Union officials say current tests aren't reliable enough, do little to distinguish the performance of one teacher from another
Acting Education Commissioner Christopher Cerf addresses the press in this December 2010 photo.TRENTON — Tying test scores to teacher evaluations could narrow curriculums in schools and reinforce teaching for the sake of passing a test, the New Jersey Education Association argued today, saying that plans by the Christie Administration to impose performance reviews based on how well students do on standardized tests were unworkable.
Last month, acting Education Commissioner Christopher Cerf unveiled a five-point reform proposal that would abandon New Jersey’s teacher job guarantee program and replace it with an evaluation system rewarding educators for good student performance and working in at-risk schools
Under the plan, the state's public school teachers would be assessed and paid using a new rating system based in part on how their students do in the classroom.
But the NJEA, which is opposed to the Christie plan, said it had serious limitations. Citing experts at a recent symposium by the Educational Testing Service, union officials said current tests can do little to distinguish the performance of one teacher from another, and could also lead to the abandonment of non-tested subjects in favor of those that have consequences.
Richard Rothstein, a research associate at the Economic Policy Institute, said schools are already over-emphasizing standardized test-taking and preparation, to the point where “we’ve adopted a strategy that focuses on drilling basic skills and narrows the curriculum.”
At the same time, between 70 and 80 percent of teachers can’t currently be evaluated with test score-based models, said Arthur E. Wise, president emeritus of the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education. “It will take hundreds of millions of unbudgeted dollars to create tests for all subject areas and grades,” he remarked. “Are we ready to pay for them? What will we have to give up?”
Cerf, however, rejected the union’s arguments.
“There is a complete lack of sophistication in what they are saying,” he said. “They are just fundamentally opposed to having teachers accountable for student learning. And that’s not in the best interests of children.”
The acting commissioner said no one in the debate thinks test scores should be the sole determining factor of anything. “It’s just one component,” he said.
At the same time, he said while it is true that a significant number of teachers teach in non-tested subjects, that is not a reason to do nothing. “When there are no tests, then obviously you don’t use test scores to evaluate,” said Cerf.
As for the possibility of abandoning curriculum subjects in non-tested areas, he called the thought simply absurd.
“The way the NJEA plays this game, they articulate and knock down straw men,” he said.
Union officials claim the testing models under consideration are unreliable.
According to Sean Corcoran, a researcher and assistant professor at New York University, the best the current testing models can do is identify those teachers who are systematically very high or very low performing after multiple years of observation. “Didn’t we already know who these teachers are?” he asked.
The testing models additionally do not take into account the fact that a great deal of a teacher’s efforts in some highly mobile districts are spent on students who aren’t there when the test is given, said Henry Braun of Boston College, who added that if the point is to differentiate among teachers, the testing models do “a really bad job because most teachers are not really different from the average.”
NJEA President Barbara Keshishian said the association believes student test scores have a place in the evaluation process, but said they should not play a determining role in personnel decisions.
“There are a lot of flashing yellow lights suggesting policymakers should proceed with caution before putting too much emphasis on test score improvement,” she said. “An over-emphasis on improving test scores will lead to even more ‘teaching to the test.”