Finland education has no annual high stakes testing

Finland consistently ranks near the top of international ratings. Teachers are allowed to teach. Finland has no annual high stakes testing.

Dan Rather Reports on education in Finland.

How Finland Reached the Top of the Educational Rankings

"They got rid of the mandated standardized testing that used to tie teachers’ hands."

From NEA Today - Click Here

October 7, 2010 by cmccabe

By Alain Jehlen

Many people these days are pointing to Finland as the world’s top success story in student achievement. So what’s their secret?

In the latest issue of NEA Today magazine, we feature an excerpt from a book by Stanford University scholar Linda Darling-Hammond that tells the Finnish story. Basically, Darling-Hammond explains, Finland did the opposite of what we’re doing in America.

In the 1970s, reports Darling-Hammond, Finland’s student achievement was low. But in the decades since, they have steadily upgraded their education system until now they’ve reached the top.

What’s more, they took what was once a wide achievement gap between rich and poor, and reduced it until it’s now smaller than in nearly all other wealthy nations.

Here’s how:

* They got rid of the mandated standardized testing that used to tie teachers’ hands.

* They provide social supports for students including a free daily meal and free health care.
* They upgraded the teaching profession. Teachers now take a three-year graduate school preparation program, free and with a stipend for living expenses. In Finland, you don’t go into debt to become a teacher.
* The stress on top-quality teaching continues after teachers walk into their schools. Teachers spend nearly half of their time in school in high-level professional development, collaborative planning, and working with parents.

These changes have attracted more people to the teaching profession — so many that only 15 percent of applicants are accepted.

The Finns trust their teachers, Darling-Hammond reports. They used to have prescriptive curriculum guides running over 700 pages. Now the national math curriculum is under 10 pages.

With the support of the knowledge-based business community (think Nokia), Finnish schools focus on 21st century skills like creative problem-solving, not test prep."

Call to boycott education tests in Australia

From EducationViews.org on April 27, 2012



"A GROUP of education consultants is urging Australian parents to withdraw their children from next month’s annual NAPLAN (National Assessment Program, Literacy and Numeracy) tests, saying they are damaging children’s creativity.

The group, made up of teachers, consultants and academics, says the testing – now in its fifth year – is providing poor-quality information about students’ abilities in the classroom, and is compromising students’ attitudes to learning.

Campaigning under the banner, ”Say No to NAPLAN”, the group will launch its broadside against the government’s standardized tests at the Australian Education Union’s Melbourne offices on Monday.

The union is not associated with the campaign, though it has provided the group with a rent-free venue for the meeting.

Group member Lorraine Wilson, who began her teaching career in 1959, said standardized testing was producing a generation of ”automaton” children, and devalued teachers.

”All control of education has been taken out of educators’ hands. These decisions have been made by politicians, not by teachers,” Ms Wilson said. ”It’s standardizing the children and expecting them to be the same.”

The group will call on parents to boycott the tests, and says most parents are not aware the tests are not compulsory.

To support the campaign, the group on Monday will release 10 papers written by academics and consultants that raise several concerns about the tests, including their approach to spelling and supposed misuse of statistics.

In one strongly worded paper, former Primary Education Queensland director Phil Cullen described the tests as showing ”contempt” for children.

”Over the past few years, schooling in the US, Britain, Australia and New Zealand has become a test-driven, fear-based operation. Effective teaching-learning strategies are being contemptuously ignored. Preparing for the tests dominates school time and pushes creative aspects of the school curriculum out of the way.”

Cheating our children: Suspect scores put award’s integrity in question

From the Atlanta Constitution - Click Here

By Alan Judd, Heather Vogell and John Perry

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution 

"Second in a series: Last month, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution published an unprecedented investigation into test scores that found signs of potential cheating nationwide. Today, we examine schools that won the prestigious Blue Ribbon Award. These schools, the AJC found, were more than three times as likely as all schools to exhibit extreme score gains the year they applied for the honor.

MORE HERE

************************************************************************************************************

Cheating our children: Atlanta’s frayed Blue Ribbons 
Cheating our Children: Years of testing analyzed
Get Schooled: Schools must face revelations
List of Blue Ribbon schools with most improbable gains
Cheating our children: Suspicious school test scores across the nation
Cheating our Children series

Austin ISD Board President opposes high stakes testing

From Community Impact Newspaper - Click Here

by Kevin Stich

April 27, 2012

Photo by Kevin Stich

Mark Williams, board president of the Austin Independent School District, said he believes high-stakes testing “is not a productive way to run school districts.”

 ....

 “My own personal philosophy is I’m with them (the resolution). I think high-stakes testing, the pressure of accountability, the pressure of punitive sanctions, is not a productive way to run school districts."

Austin school board decries high-stakes testing

From Impact News.com - Click Here

Joe Olivieri

Kealing Middle School student Callier Creadle spoke out against high stakes standardized testing before the April 23 Austin Independent School District meeting.

"Austin Independent School District became the most recent Texas school district to speak out against high-stakes testing for students.

At its April 23 meeting, AISD's board of trustees unanimously approved a resolution asking the state Legislature to re-examine public school accountability and develop a system that more accurately reflects what students know. That system would enhance teachers' roles as leaders and instructional guides, as well as instill a sense of inquiry and a love of learning in students.

AISD's resolution is similar to a model Texas Association of School Administrators resolution that takes a harder line on the issue.

Both commend Commissioner of Education Robert Scott for his concern on the overemphasis of high-stakes testing and continued support of high standards and local accountability. The TASA resolution goes on to say that over-reliance on standardized high-stakes testing is strangling public schools and undermining any chance of educators turning the education system into one that can prepare children to compete on the global stage."

MORE HERE

San Antonio ISD joins testing backlash

From My San Antonio - Click Here

By Maria Luisa Cesar

Updated 10:16 p.m., Saturday, April 14, 2012

The San Antonio Independent School District joined more than 280 districts across Texas in mounting a revolt against what they call an “over reliance” on high-stakes, standardized tests.

The school board adopted a resolution Monday calling on the Legislature to re-examine the state's accountability system. As of Friday afternoon, 282 school districts had passed the resolution, according to reports from the Texas Association of School Administrators.
The point is to grab lawmakers' attention and show them that school districts are united in their opposition, Sylvester Perez, SAISD's interim superintendent, said Friday

In San Antonio, nine school districts — including Northside and North East ISD — have adopted the resolution, which argues that using high-stakes, standardized tests as the only form of state and federal assessment is “strangling” public schools. East Central ISD trustees are set to discuss the resolution and could adopt it Thursday, according to the board's agenda.