Even if scores don't count, PSSA has an impact

By Catherine Mallam

As the state and public school administrators scramble to reassure parents and teachers about this year's plummeting Pennsylvania System of School Assessment (PSSA) scores, we can all breathe a sigh of relief. No harsh penalties will befall our school districts or educators as a result of the scores. But as an elementary school counselor with more than 25 years' experience, I don't think we should be complacent about the unintended consequences of this experience for our children.

Remember what transpired across the commonwealth last spring when our students were subjected to weeks of rigorous testing at the expense of instructional time. Concerned parents were asking me to meet with their children about test anxiety. Many kids had upset stomachs and other symptoms of stress. On testing days, the third-, fourth-, and fifth-grade hallways of my school were as eerily silent as in lockdown drills as students tackled the test. Some children with disabilities were so conscientious that they worked on one challenging test section almost all day.

A state monitor showed up for a surprise inspection and spent the majority of a testing session in a fourth-grade classroom. In the fifth-grade hallway, one of our brightest students left her classroom in tears, overwhelmed by the new types of questions on the test's English/reading section. Meanwhile, walls and bulletin boards had been stripped of motivational posters, which are banned during testing weeks, ostensibly to level the playing field with districts that cannot afford inspirational messages.

Barren walls, silent halls, stressed kids.

All that, and this year's scores are virtually meaningless. Or more precisely, as state Education Secretary Pedro Rivera wrote to parents, comparing "scores and level of performance on the new assessment with those from previous years is not a valid comparison and may not provide an accurate depiction of their learning." In other words, the scores are not particularly useful to anyone. What message does that send to our children, who worked so hard, let alone to their parents and teachers?

Like many parents, I had a conversation with my eighth-grade daughter about her scores. A gifted student, she has always scored "advanced" in both reading and math; this year, her scores were indeed lower, and she fell to "proficient" in math. Before she looked at her report, I provided the context, explaining that this was a different test and the scores cannot be compared with past ones. She perused her scores, commenting on how she did in each section and with various skills, though the student report provides little meaningful detail. Watching her, I was struck that she was not so much distressed as detached, not so much disappointed in her scores as dismissive about the whole process, from stressful start to confusing conclusion.

We need to speak up and take action to limit the unintended consequences of high-stakes testing. Parents and educators need to tell their stories about the impact of testing on children. It means we need to ask Rivera to explain his assurance that "as additional resources are directed to classrooms, students' scores should steadily rise." What resources exactly? Paid for by whom? What other casualties can we expect along the way?

Also, legislators and the Department of Education need to hear school counselors, social workers, and psychologists, who are in a position to advocate for students. And this needs to happen now, not in six months when the No. 2 pencils are being sharpened.

The PSSA measures not only students' academic skills but also working memory, emotional regulation, impulse control, direction following, attention, and ability to cope with stress. And the falling test scores do indeed test self-esteem. But what worries me most is that these assessments are also testing the limits of our students' endurance, resilience, and trust.

Catherine Mallam is a school counselor in the Chatham Park School of the School District of Haverford Township. cmallam@comcast.net