2001-12-29 - 9:56 a.m.
I reworked my article on standardized testing. Feedback?
Why I Don't Like Standardized Tests
There are many reasons to despise standardized testing from the teacher's point of view. Many people wrongly assume that teachers don't like the tests because we are afraid that the results will be used to punish us for not doing a good job. What people don't realize is that this scenario rarely occurs. A school has to be outstandingly bad for many years before TEA comes in and demands changes and shakes up personnel. Instead, these tests trouble teachers because they detract from teaching and they make our jobs more difficult. I can only speak from the perspective of a Texas teacher, but I'm fairly sure that my experiences have been similar to those of teachers from any state which engages in so-called "high stakes testing."
And if my continual harping upon the term "professional" rubs you the wrong way, please understand that this is a pet peeve of teachers everywhere. We feel it keenly that, though we all finished college and have our degrees, that we are often thought of as being less capable and intelligent than others who have degrees. I honestly believe that if the general public truly thought of teachers as professionals (instead of school marms who are just the second income in the family), there would be more economic support for teachers and there would be less agitation for testing. The bottom line, as far as I'm concerned, is that if teachers were better-paid, not expected to parent the kids in their care, and were supported when they attempt to bring discipline to the classroom, they would remain in the field longer, thereby improving the schools and the quality of American education. In the capitalist economy, you get what you pay for. Politicians understand this, but they'd rather give the money to the testing companies than to the teachers.
Wasted Time
Untimed tests like TAAS (and the new version, TAKS) mean kids get in the habit of dawdling for 8 hours over 40 multiple choice questions --- and by teaching test-taking strategies originally designed to make the kids slow down and THINK, we instead encourage this type of time wasting. The drill on TAAS has long been, "Don't do anything that might either distract or rush the kid, or make the TEA think you're cheating." As a result, kids at some schools take 30 minute naps between questions, enjoy bags full of sugary snacks and bottles of soda all day long, and do everything in their power to make the test take the full eight hours so they can avoid doing any school work that day. None of this is a good use of school time.
We spend at least 6 full weeks out of the school year taking these tests and the practice versions of them, plus innumerable more hours rehearsing for them. That is an entire grading period gone. I could cover a novel and a couple of short stories in 6 weeks. Put it another way, the TAAS prevents me, each year, from reading two novels rather than one. It prevents me from having Writer's Conferences with the kids and working on a couple of short story projects both semesters. It keeps me from bringing in another speaker, and from doing a research paper. All in the name of better education for the kids. Yet novel reading, Writer's Conferences, speakers, research papers, and projects are listed in my curriculum as being essential to a Language Arts class.
We also spend hours of time that should be spent on prepping for class analyzing standardized test data and generating reports, all in the name of accountability. Hell, we spend hours of time that should be our family or free time pouring over data and making spreadsheets. When I spend a weekend generating test data reports, the kids work out of the book on Monday because I didn't have time to research a lesson, create activities, run off necessary copies, etc. and do my grocery shopping, do the laundry, clean the house, mow the lawn, go to the doctor, grade papers and input the grades, mark and correct essays, and see my parents.
Differing Standards
Every state has its own standards, along with its state curriculum in each content area. Many times these standards are influenced more by politics than by anything else. National standards would at least guarantee some continuity for kids who move from state to state, but national standards are impossible because states guard their own standards so jealously. This is particularly true in history, where the standards are markedly different from state to state. For example, if you move to Texas from Virginia in 8th grade, you will be tested over Texas history (the 7th grade course) on the grade 8 TAAS. They don't teach Texas history in Virginia. They don't even teach the Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo there! Meanwhile, in Massachusetts, the 8th graders are being tested over Islam, ancient, China, and the history of Rome in addition to US history. A Texas kid moving there will have had a smattering of Greece and Rome in grade 6 (though this is being phased out), but will be out of luck in terms of passing the MCAS unless they happen to have read the history on their own.
Even when the standards and curriculum among the different states are the same, depending upon the company making the test, the politics at the state level, and the teachers chosen for the educator committees, the tests may be totally different. Half the time the tests don't even really match the standards/ curriculum. Texas has a decent grade 8 curriculum for Language Arts. It stresses multicultural literature, reading for important themes and ideas, public speaking and debate --- in other words, higher level thinking, and active participation in language. The TAAS for grade 8 writing consists of two sections. Section one has 40 grammar and spelling questions. Section two has a writing prompt which the kids must address by writing a persuasive letter on some issue they don't care about. These are perfectly legitimate skills and need to be learned. But the curriculum contains so much more, and most of it is a lot more valuable than spelling --- especially in this age of computer spellcheckers --- and whether "its" needs an apostrophe in any given sentence. If I were a parent, I would want to know why the curriculum and the test have so little alignment. If I as the teacher taught poetry all semester long and then gave a 40 question multiple choice test over grammar as a semester exam, I would have justifiably upset parents at my door (I hope). And I would have to answer some tough questions in the principal's office (I hope). Why then is the Texas Education Agency allowed to get away with it?
