As my project for Fun-A-Day commences, you will notice an
increase in my blog entries. Most of them will begin with a quotation about
education, and my expounding on it. Some will end with one, too!
“Teachers don't just teach; they can be vital personalities
who help young people to mature, to understand the world, and to understand
themselves. A good education consists of much more than useful facts and
marketable skills.”
― Charles Platt
Teachers are not averse to having to prove whether or not a
student has mastered a concept. It’s the way you evaluate the student that is
important.
From first to twelfth grade in parochial school, we had
certain tests each week – spelling, math, grammar – and others periodically. I
remember taking exams twice a year in January and June. And the only time we
took a standardized test was in grade 4 when we all took the Stanford-Binet. If
we didn’t study well or had a learning disability we failed and repeated the
grade. Those who couldn’t pass the second year got to try it again or were sent
to the local public school. We lost a lot of kids to the public schools, having
started first grade with 96 in my class to having 60 in my 8th grade
class. Our teachers, right or wrong, were not blamed for our failures, but put
the onus of learning what we needed to learn to pass, squarely on our
shoulders.
I don’t know what they did in public school but I bet it was
different than what we do now. From the beginning of my teaching career in
1975, we carried on giving the same three tests weekly with an occasional extra
summative test thrown in for good measure. We were required to assess Reading
levels at least twice a year and give the city-wide math tests as the kids
progressed through the curriculum.
For the past dozen years, our public school district has
required a battery of reading, math and science tests every 6 weeks in addition
to diagnostic Reading and Math tests three times a year, as well as the PSSA,
Pennsylvania’s standardized test, which was required by the No Child Left
Behind (NCLB) and the Race to the Top (RttT). The PSSA alone is taken over the
span of 7 days for grades 3-11. Grades 4 and 8 have additional Science tests
and Grades 5, 8 and 11 have 3-4 additional days of PSSA Writing tests. If the
child is not performing well of the “formative” 6 week tests, they are given
tutoring and a additional series of reading and math tests three times a year.
For some children, this totals 4 weeks of some form of standardized testing in
their reading and math classes. Not including the regular teacher-made tests
throughout the year.
Even though many of the tests given are supposed to be
formative, informing instruction, they are increasingly used to assess teachers
on their abilities. Teachers in the same grade are expected to teach from the
same lesson plan and not deviate, even if the class is having trouble with a
concept, we are penalized if we fall behind the pacing schedule for the lessons.
We are directed to differentiate our instruction because of the varying levels
of ability in our class, teaching in various ways to effectively instruct
pupils who are auditory, visual, or kinesthetic learners, as well as those who
have Individual Educational Prescriptions (IEPs).
Most teachers worth their certificate have been
differentiating for years, before it had a name. There is one catch here, if
you teach to the strengths of the child, you need to assess in that style to
really be able to judge mastery. This may look like a poster, a role play, a
report, a rap or song, or a demonstration with manipulatives, which explain how
to divide, or the causes of the civil War, or what alliteration means. Every
one of your class may indeed be able to do one of those things and convince you
that they know what they’re doing. However, none of that matters when taking a
standardized test.
Standardized tests measure your ability to choose from 4
answers that are given. If you are a poor reader, you might not understand
either the questions or the answers, or the selection itself since everyone is
given the grade level test no matter your true level. No accommodations other
than extra time or small group testig are allowed. Even kids that are English
Language Learners (ELL) must take the test if they have been in the US over a
year. There is a certain kind of skill to taking multiple choice tests, which
may or may not be the way your students need to express their learning.
The tests measure what a good test-taker knows or remembers
on one day during the 180 days they are in school. Kids who are not good test-takers
or who need to express themselves differently to be able to succeed, are out of
luck. How do you measure mastery using only one of the 7 Intelligences and expect
it to be a true measure? If you judge animals on tree climbing, the monkey and
the squirrel will get an A, while the fish, dog, and rabbit will fail through
no fault of their own. Does that mean the climbers are the most intelligent?
I once taught a student who could not take a written test
and pass. If I asked him to explain it, he could usually tell me what I wanted
to know. He went the entire year failing every written test and passing every
oral exam. I finally didn’t bother to test him via writing, but always
individually, by asking questions. When I had to assign him a grade at the end
of the year, I gave him all Bs since he was able to explain the needed concepts
in a way that indicated mastery, However, there was some consternation by the
principal as to his “real” grades and she changed the marks to Cs since he was
not able to write down his answers. I didn’t think that was fair at all.
How do I judge success for
a child who never gave up trying and moved ahead two grade levels in
reading but was still a year behind?
How about the young man who actually sat in the class and didn’t bolt
when frustrated? He could do 3 or 4 math problems but not any more in one
sitting without getting upset. What if he got all 4 correct, but it was a
10-question test? Does he know what he’s doing? Is he successful? And the young
lady who came to school on time every day that year and never missed a day?
This was a child who in previous years was absent more than 40 days a year and
showed up late almost every day. Was the year a success for her? And the
Special Ed student who worked on a 2nd grade level in 5th
grade but was highly successful playing guitar, was he successful?
In the words of William Bruce Cameron, “Not everything that can be
counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted.”
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