And the math isn’t easy, either. “One real estate agent charges 1.2% of a home’s sale price, and the other charges a flat rate of $2,600. Which is the better price if the house sold for. . .” I had to even re-read these problems a few times. Sales Tax. Fractions Exponents. Now I understand why seventh graders are so cranky. 

But as we’re working, I notice something that brings me great sadness. It ‘s nothing at first; we do a few  of the easier problems, which he gets mostly right. As we tackle harder and more complex problems (and he gets them mostly wrong) I realize: this kid is using some great guessing skills, but he has no idea how the math works. And he tells me so.

“I know A and D can’t be right, because it’s going to be a positive number.”

“But show me how that fraction is going to be reduced.” 

“But I don’t have to. I know it’s one of these two.”

“Here, (hands him the pencil) show me how you actually work it out. ”

Nothing. Blank stares. More conversation about how he eliminated some answers and guesses between the other two. I don’t think he crunched a single number the whole time. 

So this is what we’ve come to? So focused on passing a multiple choice test that we actually send kids to the next level more prepared to guess correctly that put pencil to paper and do some math? Anyone else want to tell me  Standardized testing is a good thing for learning?

Good Luck, kids.

This is a cute picture book I always wind up reading to some poor kid (there’s been a few teachers too) during testing season. Testing Ms. Malarkey tells the story of a regular old school and regular old kids, who go a little nuts as they approach testing. Kids have to eat only  brain-friendly fish in the cafe, parents give out worksheets with bedtime stores, Teachers cut in front of the Nurse’s line,  and a Principal becomes more than adamant about No 2 pencils. This is one story one we can all laugh over together.

“Omigod! I would totally kill for her API!”

We had an interesting discussion at our faculty meeting yesterday morning: if we could have any intervention to raise student achievement, what could it be? “Raising student achievement?” This is Edu-code for test scores and everyone knows it. And I had an epiphany. I know a great intervention to deal with fact that our test scores aren’t ever going to be high enough: let’s stop worrying about them.

I was sitting a the table with the PE department, and we came up with what I think may be the best metaphor for the ridiculousness of this testing frenzy I’ve heard yet. Meeting NCLB targets is alot like trying to loose weight. There is no quick solution. No easy fix. Grapefruit diets and control-top panty hose only go so far; eventually, and probably after years of disappointing results, you are going to have to stop fixating on the number on the scale and look at the big picture. You will realize that you must make fundamental changes to your lifestyle that only work when given lots of time.

And so it goes in a “data-driven” school. I believe NCLB has given all of us negative self image (Omigod! I would kill to have her API!). We’ve pushing for these scores to rise for years, but instead of looking at the basic elements of these kid’s academic diet, we’re time and time again handing them an educational slim-fast and hoping for the best.

We need this test prep! We need that test prep! We just need more test prep! One site I taught at thought they needed to go over every test and bubble in student’s responses for them (apparently 6th graders just can’t be counted on to color in a circle). And we can’t forget to “weigh” them every five seconds; how else will we know if all this is working? We need unit tests and mid-course tests and quarter progress tests and hey! Taking all these exams aren’t enough by themselves, we need pretests for everything too!

Every year, every school, same story. Anyone knows who knows anything about anything can see it: this is never going to work. The more time and money we spend on these quick-fixes, the more we deprive students of what could actually help them in the long run. How about lots and lots and lots of time reading really interesting books? How about practicing writing again and again in low-stress situations so kids might not hate it? How about taking the 40 some-odd-days our school devotes to testing and have kids write, memorize, produce and perform a play? Or read some more. Or write some more. 

How about just eating healthy food, exercising alot and being OK with gradual, appropriate improvement?

Think I’m exaggerating? Take a peek at the California Department of Education website. All but one of the “High-lights” are about testing, Although every educator alive will tell you: you can’t focus on just  one test as a clear indicator of anything, the CDE seems to think these scores are pretty darn important.