As some of you may know, I work as a school psychologist in a rural county in Tennessee. For the past few years I have been involved in trying to change educational policies for the better, only to watch helplessly as it continues to change for the worse. Today, I have a new perspective.
My oldest son is a 14-year old eighth grader. This will be his last year to take TCAP (our state assessment), before going to high school and enjoying Gateways and EOC exams instead (yay for him, eh?). The test is to be administered this week...so he spent Saturday night at the movies with a bunch of friends, as he should, burn off some stress before test week begins.
Sunday morning arrives, and everything changes.
I had picked my son up after the movie. A few of his friends got a ride home with someone else. One of those friends was dropped off at the side of the road, crossed the road, and got hit by a speeding car. She died a few hours later. My son found out about it when he checked his facebook this morning. She was very popular. There are 119 members of her facebook memorial group right now.
I can almost imagine what that's like.
I just saw her. She was right there. We had fun. I'll never see her again.
It has not been a good morning at Sid's house.
This time yesterday they were making plans. Today they're making arrangements. Tomorrow they'll be...getting ready to take TCAP.
What?!?
That's right, the test must go on. There's nowhere for him to check
One of my best friends was run over the other night, I really don't care about you or your stupid test, thanks for understanding.
So no, I'm not going to make him care. I'm not even going to ask him to care. I am certain that he has gotten what he is supposed to get out of eighth grade Reading/Language Arts. But that really doesn't matter. Even on a good day, an eighth grader's performance on TCAP is of very little concern to the eight grader in question, but now?
I'm perfectly fine with whatever he scores on TCAP this year. The problem is, the way these tests are made to reflect on teachers more so than students, it's not the way he and I feel about the test that matters. This assessment could potentially decide if a teacher is rehired, granted "tenure" (I put that in quotes because TN legislature has recently changed tenure law to be something other than true tenure...but that's another diary), or paid as much as their contract states they should be paid. These high stakes tests really aren't high stakes for the kids taking them. Had it been given last week, the scores may be significantly different than when they are taken this week, and you can bet teachers are aware of that. It may seem callous to think about test scores in times of tragedy, but that's how teachers are programmed now. I'm sure these kinds of tragedies are bound to happen across the country- it's springtime, kids are going outside, swimming, walking around the neighborhood. There's no accommodating for "situational trauma" on TCAP.
Just another reason to scrap the whole thing and start over. To think that anyone could determine what every child knows by administering a multiple-choice test in four days...it isn't a measure of knowledge, it's a measure of their ability to take a test. Some things are actually more important.