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Presented by
WEAC Instruction and Professional Development Director
Katie Stout
February 9, 1999
Assembly Education Committee
I am Katie Schultz Stout from our Instruction and Professional Development Division.
On behalf of the members of WEAC, as educators and parents, I speak in support of AB94. As you may recall, WEAC has supported state level testing for two reasons. First, good assessment is an essential tool that can help teachers identify skill areas that need attention and design learning opportunities to address them. Second, the public is entitled to a reasonable level of accountability from the schools that they fund.
As all good teachers know, achievement and learning cannot be determined by a single measure. This bill helps to define responsible educational practice.
It is very important that all Wisconsinites understand that a significant body of research shows that retention at grade level has a negative effect on school achievement and completion. There is little debate about that fact. On the other hand, there is also evidence that placing punitive high stakes on testing can distort an educational system in ways that have very high long term costs.
First, high stakes testing costs the state more, in some cases double, to develop and administer the tests. In districts these costs are multiplied as we see evidence of excessive amounts of time and money being spent to help ensure that districts protect themselves against law suits when a child does not advance or complete schools. In Wisconsin right now, we have districts in some cases spending a great deal of money and in more cases asking teachers to spend inordinate amounts of time doing paperwork designed to protect districts from paying legal judgments.
Two examples will illustrate this. One excellent school district has purchased the second grade version of a test similar to the 3rd and 4th grade state test. They administer the test with the help of proctors whose role is to help children learn how to take the test. An effort like this not only results in inaccurate test scores, but it robs students of classroom learning time and drains resources that should be used to support quality programs. With revenue caps in place, this practice and those similar can have very negative effects.
Another example is a district that told all teachers to take the state standards and identify each in their daily lesson plans from the previous year. While on the surface this may appear to make sense, when thought through it is evident that this exercise does nothing to improve learning, but takes a great deal of time away from teacher planning.
While these examples have flaws, they also have opportunities. In general, excessive time is being spent on legal protection at the expense of improved learning. The learning is our goal and must remain so for Wisconsin's children.
To that purpose we recommend:
Posted February 10, 1999