Jon Keller hosted Keri Rodrigues of the Walton-Koch National Parents Union on Sunday to plump the corporate wish list on MCAS testing. If you don’t accept the masquerade the appearance was revealing.
The part about the statewide testing falls against the unstated backdrop of teachers’ unions seeking legislative modification of MCAS. The Walton political team opposes that under the name Voices for Academic Equity.
You can find the segment on the WBZ website titled “Keller @ Large: why parents support statewide testing for students more than ever” and if you approach that headline with bottomless skepticism, you pass an important test yourself. Keller asked Rodrigues about a recent NPU poll. A poll is a great thing for a not-so-hard-working television personality because it’s paid for by someone else’s corporation and has the patina of scientific inquiry.
The question wasn’t asked about MCAS. The poll, conducted by the Walton’s pollster Echelon Insights, was a national one. The poll asked if we should “continue” to use statewide testing to “assess” student learning. The federal government requires the states to do statewide assessment tests. As for a graduation requirement, Fair Test noted in January of this year that only eight states still require high school seniors to pass a standardized test to receive a diploma. Massachusetts is one of the eight.
Echelon produces information useful to an interest group because that is Echelon’s job. It’s good at it. Here’s an example of how NPU uses Echelon polling, a headline from the very same poll Keller asked Rodrigues about:
Two problems: the poll didn’t ask respondents if they think that American families or the nation’s education system are in crisis. Only about a third (34%) agreed with the statement that students are facing a mental health crisis since Covid and 27% agreed that students being behind academically after Covid is a crisis. The “major problem but not a crisis” responses were higher, 42% and 43%; but that’s lousy headline for a press release. After then informing respondents about Covid related test score drops on the National Assessment of Education Progress, Echelon goosed those numbers up somewhat, but only to 34% saying academic progress represents a crisis and 47% a major problem but not a crisis.
Keller knows his role and plays it up. After apologizing for his “tiny brain” (his description, not mine. I think he’s a smart guy who knows just what he’s doing and not doing) Keller tees up a question that allows Rodrigues to argue that schools ignore parents but NPU is in constant deep communication with them through polling.
There’s the confession. NPU polls because it is organized around corporate benefactors not parents. Rodrigues keeps talking about data and community and communication but if you read Echelon’s methodology it conducts online polls. Ever sit in front of a computer taking an online poll? Did you think you were in “deep conversation”? Did you say ‘hey, you didn’t ask me about XYZ, I’m concerned about that’? Did you say “I never thought of it that way”? Did you ponder any responses, get persuaded, or influence the computer, or reconsider your views based on feedback? Did you listen and think you were being listened to? Then you weren’t in a “deep conversation.”
If you object to anything I’ve written here feel free to call me so we can have a deep conversation. Please listen carefully because our menu has changed.
Money never sleeps. Follow the money.
[Full disclosure: as a (now retired) educator in the UMass system, I am a union member. I write about dark money, democracy, and oligarchy. My book, Dark Money and the Politics of School Privatization, is in print.]