Give Me More Data - When Students Are Just Numbers

All night my mind has been spinning after watching this video posted first by Alfie Kohn and then discussed by Larry Ferlazzo.  You see, my district just started using MAP testing this year so the conversation shown makes me wonder if I will be that teacher having that conversation.  I wonder whether I will have to share a student's weakness with them to get them to score higher, achieve more, and I shudder at the thought.

MAP testing provides a nifty number, hopefully one above 200 and also above whatever number I have been told the student should score above.  And that to me is once again part of the problem; it is a number.  An arbitrary number at best that changes when a student has a bad day, doesn't concentrate or simply does not take this formal assessment seriously.  This is evident in the video when the teacher asks the students what they think happened since their score went down.  But even more so, that number is just a number, sure it breaks down into percentiles so I can compare my students locally and nationally.  And yes, it breaks down into strands, but what in the world does that all mean?  What does that number tell me that i can bring back into the classroom and teach those kids better?

Unfortunately having moved to MAP testing means I am no longer expected to assess my students face-to-face who score above a certain Rigby level, the MAP testing does the job for me, so no sub time is given to do so.  And yet, those assessment conversations are the conversations we need to have.  Those conversations are what should be shaping my teaching because I can weed out whether a student is simply having a bad day, whether there is confusion in the directions, or whether it is a true assessment that can be used to set goas.  Apparently, though, a computer can do this better than I can.  The computer is more efficient than me and apparently more trustworthy in its assessment.  And yet I squeeze in the face-to-face assessments when I can, sub or not sub, because I need to hear my students read, I need to hear them discuss questions, I need to watch them problem solve in math.  If I don't see those things, I am not able to teach them well.

So I still meet with my students; not to discuss their weaknesses as is favored in the video but rather highlight what they are secure in and where they are developing.  Language matters.  I don't sugarcoat the truth but I do choose my words carefully.  I use the data as yet another piece of data but wonder why we are so data-obsessed in the first place?  Why don't we just use the data we have already in a better way?  Why the need for more numbers to crunch, more numbers to graph?  Is that all students should be reduced to; numbers?  I don't know what MAP testing will do to my teaching next year, I will have to withhold my judgment, but after watching the video, I am scared.

So This Is How A Teacher Breakdown Starts

My students are doing their spring assessments as we prepare to wrap up the year and send them on their way.  An innocent computer check-in that takes less than an hour, nothing to be worried abot really.  The kids know it is not a big deal, to do their best, that this is only a snapshot of their skills on that particular day, at that particular time.

And yet....the dread is rising in me.  How will they do?  How will they feel about the test?  Will the test know that they are excited about the talent show results?  That they are hungry?  That they have had a high intensity day and their brains may be just a little zonked?  Of course it won't, and why should it, the test doesn't care one iota about my students.  

But I do and that is my problem.  With every point they gain or lose, my anxiety soars.  How will it affect me as a teacher if a child lost 4 points, whatever that means.  What did I do wrong since they didn't make momentous gains on this test while in class they have blown me away with their increased participation, their inferences, and their overall depth of knowledge?  Why can't the test understand that all of these kids have grown, whether they wanted to or not?  Why can't the test prove that?

So I take a deep breath and let the results stand.  The tests are done, the points have been given and I am trying to piece together what I need to change.  What I need to salvage, what I need to challenge myself in.  And I breathe a little more, realizing that much like I told my students, I also need to believe that this is just a snapshot.  This is just a moment in their life, this moment in time where they are performing at this set level.  That this does not determine their future success, their future growth, or even their future.  Perhaps it will determine mine, but that I need to worry about another day.

Yes They Grew But Can I Take Credit For It?

We are in the midst of testing season at my school.  The students are doing MAP tests, as well as their writing assessments and we gather to discuss the results, to think of strategies.  To rank, to sort, to file.  To highlight, to shine a light, and to discuss what is working and what isn't.  We pat some teachers on the back - look at that growth, and we wonder what else we can do.  We wonder if merit pay is on the horizon and how we will be ranked, filed, and sorted.  That will be based on these test results on those students gains or losses and yet, can we really take credit for the gains that our students may have made?  Can those test results really be accredited to the teacher?

