State of Rhode Island General Assembly

Quick Launch

All Site Content

Date

9/4/2013

Title

On NECAP and equal opportunities

ShortDescription

Many have called equal educational opportunities for all students the top civil rights issue of our time. It may also be the top economic issue of our time. At recent Senate economic summits, the economists who offered their various positions were clear and unified about one topic - we need an educated workforce in Rhode Island, to draw industry and jobs. What has been lost in the recent academic rhetoric is that there are different methods for how to reach that objective. No one has a monopoly on the methods and ideas to get there.

Description

Many have called equal educational opportunities for all students the top civil rights issue of our time. It may also be the top economic issue of our time.

At recent Senate economic summits, the economists who offered their various positions were clear and unified about one topic – we need an educated workforce in Rhode Island, to draw industry and jobs. What is lost in all the academic rhetoric that is being slung around is that while we all have the same objective in sight – a quality education for all children – there are different methods for how to get there. No one has a monopoly on the methods and ideas needed to accomplish this objective.

That is why I am troubled by the entrenched attitude of Commissioner Deborah Gist and dismayed by the actions of Chairwoman Eva Marie Mancuso and the Board of Higher Education regarding high-stakes testing. I join my community in rejecting the use of the New England Common Assessment Program (NECAP) as a graduation requirement. Simply stated, it was not designed for that purpose. Why, then, are we using it?

What happens to African-American males after grade 3? Where is the commitment to pre-school, after school and summer programs for students? I recently was confronted about a program for at-risk students being cut because other more affluent parents wanted algebra for their children in grade 7. We need both, not one at the expense of the other. Someone from my generation pointed out that a “C” or better was the standard for passing in school, not the current practice of socially promoting students with a “D” or worse. Will schools be re-segregated by class (not just race) through the use of vouchers? Will charter schools drain vital resources from public schools?

A number of opinion pieces have recently been published about NECAP and high-stakes testing. The one that made the most sense to me appeared in the Providence Journal on March 28 (“Rhetoric and research on NECAP,” by Bruce Marlowe). The debate, wrote Marlowe, must be more than “political slogans about what makes good schools.” “We hear quite a lot,” he wrote, “about ‘raising the bar,’ ‘narrowing the gap,’ ‘getting tough,’ but virtually nothing about research, which in the case of high-stakes testing is unequivocal: Every major organization of experts condemns the use of high-stakes exams,” including such prestigious scientific bodies as the National Research Council, the American Education Research Association and the American Psychological Association.

Citing research, Marlowe expressed concern with a single test being used to give diplomas, thereby narrowing the breadth and depth of instruction. He pointed to the harm that could be done to students with disabilities or English-language learners and to instructional time on test preparation.
Marlowe raised a valid question: What do students stand to lose if they are denied a diploma on the basis of a single exam? We already know how poverty impacts violence and incarceration rates.

Simply stated, NECAP was not designed as a graduation testing tool and should not be used as the sole criteria as such. I hope that gaining federal funds alone is not the motivating factor. I hope that Chairwoman Mancuso and others who testified before a Senate committee at confirmation hearings remember their responses to questions about high-stakes testing – that multiple measures should be used.

Taking an entrenched position, as Commission Gist is doing, is hindering progress. Chairwoman Mancuso and the board need to exercise more leadership in this area, since healthy debate should be welcomed on this important issue.

We need to move beyond the rhetoric, use research in our decision making, have collaboration between industry and educational leaders, and keep an open mind. We need to listen to all stakeholders if we truly want to produce an educated workforce that is needed to move our economy forward.

-30-

(Harold M. Metts is the Democratic State Senator from District 6, Providence. A former educator and vice principal in the Providence school system, he is the Vice Chairman of the Senate Committee on Education and a member of the Senate Committee on Judiciary.)

Op-Ed By

By Sen. Harold M. Metts