Platform : CLAS Test: What’s All the Controversy About?

Controversy surrounding the recent California Learning Assessment System (CLAS) test has divided several Los Angeles and Orange County communities. The Antelope Valley school board was ordered by a judge a week and a half ago to administer the test, the first district to be ordered to do so. Below, local school board members, educators and parents discuss the test and the controversy.

BILLY A. PRICER

Board president, Antelope Valley Union High School District

On April 20, we voted 3-2 not to administer the test. Many parents (felt) that it was very invasive and that it asked questions that dealt too much with a preoccupation with death and violence. There were many who thought there were racial implications and overtones as well.

I found other problems. There was a lack of ability to administer the test for the amount of money being spent, and the kids aren’t even trained as to what kind of material they’re going to be tested on. A superintendent said it very simply: How can you be tested on something you haven’t been taught?

As a parent, I am concerned (we’re) not getting a good overall academic assessment. What you’re getting is a group grade or district average--the State Education Department violates its own code, which states that every student will be assessed individually in certain grades on a yearly basis. Another problem is the subjectivity of grading. It’s very difficult for someone judging an essay who doesn’t know a student to figure out what was going on in that child’s mind.

AUDREY YAMAGATA-NOJI

Board vice president, Santa Ana Unified School District

I didn’t find anything that was all-out offensive. I also don’t think that taking a test changes anybody’s family values. I actually felt after reading it that a child who has very strong family values would do very well on the test.

There are several different issues about CLAS. The biggest concern administratively that we have is that this appears to be a shift in how we do assessment of students--an attempt to come up with a more authentic assessment. But in doing so it was such a radical shift from what I think people associate with standardized testing that it scared a lot of people. The revelation that not all the tests would be scored certainly upsets people. When you put the time into it you want to know that’s being done.

CINDY PISZYK

Parent of three children in the Placentia-Yorba Linda Unified School District

None of my children were the ages to take the test so I was not confronted with the issue of whether or not I wanted my child to take it. But initially I was very excited with the concept. Any kind of testing that’s looking to identify higher thinking is very important and we need that. Any time students are asked to use written words as opposed to multiple choice (testing it’s) important because as they grow older they’re going to have to make their decisions and be able to present them that way.

Then all this stuff hit. I attended a couple of different lectures and my opinion went back and forth. I was concerned with some of the literature selections--that the younger-age ones might not be age appropriate.

Another point that was brought up in some of those forums was that children are asked opinion type questions. If you have a very imaginative child and they make up a situation (that) could be connoted as being the child’s situation at home, the child could be labeled “at risk.” That is a parent’s worst nightmare--having somebody say you’re abusing your child. That whole issue is very frightening to me.

WILLIAM M. OLENICK

Board member, Antelope Valley Union High School District

Call it what it was. (The majority of the board) voted to ban the CLAS test. What bothers me is that the majority hid behind the banner of parental right. I found it ironic that in doing so they stepped all over the rights of the parents who wanted their children to take the test; and I felt that was wrong.

I had heard horror stories (before seeing the test) indicating it was perhaps out of line. When I reviewed all seven versions of the 10th-grade CLAS test absolutely nothing was invasive of the students’ or families’ privacy. It was a stand-up test, an excellent test. The math portion was probably the best I’ve seen. The majority will argue they were right (because) all these people opted out. That wasn’t the case at all. Students were given a choice of taking the test or not--they didn’t even need the parental opt-out slip signed.

Yet without fail students who took the test came out saying, “What’s the problem? It’s a great test and made me think. There’s nothing invasive or controversial about it.”

ROSEMARIE (ROSIE) AVILA

Member, Santa Ana Unified School District Board of Education

I oppose the CLAS test. I think this is a cover-up for the educational community’s failure. They have not succeeded in teaching our kids academically the way they should. So instead of getting back to what does work, they’re going to say that academics don’t matter. They’re saying academic skills aren’t going to be that important because kids are always going to have calculators; they don’t need to learn how to spell because they’re going to have these little computers that spell for them because we’re all in this information age. It doesn’t matter if they know history sequentially or know their place in history (because) they’ll be able to just grab all this information.

My feeling is that our schools have got to get back to the basics, get back to teaching kids how to read and write and master math so they can accomplish more in life.

CAROLINE PETERSON

President, Fullerton PTA Council

Generally it could be a good instrument to measure student learning. The concept has value, but it hasn’t been fully developed. It needs time to have some of the imperfections worked out. But I think there’s value in having this type of assessment tying in with our state curriculum.

I haven’t spoken with that many people who have expressed concern about it. There’s a lot of reaction to the media coverage. I think there has been a certain amount of misinformation that has gotten out as to the content of the test--before the content actually had been revealed.

Dr. DUNCAN JOHNSON

Superintendent, Fullerton (Elementary) School District

We’re in a situation where we said we wouldn’t give the test and (I’m sad) because a change that has immense potential is so clouded with controversy that it’s difficult to know what’s going to happen next.

The comments that I’ve received have been about 99% positive about the stance the district has taken--for a variety of reasons not necessarily the same as the reasons we chose not to give the test.

We had been arguing with the state for about three months about our preparation to properly administer the test. The crowning blow was when we received the tests a month late and were already out of the testing window. It was the administration of the test that we said was badly flawed and therefore we did not think we would get valid results. That was before the controversy over the content and appropriateness of the test unfolded. That has not been our argument.