I often wonder how much growth my students do on their own?  How their brain creates new connections, new ideas, and new strategies for conquering the learning we do?  How much of that growth can be attributed to their parents or home environment rather than the school?  How many of those new connections can really be chalked up to their natural development as a growing child who all of a sudden gets it more?  Or even how much of their growth should be attributed to their first teachers, perhaps in daycare, pre-school or kindergarten?  Those teachers set the foundation, taught those students that school was safe and an environment they could continue their learning in.  Can I take credit for any of the growth shown a piece of paper?  I don't know.

It's the Least We Can Do

Image via Wikipedia

In this numbers obsessed society, test makers have figured us all out.  They have realized that if they make the test long enough, tedious enough, and fill them with multiple choice or scantron-able answers then we will assume they are valuable.  What more is that they have figured out that they can even sell us software that will grade the tests for us, break down all of the date, and create a nice graph.  Testing done.  Results at hand.

Except if we are to test students, then at the very least we should look at those tests.  We should try to decipher their answers, create our own data, and meet with them to discuss it.  Yes, a multiple choice test is cleaner and easier but it also provides less of a view into the heads of our students, into their thoughts, into their learning.  A clean test that a machine can correct provides us with data, nothing else, points to be graphed with no clear direction or at the very least not a very detailed one.

So if we must test the children, then do them the favor of correcting it yourself.  Give their work the time and effort you expect them to put into taking the test.  It's the least we can do.

Related articles

• When We Compare Test Scores (mrspripp.blogspot.com)

When We Compare Test Scores

When we compare students based on test scores, we assume that when they took the test...

• They have had a good night's sleep
• They are not hungry
• They do not have any family or friendships issues distracting them
• They have all had access to the same information
• They have all had the same chance for practice
• They have all had the same teaching leading up to the test
• They all have the same type environment in which to take the test
• They all speak and understand English at the same level

What if just one of those assumptions is incorrect, or worse,  what if they all are?

How Often?

In the time of rush, rush, rush, we often forget that the kids need time to breathe.  As we spectacularly plan our days to make sure we cover every single last bit of information, we often forget to ask whether the kids are with us or not.  So when it comes to learning goals we expect the kids to all know on our set day for checking, except they don't, and then we wonder how we failed.

Yet kids learn at different paces, and often one child may be ready while the other is ready the following week.  How often do we take the time to spiral back and double-check whether something is secure later?  After the test?  After the project is handed in?

How often do we ask that child whether they actually know it now, or even knew it then and just couldn't find the words?

F in Exams Book Give Away - Because It Made Me Think

Driving home the other night my 2 year old daughter was saying goodnight to the animals we passed.  "Goodnight cows.  Goodnight horsey."  Just one of those moments.  Then she told me proudly, "Mommy, the chickens sleeping."  I, knowing that she loves making clucking sounds, asked her "What do the chickens say when they sleep, Thea?"  Her answer?  "HOOOOONK!"  And with that my daughter failed her first test ever.

In honor of my continued fight against inane tests that serve no purpose other than to seemingly torture students, I am excited to be giving away "F in Exams" by Richard Benson as part of their blog tour for the book.  This collection of funny and strange student answers on actual exams will at first make you laugh, and then hopefully make you think.  All you have to do to enter is to share your funny/sad story about tests or exams, or even your opinion and leave me some way to contact you.  The giveaway will run from today to Sunday the 4th, where a winner will be selected.

From the book:

I have to admit my favorite was the following exchange:
"Claire was well prepared for her interview.  Explain how Claire may have prepared herself for the interview."
Answer:  had a bath and put on her lucky pants.

Ahh yes, the lucky pants, who hasn't had those.


So I am happy to be part of the giveaway for this book. Laugh about it, cry about it, but read it and think about it.

Tomorrow the give away continues, so head over to It's Not All Flowers and Sausages to enter there as well.

