Give education reformers a chance

The missing and mislabeled scratch paper for this month’s third- through eighth-grade state English tests was a microcosm of what’s happened in education in New York since 2010.

The state Education Department and test producer Questar, knowing they would be attacked for any shortcoming, should never have let this stupid mistake happen. But opponents of Common Core standards, standardized tests and teacher evaluations shouldn’t act as if that small misstep is definitive proof that the exams and the system are an evil failure. For the most part, teachers and superintendents whose kids got the slightly screwy booklets say it wasn’t a big deal, and really didn’t have an effect. To be fair, that was not the case with the Education Department’s earlier, much more egregious failures.

But the Education Department is addressing those failures. If it succeeds, parents and teachers need to back off of their opt-out animosity.

The state didn’t properly explain the new Common Core standards to parents and teachers when it imposed changes. It failed to provide all the curricula help it should have. The tests themselves may have been too long and were flawed. No one prepared parents for a failure rate that doubled. And no one in Albany was ready for how vociferously teachers would resist being rated even partially on the test scores of their students.

What resulted was a rebellion against every aspect of the changes, orchestrated by the unions and angry parents. Much of that rebellion persists, even as many problems have been and are being corrected. Since State Education Commissioner MaryEllen Elia replaced embattled former commissioner John King in July, much has changed. She is working hard to re-establish trust with teachers by addressing the concerns that can be addressed. That includes putting off negotiations about revising the teacher evaluations system until everything else is up to speed. The priorities are:

Fix tests: Elia says every question on every third- through eighth-grade English and math test this year was reviewed by at least 20 New York public school teachers. And this is the last year tests developed by Pearson Education, a company that has become a lightning rod for criticism, will be used. The tests are now shorter, and thanks to increased funding for tests, teachers can see more specific questions, along with student answers, to know exactly where each student needs to improve.

Fix standards: State standards for students in kindergarten through 12th grade, designed to keep students on track to college and career readiness by graduation, have to be right. The Education Department is putting together teams of teachers, parents, experts and business leaders to look at every standard on this continuum of achievement to make sure they are appropriate.

Help teachers: Teachers and districts should be supported in the development of their own curricula and the lesson plans they need to teach kids to those standards. This includes tools used for “scaffolding,” the process of getting students who are lagging to grade level, particularly English language learners and students with special needs. It also includes getting more lesson plans and learning modules online that educators can use, as is or as starting points in developing their own learning models.

Fix evaluations: A revamp of the teacher evaluation system should be addressed only when these other goals have been met, and the better tests, tools and standards have rebuilt trust between teachers, parents and the Education Department.

There is a moratorium on basing teacher evaluations on students’ test results until 2020. But the law on the books still has evaluations being based as much as 50 percent on test results when the moratorium ends. The teachers unions hate that, and are pressuring lawmakers to repeal the evaluation system.

Meanwhile, preliminary reports suggest that opt-outs are flat this year statewide: Specifically, they are up on Long Island, with more than 50 percent of students refusing to take the tests here, but mostly down in the rest of the state.

We could be on a path to solving most of these controversies. The gripes — about bad tests, not enough teacher involvement in test development, developmentally inappropriate learning standards and a lack of educator support — are being addressed. Even educators at odds with the state in the past say the effort appears serious and sustained. Students and teachers aren’t being judged on test results now.

At some point, however, the tests should be used to measure both students and teachers. Once the tests and standards are good and the evaluation system is fair, that’s reasonable.

This round of standardized testing is over. But to improve our teachers, schools, tests and standards, everyone has to participate in the process.

The Education Department has 50 weeks to prove it is serious about fixing the problems. If that happens, teachers ought to encourage students to sit for the improved tests next year.