This is testing week, and I’ve been listening to what the kids are hearing about the tests.
“Relax; just do your best.”
“The tests give us information about how we can help you.”
“You will not be held back or get a bad grade on your report card if you don’t do well on the test.”
“Some questions may be difficult for you.”
“The tests help us to see if you are on track to pass your high school qualifying exams.”
“Get a good night’s sleep, and eat a good breakfast. Relax, do your best, and don’t worry. Nobody likes testing, but it’s something we all have to do.”
“Think positively.”
When I passed out the official practice materials from The State two weeks ago, I asked what anyone knew about the tests. Not much, it turns out. One person thought maybe they needed to pass a test to get through middle school. Not yet, I said, but you do have to pass one to graduate from high school. Nobody else said anything, and everyone looked kind of glum when they saw what we were going to do that afternoon.
Other than just regular teaching, I do no test prep all year. Rehearsing test-taking skills never helps low achievers pass tests, in my experience, and even it did I wouldn’t spend much time on it because it’s perverted to practice things that have no inherent value. The official practice test is my one – perverted – exception to the rule.
Before I handed them out to the kids I talked a little about the history of standardized tests, about how they’ve been used to measure student progress and evaluate educational programs. I told them that the current tests were developed about 10 years ago, and that they’re intended to show us if kids are learning what they need to know to pass the high school qualifying exams. “So we can know what we need to work harder on,” someone added. Yeah, something like that.
Then I told them that each year, more and more kids were expected to pass, leading up to the year 2014, when everyone would be expected to pass. Loud guffaws and unsolicited comments broke out all around.
“That will not happen!”
“I thought the people in charge were supposed to be smart.”
“What about kids who have learning disabilities?” said one little guy. “Like me, I have trouble with math, and I don’t know why; it’s just hard for me, and it takes me a long time to do it.”
I said that we were working on it, and it’s like a game with levels. Level 0 is the best. The school drops a level each time not enough kids pass, and each level has new consequences until we get to level 5, when the school can be closed down. Right now, we’re at level 2, I told them. And if we pass this year, we go back to level 0 and start over. They wanted to know more about the consequences. Oh, I said, it’s stuff like other people getting to tell us how we teach and what books and tests we have to use.
“That’s harsh,” said a boy in the back.
He got that one right.
But it’s not all bad. One of my former students, a kid with an excellent grasp of writing mechanics, but who never wrote anything, nonetheless passed the writing test one year. Evidently, writing ability is not absolutely necessary even though there are a couple of essay questions. This should be a comfort to teachers with students who are resistant to writing – break out those drill sheets. You, too, can get by with bubbling answers if you choose.
When we talk about the pressure to teach to the test, one of my dedicated colleagues says, “I’m just going to be the best teacher I can be, and when that isn’t good enough, they can tell me to leave.” Me, too.
No teacher who is paying attention needs a standardized test, longitudinal or otherwise, to find out whether students are learning what they need to know. If, as Arne Duncan says, “The path to real reform begins with the truth,” he’s going to have to make some new friends and stop kidding himself about how this stuff actually works.
This afternoon before they left, I told my students that tomorrow was the writing test. “I hate writing,” I heard someone say.
“No you don’t,” I told him. “You guys are great writers and you write all the time.”
“Oh yeah. We have a whole website full of our writing,” he said
I’m waiting for someone to ask why we only give out snacks during testing week.
14 Comments
Hi Doug,
Reading your post was like reliving several conversations I have had over the years, most of them in despair.
It is ridiculous that we spend our time engaging our students in the love of reading and writing, only to bludgeon it with standardised testing. There was a time when I felt like I was between a rock and a hard place; wanting to do the right thing by my line management, and facilitate a love for learning with the students. This time is long gone, as I too just want to be a great teacher.
Your explanation of why we do it to the students is a good one, though many of the students I have taught, particularly in remote indigenous schools, were never going to get it.
I don’t know about the States, but here in Australia standardised testing is wholly political. As you point out, no one that is paying attention needs these tests. Our ‘clunky’ political system believes that they require data to make long term decisions. There has been talk for a while now that it is going to be used to reward schools that get the better results!
With this kind of thinking it makes it difficult to use our leaders as role models when teaching self management and personal responsibility.
Tim, good to hear from you. It sounds like teachers in Alaska and northern Australia may have a lot in common.
I’ve been at home this week for spring break and have purposely tried to leave work and work-related worries behind~ difficult to do when parenting school aged children takes up most of my days, vacation or not.