Frog and Toad Make Me Think about Our School System

A List

By Arnold Lobel

One morning Toad sat in the bed. “I have many things to do,” he said. “I will have many things to do,” he said.  “I will write them all down on a   list  so that I can remember them.”  Toad wrote down on a piece of paper:
A List of things to do today

Then he wrote:
Wake up
“I have done that,” said Toad and he crossed out:
Wake Up
Then Toad wrote other things on the paper.

A list of things to do today
Wake Up
Eat Breakfast
Get dressed
Go to Frog’s house
Take walk with Frog
Eat lunch
Take nap
Play game with Frog
Eat supper
Go to sleep

 “There ,” said Toad. “Now my day is all written down.”  He got out of bed and had something to eat.  
Then Toad crossed out:  Eat Breakfast.
Toad took his clothes out of the closet and put them on. Then he crossed out: Get dressed.
Toad put the list in his pocket.  He opened the door and walked  out into the morning.  Soon Toad was at Frog’s  front door.   He took the list from his pocket and crossed out:
Go to Frog’s house

Toad knocked at the door. “Hello,” said Frog.  “Look at my list of things to do,” said Toad. “Oh,” said Frog, “that is very nice.”   Toad said, “My list tells me that we will go for a walk.” “All right,” said Frog.  “I am ready.” Frog and Toad went on a long walk. Then Toad took the list from his pocket again. He crossed out: Take walk with Frog.  Just then there was a strong wind.  It blew the list out of Toad’s hand.  The list blew high up into the air. “Help!” cried Toad.  “My list is blowing away.  What
will I do without my list?” “Hurry!” said Frog. “We will run and catch it.” “No!” shouted Toad. “I cannot do that.” “Why not?” asked Frog. “Because,” wailed Toad, “running after my list in not one of the things that I wrote on my list of things to do!” Frog ran after the list.  He ran over hills and swamps, but the list blew on and on.  At last Frog came back to Toad. “I am sorry,” gasped Frog, “but I could not catch your list,” “Blah,” said Toad.”I cannot remember any of the things that were on my list of things to do.  I will just have to sit here and do nothing,” said Toad. Toad sat and did nothing.  Frog sat with him.  After a long time  Frog said, “Toad, it is getting dark.  We should be going to sleep now.” “Go to sleep!” shouted Toad.  “That was the last thing on my list!” Toad wrote on the ground with a stick:  Go to sleep. Then he crossed out:  Go to sleep. “There,” said Toad.  “Now my day is all crossed out!” “I am glad,” said Frog.  
Then Frog and Toad went right to sleep.

The End

How many times do we have to stick to our list and pass by those teachable moments?
How many times do we not get to explore because that particular direction has not been dictated to us?
How many times must we take a path that does not engage the students?
How many times do we lose our list and instead just bumble along until we get to the end of the day?

How many times do we give up teaching curriculum in a meaningful way and teach to the test instead, hurrying so we may cross things off our list?
How often do we tell others that they must comply because our list says so?

Creating the Anxious Child

I never saw a multiple choice test until I decided to become a teacher in America.  Having gone through the Danish school system, of course, there were tests but they happened at the end of the year and were written and oral exams, not just fill in the bubble and the machine will take care of the rest.  The first time I took a multiple choice test was for placement exams for my education degree, at first I thought it was fun, after all, all you had to do was fill in a bubble?  I didn't have to explain or even comprehend, I could just guess?  Breeze through and forget about it all afterwards.  Throughout college I studied, after all, I am an overachiever and yet whenever I came across the multiple choice test my spirit instantly died.  I was glad that it didn't affect my  teacher, only myself and my grade, because I would doubt myself so much on some of the answers, meant to be tricky, that often I wouldn't even know what to put down even though I knew the material.

We forget to think about how it must feel for kids to be solely responsible for teacher's pay and jobs.  How must it feel for students that if they do poorly on a test it will directly affect the teacher that they love?  Kids are not stupid, they are aware of what is happening around us, how politicians and "reformers" are asking their test scores be part of something bigger.  For this text-anxious child that knowledge would have been the nail in the coffin.  People say that with this knowledge students will do even better because they will want to protect their teacher, to show off what they know.  No child goes into a test trying to deliberately fail, at least not most, and yet placing that pressure of someone else's livelihood and dream is just too much for children to bear.

