Even The NEA Is Against It

Standardized testing has always worked in my favor, but that doesn’t mean I support it. And I will be the first to call bull**** on the No Child Left Behind Act and how severely unhelpful it has been. FUBAR is probably the most thorough description of the NCLB model and the effects it has had on our education system.

The students have figured out that the adults are far more panicky about the test scores than they are about actual schoolwork:

“The student portfolios….comprising multidisciplinary work that has been painstakingly accumulated throughout the entire year, are essentially worthless. In a Bronx middle school English class….a majority of students shrug off much of their schoolwork because they have learned that all they need to pass — and thus be celebrated as a success — is to scrape by with a 2 out of 4 rubric score on the annual standardized test. The “2″ score is below grade level, but still counts as passing.”

The teachers are paranoid that allowing a desperate elementary school kid use the restroom during a test will make all tests for that grade null and void and will have serious repercussion for their teaching careers:

“Last week in Ohio, a sixth-grade student asked to use the bathroom while taking a state-administered standardized achievement test — a reasonable request. The teacher, considering the strict rules and secrecy of the all-important test — the sole basis of judgment and accountability of the whole year for the students, the teacher, the principal, and the school district — refused. The student had an accident.”

I know that makes the teacher seem cruel; I thought so too when I first read about it. But Dan Brown at the Huffington Post explains why a teacher would deny a 6th-grader a bathroom break during testing:

“I taught fourth grade, a major testing grade, in a New York City public school in the ‘03-’04 term, and I can attest that teachers are told over and over again by their supervisors that the sun of accountability rises and sets with the standardized achievement tests. Horror stories from veteran teachers circulated about state monitors catching a teacher in subtle violation of austere test-proctoring practices and duly invalidating the tests for the entire grade. This effectively took a hatchet to a school’s reputation and opened the teacher up to career-threatening disciplinary action…. Basically, teachers were scared stiff about the life-and-death test.”

A mortified 6th-grader and a freaked-out teacher are unfortunate, yes, but are not the end of the world. I have come down consistently as being against stressed-out kids, so the fact that eight-year-olds are vomiting because the tests have been turned into such an ordeal certainly needs to be addressed. However, at this juncture, education (or the lack thereof) is what’s giving me the shakes.

Now I’ll be a hard-ass and remove all sympathy and say this: the main problem is how the NCLB-focused testing has managed to weaken the structural integrity of the education system in such a short amount of time. I worry about the teaching that isn’t happening because educators have to focus on prepping their students for the annual round of testing, and that the students are getting the wrong message about learning. Schools have reduced gym, music and art in order to increase test prep time.

How do we fix this? All is not lost: there are good, intelligent people working on it. Dan Brown wrote a summary of Monty Neill’s essay “Leaving No Child Behind: Overhauling NCLB.” Here are the bare bones of it:

Classroom-based Information:
Each teacher retains evidence of teaching and learning: assignments, student work, and the teacher’s observations of the learning processes, strengths and weaknesses of the students.

Limited Standardized Testing:
Testing should be in literacy and numeracy and primarily be used as one means for on school level information. Marked discrepancies between test results and classroom-based information would be investigated…

School Quality Reviews:
Independent, well-prepared teams would conduct reviews of every school at about five-year intervals, as is done in England, New Zealand, and the states of Rhode Island and now New York… The team prepares a report with recommendations, which is given to the school and is available to the public in summary and complete form.

Go to these sites if you’re cranky about the education system and you want to do something about it:

FairTest.org

National Education Association

Sources and Interesting Info:

On Education: NCLB lowers the bar on school reform

Stress Test: Achievement Exam Causes Embarrassment…

No Child Left Behind Act in its entirety (if you feel you must)

Posted by Alexa Harrington