Resistance builds as CMS test week continues

At East Mecklenburg High last night, parents swapped strategies for resisting CMS's push for more testing, as kids take "field versions" of dozens of new exams. Take your kids late or keep them home altogether so they'll miss the test, some parents suggested. Tell them to sign their name and leave it blank in protest, said another.

One man, who didn't identify himself, noted that the exams for older kids use a multiple-choice "bubble-in" format and urged them to choose one consistent answer: "Let them bubble E for 'Enough' and send a message to Dr. Gorman."

Someone else said each question has only four possible answers.

"Mark B for 'Bull!' " another man called out.

That's the mood among some parents, who are outraged at the time kids are spending on tests designed to rate teachers. Students in kindergarten through second grade were tested Monday and Tuesday. In calls, emails and comments on yesterday's blog, numerous teachers and parent volunteers said the one-on-one tests that officials had described as taking 15 minutes per child were taking up to an hour.

Many also raised questions about the quality of the test items, noting subject matter that seems too advanced and questions with spelling and punctuation errors. Some asked who's getting paid to put these tests together.

Chris Cobitz, the CMS official who's overseeing the new tests, said this week's field tests showed that asking young children to read and answer some of the questions was taking too long. That's something CMS will take into account in creating the final version, to be given in May, he said.

Cobitz said Measurement Inc. of Durham is being paid to submit questions, which his staff reviews. Putting them in front of real kids this week helps CMS staff winnow out questions. If some questions seem too advanced, he said, that's intentional. It not only lets teachers see how high-fliers do, it may indicate a question that is too easy -- if, for instance, most first-graders end up correctly answering a question that was designed for second-graders.

"We pay for items we accept," Cobitz said. "One of three we fully intend to reject. We don't pay for the ones we reject."

He acknowledged there are typos, a result of the rush to get some 400 tests ready for this week. Yes, that's larger than the number of subjects (52) discussed earlier; there are four versions of each test, he said.

"Punctuation is something we can fix," he said.

Now it's time for the older kids to start field-testing, everything from third-grade social studies and science to a raft of high school electives. That poses its own challenges, especially when parents are urging their children to resist.

Courtney Kramer, a German teacher at Smith Language Academy, says she sent home letters with her sixth-grade home room explaining the field tests, which don't count toward student grades or teacher ratings.

"When I passed out the letters and we started to talk about the tests, one student raised his hand," Kramer wrote. "He said, 'Why don't we just fail it on purpose? It doesn't count for a grade and they will have to make the real tests easier.' Of course the rest of the students in the class agreed. If this reaction was immediate in my class, I can only imagine how many other students all over CMS have decided to purposefully fail."