With former colleagues here in Oz having just wrapped up testing under much duress and stress, the fact you admit you haven’t addressed test prep this year made me gasp out loud. Not because I might think you’re wrong (I don’t), not because I might think test prep might be beneficial to some students (I don’t believe it is), but because I know school administrators who would do everything in their power to have you fired 1) for an act that they would perceive as jeopardizing their school’s ability to make AYP…and 2) then blogging about it.
This tangled web has me wondering which way to go when it comes to getting my next degree~ something tells me I won’t be teaching kindergarten students for the rest of my working career.
Michaele, I’d be honored if someone wanted to have me fired for teaching what’s in the curriculum.
The school climate here is still basically sane, but I’m not counting on it to stay that way in the wake of the big pile of $$$$ coming out of DC to fund ever-more crazy schemes for data gathering, tracking, incentives, and the like.
My latest thinking on my “next career” move involves expanding the garden and getting involved in the Farmer’s Market community. Come to think of it, a community gardening project might be something to think about, too.
Hey Doug – the snacks comment stood out the most. Your approach and mine are the same. We never practice for the test, and why should we? We have no idea what’s on it anyway! So it’s business as usual with us: learning centers, projects, blogging partners, chess, genrally playing creatively with technology to read and write…but back to the snacks. Right now I have Goldfish, Cheezits, mint gum, peanuts, lemon drops, and bottled water – all for the test. And in my class, the kid *did* speak up and say, why do we only get food for the test? I left it as an open-ended exercise the the kids, grade 4, to ponder….
Aw, man, you got way better snacks than us.
I wonder if they actually work. We could also try to see if some kinds are more effective than others. They haven’t been standardized yet, so there’s still a lot of room for innovation.
In my school they buy them gum and haul in these strange things they call research where this is supposed to keep you “alert.’ Based on some old army infantry study. Everytime this goes on, I find myself reverting into my old fifth grade teacher. It is a sad day when we hhand you a pack of what has been printed on every rule folder for 50 years as strictly off limits so you can go out and get us the scores and so I argue then for a Starbucks wagon, some nice steaks and a barbeque. Never get it.
But this year, I’m hoping the theme gets something more interesting than the cheerleading year or the ventriloquist Yes You Will no excuses one last time I was conscious enough to note the theme. This year it’s “Tests Rock” and I’ve got Queen down loaded into some jamming sessions that I think can bring down the house from the little first grade that can. I believe S’mores might be the trick.
I like all of your comments. I am writing a research paper on this topic and I was wondering if anyone has nice things to say about standardized tests. So far what I’ve heard and read is that they are pretty unnecessary, that they only measure facts, etc. What do you guys think are the better aspects of having them? Is there really a known purpose to them?
Victoria, standardized tests are of little educational value for teachers since it’s not much of a problem to fiugure out, without using them, which students are – or aren’t – doing well. What they don’t tell us is why a particular kid may be having trouble.
The tests are most useful to administrators who look at system-wide trends, and politicians who want to make sweeping claims about the massive failures of public schools. I’m not so much anti-testing as I am anti-high-stakes testing. We’ve used standardized tests since long, long ago. But how we’re using them is the real problem. The high correlation test results have with socio-economic status ought to make anyone stop and think about what the tests actually measure.
Victoria, I am not for standardised test either. As you can read in the comments section of my blog post ‘It’s Not in the Test’ there are those that are all for standardised testing. One of their reasons is that our system depends on ST to fund support for students with learning needs/special needs. Read more here:
http://www.timetoshine.com.au/component/option,com_wordpress/Itemid,55/p,174/
Please leave a comment if you can value add to the conversation.
As a retired teacher now subbing, I recently watched a science teacher use practice testing (on powerpoint) as a teaching tool. After each multiple choice question, she launched into some really cool teaching. She drew pictures and related the learning to previously learned material. I was very impressed. The practice actually became exciting for the kids. I’m not a fan of testing. Years ago, one of my learning disabled math students was really good at basic math but started failing when the testing became more about critical thinking and problem solving. I watched him wilt and become so discouraged. He was just like a little calculator when it came to computation, but he eventually shut down due to not doing well on the TAKS test. It was very sad.
Standardized testing like that is why I refuse to work at a public school. I can’t stand the overemphasis on it.
By the way – I’ve added you to my blogroll, under the “education” category. I just like to let folks know.
Cool. Thanks, Kelsey. I like your photos. Your blog is in my reader now.
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