What are we doing to the children of America?  What pressure are we placing them under?  How can we force them through more rigorous assessment to get them ready for the future when that could mean that their teachers no longer get to teach.  We worry that America is too anxious, too many kids are being diagnosed with anxiety and panic attacks, depression, and other pill-needing maladies.  And then we wonder what happened?  Why are all these children feeling so pressured?  Why can they not cope with "kid stuff" - well look at our schools and what we do to them.   Education is no longer for the kids, it is for the politicians.  

It Is Time to Reclaim Tests

Image via Wikipedia

Perhaps it is time we reclaim the word "Test."

Perhaps we, as educators, can show society that yes tests are part of the picture but they are not the only way to assess learning.

Perhaps we need to change the way politicians see tests as only multiple choice, scantron torture devices and bring them into a realm of good tests.

Society has bastardized the word tests and now many educators shudder at the mere thought of them, but it shouldn't be that way.  We know all tests are not created equal and we know that all tests are not inherently evil.  We just need to find a way to show those in reform power what a good tests looks like.  Something that actually teaches our children and helps their knowledge acquisition.

Are we up for that challenge?  Is there such a thing as good test? 

Yes, I Test My Students - As Long as its Worthwhile

Image found here

I have tests in my room... there I said it.  This reward-disliking, limited homework, freethinking teacher actually dares to test her students.  To some this is surprising, to others borderline offensive, and yet to me it makes perfect sense.  See, I believe it is all in what you do with the test.

I used to give tests just so I had a grade to end home and record in my grade-book.  The test was always the final product, the destination of our learning journey.  If a student failed the test or did poorly, it was not my fault, but rather that of the student obviously having poor study skills.  My second year teaching I realized that maybe it wasn't the student but instead my teaching that was the real cause of their poor test results, and finally this year I realized that it was all me, and even more so, that I actually had power of the format of the tests and what answers they provided.  So this year I took the power away from the tests and gave it back to my students.

Tests in my room take many forms.  There are the dreaded WKCE tests, our state's standardized testing which take up a whole week of our time in October.  That week is tough for me because this represents the type of tests that I immensely dislike.  Tests that offer no chance for redoing, learning, or even results to be worked with.  We take them, lock them up, send them off and then get results in March - yes, at least 4 months later.  They also test on curriculum that we haven't even had a chance to teach yet in 4th grade, so we try to cram that into our poor students just so they can regurgitate it when needed, which often they can't.  Those tests don't make for any deep mastery, they don't create appreciation of the world for the students, or even provide them with real learning opportunity.  It's a take and forget test, that just happens to decide funding for my district.  Sure we try to make it fun with singing, bubble gum and other projects, but still they are something to be lived through and forgotten about, sorry.  Those tests deserve all of the bad publicity they get.

There are valuable tests though, such as the pre-test and post-test I give in math.  Some people may scoff at the notion of pre-testing students on curriculum they have yet to be taught but experience has taught me that done the right way, this is incredibly valuable for the teacher and for the student.  It simply is all a matter of how it is presented to the students.  We discuss how this pre-test is a way for me to guide my teaching, that anything they don't get they leave blank, and to not spend a lot of time on it.  If they get something, great, if they don't, great.  Either way it helps me teach them better.  There have been units when a student or two has mastered everything before it has even been taught, knowing that information gave me a chance to offer enrichment rather than the same material.  Those pre-tests let me know when students lack background knowledge or when the whole class is ready for harder concepts.  Those pre-tests also give my students a chance to see what is to come and some even comment on how excited they are to learn something.  These pre-tests are the same as the post-tests, which means I can compare their growth.  How did they do, where are the holes, what did I miss?  I always make it a point to show the students their growth from to pre to post; they often can't believe how much they have learned.  Those tests inform and push me harder.

