Testing is out of control in our schools. I knew this before I stepped back into a
public school classroom this past September after teaching for many years in a
psychiatric hospital. But seeing the
testing obsession play out in students’ and teachers’ lives…well, I simply was not
prepared.
In just the first six weeks of school, I have administered
more pointless, random, unnecessarily difficult tests to my students than I can
count. We have barely had
more than two consecutive days to simply teach where we were not interrupted by
some ridiculous mandated assessment. There’s the REACH (for teacher evaluation
purposes only), On-Demand Writing Tasks, tests that go to our network, tests
for the district, tests because our school in on probation, and placement tests
to use the TWO online test prep programs our school is forced to use
weekly. These tests are not aligned to
the curriculum, they don’t measure what we are actually learning in class, they
are not tied to a broader unit of study.
These are tests just to feed the data monsters.
And thanks to Common Core, these tests are PURPOSEFULLY too
difficult for the students. We are told
kids should be frustrated and learn to “persevere”. They
need exposure to “complex text”. And we
need to measure what they don’t know so we can measure what they learn. But the reality is the kids are upset, they
are demoralized, they are learning that they are no good at school and that
defeat plays out in their behaviors. The
school is in a constant state of unrest and anger-fights breaking out, kids acting
out to disrupt class, and the school lives under a veil of surveillance and punishment. A climate of pressured, high-stakes testing
is exactly the opposite of what our kids need.
And it’s not just the tests, it’s also the test prep. We
have not one, but two online test
prep programs our school is mandated to use weekly. 45 mins per week, per subject, plus an assessment in one program and completion of 2-3 “lessons”
in another used directly for math. These
expensive programs are basically test prep questions presented in a video game
format. Get the “right” answer and earn
coins to play games. In some classes,
these programs take up as much as 40% of instructional time each week. Even our little kindergartners are forced to
get on iPads and practice taking tests.
Our Early Childhood teachers know this is wrong. In fact, all our teachers know this is
wrong. But the answer to every question
we ask is…”because this is what they need to know for PARCC (the Common Core
aligned test.)”
And I haven’t even gotten into the numerous and constant
technical problems with these programs. “My
iPad doesn’t work.” “I can’t remember my password.” “I’m new to the school and don’t have a
password.” “I can’t get on the internet.”
“The program keeps logging me out.” “My iPad is all in Japanese.” We waste
probably 20-30 minutes per use just on technical difficulties. While I love the use of authentic, meaningful
technology in the classroom, I hate, I
HATE edtech. But Silicon Valley is no
doubt making a bundle on the backs of my students.
And what’s worse, I am a special education teacher, so my
students are the most fragile of all. And these tests are killing any possibility to
motivate my kids. There are only so many
times I can repeat the mantra that “These don’t matter, guys!” “Just do your best!” These tests are breaking the trust
between me and my students. It
feels so unethical to day after day administer tests that are so far beyond
their current abilities. It’s like we’re
giving these kids tests in Chinese, just to prove they don’t know any
Chinese. And they leave feeling just…dumb…because
they couldn’t answer any of the questions.
I don’t even need the data these tests generate-they are so inappropriately hard,
they tell me nothing of use. Besides, I
have a whole Individual Education Plan that tells me exactly what my kids need
to work on.
But still, every single week, here I am giving yet another
absolutely disgusting test. My kids bang
their heads on desks, they cry, they whine, they give up and say “I’m done” in
front of a blank answer sheet. They fidget,
they act out, they get in trouble just to get out of going to yet another class
where they feel stupid.
I feel dirty when I come home. I wonder, “Should I start to boycott
administering these tests?” But I don’t
have tenure. Everyone tells me to lay
low, to take the bold moves in three years when I've earned tenure.
Three years…how can I do this evil to children for three
more years?
My school was already destabilized as a receiving school
after Mayor Emanuel’s vicious school closings-undergoing massive changes in enrollment and staffing last year.
The neighborhood around us suffers from disinvestment, foreclosure, unemployment,
crime, and poverty deeply impacting our students’ readiness to learn. And instead of wrapping our kids in love and
successes, we batter them with cruel, impossible tests.
I think about how all this bogus data is going to be used to
“prove” our school is failing. Testing
is so wildly out of control in my school because we are “on probation”-like so
many other schools in low-income, African-American communities-and somehow this
justifies these disgusting interventions.
We have a phenomenal staff and school leadership, but instead of being
allowed to create a beautiful place of learning, we are forced to do wrong by
these kids. We are the hammer driving
the nail into the coffin of this little school.
We are giving them the very information they may someday use to destroy
us.
Anyone who says high-stakes testing and the Common Core don’t
matter, you are wrong. These policies are
destroying my school. They are
destroying my profession. They are
destroying the bond between teacher and student. The testing madness needs to stop. Now.