Letter to the Editor; Punitive testing undermines education and democracy

To the Editor,

Years ago, about 15 classroom teachers, stakeholders and I were members of a state Collection of Evidence committee recommending a cut score for students’ writing.

Collection of Evidence is the alternative portfolio “testing” for those who failed the state’s 10th-grade test [then WASL, now HSPE]. The WASL writing cut score was 17.

We finally realized that a higher cut score would discriminate against students who spoke a different language, came from a culture with different expectations about “performance,” or lacked the opportunities to be as familiar with the intricacies of our language as native English speakers are. We recommended a cut score of 17.

The original WASL cut score was reached by a similar subjective method. There is NO scientific research to justify a cut score of 17 or any number. Just because it is countable does not mean it is objective.

A recent Mercedes Schneider blog notes that, “State cut-score setting on high-stakes tests is not an ‘objective’ process. It is highly subjective, and one in which the person setting the cut score wields incredible power to punish.”

The makers of the new state test (the SBAC) have released cut scores that will purposely fail between 40 and 70 percent of students taking the tests this March. Such punitive tests undermine education and democracy.

I recommend all policymakers read Gerald Bracey’s “Education Hell: Rhetoric vs. Reality” and Pasi Sahlberg’s “Finnish Lessons” for details about a better way.

Duane Pitts

Moses Lake