Then there are the tests that naturally evolve.  In science rather than a test on the structures of life, my students made an incredible crayfish documentary.  They chose to research and document all of the knowledge they had garnered with the world, rather than put pencil to paper, and became real experts in the doing.  If I ever need proof that they learned something, I just have to watch the 6 minute video.  Or how about in social studies when we learned about Native Americans for the 3rd time in their short school career.  Rather than a formal test, I told them to research whatever they wanted as long as it had to do with Native Americans in WI.  The result: corn bread, models, posters, and time lines were some of the chosen projects.  We don't do spelling tests but rather test each other when we cannot spell a word.  We don't do grammar tests but instead create grammar hunts throughout the school.  We don't do tests that seem purposeless, but rather embrace those that give us something and disregard those that don't.  We discuss as a classroom how we would like to show off our learning and we find ways that suit all students.  That doesn't mean we never test, it just means they become more meaningful to us.  As an example my students asked me to test their knowledge in social studies about pioneers because they were unsure of what they needed to remember, so I did.  Tests don't have to be rigid.

Which brings me to my final discovery in my classroom; tests are not the end.  In my room, they are another step in our journey and only a tool used to figure out where our holes are.  So once a test has been given, it is given back for correction.  Students may use their books, their brains, each other, whatever they can to solve a problem.  Often the mistakes are careless, soemtimes not, but almost always they are fixed and the right knowledge emerges.  Tests are not meant to be the end all for me, they are meant to inform, so when I let my students work with them again I am living that philosophy.  Students know that they get a second chance, because let's face it, sometimes a question is misread or life is distracting, yet they still try their hardest the first time.

So I return to the point of tests; are they to inform our instruction or to provide us with grades?  I choose the latter every time.  Inform me please, make  me a better teacher, help my students learn more, and don't ever stop us from enjoying the adventure that is school.

Bring Back the Thinking

One of the biggest struggles in my classroom and teaching is how to infer.  This vast concept of being able to process information and knowledge to produce an answer is a lifeskill, one of those daunting tasks as a teacher that we must accomplish making sense of for our students.  I don't think the students are the problem, in fact, they are quite creative in their thinking; it is the educational system as a whole that is to blame for this.

With an emphasis on tests we teach students there is only one packaged answer, at least at the elementary level.  We do not teach them that the answer can be deeper than just one sentence or that their answer may differ from ours.  Why?  Because you cannot measure that on a test.  A test requires one bubble filled in or writing that fits into someones rubric.  A test requires conformity in our thinking and particularly in our creative problem-solving skills.  Tests do not like when we debate or argue various points.  Tests urge simplicity in our instruction.

That is not to say that all tests are bad.  We often discuss how it is what you do with the information that measures the worth of a test, and yet, tests hinder us from doing exceptional things in the classroom on a daily basis.  That urgent need to constantly check for progress through a test experience, stiffles students in their quest to become bigger and better thinkers, and to help create inferences.  SO most of our instruction is teaching to the test, math has one answer, when we ask questions they almost always have one answer as well.  Teacher bias means a need for student thinking to line up with their own interpretation, so it becomes right versus wrong.   After all, how many of us after the correct answer has been given, stop to ask whether there are other correct answers?

So why am I so hung up on inferences?  Well, they require that one gathers a lot of information, mixes it up with background knowledge, and then draws a new conclusion.  Inference requires confidence in ones own qualities as a thinker, as an independent creator.  Tests do not teach confidence.  My instruction attempts to, yet I am constantly battling students who think that there is just ONE answer.  After all, that is what they have been taught.  So if they miss that one true answer, then they must be stupid.  It appears that we, by pushing tests on our students, become the creators of our own demise; students who have no confidence in their abilities to learn.  And by "We" I mean the system as a whole.  In our incessant quest to measure, we are dumbing down our student population, urging them not to think creatively but rather stick to the known, the facts, the things that can be measured.  We are making them believe that the world has a right and wrong answer in every scenario, but it doesn't.  No wonder some of our most successful thinkers did not feel the urge to complete college.  We have to get past the one answer tests to help our students.  We have to get past the constant need for progress measurement.  Get back to teaching.  Get back to discussion.  Get back to creative solutions.  It is time to bring the thinking back in education.

