Education Board Approves Expanded Testing Program Teachers’ Union, Officials Object To Standardized Tests

A divided state Board of Education has approved the expanded program of standardized testing in Idaho public schools already being implemented by state schools Superintendent Anne Fox.

The testing program was expanded this fall from three grades to nine with $500,000 appropriated by the 1995 Legislature. Fox is asking for another $500,000 to continue putting the plan in place next year.

Thursday’s Board of Education action came over objections from Idaho Education Association President Monica Beaudoin and other teachers and school administrators. They argued that standardized testing in so many grades undermines local control of curricula, cuts into already limited classroom instruction time and ignores other ways to assess student progress.

“I strongly believe that half a million dollars can more validly be spent on the students of our state,” Pocatello High School teacher Arlen Walker said. “The only people who profit from standardized tests are the ones who sell them.”

Beaudoin said so much focus on standardized testing might prompt teachers to move away from local curriculum priorities developed over the years in favor of “teaching to the test.”

She and others also objected to the possibility that test results could be used to compare districts around the state.

Board member Carole McWilliam of Pocatello agreed that a better choice might be developing tests for additional subjects like the writing and math assessments the state administers.

Fox said she was “totally open to expanding and working in those areas.” In fact, some work has started toward developing a science assessment. But that could take three years to complete and would cost more money.

Board member Dr. Thomas Dillon of Caldwell said Fox has a more immediate mandate from voters.

“The crux of the matter is that our state superintendent was elected partly on the platform that there would be testing and there would be accountability,” he said. “This board would not be doing what’s right to deny the state superintendent what she was elected for.”