La valutazione scolastica negli USA, ovvero un grande futuro alle
nostre spalle.
Per
superarare gli esami di diploma gli studenti vengono sottoposti a test
standard. Ma anche negli anni di studio intermedi i test sono utilizzati in maniera generalizzata.
Che cosa succede, però,
agli studenti che hanno handicap fisici
o di apprendimento?
Non esiste, nei 50 stati
dell’unione, una comune legislazione
che affronti i problemi di questi studenti che superano, secondo le loro
statistiche, il 12% della popolazione
scolastica.
Laddove c’è vuoto legislativo e l’autorità
scolastica non ha provveduto, è intervenuta
la magistratura. Negli stati dove, invece, il problema è stato
affrontato, come a New York, si è introdotto
un “metodo nuovissimo” di
valutazione individuale: il colloquio, ovvero “l’interrogazione”…per superare
l’inaffidabilità di test standardizzati di fronte ad esigenze e bisogni
particolari.
Noi, che in Italia,
abbiamo ereditato prima dai greci, e dai latini poi, l’arte della maieutica,
dell’interrogazione, volta a stabilire la preparazione dello studente, con i
nuovi Organi Collegiali, approvati già dalla Commissione Istruzione e
soprattutto dai pronunciamenti della maggioranza, che a volte, nella foga
di innovare a qualunque costo, mostra
la “sensibilità“ delle ruspe per gli alberi della foresta amazzonica,
abbandoneremo queste forme “obsolete” di valutazione, per assurgere alle vette
valutative costituite dai test standard, adottati oltre oceano… (S.C)
Dal New York Times - March 18, 2002
PITTSBURG, Calif. — Kyle
Stofle, a 10th grader at Pittsburg High School who has dyslexia and virtually
unreadable handwriting, has been in special education since second grade. But
Kyle, 15, has always expected to get his diploma along with the rest of the
class of 2004.
So he and his mother became
worried when they learned that, starting with his class, every California
student would have to pass a statewide language and math test to graduate.
"When the exit exam
first came up, last year, I went to a meeting and asked what would happen to
kids with learning disabilities," said Kyle's mother, Karen Bruno.
"They kept saying that they didn't know, that it would end up in court."
So it has. An Oakland-based
advocacy group challenged the graduation exam under federal disability laws.
On Feb. 21, two weeks
before Kyle and other 10th graders were to take the test, Judge Charles R.
Breyer of Federal District Court ruled that students with learning disabilities
had the right to special treatment, through different assessment methods or
accommodations like the use of a calculator or the chance to have test
questions read aloud.
It was the first time a
state had been ordered to adjust the conditions for its graduation exams for
students with learning disabilities, most of whom are dyslexics with reading
problems.
The question of how far to
accommodate students with learning disabilities on college entrance tests like
the SAT has become a familiar one, as requests for special accommodations
proliferate, especially from affluent white families.
But with more than a dozen
states putting graduation exams into effect in the next three years — and
others requiring new tests for promotion to the next grade — the debate has
become broader and more urgent, with some education experts predicting that new
legal challenges are inevitable.
"As these laws are
phased in and kids really start to be denied diplomas, it'll go to lots of
courts, and lots of legislatures," Robert Schaeffer of FairTest, a group
in Cambridge, Mass., that is critical of standardized testing. "This is a
great unexplored weakness of the whole high-stakes testing thing."
Some education experts say
they worry, however, that as more students seek special accommodations, the
whole notion of standardized testing may break down. What is a diploma worth,
they add, if students who cannot read, write or do arithmetic are allowed to
pass academic tests?
With more than 12 percent
of the nation's schoolchildren now identified as disabled — some with physical
problems, but most with learning disabilities — concern is growing that some
students say they have learning disabilities just to win easier testing
conditions.
In recent years, half the
states have enacted laws requiring that high school students pass standardized
exams to graduate. High failure rates on the tests have prompted some states to
delay putting them into effect or lower the score for passing.
These so-called exit exams
create a particularly tough hurdle for students with learning disabilities.
