Stripped, Stifled and Sucked Dry

As I read Josh’s post I was flooded with so many thoughts that my immediate response was little more than a series of nods, twitches, “uh-huh”s,  “but…but…but!”s and full-body sighs.

 

While I agree whole-heartedly with Josh’s tirade against teachers who do not teach, but instead, lay blame on broken systems—or worse, broken students, I must say that I detest the 8^th grade language arts state test with every fiber of my being.   My hatred for the test, however, does not stem from any ineptitude on the part of my students, or the exhaustion it inflicts upon their teacher; instead, it is the stripping, stifling, creativity-sucking effect it has on every single lesson I am allowed to teach my students.  Remember, I am the teacher who was told after evaluation that “it doesn’t matter if they can write a sentence as long as they can answer the question on the test.”

 

What an injustice to these students!!! I have sat slack-jawed through multiple staff meetings where teachers are berated for staying from the set path—that is to say, for doing anything besides presenting students with test questions and explaining how to answer them.  My students are bored; my students don’t care; my students still can’t write appropriate sentences.  Why? Because I am forbidden to address anything outside of multiple choice questions!

 

Josh, you were dead on when you said that we can judge schools based on tests, not just teachers; we can judge the maturity and the priorities of administration in that some are so test-focused that they compromise the integrity of students’ education.  At Holly Springs Jr. High we teach English and math.  That’s it.  Oh? Where’s the science?  …What science?  Is that subject tested in May? No.  In that case, we don’t need it! Ask our science teachers how they like teaching math—it’s a question they can answer, because as of spring break, they have been stripped of their curriculum and have had their hands super-glued to a practice match MCT2 test booklet.  (By the way, history, social studies and gym are of zero consequence, as well.  These teachers are also teaching math…or in once case, English.) 

 

This is no way to educate our students, Mississippi.  We all need to “get [our] heads out of the sand” and find a compromise through which we can successfully cover the material without sacrificing the educational well-being of students. 

Comments

[bhbonds]

This blog seems overtly sexual.

[Reagan]

ha! i was anticipating such comments from you..

[Daniel E.]

Hey, I feel you on this.  While state tests should measure academic success, there are good tests and bad tests.  And from all the sample English tests I've seen since arriving in this state, holy shnikes those are bad tests.  Holding all students up to certain standards is a great idea, but those standards need to be evaluated for their quality, not just their ability to make a certain percentage of kids fail.  While the English II benchmark of having kids be able to "infer" something from a fictional passage makes sense, having questions that literally demand that a kid "infer" something may not be the best way to measure their ability to meet that benchmark.