Re: The Defiant Parents: Testing’s Discontents

Some blog followers might be interested in a discussion list post “Re: The Defiant Parents: Testing’s Discontents” [Hake (2014)]. The abstract reads:

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ABSTRACT: John Denker, in his PhysLrnR post “The Defiant Parents: Testing’s Discontents” called attention to Rebecca Mead's New Yorker article of the same name at http://nyr.kr/M6qz4j. Mead wrote: “. . . . there is a burgeoning opt-out movement, with parents, teachers, and administrators questioning the efficacy of the tests as they are currently administered, in measuring both the performance of teachers and the progress of students.”

Denker wrote (paraphrasing): “There's a medium-sized revolt going on. But it's not a huge revolt because of weak messaging and weak leadership. Specifically the anti-testers haven't come up with a crisp description of what they are revolting against . . . . or where they would like to go instead.”

Denker is either oblivious or dismissive of the vigorous leadership, voluminous messaging, and pro-public-/anti-private-education positions of (a) Diane Ravitch and (b) “Fair Test” http://www.fairtest.org/ with its discussion list ARN-L with OPEN! archives at http://bit.ly/jeiTPm.

Unfortunately, both Ravitch and “Fair Test” appear to be uninformed regarding the virtues of rigorous measurement of students’ higher-order learning by means of zero-stakes FORMATIVE (i.e., “designed and used to improve an object, especially when it is still being developed”) pre/post testing utilizing Concept Inventories http://bit.ly/dARkDY which are constructed by disciplinary experts through arduous qualitative and quantitative research – see e.g., (a) “The Impact of Concept Inventories On Physics Education and Its Relevance For Engineering Education” (Hake, 2011) at http://bit.ly/nmPY8F (8.7 MB); and (b) “Can the Cognitive Impact of Calculus Courses be Enhanced?” (Hake, 2013) at http://bit.ly/1loHgC4 (2.7 MB).
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To access the complete 61 kB post please click on http://bit.ly/1mYwWoa.


Richard Hake, Emeritus Professor of Physics, Indiana University; Honorary Member, Curmudgeon Lodge of Deventer, The Netherlands; President, PEdants for Definitive Academic References which Recognize the Invention of the Internet (PEDARRII); LINKS TO: Academia http://bit.ly/a8ixxm; Articles http://bit.ly/a6M5y0; Blog http://bit.ly/9yGsXh; Facebook http://on.fb.me/XI7EKm; GooglePlus http://bit.ly/KwZ6mE; Google Scholar http://bit.ly/Wz2FP3; Linked In http://linkd.in/14uycpW; Research Gate http://bit.ly/1fJiSwB; Socratic Dialogue Inducing (SDI) Labs http://bit.ly/9nGd3M; Twitter http://bit.ly/juvd52.

REFERENCES [URL shortened by http://bit.ly/ and accessed on 25 Jan 2014.]
Hake, R.R. 2014. “Re: The Defiant Parents: Testing’s Discontents” online on the OPEN! AERA-L archives at http://bit.ly/1mYwWoa.The abstract and link to the complete post are being transmitted to several discussion lists.