Against the Common Core Standards and Tests
Stephen Krashen http://www.sdkrashen.com/
Presented at: OCCUPY US Department of Education, April
6, 2013
The movement for national standards and tests is based on these claims:
(1) Our educational system is broken, as revealed by US students' scores
on international tests; (2) We must improve education to improve the
economy;
(3) The way to improve education is to have national standards and
national tests that enforce the standards.
Each of these claims is false.
(1) Our schools are not broken. The problem is poverty. When
researchers control for poverty, our test scores are among the best in world.
Our unspectacular overall scores are due to the fact that the US has the second
highest level of child poverty among all 34 economically advanced countries
(now over 23%, compared to high-scoring Finland’s 5.4%). Poverty means poor
nutrition, inadequate health care, and lack of access to books, among other
things. All of these negatively impact school performance.
(2) Existing evidence strongly suggests that improving the economy
improves children's educational outcomes. Yes, a better education can lead to a
better job, but only if jobs exists.
(3) There is no evidence that national standards and national
tests have improved student learning in the past.
No educator is opposed to assessments that help students to improve
their learning. The amount of testing proposed by the US Department of
Education in connection to national standards is astonishing, more than we have
ever seen on this planet, and much more than the already excessive amount
demanded by NCLB: US Department of Education documents show that testing will
be expanded to include all subjects that can be tested and more grade levels.
There will be “interim” tests given through the year and there may be pretests
in the fall to measure growth, defined as increases in standardized test
scores, or “value-added” measures.
The cost of implementing standards and electronically delivered national
tests will be enormous, bleeding money from legitimate and valuable school
activities. According to media reports, New York City and the State of Florida
are each budgeting a half a billion dollars just to connect children to the
internet so that they can take tests. And we can be sure that as soon as the
equipment is set up, it will be declared obsolete. The boondoggle will never
end.
This money could be spent to protect children from the effects of
poverty, i.e. on expanded and improved breakfast and lunch programs, school
nurses (at present there are more school nurses per child in low poverty
schools than in high poverty schools) and improved school and public libraries,
especially in high-poverty areas.
Rather than spend on standards and tests, investing in protecting our
children from the effects of poverty would improve school achievement. More
important, it is the right thing to do.
Some sources:
“Test scores of students from middle class homes ...:
Payne, K. and Biddle, B. 1999. Poor school funding, child poverty, and
mathematics achievement. Educational Researcher 28 (6): 4-13; Bracey, G. 2009.
The Bracey Report on the Condition of Public Education. Boulder and Tempe:
Education and the Public Interest Center & Education Policy Research Unit. http://epicpolicy.org/publication/Bracey-Report.
Berliner, D. 2011. The Context for Interpreting PISA Results in the USA:
Negativism, Chauvinism, Misunderstanding, and the Potential to Distort the
Educational Systems of Nations. In Pereyra, M., Kottoff, H-G., & Cowan, R.
(Eds.). PISA under examination: Changing knowledge, changing tests, and
changing schools. Amsterdam: Sense Publishers. Tienken, C. 2010. Common core
state standards: I wonder? Kappa Delta Phi Record 47 (1): 14-17. Carnoy, M and
Rothstein, R. 2013, What Do International Tests Really Show Us about U.S.
Student Performance. Washington DC: Economic Policy Institute. 2012. http://www.epi.org/).
“Poverty means poor nutrition, inadequate health care, and lack of
access to books”: Berliner, D. 2009. Poverty and Potential: Out-of-School
Factors and School Success. Boulder and Tempe: Education and the Public
Interest Center & Education Policy Research Unit. http://epicpolicy.org/publication/poverty-and-potential;
Krashen, S. 1997. Bridging inequity with books. Educational Leadership
55(4): 18-22.
Improving the economy ....: Baker, K. 2007. Are international
tests worth anything? Phi Delta Kappan, 89(2), 101-104; Zhao, Y. 2009. Catching
Up or Leading the Way? American Education in the Age of Globalization. ASCD:
Alexandria, VA.; Ananat, E., Gassman-Pines, A., Francis, D., and Gibson-Davis,
C. 2011. Children left behind: The effects of statewide job less on student
acbievement. NBER (National Bureau of Economic Research) Working Paper No.
17104, JEL No. 12,16. http://www.nber.org/papers/w17104
There is no evidence that national standards and national tests have
improved student learning in the past: Nichols, S., Glass, G., and Berliner, D.
2006. High-stakes testing and student achievement: Does accountability increase
student learning? Education Policy Archives 14(1). http://epaa.asu.edu/epaa/v14n1/. OECD. Tienken, C., 2011. Common core standards:
An example of data-less decision-making. Journal of Scholarship and Practice.
American Association of School Administrators [AASA], 7(4): 3-18. http://www.aasa.org/jsp.aspx.
Testing in more subjects: The Blueprint A Blueprint for Reform: The
Reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act. United States
Department of Education March 2010
In earlier and later grades: PARCC document: http://www.parcconline.org/sites/parcc/files/PARCC%20MCF%20Response%20to%20Public%20Feedback_%20Fall%202011%20Release.pdf
Interim tests: Duncan, A. September 9, 2010. Beyond the Bubble Tests:
The Next Generation of Assessments -- Secretary Arne Duncan's Remarks to State
Leaders at Achieve's American Diploma Project Leadership Team Meeting: http://www.ed.gov/news/speeches/beyond-bubble-tests-next-generation-assessments-secretary-arne-duncans-remarks-state-l.
The Blueprint, (op. cit.) p. 11.
Value-added measures:
http://www.ed.gov/news/speeches/secretary-arne-duncans-remarks-statehouse-convention-center-little-rock-arkansas
(August 25, 2010). The Blueprint (op.cit.), p. 9.
New York CIty budget: New York Times, "In city schools, tech
spending to rise despite cuts," March 30, 2011.
Florida budget: http://www.tampabay.com/blogs/gradebook/content/time-hardwire-florida-schools-senate-ed-chairman-says
School nurses: Berliner, 2009 (op. cit.)
Libraries: Krashen, S. 2011. Protecting students against the effects of
poverty: Libraries. New England Reading Association Journal 46 (2): 17-21.
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