Q&A Regarding Texas Testing and Accountability
Texas just released more of its school grading nonsense. I imagined myself in a Q&A situation. This was done with my home state in mind, but this applies much more broadly. It is way too long for a blog, but it needs to be somewhere. 1. What is a standardized test like the ones used by Texas to create its ratings designed to show? Surprisingly little. Standardized testing is a methodology that allows a researcher to observe the patterns in a population of students relative to a defined domain. So, for example, if students in some neighborhoods have more of the domain than in others. Its genius is that it does this without ever asking or knowing how much of the domain any student possesses. No one can measure the amount of literacy any student possesses—just as you can’t measure the amount of humor, cleverness, or grit any student possesses. But it is possible to observe when a student has more or less of a trait than their peers. That is a tiny bit of information, but it is enough ...