Being a Good Teacher Means

It is no longer a secret that our nation is obsessed with the supposed battle between "good" and "bad" teachers.  Apparently, according to many, America has an epidemic of bad teachers on their hands and it is only through dismantling of the unions that these bad teachers can be disposed of.  So for the sake of research and help, I asked colleagues to finish this sentence "Being a good teacher means..."  So America, here to help you with the definition of a good teacher, as well as how to evealuate them, see my favorite answers below:

Being a good teachers means...

• Being willing to reflect, change, and improve-looking for the best opportunities for student learning - @MrMacnology

• Laughter, lots of laughter. Laughing with your students - @HeidiSiwak

• Recognizing you are a learner, as well as a teacher and getting your students to understand that learning is for life -@henriettaMI

• Listening more than you talk ... Often kids have a better answer and you just have to hear it - @Polygirl68

• Being open 2 our students drive their own learning in the classroom - @MollyBMom

• Always feeling the lesson could've gone just a wee bit better - @Attipscast

• Means u never stop learning and u always work to improve - @KTVee

• Being a learner. being humble. being empathetic. being flexible. being knowledgeable. being driven. @RussGoerend

• Always doing what's right by the kids @Becky7274

So there you have it; what makes a teacher good.  In my words; passion, change, dedication, transparency, authenticity, knowing when to be quiet, and knowing when to fight.  No one said test scores, rigidity, or grades, so why do they seem to be the driving force behind what determines someones worth?

What is missing?

Give Me Time

I do not teach in a poor school, nor do I teach in an affluent one. I teach in your middle of America school, where we have our constraints but do not have to spend our entire paycheck buying classroom supplies. I am lucky in some respects, yet sheltered in others, so I wonder whether I can truly form an opinion on movies like "Waiting for Superman.". Can I judge what this movie portrays when I have not taught in a fail factory or been labeled a bad teacher?

What I can respond to though are statements such as the one at the end of the movie, "Our system is broken...and it feels impossible to fix.". Statements such as this does nothing to fix the problem but perpetuates the pervasiveness of just how horrible the American school system is. This angers me. The entire American school system is not horrible, there are entities of it that are, and yes, those entities need to be fixed but is throwing out the entire system really the way to do it?

The preferred method of fixing anything in education seems to be to throw it all out and start over. You see it in school districts all over; desperate to fix falling scores or inadequate growth, money becomes the solution. Buy a new program! Buy a new test! More training! More supervision! More, more, more! It appears we are choking ourselves to mediocrity and then wondering who is to blame for the lack of oxygen?

So my plea is simple; enough with the reform! We have been reformed to death these last many years. Stop changing the strategies, stop changing the methods on how to test us and just let us teach. Let me teach. Give me time to reach a deeper level with my students. Give me time to let them create and explore. Give me time to differentiate for all of my students and not just the easy ones. Give me time to speak, to listen and to develop. Some may say that time is all teachers ever have been given. Not true; our time to learn with our students has been taken away minute by minute by new curriculum implementation, standards, tests and more guidelines. So before you tell me to change again, give me time to learn how to teach this way. Then I can become a better teacher and prove to you that our system is not impossible to fix, just give me time to teach.

It's a Half Percent

"I don't mean to alarm you but it appears that your baby has an elevated risk for Downs..."  The road blurred in front of me as the words took shape in my stomach.  "The test results are back and normal is 1 in 10,000, yours is 1 in  214."  It's a half percent, it's a half percent, it's a half percent ran through my mind like a mantra, willing my hands to stay on the wheel and my eyes to stay on the road.  "The doctor will call you in a couple of days when he reviews the test results."  And with that my whole world changed.

The first frantic phone call was to my mother, who was waiting for the airport bus.  I could barely choke out the words.  Shock, and then mommy reflexes sparing into action as she repeated "It's a half percent."  Finally got through to my husband, shock, then husband reflexes, and then anger.  Where was the doctor, why was a nurse calling with this information, what did this all mean? Soon the Internet became our go-to place; forums, statistics, percentages all became mandatory reading for this unwanted and unknown territory. Life dreams were revisited, rechecked, redreamed.

