This is a pretty tired subject, I realize. I’m a professor in a teacher education program, so we talk about No Child Left Behind and its consequences a good bit. But this week is STAAR week here in Texas and my kids-Stuart especially-are super anxious. This is madness, folks. He is 9 and the lowest grade he’s made all year (actually, ever) is probably a 95. What makes a kid who has only ever experienced success in school (knock on wood) afraid of a test?
His teachers each sent home a blank sheet of cutesy paper last week and asked us to write a special letter for the kids to open each day before beginning the test. (The teacher educator in me immediately thought of the poor kids who won’t get a letter. What about them? I’m hoping that the teachers have some extras on hand, although those kids will certainly feel the difference between a letter from their mom/dad and a cut-and-paste job from their teacher.) I put off writing the letter until the very last minute.
And then: what to say? Part of me wanted to say:
Dear Stuart,
Screw the STAAR test.
Love, Mom
But I’m not really much of a rabble-rouser (pants-to-church notwithstanding). So I wrote two encouraging letters-one of which simply said,
Stuart,
Remember what you told me: You.are.awesome. (Book of Mormon musical fans-and Stuart-will get this joke.)
Love, Mom
Stuart was VERY anxious about getting to bed early (which I was all too happy to facilitate!) and wanted to make sure that he would have “a good breakfast” tomorrow (which I guess means no PopTarts or Toaster Streudels or frozen chocolate chip waffles-his usual breakfast of champions!). Brent’s nicer than I am, so he agreed to get up and make scrambled eggs and sausage tomorrow morning. So off he’ll go with a good breakfast in his belly.
I know I’m not alone in thinking this system is not a good one. Here are just a few stories that have happened to one of my kids or to a friend or family member’s child in the last few years:
- Elementary school children were encouraged to bring caffeinated drinks on testing days (and were told that Mountain Dew was the best because it has the most caffeine!) to help them do better on the test.
- An elementary school teacher told his/her students that on testing day, if he/she walks by their desk and accidentally trips, that’s a sign that maybe they should go back and change one of their answers.
- A high school student was told by his teacher to not come to school on testing day because he would surely bring down the school’s test scores.
- A school administrator explained in a school wide assembly that the reason why the school was labeled “unacceptable” (or whatever the term du jour was) by the state was because of the science test scores of the African American students in the school.
- My kids grouse about being “on lockdown” when other grades are testing. “Lockdown” means they have to stay in their rooms all day and can’t go to PE or their other elective classes. Unfortunately, “lockdown” is also a term that we use in correctional facilities, so I really don’t love this.
- My 9th grade daughter will spend 3+ hours sitting in the cafeteria because she is taking some classes that mostly upperclassmen take, but is not allowed outside of the 9th grade building. She is (rightly?) wondering why she should even have to go to school.
So what are we to do? We can accept the status quo or we can complain in blog posts, but neither option is very satisfying. I’m intrigued by this group-Parents Opt Out-that is advocating for parents to keep their children home on testing days due to part of the Texas Education Code that says that “a parent is entitled to remove the parent ‘s child temporarily from a class or other school activity that conflicts with the parent ‘s religious or moral beliefs if the parent presents or delivers to the teacher of the parent ‘s child a written statement authorizing the removal of the child from the class or other school activity.”
So what do you think? Is this a viable option? Should we be considering things like this? Or should we just continue to ignore the status quo and hope it goes away?
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Three disclaimers:
- I don’t know anything about the Parents Opt Out group and see some red flags on their webpage. But I’m interested in learning more about them or similar groups.
- No Child Left Behind has been good in terms of shining a much needed light on the unequal education experienced by various racial minority groups, students from lower socioeconomic status families, English Language Learners, and students receiving special education services. That’s the one nice thing I can say about NCLB.
- I am in no way blaming teachers for this situation. They are just trying to do their jobs within the obvious constraints of the system.
Complaints from parents may help if enough do it–and to the right sources.
The federal government seems to be easing off compliance with NCLB at this time. Texas may have a state school board that is overemphasizing test scores. If the pressure is coming from the state level, that is where parents need to make their voices heard.
My husband quit teaching after 3 years, and NCLB had a lot to do with why. He taught high school math in a Title 1 district (minority, underprivileged kids).
Here’s the thing that ticked me off the most: last year, his kids were academically the worst that he’d had yet, so he was very surprised that a high number of them passed the standardized TAKS test. We came to realize that it was because the state of Texas had redefined what passing was, down to 54%.
In the end, my husband calculated that he spent 2 out of every 5 school days giving a standardized test, or preparing for one. Bleh.
