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Message Board :: FCAT Info :: The FCAT Emails :: The Emails (Part 4)

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Topic: The Emails (Part 4) (Read 68 times)

Zach Forn
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The Emails (Part 4)
« Thread Started on Mar 27, 2006, 8:42pm »

(Thursday, January 26, 2006)

Dr. Orr,

Thank you for your response regarding the FCAT and its research. However, my question has still not been answered.

I have read the material you have provided me before. It may be stated that the FCAT is valid and reliable within its own epistemological/pedagogical paradigm. This is stated in the summary of the validity and reliability section of the Assessment and Accountability Briefing Book:

"The evidence of reliability and validity supports the claim that FCAT is technically sound and meets or exceeds the professional standards for standardized achievement tests."

The FCAT may satisfy its own requirements within the realm of standardized achievement tests. However, and this is in spite of the DOE's "cover-your-butt" statement regarding how teachers shouldn't "teach-to-the-test," from my interviews and talks with professors and teachers from around the state, it seems that the FCAT is no longer merely a test, rather it is becoming a curriculum. It has reduced the constantly contested, ever-changing and immensely huge concept of "intelligence" to a handful of "essentials." And only these “essentials” are tested, and, often, only these “essentials” are taught. If one cannot master these essentials, one lacks the intelligence to graduate from high school. So states the FLDOE. Thus, the FCAT has become an exclusive “system of knowledge,” which cannot allow other systems to operate within it or about it.

Let us say I am a teacher, and I'm not supposed to teach to the test. So, I only give 5% of all instruction time to the FCAT and the curriculum that has grown up around it, devoting the remaining instruction time to other "systems of knowledge," perhaps one based on developing my students' emotive intelligences, or one based on some post-modern thought of Barthes in which the intentionality of the author does not exist, thus there goes "main idea" of a work, along with "author's purpose," etc. With Barthes, these two things may not exist. And, certainly, this is a fair approach to take, for most of our culture today is based on post-modern thinking, with the Internet itself being the absolute manifestation of this school of thought.

To further show the limits of the FCAT, lets us say that instead of assessing my students on their Barthes-informed reading with a paper-n-pencil, multiple choice test, I allow my students to develop their own personal multiple-intelligences by interpreting the text using the medium of Canvas, Music, Dance, Poetics, Database construction, etc. So, that my students have never taken a paper-n-pencil, multiple choice test (which isn't all that crazy seeing as how in the "real world" one NEVER takes a paper-n-pencil, multiple choice test to show they can get a certain task done. Rather, they simply get the task done).

Now, as this teacher, I have done my required job by setting aside some instruction time to teach the contents of the Sunshine State Standards, but I have also included other systems of knowledge and assessment. How will my students do on the SSS-backed FCAT compared to a teacher who devotes 90% of her instruction time to the FCAT curriculum? Which group of students constructed greater amounts of personal, meaningful knowledge in their lives?? In this scenario, is the FCAT a reliable and valid assessment tool?? I think the answer to all of these questions are obvious.

Thus, back to my original question/quest.

Whether or not the FCAT, as a standardized test, is valid and reliable, what research does the FLDOE have to demonstrate that the FCAT (or any other standardized test) is the fairEST, MOST reliable, and valid demonstrator of personal, meaningful knowledge constructed in a student’s mind?

To put it another way, of all the different approaches to assessment and curriculum construction, what research does FLDOE use to prove that a standardized test approach is the fairESt, MOST valid and reliable way to go?

Again, the research I am seeing, the research mentioned to Richard Hardy in previous emails, seems to indicate that of all the approaches the standardized test one is nowhere near the top of the list.

Again, thank you for your patience,

Concerned Parents
**************************************************************************
February 7, 2006
Dear Mr. McCloud:
Thank you for writing again to express your views about the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test® (FCAT), content standards, and the general nature of statewide assessment programs. This office has attempted unsuccessfully to provide you with the information you have requested on two occasions, and you express in your letter that Richard Hardy in the Office of School Improvement has also been unable to satisfy research requests you have made. Although we have attempted to provide adequate representation of the FCAT program, it is now clear from your recent letter that we have been unable to satisfy your requests because you and the State hold philosophical differences in relation to statewide assessments.
Thank you for taking the time to write. We are sorry we are unable to prove that the FCAT is fair, valid, and reliable, but we hope you continue to participate in statewide assessment discourse with educational colleagues around the country.
Sincerely,
Cornelia S. Orr, Ph.D.

*******************************************************************************
(Wednesday, February 8, 2006 )
Dr. Orr

You state: “We are sorry we are unable to prove that the FCAT is fair, valid, and reliable…” Again, this is not my main issue. My main issue is, is the FCAT the MOST fair, valid, and reliable tool of measurement?

