Massachusetts state tests are leaving students unprepared for today’s information challenges
Posted
By Kyra Brissette and Andrew Zucker
MASSACHUSETTS NEEDS TO fix a significant problem with the state tests required of all public-school students: They do not measure many of the skills the state says are important.
The recently published Vision of a Massachusetts Graduate calls for students to think critically, question assumptions, and thrive in college, career, and civic life. To achieve those goals, assessments must align with the state’s broader expectations. Otherwise, educators and students receive a confusing message about what is important.
Educationresearch confirms what common sense and experience tells us, namely, that teachers feel pressure for students to perform well on state tests and believe, as students do, that what is tested is what policymakers consider important.
State tests should let school leaders, teachers, students, parents and others know how important media literacy education is for young people. What gets tested gets taught. Media literacy isn’t tested, so it isn’t taught. Questions about important competencies are missing on the tests, as the following examples demonstrate.
Multiple requirements in the Massachusetts standards for English Language Arts and Literacy call for media literacy, such as “Integrate multiple sources of information presented in diverse formats and media (e.g., visually, quantitatively, orally), evaluating the credibility and accuracy of each source” [emphasis added].” Yet, we don’t see any items on the ELA practice test for 10th graders that test this vital competency.
Massachusetts requires an eighth-grade civics class that is supposed to include “the development of skills to access, analyze and evaluate written and digital media as it relates to history and civics.” The state’s civic test might ask questions to rate the trustworthiness of various websites or perhaps include an item quoting an article or web page claiming the 2020 election was stolen and asking how students might check its accuracy. But there is nothing at all about digital media on the practice civics test, even though students spend hours each day on phones and computers, where misinformation is rampant.
Vision of a Massachusetts Graduate says students should be prepared for civic life. The Massachusetts science and technology framework includes similar language, namely that graduates should “possess sufficient knowledge of science and engineering to engage in public discussions on related issues, and be careful consumers of scientific and technological information and products in their everyday lives.” Yet there is not a single question on the Massachusetts high school biology test about public policy, or about being a careful consumer (e.g., for green energy products, or genetic testing, or nutrition), or about how to evaluate information related to science and technology.
According to the Vision of a Massachusetts Graduate, students who graduate should be able to “critically examine information to draw connections, question assumptions, infer meaning, and shape solutions.” That is an admirable goal, as are the goals that students have “the skills to be lifelong learners” who can “thrive in college, career, and civic life.” But the Programme for International Assessment (PISA) just tested more than 760,000 students worldwide and found an alarming tendency toward hasty reading. The PISA report notes that “in a world of shrinking attention spans and rising information overload, policymakers have a crucial role to play in shaping an educational culture that nurtures the depth of thought necessary to thrive.”
However, these goals cannot be achieved in the digital age if students do not learn how to sort information from misinformation wherever and whenever they encounter it, whether on TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, cable news, from friends, or elsewhere. Research shows that young people are generally poor at evaluating information they encounter out of school; basically, young people are not reliably able to sort fact from fiction. What students need to learn in school is a set of competencies known as media literacy. That is an even more urgent need given the role of AI in spreading misinformation.
Studies show that media literacy instruction in school helps students to better evaluate unfamiliar information. As a result, dozens of states have adopted laws or policies promoting media literacy education. Schools need to teach and test media literacy so that students are prepared to be lifelong learners. Like teaching reading or mathematics, media literacy education requires instruction across multiple grades and across subjects.
There is no good excuse for these lapses. Relevant items can be found on some state tests. For example, North Carolina’s high school biology test asks which of four policies “could best reduce global climate change” and New York’s high school biology test asks students what parents could do to protect their children after discovering lead levels in local topsoil are high. These examples show that it is no more difficult to create valid items testing media literacy, or applying science knowledge to societal and personal contexts, than it is to test any other competency.
If state tests were better aligned with important state goals for students, it would be easier to understand how and why the tests could be useful. As legislators consider policies related to testing, and, one hopes, look carefully at the existing tests and the report from The Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, Media Literacy in Massachusetts A Landscape and Policy Scan, now is a perfect time to fix this problem.
Kyra Brissette is CEO of Media Literacy Now, a Watertown-based national nonprofit organization advancing media literacy education through policy, advocacy, and public awareness. Andrew Zucker is an independent education researcher and member of Media Literacy Now’s National Advisory Council.
