“Standardized
testing has swelled and mutated, like a creature in one of those old horror
movies, to the point that it now threatens to swallow our schools whole.”
Kohn, Education Week, 9/27/00
Imagine that! Alfie Kohn made this statement FOURTEEN years
ago and it may be truer today than it was then.
This is one heated topic right now and I’m not sure if I should go about
it as a parent or as a teacher. I can
tell you one thing, no matter which side I come from I can tell you with every
fiber of my being, as mom and teacher, my daughter will NOT take part in high stakes
testing; E-V-E-R.
I’ll start from “the mom
side”. The hubs and I know our daughter
better than anyone; her strengths, her challenges, her gifts and talents, and
her downfalls. There is no “test” on
Earth that will ever be able to accurately evaluate her and give me any
feedback worth putting her through the testing to begin with. Although I’m insanely slightly, sorta
competitive in nature, I do NOT need to see how high her three digit number is,
or if she gets a “perfect” score in order to tell whether or not my daughter
will succeed in life – I put more faith in my ability as a mom than that. Doodle Bug is a pleaser and if she thought
for one minute that she wouldn’t do as well as she “should” or she’d let people
down or she “should” get them all right, it would greatly affect her and I will
NOT put my child through something like that for a worthless score. I do have to say that my “big kids” DID take
state assessments when they weren’t so grueling; what a difference 10 years
makes! Even still, every time the scores
were mailed home I promptly fed them to my woodstove......not important and I
would NOT let them define who my kids were.
That truly is the value I placed on those tests – NONE. My child’s life is not up for use in the
political posturing, teacher bashing state we’re in – not happening. But in the end I TRUST the teachers my kids
have to teach my kids, to move them forward, to push them as far as they can –
to LEARN for life, NOT to prep for a test that is used solely to score teachers,
play political games, and “earn money” from the government.
It hasn’t been a secret that I
DESPISE “test prep” and high stakes testing in general. In my own little,
civil disobedience sort of way I hope that my decision, and any other parent
who makes this choice, will send the message that the tests are invalid to us
and we want our kids to LEARN, not be subject to hours of skill and drill. Imagine the things teachers could do if they
didn’t feel the pressure to “stop teaching and just prep” for weeks before the
test – S O O O much quality instructional time is lost and in depth, challenging
opportunities are wasted because of the pressures some feel with high stakes
testing.
It was not a
decision I took lightly when I devoted the time I did, earning several degrees in education, and becoming a teacher – it’s something I’m passionate about, have conversations and
debates about, and continue to read current research about. There was never a class in all of my years in
college that taught me to beat children down over the course of six days, four
hundred twenty minutes to be exact and there is NO WAY to convince me it was for
any benefit to my classroom, and certainly not to my students. I’m the type of person who assesses day in
and day out – formal and informal, making kids prove their understanding,
pushing them with questioning, and posing situations that force them to grapple
with ideas and report back. Testing is
the LAST thing I’d turn to to evaluate my kids’ strengths and struggles. I always let them know that no grade can
define them, that perseverance through difficult situations and their personal
best CANNOT be numbered and those qualities are invaluable; it’s what life is
about.
So, during the
three days, 210 minutes to be exact, of testing recently, what was the
opportunity to learn? You’ve got me on
this one – in my opinion there was none, it was time my kids were robbed of.
What I witnessed over those days was brutal. We started the week with me playing my “fake cheerleader”
role; use strategies you know, do the best you can, you’ve got this, etc – I felt
like a fraud. During the first day, kids
looked up at me with doe eyes, tears lurking on the edge of their lashes, but
went right back to work trying their best as they were encouraged. Yes, I was proud of their perseverance, but
wanted to rip the tests away from them and tear them to shreds. The second day the poor kids were so confused
with having to answer multiple choice, short answer, and long answers they
started to show wear; again I put on the cheerleader persona and did my own
best to persevere. On the third day I
just about lost it. The number of sighs
I heard, the number of kids looking at me, eyes screaming, kids crossing out
questions because the way they were worded was so baffling. Even I
had to read many questions three times to understand them and there was not a
damned thing I could do. What beat many
down even more than the insane testing they had been through was that more than
a third couldn’t finish; their body language was devastating and I was FURIOUS.
NOTHING I could have taught them
would have helped them run through this gauntlet, used as the sacrificial cow
for teacher bashing and political posturing, in the name of saving education. And there is NO WAY I will put my daughter in
this situation. Day in and day out I
push my kids to work hard, they take on each challenge that is given to them,
and beg for just one more minute to dig deeper and research more. But those same, hardworking kids at the end of
the testing said:
- · “What kind of teacher makes a test like that?” (Can I tell you, sweet child, that NO teacher made that test???)
- · “I hate the feeling knowing there’s only one right answer & three wrong ones and chances are that I’m probably going to choose a wrong one.”
- · “There’s a difference between challenging kids and tricking them. You challenge us every day and that was trying to trick us. It’s just not nice.”
As someone who has devoted their life to education it is
simply sickening, that after a day of high stakes tests, it takes hours to calm
the anxiety and encourage the souls of those kids, MY kids.
Then, there’s the
false information that the scores of these high stakes test are used as
“feedback to inform instruction”.
Frankly, that’s a crock. First of
all, teachers generally get preliminary scores back in the SUMMER
following the testing, Hmmmm, any of my
professors would cringe had I ever suggested that type of effective feedback
which has ALWAYS been defined as “immediate and specific”. Second, when we are given the scores, we are
handed the same number as parents; we are NOT given any sort of item analysis to
nor a copy of the test to be informed on what areas need work - period; there
is absolutely NOTHING diagnostic about getting a three digit number. If
high stakes testing is to see where the kids are at, why don’t we get the
scores for weeks after students leave us?
Of course we can
bring up the battle about teacher evaluation.
I’m evaluated continually; through my own reflection (and happen to be
my own worst critic), through peer coaching, through the students, parents and administration. To use a developmentally inappropriate test,
with absurd questions and time on task and put my kids under that kind of
stress only to determine if I’m effective is LUDICROUS! Last year, on state measures only two of my
students passed ELA and two passed Math state assessments. However, looking at district measures
(non-invasive, brief assessments) that are not only continual throughout the
year, but are scored and feedback returned to me almost immediately,very thoroughly
& diagnostically, all BUT two of my students met proficiency or
higher in BOTH ELA and Math. Hmmmm, too much of a disconnect on MANY
levels for me.
Bottom line:
~My child is NOT FOR SALE.
~My child is worth
more to me than an irrelevant score.
~My child has more
to offer than being held to the standard of superficial learning.
To read more from Kohn on testing: Standardized
Testing and Its Victims : Kohn, Education Week 9/27/00 http://www.alfiekohn.org/teaching/edweek/staiv.htm
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