I hold no "philosophical difference" to the DOE's approach (i.e. At this point in time, I hold no contention to the fact that within the paradigm it has created for itself the FCAT is valid, reliable and fair). I am simply following the research made available to me by the avenues I have mentioned to you in previous emails, that is, research which suggests that the standardized test approach is not the MOST valid and reliable means of curriculum construction and assessment/evaluation. I was hoping that Florida would be able to provide me with comparable research across a wide spectrum of assessment and evaluation approaches, from which the DOE then selected the standardized test approach because it was the MOST (please allow me to reiterate that term once more: MOST) valid and reliable. It appears the FLDOE has not done this research, or at least is unable to provide a parent with it at this point. Which seems a bit odd, because if I am able to get this research, the FLDOE should be able to so as well. But, you are correct, it seems to be the fact of the case that for whatever reason the FLDOE does not have this most basic of research.

I pose a rhetorical question: If one wished to get to the corner store for the daily paper how would one do it? Walk? Well, that is certainly a valid and reliable way. Bike? That too seems valid and reliable. Drive? Take the bus? Skateboard? Scooter it? Etc. There are many approaches. Let us say in our example, and I apologize if it is a bit simple, but: let us say that the standardized test approach is walking. Or it could be the skateboard. Or the car. It doesn't matter, because if we wanted to find out the M O S T valid and reliable way we would have to compare ALL the approaches, we would have to research all the approaches to determine the most valid and reliable. Again, I apologize for the basic comparison, but I think (hope) I'm getting my point across. I hope you can see how unsettling it is for a parent to find out that his child is in a system in which no one knows what the best approach is because no one wants to compare options! Is this not bizarre? That seems like the first step in coming up with any solution!! Commissioner Winn promises Florida's students the "best education possible," yet you have no comparable research that suggests this is the case? How can he make what may actually be (with the research I have) an empty promise to millions of parents?

Concerned and Confused
********************************************************************************

(February 14, 2006)
Dear Mr. McLeod:
I am sorry you are dissatisfied with our last reply to your third request for FCAT research. I indicated that you hold philosophical differences with the Department of Education because you have been dissatisfied with the research my staff and Richard Hardy have collected and provided to you. If you are seeking additional research that debates the nature and impact of assessment, I encourage you to read the periodicals mentioned in previous correspondence. They hold the type of research and pedagogical discourse you are seeking and although the Department of Education does not conduct the research these periodicals debate, we have used these periodicals as guides as we continue to make improvements to our program. Since you are dissatisfied with the type of research this office has provided, I believe these periodicals will contain the type of research you are seeking.
Thank you for your interest in the statewide assessment program.
Sincerely,
Cornelia S. Orr, Ph.D.
Director
Assessment and School Performance
********************************************************************
(February 14, 2006)
Dr. Orr,

Again, thank you for your response. Some of these journals and resources I was familiar with and some were new to me upon your reference to them some weeks ago. In light all of the FLDOE's responses, is it safe for me to say then, that the answer to my original question -can Florida provide me with the authors and names of research studies demonstrating that the standardized test approach to assessment and evaluation is the MOST fair, reliable, and valid?- is NO, the FLDOE cannot provide me with the names of such research studies.
*********************************************************************
No Response was received. The following email was sent after I read the Commissioner Winn letter to Florida teachers.
********************************************************************
(March 26, 2006)

Dr. Cornelia S. Orr,

Hello, we exchanged emails recently regarding the lack of research the Florida Department of Education possesses to show that the standardized test approach, out of ALL options and approaches, is the MOST fair, reliable and valid form of assessment.

During these email exchanges, the FLDOE attempted to steer the discussion to the merits of only one approach, namely the one it has run with, the standardized test approach, essentially ignoring my original question, which was not answered until almost four months later in a resounding, No.

Recently, I was speaking with a teacher about the latest round of FCAT testing (Feb-March 2006). At the end of our interview I was shown an email sent out by Commissioner Winn. In the email, Commissioner Winn was explaining the workings of the new plan to attach pay advancement to FCAT scores. In the email Mr. Winn stated:

"Student learning gains must be a “primary” component in the evaluation of outstanding teachers. (The rule identifies the FCAT as the most reliable and valid measure of student learning gains in reading, mathematics and eventually science.)"

Obviously, Dr. Orr, I was shocked to read this statement, for it is, after all, exactly what I have been attempting to get from the FLDOE!! Commissioner Winn categorically states that the FCAT is the M O S T reliable and valid measure of learning!!!!! What research does he have to back that statement????

But, the FLDOE has already answered that question; the FLDOE has no research that has compared various assessment approaches. Yes, within the arena of a single approach, of ONE method, the FCAT, the DOE has indeed determined that it can safely state the development of this exam is reliable and valid, but the DOE cannot claim that the FCAT is the MOST reliable and valid measure because it doesn't have the research. Is this statement correct? If not, please, AGAIN, allow me to have the names of the research studies which would make this statement false. The research that apparently Commissioner Winn has, but the DOE is refusing to give to us.

Thank you for your time,
Beyond Concerned Parents

« Last Edit: Mar 27, 2006, 8:42pm by Zach Forn »

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