Those who fight the noble fight...
...against bad standardized tests. Centerville Elementary [Georgia] teacher James Hope posted Gateway exam items on the web, but a Superior Court Judge has cleared him of wrongdoing. Mr. Hope, who was Centerville's Teacher of the Year in 2000-01, didn't help his students cheat or steal live items, although he has been accused of doing both. His reason for posting sample items is simply that he is very frustrated with the exams that allegedly cover material in history and math that was never introduced in class.
Gwinnett County Public Schools cited the teacher for misconduct in April 2000 for having his wife post sample Gateway questions and observations he made about students' struggles with the exam on the Concerned Parents of Gwinnett Web site. The school district spent $6 million developing the test to assess student performance...
The teacher said he felt compelled to tell parents the Gateway was invalid because it covered material in history and math that teachers had not taught in class, Hope said. "I had children crying during the test because some of the questions were so poorly worded. They knew that they weren't giving the right answers and felt they would possibly fail the fourth grade." Hope said he could not share with his students that passing scores on the test had been set so low that virtually anyone could pass. In some cases, a fourth-grade student needed 14 points out of a total 59, or 23.7 percent, to earn a passing grade, he said.
Since the incident, Hope, a teacher for 18 years, has remained at Centerville waiting to learn his fate...During his two-year ordeal, Hope said he has braved the confiscation of his phone records, visits by school police, a lie detector test and threats that an officer was heading to his classroom in 2001 to watch him administer the Gateway.
What aopears to be the case here is that the school district doesn't think a school teacher should be allowed to publicly criticize a standardize test. Mr. Hope won his case, as he should, because he did not post live items, which would have left him open to, at a minimum, theft and copyright violation charges. He appears to have drawn a much-needed spotlight to an test that may well be invalid. If the test content specifications don't match the curriculum, and the passing score is set at 23%, the test is pretty much useless, and Mr. Hope should be free as I am to say that. I don't agree with the Concerned Parents of Gwinnett that standardized tests should be removed completely from the classroom, but if their main experience has been with a test as flawed as this one allegedly is, I can understand their concern.