A good friend posted the information yesterday the our lovely OSSD was administering 19,003 on-line state states yesterday–and this goes on for 2 more weeks! At what cost, I asked…what is the true total cost of ownership (TCO) of these tests? has anyone ever calculated the real cost?
Lost teacher time actually proctering the tests; the 40+ hours that TSSpecs (at an average cost , probably of $50/hour including benefits) spend setting up and breaking down; the cost of SBTS; the cost of school test coordinators; the cost of all the meetings that are set up; the cost of all the project managers involved; the cost of the network engineers; the cost the curriculum specialists; and, need I mention it again OMG–the cost of the meetings!
Not to mention the lost instructional time; the time spend with the districts on-line pre-testing system (which is nothing more than an SOL predictor, no matter what anyone else claims); the entire department dedicated to the on-line testing system; the number of hours students spend taking practice tests.
And, of course, there is the curriculum that focuses on the test; providing good teachers with only a little more data about where there students are achieving (and, in many cases, flawed data). Good teachers know what their students know and we can train the small percentage of not-so-good teachers in the same techniques. It removes teachable moments and confines student learning. (not to mention using ALL OF THE AVAILABLE TECHNOLOGY for giving multiple choice tests.
And the biggest cost of all is to the teachers themselves–for many the heart is gone out of teaching. Teaching is as much art as science and the art is no longer a respected part of the profession.
Enough rant, Old Faithful just went off outside my dorm room window—just wanted to let all of my edtech friends that I feel for them these next few weeks–and all through the year. If you want to do a podcast from Old Faithful–just let me know; I’d be more than happy to take your classroom someplace in the real world.