And, yes, I know that the state test is changing. Next year we will have TAKS., which is supposed to align more fully with the curriculum and state standards. We'll see. The TAAS, once upon a time, was supposed to do the same thing. When the TAAS was first introduced, as an improvement upon previous tests, it attempted to legitimately test the curriculum and address the state standards. In science, for instance, the students had to actually run a lab. Fabulous, and I'm not being sarcastic. That, to me, is a legitimate test. That is the type of test a good science teacher would give. But all to soon the state fell back on the easy-to-administer, easy-to-grade multiple choice test. Until I see otherwise, that's what I expect will happen with TAKS. Call me cynical, but I've seen TABS, TEAMS, and TAAS all degenerate to the point where even their creators recognized that they were useless and needed to be replaced. Why should TAKS be any different? A tough, challenging, and legitimate test will devastate schools which have been drilling for the minimal skills on TAAS. Then Texas will look bad nationally (as if we don't already) and the test will be modified and dumbed down. A legitimate test will be outrageously expensive to administer and score, so Texas will pull back and go for the scantron. Why go through all this when I can create a legitimate test, administer it to my 130 kids, and score it?
Oh, yeah, because I am not competent to do so ...
De-Professionalizing Teachers
I find it an insulting waste of my time to spend an entire week proctoring tests. They are paying me to stare silently at children as they bubble-in or, more commonly, take naps or gaze out the window. For this I went to college? For this the parents in my district pay taxes? Would any business waste its personnel in this way? Show me any other professional who is regularly expected to act as a babysitter in this manner. Show me any other professional who has only one scheduled bathroom break for the entire day, must stand all day without doing anything productive, and whose job for a week is to parrot instructions and sharpen pencils. Oh, and crack down on the misbehavior of kids who are climbing out of their skulls in frustration at being trapped, sitting in a silent room all day.
I have two degrees in content (BA and MA in English Lit.), post-graduate work in Education, and certificates in three content areas (English, ESL, and US History). Yet I spend easily one third of the school year on test taking strategies, tips on beating the test, etc. rather than on teaching content. I became a teacher to share my love of literature, not my fond affection for the Princeton Review. Instead of discussing the intricacies of American History with my kids so that they will understand the forces that have shaped this country --- why things are the way they are --- I spend time drilling them in top 500 pieces of information they need to memorize to pass the test.
The philosophy behind standardized testing is that teachers cannot be trusted to do the job correctly. Obviously, if I cannot be trusted to teach and test the curriculum, the state must have a mechanism for catching me out. I am not naive. I know that not all teachers do their jobs adequately; however, I find it insulting that, though I have jumped through all of the hoops - earned 4 certificates, gone to all the inservices and required trainings, gotten high marks on all of my assessments from my principal, given workshops and inservices myself - I still am not trusted to do my job. If I can't be trusted to do the job, why do I still have it? When I worked at the pharmacy as a pharmacy tech they trusted me to do what needed to be done and correctly. People's lives were, in a sense, in my hands. If they hadn't trusted me, they would've gotten rid of me, and rightfully so.
Regimentation and Boredom
Teachers are trained to teach to kids with many different "learning styles." Then we are told to teach all these kids we have been deluging with multiple learning style stimuli to take a bubble-in test sitting at a desk in a silent room. I don't know if learning styles are bunk, but it does seem there is a disconnect between instruction and assessment --- which is the opposite of what we are told to do as educators. In addition, teachers in inclusive have kids from all different special populations in their classes - ADD, MR, LEP, SE/ED, SE/LD, dyslexia, dysgraphia, etc. They all take the same type of tests, though the difficulty level may be adjusted. These are the same kids whose regular lessons are modified by law based upon their disability. Regardless of what you think of inclusion, we have inclusive schools and we must play the hand we are dealt. If a SE/ED ADD kid is allowed to get up ever 10 minutes and go outside for "timeout", how the hell am I supposed to get him to sit still long enough to take a test, even in a small group? And is it fair to him to change the rules like that?
Many kids hate school anyway. Testing makes them detest it more, and who can blame them? The carrot on the end of the stick is supposed to be that they have to pass the test to graduate, but what about the kids who drop out because they've already been defeated by the test in middle school? What about the kids who just want their diploma so they can get into the military or a trade school? What about the kids who don't do well on tests, but are otherwise successful students?