When California gave its first exit exam last year, on a voluntary basis, 9 of
10 students with learning disabilities failed.
Kyle failed the language
and math sections, and because his handwriting was so bad, his essay questions
were never scored.
"A lot of the
questions made no sense to me," Kyle said. "Some of the math was on
things I've never learned."
Kyle said he thinks he did
better this year because his teacher, apparently on her own decision, read the
questions to him. To earn his diploma, Kyle must pass the test by his senior
year.
Many states, including New
York, already allow a broad range of options for disabled students. Instead of
taking the regular test, they can give oral presentations or present portfolios
of their work.
But the clash between
disability rights and educational standards is profound. States devised
graduation exams to measure all students by the same yardstick. In contrast,
the disability laws were designed to ensure that disabled children receive
educations tailored to their needs. Moreover, there is little scientific data
on precisely which accommodations help which learning disabilities.
"The equities here are
not clear," said Lawrence Feinberg, assistant director of the group that
administers the National Assessment of Educational Progress, the federal test
that rates school performance.
"Standardized tests
came in because of variations in testing and grading and the notion that it's
only fair if you test everyone the same way," he said. "It turns that
whole idea on its head, if you treat some people differently because it's
fairer to them."
Many state education
officials say that including disabled students in statewide testing is a good
thing.
"A student who's
tested is a student who's taught," said Kit Viator, an assessment official
in the Massachusetts education department.
Advocacy groups for the
disabled do not disagree. But they say that making a learning disabled student
take a standardized test without accommodations is as unfair as requiring a
physically disabled child to run a race without a wheelchair.
"Standardized tests
test students' disabilities, not their abilities," said Sid Wolinsky, a
lawyer with Disability Rights Advocates, the Oakland group that challenged the
California law. "No matter how well they master the content that's being
tested, they will fail the exam if they have real problems with reading or
handwriting."
As enacted, California's
graduation exam policy prohibited calculators or test readers on the grounds
that reading and calculating were so fundamental that students should not
graduate without demonstrating those skills.
In December, that policy
was amended to let disabled students who used such accommodations receive a
diploma if their district won a waiver from the state, a process the judge said
was still too restrictive.
While the judge's order
allowed students to use accommodations on the latest exam, it left open, until
a later hearing, the question of whether scores earned with such accommodations
will be treated the same as those earned under regular conditions. So students
who used accommodations do not yet know if a passing score will earn them a
diploma.
"The dilemma we find
ourselves in is this fairness issue, where to draw the line with students who
have some disability that makes it impossible to pass this test," said
Phil Spears, director of California Department of Education's Standards and
Assessments Division.
"If you say that a
student who doesn't have the ability to read or compute can still pass, that
sends a message that isn't acceptable to the world out there," he said.
"When special ed kids get out of school, they don't go to special ed town,
they go out and compete with all the rest of us."
Mr. Spears added that
California and other states had not yet resolved a basic question.
"There's no clear understanding of what we're supposed to be doing,"
he said. "Are we creating tests of different content, at a lower level of
rigor, for kids with disabilities? Or are we seeking other ways to assess their
mastery of the same skills? I don't know the answer."
For now, California's
learning disabled 10th graders remain confused about how to handle the test. In
Fair Oaks, at Del Campo High School, Katie Culpepper, who has a neuroprocessing
disorder, skipped it altogether. But at Petaluma's Casa Grande High School,
another learning disabled student, Sabrina Shired, took it with no
accommodations.
"It's been kind of
tense and awful," Sabrina said. "But I wanted to try the test under
regular conditions, since it would be even worse if I took it with
accommodations and passed, and then later they said that invalidated the test
and I still couldn't get my diploma. If I pass this way, I'll feel great."
Many parents of disabled
10th graders hope the state will delay the exit-exam requirement — but are
quietly making backup plans.
"If she hasn't passed
by senior year, we'll think about a transfer to a Catholic school, where the
exam isn't required," said Sabrina's mother, Eileen Shired. "Somehow,
she's going to get a diploma."