15 years or so,  since the implementation of the No Child Left Behind (NCBL) laws. These laws, which were introduced as an education-reform bill in 2001, were signed into law by President George W. Bush on Jan. 8, 2002, and represented the most sweeping change in education law since the the 1965 Elementary and Secondary Education Act, that was signed into law by Lyndon B. Johnson.  The NCBL imposed national and state level norms of testing on students across the United States. Their stated intention was to try to raise the bar in terms of academic expectations, hold teachers accountable for their students' learning, and to bring all students to a same level of high performance.

However, in practice, it did not necessarily meet these goals. In practice there were many unintended consequences.

Over the years, the laws and their insistence on high stakes testing led to to bitter debates about the cultural biases of such tests, the potential of using them unfairly to penalize and control teachers, and to unfairly discriminate against students of different categories. The laws and their emphasis on high stakes testing results were criticized for forcing teachers to "teach to the test," rather than to engage and instruct children. Last year, Barack Obama signed a new law into place that was meant to address some of these concerns, called the  Every Student Succeeds Act.   

As a student of education, coming from years as a librarian and information professional in the states, and now working for the last nearly ten years, in an international school in Cote d'Ivoire, West Africa, with a population of students who come from countries around the world, I am looking at this  question through my own particular lens.

As a librarian, I am both a champion of intellectual rigor, and of free expression. As an educator, while I am obviously concerned with similar issues, my focus is more individualized, and centered on the unique strengths and talents of each child, and upon how I can differentiate, scaffold, and otherwise assist each child in reaching his or her potential. As a teacher in a school like ours, I find myself questioning the place of High Assessment Assessments for our students, when the students come from such varied backgrounds, language abilities, and test taking experiences.

At our school, about a third of the students are English language learners, and all of our students are coming from school systems that are based in one of three philosophical positions, that are at odds with one another -- one third from European countries, particularly the Netherlands and Belgium where education systems are very to extremely student centered;  another third from countries that are moderately to extremely test centered such as those the Middle Est countries like Lebanon and France and other Francophone countries, like Cote d'Ivoire and Cameroon, which follow the French educational system, to those from Asian countries such as Korea, Vietnam, China, India; and finally there are those students who come from moderately to extremely traditional teacher centered systems, such as the more moderate American, and the more extreme British school systems, as can be found in South Africa and Ghana. How is it possible to use high stakes assessment in any meaningful way, when our students are coming from such diversity?

Well, we are trying. In this richly diverse setting we're applying an American curriculum and American styled approach to education - including the use of our standardized assessment - the Measures of Academic Progress (MAP).

The MAP test provides a very detailed analysis of students' progress, over time, and provides actionable data about where each child stands in relation to other students in their district, and around the world - and in relation to his or her own learning path. We are asked to use the results of the MAP results to determine whether or not students may be accepted into our school, and if so, at what grade level they are to be placed.  Students are tested at least twice a year, and every other year, there is a third, mid year assessment as well. This enables us to measure academic growth throughout the school year and from year to year in reading and math. 

Such a test can be a wonderful tool - it helps us to really see into the specific strengths and weaknesses of each student, therefore helping teachers to make strategic decisions about what to address with each student. However, when we look at our scores in comparison to other benchmarks -- other test takers throughout the world, for instance, our school's unique characteristics come in to play. With high turn over every year  of both teachers (our overseas teachers change every two or three years) and students (many students leave, many more new students join us each year) how we can we ever have true measures of our school progress, grade performance, or development over time? With so many students at various levels of language proficiency, how can our scores ever be counted on to give us an accurate reflection of their learning?  And with large numbers of students coming from places where testing is never done,  as well as from places where students may have been taking tests since the first grade, and pressure to succeed is extremely high, how can we be sure that the test results are not skewed and impacted by degrees of test taking ability? 

In cases like this it is easy to see the strength and weaknesses of high stakes testing. In our case, they are best used for prescription, with regard to strategic teaching. Beyond that, there are too many unknowns to make them trustworthy. 

So. what does that have to do with the High Stakes Election? Well, not much in reality.  

But we can we regard the outcome of this High Stakes Election result and wonder and debate how it will impact on our society and our individual lives. Depending on your position, your expectations may be rosy or quite bleak. But will the results of this one election - and our one test - have any lasting impact on  our individual long range future? Hard to say. Maybe, Maybe not. There are always the counterbalance of free will, self determination, and the kindness of strangers.

But, perhaps we can learn something of value from it, even if not exactly what we intended.   
For just as our MAP tests' greatest value may not be it's ability to predict the future, but in the diagnostic story that it begins to reveal about  each individual child, and where he or she is coming from,  so might the value of this high stakes  election rest mainly in the diagnostic story it begins to reveal about our society. By offering a glimpse into the workings of our nations' collective conscience,  with regard to a host of different factors,  perhaps this election  can teach us more about where we are coming from - and how far we have to go - than it does about whether or not we will every actually get there.