Evidence lacking for annual testing

Sent to the Los Angeles Times, Feb. 28, 2015

Paul Peterson (Op-ed, Feb. 23) asserts that yearly testing done under No Child Left Behind (NCLB) resulted in increased test scores ("modest" gains in math), "solid evidence" in support of annual testing. Ron Harris (letters, Feb. 27) argues that the increased test scores are due to better test-taking strategies. 

Researchers Jaekyung Lee and Todd Reeves analyzed data from all 50 states from 1990 to 2009 and concluded that the NCLB testing policy did not increase reading gains and did not close ethnic/racial and socio-economic achievement gaps in reading. Gains in math were not "modest" but small, and the reduction of the math achievement gap fell far short of reaching NCLB targets.  Lee and Reeves based their conclusions on the NAEP test, a "low-stakes" test that is immune to "test preparation."

NCLB test score gains were not due to better test-prep: Lee and Reeves' analysis strongly suggests that they never happened.

Stephen Krashen

Original articles: http://www.latimes.com/opinion/op-ed/la-oe-peterson-nclb-defense-of-testing--20150224-story.html
http://www.latimes.com/opinion/readersreact/la-le-0228-saturday-school-tests-20150228-story.html
Source:
Lee, J. & Reeves, T. (June 2012). Revisiting the impact of NCLB high-stakes school accountability, capacity and resources: State NAEP 1990-2009 reading and math achievement gaps and trends. Education Evaluation and Policy Analysis, 34(2), 209-231.

Proposed reductions in testing: the boondoggle remains

LETTER Published in Substance
http://www.substancenews.net/articles.php?page=5465&section=Article
February 26,2015


In my e-mail today I received a note from President Obama which included this statement: "We need a better education plan -- one that cuts standardized testing to a bare minimum ...".

Of course I agree, but the proposed reduction in testing that has been submitted to congressional committees appears to be only a modest cutback from the current massive, nonstop testing program. I suspect that the plan of the US Department of Education is to reduce testing just enough to satisfy at least some critics and keep the same profits flowing to the testing and computer companies.

With the proposed reductions, there will still be plenty of tests, and they will still be administered online, a huge and ever-growing boondoggle that bleeds money from schools, money that is desperately needed for legitimate educational purposes. Even if the amount of testing is cut 50%, the profits will be about the same, and we will still have far too much testing.

Is the US Department of Education (or anybody else) making any serious efforts to determine just how much testing is necessary and helpful? The answer to a proper inquiry might be very disappointing to the testing industrial complex.

Stephen Krashen
Professor Emeritus
University of Southern California

Strong claims require strong evidence.

Sent to the Oregonian, Feb. 23, 2015

"As teaching methods improve, Oregon cuts years off English-language instruction," (Feb. 21) is based on the finding that there are currently fewer students in ESL classes in upper grades than in previous years. This evidence, at best, is only slightly suggestive. Fewer students in ESL classes could be the result changes in reclassification criteria, increased drop-out rates, changes in the test (a new test was introduced in 2008), and more teaching to the test.

Strong claims of superiority for a teaching method should be made of sterner stuff.

Stephen Krashen

Original article: http://www.oregonlive.com/education/index.ssf/2015/02/oregon_schools_more_effective.html

Will public school teachers become "independent contractors"?

An interesting article: Why we are all becoming independent contractors (Nation of Change,  Feb. 23, 2015).

My comment, posted at http://www.nationofchange.org/2015/02/23/becoming-independent-contractors/

Many college professors are now independent contractors, known as "adjuncts." They are paid separately for each course they teach, and are not paid very much, and get no benefits.  As budgets at universities get tighter, departments are gradually moving toward adjuncts.

Will public school teachers become independent contractors? This is,  I think, one of the goals of school "reformers," whose reforms are all dedicated to more profit for the .01%. Elminating retirement and benefits, and making teaching a part-time profession would release billions for more unnecessary technology in the schools (of course some technology is great, but much of it is being imposed on schools in a great hurry without proper testing).

For more details, please see http://skrashen.blogspot.com/2013/05/the-end-of-teaching-profession.html

Does white matter have anything to do with learning to read for meaning?

Sent to the New Yorker:

The research reported on in "How children learn to read" (Feb. 11) is the most recent of a series claiming that properties of white matter in the brain are related to reading ability. The results of these studies, however, may have little or nothing to do with learning to read for meaning.
Reading experts distinguish between "decoding," the ability to pronounce words outloud, and reading for comprehension, understanding what is read. The white matter research, thus far, has nearly exclusively examined the relationship between white matter and decoding.

