Entry #21 - February 8, 1999
"Sustained, political pressure from public school parents and
their allies is the only hope our kids have, but before we stand together,
we have to listen and talk together."
This week I administered four sections of math tests to a group of special
education eighth graders. Despite the accommodations and despite my best
shot at making them feel comfortable, it was a royal drag! I read the directions
and many of the problems for them, but it was clear that in general they
had no idea how to proceed.
Open-ended, multi-step problems were the most worrisome. Even when they
did do some calculations, they had little idea of how to articulate their
thinking. We were scheduled to test for 80 minutes, but were told to give
the students extra time if they needed it. After two hours and forty five
minutes, some of my kids were still trying. One boy in particular, seemed
almost paralyzed. He was so afraid of making a mistake that he was spending
an average of 15 minutes per example.
At one point on the second day, a girl asked me if she was supposed to complete
a page that had the formula for Pi on it. Her inability to recognize that
it was only a direction was the last straw for me. I felt like the agent
of a cruel joke at the children's expense! Why are they being tested at
grade level when it's been well documented that they cannot perform at that
level? Who benefits from these results? Certainly not the kids!
Next week I'll be giving the reading tests and since it's a reading test,
I won't be able to read it for them. I can see their self esteem plummeting
now.
In the middle of this dilemma, I was sent a copy of "The
Great Accountability Fallacy" by Robert Evans. His commentary was
being published in the current edition of Education Week and was also published
on the Annenberg Coaches' listserv.
Mr. Evans examines "the rising controversy over 'high stakes' testing..."
in his essay. Needless to say, this was already my burning issue of the
week! In no time at all, I was off and running. Arguments about accountability
are a pet peeve of mine. I'm sick to death of people spending millions to
determine who's really more or less at fault while our schools and children
suffer. The political football game of public education is at the last down,
with charters, vouchers and still more testing waiting on the sidelines.
When people finally admit that its an all-sided problem, it's like DUH...no
fooling? For me the real question is about when and how we're going to build
a mass movement in support of our public school kids. Sustained, political
pressure from public school parents and their allies is the only hope our
kids have, but before we stand together, we have to listen and talk together.
I seem to be right back at square one, the square where I'm looking for
ways to engage parents in meaningful discussions...hmmm.
Our Council is meeting on Tuesday night and using protocols to examine student
work with parents is on the agenda. It's only a step, but it's one that
is long overdue.
On a related, but slightly different note, my eldest began student teaching
two weeks ago. I'm very proud of his committment and his desire to "make
a difference", but I'm also a worried mom who knows a lot of the pitfalls
that lie ahead.
Today he got his first quizzes back and the results were less than glowing.
He got the uneven results that drive us all crazy, the A's and the D-F's
with barely a paper in between. Tonight we had a conversation about differentiated
instruction, about teaching for all layers and not just the highest or lowest
common denominator. I'm in middle school science and he's in high school
history but we're both teaching students with many of the same problems
and I wish I had more answers to share for my son's and my students' sake.
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