Today on Democracy Now, Amy Goodman had an in depth discussion on education with a superintendent of a NY school district, a parent who is the head of her school’s parent teacher group. The discussion focused on the opting out movement occurring in New York. Yearly, the amount of parents/students opting out is growing.
The discussion focused on things like how invalid these tests are (the tests change yearly, making them invalid in many ways); the results take months to get to teachers making them useless for the current teacher. Both the superintendent and the parent supported the notion of the opt out, though the super admitted legally he can do nothing.
So that happened and I am writing this diary. Why? Most importantly because I believe a GOOD PUBLIC Education FOR ALL is the cornerstone of representative democracy. Secondly, as a retired teacher who still subs, who began my career in 1967, I have some insight. Plus, like all of you, I was a student. However I attended a public school for four years, and then catholic school, from grade 5 thru 12. Then I attended a public college. I also have an MA in education, focus technology, and a master’s equivalency in coursework in counseling, plus 90 graduate credits above the MA. More after the orange squiggly!
I am not subbing much this month because it is testing time. Subs are not allowed to “proctor/monitor” state tests in this state (PA) without taking a course to be certified to do so (cause apparently 40 years plus of teaching is not a qualifier.) That was also true when I lived and taught in CO. Testing had already started when I retired in 2005. And I did some long term subbing after retirement when I was still living in CO.
PA and CO are very similar when it comes to testing, especially in the silliness factor. Because these are high stakes tests, that is, money is involved in how schools are funded (and with some districts moving to “merit pay”), the silly stuff is to prevent “cheating.” Of course the cheating was predictable. Research has shown that whenever the stakes are high (money, pay, funding), cheating can and will occur. So when we, the teachers, (also students, visitors, admin) would enter our schools the days of tests, our cell phones are turned over to the front office. All computers are to be turned off in all classrooms. All room bulletin boards, word walls, etc etc covered or taken down. Children are not allowed to have anything at their desks other than testing materials. In some schools, having a book to read after one finishes the tests is forbidden. No drawing paper or pencil. Every test room must have TWO staff members. So everyone, from PE to Music to educational aides to reading specialists to administrative personnel, is assigned. In the school district where I taught in CO, to meet the needs of schools without enough coverage, the entire central administration staff and assistants were trained and certified to be used when schools were short.
When tests arrive at the school they are under lock and key. One person in the building is assigned to keep the tests safe and untouched. On the day of the test, the proctor/monitor of the exam must go to the locked room, sign out (name, date, exact time) for the tests he/she is given. When test ends, same person must return exact same amount of tests to the vault room. Someone is in charge of snacks. Another in charge of getting water to classrooms. Another in charge of hallway/bathroom monitoring (never know when a pair of third graders might hatch a plan to meet in the restrooms to discuss test answers- eyes rolling as anyone working with third graders know what a joke this is). In some schools there is an assembly the day before the first day of testing. In the elementary (K-5) schools in CO where I taught, the K, 1, 2 students (who were not tested) performed little cheer leading programs to encourage their older peers to do well. As well attendance prizes for test weeks were given. Parents received letters about how important it was that the children got a good night’s sleep and a good breakfast.
I am not exaggerating. These things happened and are happening. Yet cheating still happens. Read the research on high stakes testing in any arena. Of course some kinds of cheating (like on Wall Street), the only punishment for most seems to be “hurting their feelings” while teachers cheating, not only lose their careers, they may very well spend years in jail. Does any one besides me think we have definitely gone down the rabbit hole?
These tests are not good for students, do not help teachers evaluate students. They do help, enormously, the testing companies who besides making tons of money on their testing materials (from the test itself to the test preps designed for each and every state…….practice tests to allow teachers to teach the test even more), make even more aligning themselves with or actually becoming text books makers that give scripts for teachers to “read” as to teach to the test accurately. Gawd, I hated those texts and was so glad to not be in a classroom any more (I had moved out of the classroom to become the media/library person….which also put me as a co worker in charge of materials….UGH).
Now I am not saying students should not be evaluated. But there are other ways. To pressure teachers to “formally” evaluate constantly as schools, particularly poor schools are forced to do, is not only nonsensical, it is harmful. Teachers and students are constantly stressed. In one school where I taught, a low scoring on tests school, the teachers starting in K were required to test on an individual basis each students once every 8 weeks. One on one. This was outside the “formal state testing in March/April. Sitting with one child, having them read, mark on your scorecard, each mispronounced work, each attempt to self correct, the time and then five oral comprehension questions. So what happens to the rest of the class as the teacher must do this outside in the hallway? A sub is hired. And as it is not doable in one day, though the district only provided a sub for one day per teacher, problems arise. So teachers who felt they needed more time, who did not want to rush students, who were pressured to do it accurately, took sick days of their own to get subs to teach in the classroom so they, the teacher, could use their sick day to finish their testing. Also in that school, recess was cancelled, there was no art or field trips to museums/theatre etc. and things like band/orchestra were only before or after school.