Money
The state and the school districts spend a ton of taxpayer money on tests, prep materials for tests, trainings for teachers on how to make the kids pass the tests, motivational speakers for teachers and kids who are burned out on testing, travel to inservices on test strategies, etc. Last time I checked, my school didn't even have enough money for a year's worth of paper for the copy machine; it was suggested that we might want to go buy our own paper if we planned to make copies. And teachers were still among the lowest paid professionals. Yet we hand all of this money which has been designated for education over to outside companies, sometimes from out of state, to create tests for OUR kids based on OUR curriculum and OUR standards. They taught me to make tests in teacher school. Guess I could've skipped that class!
Why I Teach the Tests I Hate
The new accountability system decrees that my kids will have to pass the TAKS in order to graduate from high school. If they don't pass it, they will not receive diplomas and will be automatically relegated into the group of folks who get lower paying jobs. My LEP students have two years from the date they enter a Texas school to improve their English and learn the content adequately enough to pass the tests. Starting next year my kids won't even be able to move up to the next grade level without passing TAKS.
I believe in standards and accountability. I believe that the schools need to do a better job. I believe that kids who cannot read or do basic math need remediation, and perhaps need to be retained. When kids reach me in grade 8 and can barely read or remember their multiplication tables, I know that we should be doing intensive work to catch them up, not sticking them in test-taking classes ... or writing them off because we are busy with the ones who have a hope of passing the tests. And their parents should be up at the school every day if necessary ensuring that their children get the help they need. The community should actually get involved if they want to see improvement, rather than promising programs and mentoring and then quitting after a few sessions. Testing should be placed back in the hands of teachers where it belongs; teachers should be empowered in terms of discpline so that we can feel safe at work and we should be paid a wage that doesn't require a second job to make ends meet; schools should be proactive about seeking out, developing, and replicating new programs; administrators should support their staffs; and parents should get involved and stay involved --- not quit when the kid gets out of elementary school.
I don't know how schools can begin to address the educational problems of abused kids, abandoned kids, kids with drug and alcohol problems (or whose families have them), kids who've never been read to, kids who are warehoused by their parents all day and allowed to run the streets all night, kids who work and do all the hosework as well, kids who are kept home to babysit, kids with no discipline (internal or external), kids who live in poverty, kids who are in gangs, kids who live with racism, kids who are hungry or own only one outfit, kids who are migrants and move every few weeks, kids who don't speak English. There are vast problems in this country that schools are not designed to deal with, no matter how well-meaning and caring we are. These aren't excuses --- these are real issues that teachers deal with every day as we try to get kids to pass tests that are increasingly essential to their success. Society at large has created these problems; it is unreasonable to expect schools by themselves to solve them.
Accountability applies to society as well. It's easy to throw yet another test at schools and kids and then complain when we don't pass it. It's harder to take a look at the real problems which cause educational inequality and to actually start working to solve them. There is no quick fix for poverty, but there will never be a solution if we don't recognize the connection --- the cycle --- of poverty and educational failure and start to deal with it. There is no quick solution for poor parenting, but if we could admit that bad parenting has major repercussions and that it is in the best interests of our entire society to help parents improve their skills, then maybe we would begin to solve the problem.
Those of you not involved in education, those of you without kids, don't think that these issues do not affect you. They affect all of us because this is our community. It's easy to pretend like these problems aren't there and to take the easy route and just complain about teachers not doing the job. The thing is, the job of making a better community and a better society belongs to all of us. Teachers are doing more than their fair share. We do our job as educators, we parent in absentia , we counsel, we do coat and food drives for impoverished students and their families, we speak out, we vote, we organize, we do home visits, we research, we think, we argue, we attend PTA meetings, we encourage and counsel parents, we work with social services, we follow migrant students, we stay late at work and come early, we run afterschool programs, we tutor on weekends and in the evenings, and we care. All of this because we want to make society better.
What have you done?
KEY
TAAS - Texas Assessment of Academic Skills (state) - old test
TAKS - Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills (state) - new test
LPTE - state test for Limited English Proficient students
SDAA - State Developed Alternative Assessment (alternative to TAAS for Special Education students)
SE - Special Education
LD - Learning Disabled
ED - Emotionally Disturbed
TEA - Texas Education Agency
ADD - Attention Deficit Disorder (hyperactivity)
MR - Mentally Retarded (IQ below 70)
ESL - English as a Second Language
LEP - Limited English Proficiency
TABS, TEAMS - Previous Texas standardized tests given over the last 20 years or so
Opal
