High Hopes for High Stakes

It is March 27, 2016 and I am stuffed in to a small room at McQueen School in Kivalina, Alaska. Small: as in 14x18 feet. I’ve fished out of ice shacks bigger than this. 18 computers, 9 students and 2 adults are cramped in to a room that is roughly 262 square feet. It is less of a Computer Lab and more of a Computer Closet.

Today is Day One of the AMP Test. The Alaska Measures of Progress is another high stakes computer based test not unlike the MCAs from back home in Minnesota. Unfortunately, not even Bush Alaska is immune to the pressures of these ridiculous tests.

A company called KITE won a contract to assess the progress of every grade 3 through 12 student in the great state of Alaska. And this morning their Website is unable to handle the sheer volume of traffic flooding the system with the answers diligently clicked away by students on the other end of the educational umbilical cord. Sadly, this isn’t my first rodeo. This always happens.

Somewhere along the way, politicians, lobbyists and other random talking heads across the nation have decided that teachers need to be held accountable for American kids falling behind their Asian counterparts. Those geniuses decided that plugging a kid that probably already has more screen time than the FDA recommends in to a computer for scientific data was going to scare teachers in to actually doing work and not just teaching coloring and the polka. I would bet my next paycheck that very few of those lobbyists and politicians have ever spent much time at the helm of a classroom relying on them for direction in life.

And those test administrators that spent countless dollars and fewer hours compiling all the latest and greatest unbiased questions should be forced to sit in this room with me here today. They are no doubt scrambling at KITE, trying to identify the bug in their system. Yet, I’m the one that has ramped up the rigor. I’m the one that has readied the troops and got them at least to enter in their username and passwords correctly. Which, I might add, is no small feat in itself.

It’s a sad joke that I’m sitting in a computer closet a hundred some miles north of the Arctic Circle, being told that my success and or failure as a teacher will be determined based on the results of a computer based test that resembles Swiss cheese. That’s a tough pill to swallow. I think the lobbyists, politicians, KITE administrators and anyone else that thinks the data based decision making that follows these tests has any validity in the real world should take a shift in the closet with me. They should have to throw together a meaningful remainder of the instructional day after scheduling the entire week around a test that just isn’t working.

Two boys were done with 28 questions in approximately 6 minutes. The other seven computer screens read:

Do not close test.

Contact your technology expert to restore connection.

When saved the test will move on.

AMP is broke.

KITE is broke.

Spending so much money on a system and belief that is broke frustrates me.

The real money in education should be spent putting boots on the ground. Limiting class sizes. Funneling special education and behavioral support where it is needed. Providing resources to teachers that are with children every day.

Not more testing.

And here’s a snippet of the nonsense email I got right before lunch.

UPDATE ON AMP and DLM TESTING

The fiber optic cable at the University of Kansas, where AAI is located, was cut by a construction vehicle. All KITE systems are down (KITE, AMP, DLM, Educator Portal, etc).  Please note, the issue is not with the KITE Client/Educator Portal servers or the tests. The entire University of Kansas is down.

Please cancel testing for today. The plan is to resume tomorrow. However, please have an alternate plan in case repairs are delayed.

I couldn’t make this stuff up if I tried.