Here’s the thing. Teachers do evaluate constantly in their heads. Most teachers can tell you immediately without any formal test needed, who knows what in their class. Whether in upper grades (like I taught) or primary grades, we knew who could do the times tables, who struggled with division, who knows letter sounds, who were sight readers, who could read fluently but comprehension was off. We did not, do not need some test to tell us. And yet states are paying ENORMOUS amounts of money to pay for tests, test prep materials, new texts aligned with what test makers say is important. Sigh. As well taking away the arts, field trips, things our students only got at school, was just plain wrong, immoral, unfair. In the well-to-schools in the same district, parents funded their own art teacher, a Spanish language teacher. Field trips and transportation were funded by parents. Double sigh.
I went to catholic school at a time when those schools were huge (1950s and 1960s.). Our class sizes were enormous. Classroom control when there were over 60 in a class was essential and nothing barred nuns from using fear and physical pain. Testing was done quarterly by the diocese. So much like poor public schools now due to NCLB, those schools had no time for such luxuries like art, or recess. From my own experience in catholic school, if you were a good tester (as I was) lucky to be born with good auditory and visual memory, you succeeded and lay teachers loved that you made them look good (back then only lay teachers could lose their jobs while a nun/priest could be batsh*t crazy and keep their teaching gigs (cuz ya know, god and all). Not so lucky students, or students with learning issues, just sat there. If they behaved, even if they were not learning, they stayed. If they misbehaved, off they went to the (gasp) public school. I was used as a tutor for a special ed student from 5th thru 8th grade. She had CP, but her father was a rich owner of a construction company who helped build the church and school. He wanted his daughter with her siblings in the same catholic school. So every day, after the math lesson (cause that was my strongest subject) when other students were doing seat work, I went to the back room behind the coat wall, and helped this girl with her math work. I then got to do my seat work in addition to homework. But I did not mind for the nuns loved me for doing that and always told me that my kindness was a gift to and from God. So I did well. Many of my 60 plus classmates fell by the wayside and when we went to our much stricter catholic high school, they failed, were labeled "unteachable" and sent off to (gasp) the public school.
I went to a public college (my parents could never afford catholic college plus I was so ready to be away from religion by then) and was put in many advanced classes cause I always scored high on Language arts and Math tests (man I could diagram any sentence given, knew my punctuation as well as my times tables). Of course I had no clue how to write a paper or anything (that was not a regurgitation of what the teacher taught). I love art but had had no art classes ever. Research? What research. Everything was so constructed for me, so many guidelines of who and what to read, when a college prof assigned a paper with no assigned subject (other than an in -depth paper on an American historical figure), I was lost. Who? What? How? But give me a test where I am told who/what to study, where to find the materials and how to take the test, I was gold. Critical thinking….not so much. This is what we are now doing in public schools. Instead of allowing teachers to guide and nurture students, we are demanding they be drill instructors. Instead of making learning a joy and something that we want to do all our lives, we are showing students how learning is tedious and stressing and will be tested to see if you have any value.
I was lucky to have parents that valued education, and saw to it that I valued it (cause they both never got a chance having come of age during the Great Depression and before child labor laws). But I also had a father who loved to read, to learn and though we were poor, our little car vacations (a ride anywhere) were filled with story telling, exploring and learning that was fun. Not all kids have that kind of luck so it is, or should be, up to a teacher to instill that joy of learning. Instead good teachers are being forced to “teach to tests.” Many of them still find ways to make school and learning exciting but it is harder and harder.
Amy Goodman’s show was worth watching today but we need hours more of these discussions. While I supported and voted for Obama twice, his education policies are horrendous. Arne Duncan is the corporate dream. Too many Dems (from Cuomo to Michael Bennet of CO) are in the pocket of the corporate charters. While the charter CEOs and testing companies are reaping financial bonanza, children are losing, teachers, good ones, are giving up and quitting, or like me retiring early because no matter how much we spoke out, we were silenced by those who either do not care or have bought into the meme, unions are bad for students. I would not have believed so many “progressives” would buy that but then I was on daily kos in 2006 not long after I retired and learned the sad truth.
In the end, it is up to us, we the people. Just like with “inequality for all”, the big issue in education is the corporate greed. Students are seen to be dollar signs by those who believe “for profit” education is the goal. No matter how many here and elsewhere insist the charter movement is “not for profit’, as long as there are investors, as long as charters are an investment, as long as charters are used to segregate, to get money while breaking unions, to get money while pushing religious agendas, our PUBLIC education system, created for the common good will get worse. A better tax system is needed so poor communities will not be left behind. Demonizing teachers because of tests is another way to make sure the public becomes more anti union, more ignoring of the commons good.
It is testing time and it is wrong. This is the title of a book I read as a young teacher as I aspired to inspire, to teach, to learn:
The Geranium On The Windowsill Just Died But Teacher You Went Right On
I vowed to never be that teacher. I hope I never was. I feel great empathy for those teachers who have been bullied into being that teacher.