Today’s Topic

There’s a not-so-quiet revolution going on in California’s public schools these days and, if reaction to the new CLAS tests is any measure, educational reform is not going to come easy.

The introduction last year of CLAS (California Learning Assessment System) tests in the schools provoked outrage from some conservative groups that claim the tests are unfair and intrusive.

In today’s Platform, civic leaders, school administrators and parents shed light on the controversy that has surrounded the tests, which are given each year to fourth-, fifth-, eighth- and 10th-graders.

But what about the tests themselves? Is newer necessarily better? Is the new learning assessment system really as insidious as some make it out to be? Does it accurately assess how well a student is learning? Can students be evaluated fairly?

The section of the tests that has incited the most controversy focuses on language arts. Traditionally, students taking standardized tests were given passages to read and then asked to answer some multiple-choice questions that would reflect their learning comprehension.

The CLAS tests also give students passages to read. But they are then allowed to discuss the passages in groups, take notes and refer to those notes while writing a series of essays, some of which require them to reflect on their personal lives.

“We are asking students to make connections between what they’ve read and how that’s applied to the world they live in,” says Bob Anderson, a consultant with the CLAS in Sacramento. “We’re not slighting the (previous) system of testing reading comprehension. These questions demand comprehension but they demand comprehension plus.”

While some argue that it is impossible to create a concrete set of standards by which to judge the students’ writing and comprehension, Anderson disagrees.

“We’ve discovered that teachers can be trained to work together and come up with the same judgments,” he says. “What appears to be a subjective process is actually very clear to the teachers and is not based at all on whim or opinion.”

More important, say some educational experts, the tests are providing a basis for restructuring the entire California educational system.

“I wish there was as much concern and attention on the test results as there is on the content of the tests,” says state Sen. Gary Hart (D-Santa Barbara). “The test results indicate, particularly in the area of mathematics, that we are not doing a good job.”

“Testing historically is done by determining a student’s performance based on everyone else’s,” Hart says. “We are trying to move toward setting standards that all students must meet.”

To do that, educators hope the CLAS tests will help change the classroom.

“CLAS is intended to stimulate reform and change the way teachers teach and kids learn,” says Eve Baker, co-director of the National Center for Research on Evaluation, Standards and Student Testing. “We want to pull the educational system in a different direction.”