There were decisions to make, tests to have or not, what would a life look like with a child with Downs?  Could we provide the support and medical care that this child could possibly need?  Where had the bubble of the first 16 weeks of perfect pregnancy gone?  Why us?  Why me?  What had I done wrong?  2 days later, after many calls wondering whether the doctor had reviewed my tests, the call came.  He was angry.  Why had they pushed this extra test on me anyway?  The first test had been normal, so why do a second one?  I could barely hear his words, all I kept hearing was "It's a half percent, it's a half percent..."

So we went ahead and had the evasive sample test done because we knew that no matter what this child possibly had, we wanted to be prepared for it.  The worry consumed me for days as I begged my body to not lose this child, that all I wanted was answers, whatever they would be.  That this child would be loved, no matter the cost, so please, please just stay with me.

I was home alone, another phone call.  The results were in, "Your little girl is fine, no need to worry."  My heart stopped beating for just a second.  "Did you say fine?  Did you say little girl?"  Thank you, thank you, thank you.

Another visit with the doctor and again that same anger; why would they test you?  Why did they want one more?  I felt embarrassed to tell him that I had jumped at the chance when it had been presented to me, after all as a first time pregnant person, I thought the more tests, the better.  After all, don't we want to rule everything out?  He looked at me and said, "If one test works, then there is no need for another one."

How often could we apply those same words in education?  That one test should be more than enough, if we actually are able to trust the results and choose to use them correctly?  Instead we barrage and deluge our children with test upon test, just to check once more.  How many times have we falsely diagnosed problems that were merely there because the test created it?  How many times do we ask for just one more test to make sure there isn't really a problem?  How many times will we continue down this path of only believing the tests, rather than everything else?

If We Teach to the Test

If standardized tests determine how we teach, then students would probably:

• Never raise their hand; after all they will prove their knowledge on the test.
• Never explore around the topic, twisting it, turning it on its head and perhaps coming up with new questions.
• Never ask different questions than what the teacher expects.
• Not participate in discussion after one answer has been given since usually only answer is enough on a test.
• Always be very, very quiet because to take a test there must be silence.
• Always be cordoned off by privacy folders fore they must not cheat off each other.
• Always know exactly where they rank and whether school is for them or not.
• Realize that thinking creatively will hardly ever pay off.
• Always ask what their grade and rank is and then flaunt it whenever they can since this is what a test-obsessed society deems important.
• Be very god at filling out little bubbles inside the lines, making their mark and heavy, as well as erasing mistakes completely.
• Never attempt to place an answer outside of a designated area.  After all, thoughts only get so much room to be explored.
• Not really need a teacher, perhaps a scantron would be just fine.

I Wasn't Born a Test Taker

I wasn't born a test taker; instead I himmed and hawed over every single possibility of multiple choice answer, overanalyzing the test makers intent, knowing that there often was more than one correct answer.  In Denmark, essays were the way we were judged, and yet, I knew that somehow I had to conform myself to whatever someone had decided was the proper way to analyze, summarize or infer.  Whatever the method, the result was always the same, never as good as I wanted even though I had done all of the supposed right things to score high.

Now with the release of the new test results once again labeling the US as "average" at best, I wonder, how this will affect my students; our future.  What new initiative will be developed in a hurry to push, push, push our students harder.  Perhaps Saturday's will become school days after all so that we can study for the test.  This obsession with testing and labeling, always ranking, as if those tests had something to do with the future success of these children.  They don't and I tell my students that.  Testing is just a snapshot of where you were at that moment in time, how well-rested you were, how focused, happy, engaged.  Not a true view of what you really know, what you are capable of.  Testing does not determine your future job, spouse, creativity or happiness.

I don't want to teach to the test.  I don't want to make students into test takers.  I want to help them become better, more creative, engaged, discover their talents, hone them, support them, inspire them.  I want them to discover many possible ways to answer questions, not just conform to the one chosen by someone else.  I want them to question.  I wasn't born a test taker but I became one.  I hope to spare that fate for my students.