"The four bubbles from question number 17 peer up at me, mocking me, reminding me of a ridiculous idea: that my ability to 'identify the author's intent in this passage' is somehow connected to getting out of the trailer I live in...the one with raw sewage and mom's meth stinking up the place and the one without food in the mold-infested fridge. Ridiculous indeed."
One of my 8th graders came up with this one. Thanks, DJ.
There is a movement in many states to get rid of most of these STD (ahem, standardized) tests. I am also aware that Arne Duncan and his crew say we’ll supposedly teach “less stuff” under this allegedly “new” and “streamlined” system. My administration is selling us on precisely this idea as our district is likely to be a pilot of the "new" system. To be brutally honest, I think that the very idea we will suddenly have “less stuff” to teach is patently absurd; it’s snake oil; we shouldn’t believe these used car salesmen when they say such silly things. No matter how amazing the students in our classrooms, there will always be more stuff for them (and us) to learn. Besides…
What typically happens in complex adaptive systems (in this case we're talkin' about large groups of humans) is that the work assigned will fill the time available for its completion (Parkinson’s Law). In other words, when we teachers and administrators are given a set of markers by which we are judged (and that will likely be tied to pay/funding under this reauthorization) most of us will spend our time myopically focused upon these standards with our students, teaching little else in the process. I see the verb “to teach” becoming synonymous with “to obey” or perhaps "to get paid." Maybe, "bonus." I digress...
Naturally I am terrified at this thought. Our best teachers- those with the greatest capacity to transform a student into a person who knows enough and is empowered enough to work to change the world- will likely feel this way as well. But with the top-down approach taken by our leaders at the tippy-dippy-top, it is hard for most teachers to voice such a feeling to their administrations, much less their superintendents and school board members.
We are in danger (due to the trends put forth most recently by NCLB but going back waaaayyyy before that) of reducing how we rate teachers to witnessing how well their students perform on one the same test taken next door. Any teacher worth her or his salt knows that kids from different neighborhoods have different sets of knowledge (learned via different experiences) at their disposal, much less different states. Yet Duncan and Obama want to standardize the knowledge tested for the whole nation. It does not make sense. Yes, colleges are looking for good test takers, but really, most are looking for unique individuals that can contribute to the diversity of ideas on campus. I got into college and had it paid for not because of a 32 on my ACT, but because I'm a Hispanic with Aspergers Syndrome who plays a mean jazz trumpet. The idea of further standardizing knowledge in our schools should scare the hell out of all of us. Didn't the Soviets and Germans try this a while back? Remind me again, how did that work out for them?
An administrator I know recently said in an email that they were “trying to decide the timing of giving these [national] standards to teachers--if you give them too early and the movement never takes off or is too slow we create frustration as people feel that they are not able to move forward…On the other hand I know our staff is very empowered by being on the forefront of change so that is another consideration--Timing is everything! What do you think?” I know they meant well and wanted to get ahead of the curve. But what if what's ahead on the curve is a 400-foot cliff?! If that is the case I declare we MUST leave all children behind! Let the drivers crash upon the rocks below; I'd rather walk than pilot that bus. (Although a crash of that magnitude could provide a great lesson on classical physics...)
I worry about the aforementioned perspective of this administrator. No doubt, timing is important but what we all must be asking is what value these standards(what we will be teaching), have in helping our learners contend with the very real world they enter once they exit the walls of our school. I have reviewed them and find them sorely lacking on this point. In fact, they feel one hell of a lot like the old standards, or "STDs" as my 8th graders like to call them. (BTW "Mission Statements" have become "Mission Positions." Stay classy, 8th graders.)
Reading comprehension and mathematics are skills that can quite easily be taught and absorbed by a passive populace- especially a society that is unaware of their God-given right to ask “Why?” and “Why not?”
Those who fail to absorb these dubious skills of readin' and 'rithmatic often have other, underutilized and underappreciated abilities. They are very often the type of people who ask the question “Why?” or even more dangerously, “Why not?” without pausing for breath. These creative women and men have unimaginable talent to express themselves in a way that can transform others and even, dare I say, cause entire societies to become something more. What test can capture this? How many people are made to feel stupid and worthless because they think a little differently? How much human essence is lost as a result of these tests? How much of EXACTLY the thing our world needs: human creativity is ruthlessly squandered because a kid couldn’t identify the author’s intent or find the onomatopoeia?
The young woman who could figure out how to fix our problems might – right this very second- be filling in a bubble somewhere, her soul crushed because she has been told she does not know how to “Interpret words and phrases as they are used in a text, including technical, figurative, and connotative meanings" and that she can't "analyze how an author’s choice of specific words in a text contributes to understanding the ideas or concepts.” (6th grade standards by the way). Instead of telling her she can't, perhaps we should infect her with an idea...
"I can..."