Kelly, Kelly, Kelly

Ever out of step, Minister of Education Kelly Lamrock has announced tests and yet more tests in order to ensure, you know, excellence. No doubt his best bud Doug Willms, whose company KSI does such testing for the N.B. government, is, as always, completely supportive. But otherwise, the Minister is again bucking the trend. John Merrow writes:

To be forthright, I believe that high-stakes testing, in its current manifestation, is a serious threat to excellence and national standards. Unchecked, it will choke the life out of many excellent schools and drive gifted teachers out of classrooms. A more rational approach is broad-based assessment, which involves multiple measures of what a student has learned. Assessment relies on teacher-made tests, teacher evaluations, student demonstrations, etc. all over an extended period of time, instead of one score on a single, largely machine-scored test (even if it includes a writing test). Unfortunately, the supporters of high-stakes testing have more faith in machines than they do in teachers.

Of course in the U.S.A. they have been there, done that, and found it didn’t work. (See also PBS Frontline: Testing our schools.)

But don’t let little things like mountains of evidence and the opinion of credible experts stand in your way, Minister.

Another financial link between Doug Willms and the Dept. of Education

Read the following in an email:

People have mentioned the contractual relationship between KSI and the government which, in and of itself, raises questions of impartiality and provides a direct relationship between the Dept. of Education and Willms. However, I think there is another compelling association between them.  As you all know, Willms is the Director of the Canadian Research Institute for Social Policy (CRISP). He is one of the principal investigators of the “NB Schools Early Literacy Project.” Elizabeth Sloat is the lead investigator but Willms is also one of the principal investigators.  It is a study involving a number of school districts in which they are examining the effectiveness of certain assessment tools in identifying struggling students early on, which would allow for early intervention.  The kicker is that the study is partially funded by the NB Dept. of Education, to the tune of $50,000 a year for 5 years ($250,000 in total). The study began in 2003.