I totally intend to opt-out of the standardized testing. I have hesitations. My biggest fear is being misunderstood. I love my daughter’s school. She has had great teachers. But, I don’t want my daughter to be part of the data collected to determine whether or not a teacher “merits” an increase or salary bonus. I don’t believe that these tests are reliable. I don’t believe these tests are accurate. I believe these tests may reflect only a small portion of what my child and her classmates know and are capable of doing. Which means, why should I allow my child to be subjected to generate some numbers that literally mean nothing and so much all at the same time? I have fantasies of being involved in a large movement to educate parents so that we can have a full-scale rejection of these kinds of tests. As a child taking standardized tests I remember them being something we had to do, but I never saw my test scores until I graduated from high school and they gave me my file. Now, the students get an instantaneous score when they walk away from the computer. We have a Jr. High principal here who is paying his students one dollar for each point they gain in comparison to last year’s/time’s test. This just doesn’t smell right. Can’t we go back to the time when these kinds of tests were used to evaluate the group to make sure that some schools or districts were not falling behind their neighbors? When can be go back to relying on report cards to assess the academic growth of the individual and fulfill graduation requirements? Can we start a movement to make the report cards more valuable to administrators, teachers and students? Oh, and if just 25% of students in a classroom don’t take the test, according to my research, the test has lost it’s reliability for the sake of NCLB, and all the tests will have to be tossed. How did we get to the point of trusting our politicians more than our kids’ teachers to determine how well the teachers are doing? How did the politicians bait and switch so seamlessly between assuring equal opportunities for all students and creating a new system so privatized and expensive that completely erodes trusting relationships between parents and teachers?! Whoa. I didn’t mean to go on and on. I can’t help myself. We need a revolution.
Hinged, love your thoughts. I totally relate to this, especially:
“I have fantasies of being involved in a large movement to educate parents so that we can have a full-scale rejection of these kinds of tests.”
Me, too! That’s why I think this Parents Opt Out group is interesting. As long as they are just part of the fringe–a tiny minority–they won’t get anywhere. So what would it take for it to become something more real?
I don’t know what California law has to say about opting out, but I do know that the year Isaac was in 8th grade, we had the chance to be in Washington DC for a week, during STAR testing. I told the school that he would not be participating, and was totally unprepared for the hysteria that brought upon us from the school. No matter that he was spending the week at the Smithsonian, the White House, Colonial Williamsburg, etc. I had calls here to the house before we left, and a call to my cell phone while we were in Washington. When we got back, they made him come in during class to make up the tests he had missed– thus missing more school. I don’t know if they were afraid of being accused of cheating by having too many kids out during testing or what, but it was insane! And I’m a parent who’s very supportive of public schools, makes sure my kids attend and are on time, etc. The reaction seemed totally over the top.
One more to add to the list above, from my own days in the classroom as a 3rd and 4th grade teacher working in poor communities of color–the strong push from literacy/math coaches and administrators to get “troublesome” kids (especially boys) classified as special ed so that their scores won’t affect the school’s statistics.
I wonder if next year will be the golden year, the year to open the eyes of the public. I’m not sure if it will be next year or the following year, but my state, Idaho, is signing on with the federal core standards. Supposedly, we will be buying a big new measurement system. So, it seems to me that now would be a good time to skip the last set of ISATs because everything is changing anyway. (Plan a big opt-out event.) And remind parents that teachers have many ways to measure the progress and learning of our kids and therefore these kinds of big, high stakes, expensive exams are unnecessary. My pipe dream.
As a community college instructor, I can see a downturn in the last few years in the quality of student that comes to us, thanks to NCLB. Students show up completely unprepared for college, completely unable to employ critical thinking, and completely in need of remedial classes.
Unfortunately, rather than realizing that NCLB has been a raging failure, my school is adopting a version of it on the college level. It’s all data-based, and financial rewards and punishments are tied to improving the stats. If we pass more students, we get more money. If we have more students graduate rather than drop out, we get more money. I don’t know how anyone can think this is a good idea.
We’re already seeing signs that more and more responsibility will be placed on the shoulders of the teachers to make students successful, and less and less responsibility will belong to the student. I already see too much evidence of treating the student like the customer, demanding a passing grade for his or her tuition, regardless of effort put in. It will only get worse.
I see the writing on the wall. I am a good teacher. But I probably won’t be a teacher for much longer. (At the very least, not at my current school.) And that’s sad, because I genuinely love teaching.
Our system is broken, and we’re trusting politicians to fix it. We need to stop demonizing our teachers and listen to their feedback–teachers are the only ones in the trenches every day. We see the problems, but no one trusts us to help fix them. No one trusts us to do our jobs.