THE TEST

Are we all done taking THE TEST yet? My school has a couple of days of testing left. The students I'm proctoring seem to be at least trying, unlike many of the students at our school. I cannot comprehend what mental aberration keeps the test analysts from factoring into their detailed analyses the fact that many students refuse to even take the yearly test, choosing instead to "Christmas-tree" it--fill in random answer choices.

I gave as a journal topic just before our test, "How do you feel about TCAPs"? Of course the negatives were fairly universal, but some students were more perspicacious than others. One noted, "If the school would take all the time it spends in teaching us how to take the test and instead use it to teach us what we need to be learning, we'd be way ahead." Indeed!

I remember the days when test score printouts given to students to take to their parents contained the caveat, "These scores are to be used for diagnostic purposes only. Use of test scores to evaluate a teacher or school constitutes a misuse of these scores." I still think that is correct. It is preposterous to propose a pay hike for a teacher working with motivated upper-middle-class kids whose scores zoom ever upward while denying it to a teacher working with inner-city kids so unmotivated that if she can keep the peace in her room, she's doing better than most. If, in addition to keeping the peace, she brings up her students' reading level two to three years, she will have worked a miracle--but if the kids were four or five years behind to start with, her test scores will still be abysmal, won't they?

Miracles are hard to come by these days. The April 4 edition of Education Week tells about a major federal study which found that use of reading and mathematics software produced "no difference in academic acheievement between students who used the technology in their classrooms and youngsters who used other methods." I read the entire article and it is clear that the study was conducted thoroughly and with great care. So why wouldn't the use of this wonderful technology produce the hoped-for results? I have used one of the best reading software products, and it is exceptionally well designed.

But the best software is not better than an excellent teacher. Probably not as good. At best, it frees up the teacher to work some students while it teaches others. Educational software is simply one tool that we can use. To be effective, we need many, many more. We can never let ourselves afford to be fooled into believing that because we have a wonderful software reading program, we're home free.

The cards I've designed are another tool I use, and a very important one, because I can use it in such a variety of ways. But I would never try to teach reading with only that tool, either. To conduct a well-rounded reading program, we need many tools in our toolkit, and we need to know when and how to use them.

NY Times Article: For Teachers, Middle School Is a Test of Wills

A recent Times article highlighted the challenges middle school teachers face as they deal with volatile young adolescent emotions. As one former middle school teacher put it, "Twice as much time was spent on putting out fires; twice as much time was spent getting the class quiet. Twice as much time was spent on defusing anger in the kids." That's one reason it's so hard to recruit and retain good middle school teachers. Another reason is that so often students reach middle school underprepared, and middle schools have the face the heat if their kids can't perform on tests.

I've spent all but six of my 26 years of teaching at the middle school level. I never planned it that way; I was all set for a career teaching high school. And my six years of high school teaching were a piece of cake compared to the middle school teaching I've done. But I honestly have come to love what I do.

As I reflected on my school day this evening, I thought about that teacher's remarks. Too much of the time, he's right. But today, I managed to engage the kids. Though TCAPs (our BIG test) loom only two weeks away, I spent the block with my accelerated students tying up loose ends on our unit on treatment of blacks in America vs. Holocaust victims. For once, my ADHD student wasn't up and down and talking out of turn. He was fascinated and totally engaged.

In the next block, I had the class playing a game designed to review them on some of the elements of poetry. But surprise! One of my loudest students was back today from alternative school. This always
livens up a dull class period! He got the other potentially loud student in that class going, and they were shouting out the answers full blast. The teacher from next-door appeared to see if I needed any help, but quickly saw to her relief that things were going just fine.

Afterwards I apologized to her for the noise. "No problem!" she said. "If you can keep that bunch on task, more power to you. It's just great that you had them engaged."

That's it. They were noisy, but engaged. Whatever we can do to get our kids engaged in the learning process, that is what we have to do to make it work, whatever our situation.

Have a good day tomorrow!