It is often assumed that children have to learn to decode as a necessary step in learning to read, but there is a great deal of evidence challenging this view, and supporting the idea that we learn to read by reading, by understanding what is on the page, not by first learning how to decode. This includes studies showing that many children who don’t decode well learn to read at high levels when they get interested in reading in areas of their own interest: Studies also show that intensive instruction in decoding leads only to better decoding, not to better reading for meaning: The best predictor of reading for meaning is the amount of self-selected reading done.

Opposing the idea that we must learn to decode during a certain "critical period" are many studies showing that readers can improve in any age by doing a great deal of interesting reading.

To my knowledge, not a single study of the relationship between white matter and “reading” has included sufficient measures of reading for meaning, nor have any of them considered the most consistent predictor of reading ability: The amount of reading done for personal interest.

Stephen Krashen

Sources and notes:
Original article: Konnikova, M. 2015. How children learn to read. The New Yorker.  http://www.newyorker.com/science/maria-konnikova/how-children-learn-read

Most recent study: Myers, C., Vandermosten, M., Farris, E., Hancock, R., Gimenez, P., Black, J., Castro, B., Drahos, M., Tumber, M., Hendron, R., Hulme, C., and Hoeft, F. 2014. White matter morphometric changes uniquely predict children's reading acquisition. Psychological Science 25(10): 1870-1883.

Series of studies: For others, please see: Krashen, S. 2009. The white stuff.  Language Magazine 8 (6): 16-17. (http://sdkrashen.com/articles.php?cat=1)

We learn to read by reading: Smith, F. 2004. Understanding Reading. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum. Sixth Ed.: Flurkey, A. and Xu, J. (Eds). 2003. On the Revolution in Reading: The Selected Writings of Kenneth S. Goodman. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.

Poor decoders learn to read well: Krashen, S. 2001a. “Low PA can Read OK” Practically Primary 6(3): 17-20; Fink, R. 1995/96. Successful dyslexics: A constructivist study of passionate interest reading. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy 39 (4): 268-80.

Intensive instruction in decoding: Krashen, S. 2009. Does intensive reading instruction contribute to reading comprehension? Knowledge Quest 37 (4): 72-74.

Best predictor of reading for meaning: Krashen, S. 2004. The Power of Reading. Heinemann and Libraries Unlimited.

Improve at any age: Krashen, S. and McQuillan, J. 2007. Late intervention. Educational Leadership 65 (2): 68-73; Sullivan, A. and Brown, M. 2014. Vocabulary from adolescence to middle age. London: Centre for Longitudinal Studies, Institute of Education, University of London.

Insufficient measures: Myers et.al. included the Woodcock Passage Comprehension test in which words are omitted from a sentence, the student supplies an appropriate word and tells the examiner the word. This test was only one of five reading measures: the others were nonsense word reading, single-word reading, a measure of reading speed (with no consideration of meaning) and spelling. 

Punishing schools for child poverty doesn't help students

Published in the Los Angeles Times, Feb 17, 2015

http://www.latimes.com/opinion/readersreact/la-le-0218-wednesday-schools-poverty-20150218-story.html

To the editor: Richard Whitmire thinks the answer to "turning around" school districts is more "gutsy" leadership, closer relationships with charter schools and pushing students to take more demanding courses. ("Troubled school districts need more than prizes," Op-Ed, Feb. 12)

All this macho talk ignores the big problem: poverty. The rate of child poverty in the U.S. is at an astonishing 25%, the second highest among industrialized countries. In contrast, child poverty in high-scoring Finland is about 5%.

There is strong evidence that poverty is the major problem in American education: When researchers control for poverty, our performance on international tests is at the top of the world. Poverty means poor diet, inadequate healthcare and lack of access to books.

The best teaching and strongest exhortations to work hard have little effect when students are hungry and ill and have nothing to read. Let's not worry about "turning around" school districts; instead, let's work on protecting children from the effects of poverty.

Stephen Krashen, Los Angeles

The writer is a professor emeritus of education at USC.

Original article: http://www.latimes.com/opinion/op-ed/la-oe-whitmire-broad-prize-education-20150213-story.html

When taking longer to finish school is not failure but heroism

Sent to the Atlanta Journal Constitution, February 9, 2015

Like Peter Smagorinsky ("Opinion: Issue isn’t welding vs. Chaucer. It’s how to remove barriers to college," Feb. 9). I also "admire people who persist through obstacles."  As Smagorinksy points out, many of those who take longer than the traditional time period to finish high school, community college, or a "four-year" college need to work to support themselves and their families. 
We must allow working students to take a reduced course load and and occasional leaves of absence.  During the depression, the father of a colleague of mine alternated working a year and going to high school a year, because his family needed the money.  Another colleague told me that she and her dad graduated high school at the same time. These are not cases of failure but of heroism.

Stephen Krashen

original article:
http://getschooled.blog.ajc.com/2015/02/09/opinion-issue-isnt-welding-vs-chaucer-its-how-to-remove-barriers-to-college/