"At the last second, the boy reached the water's surface. He desperately gasped for air. Every breath brought him further away from the brink of unconsciousness. A sharp pain surged through his head. He knew he had come dangerously close to going too far."
I made a commitment this school year to full heartedly participate in the urban public school data movement. The official buzz phrase is "Data Driven Instruction." I felt that it was important to understand this movement, to try it on, and see what it was all about. I promised not to complain, but to try and find a silver lining, to stay positive and get what I could from the experience. I wanted to embrace the possibilities and try to grow as a teacher. I kept my commitment, and I lived to tell the story, barely.
The state standardized test results have been in our building for one week. I have already been given the results in four different forms. I haven't been given the breakdown of each students' individual results. I can access them online if I would like to. I will also be given them sometime in the next few weeks. There were 3 tests. I have 23 students. That is 69 different pieces of data to look at.
This year, my students spent the equivalent of 7 weeks taking standardized tests. After it was all said and done, they took 48 different tests in the name of "measuring" what they were learning. It isn't enough just to take the year end standardized test anymore. The test publishers will now also sell you a package of quarterly tests that your students can take to make sure they are ready for the year end standardized test. The publishers of the test, who happen to also be the publishers of most of our text books, also provide you weekly "standardized test practice tests" to go along with your reading and social studies text books.
After sorting through all of the numbers, I came to a conclusion. Data isn't wrong. The wrong data is wrong.
I think we are collecting the wrong data, measuring the wrong stuff. I understand the year end standardized test isn't going anywhere. But the barrage of testing throughout the year really only tells me If the students have been exposed to the subject matter or not. This, is something I am already pretty well aware of.
What if instead, we figured out a way to measure how self directed a student is, how well they set and pursue goals, how well they delay gratification and how do they problem solve. What if we could measure how well a student is able to concentrate on the tasks at hand and is aware of their thinking. This would be very useful information. My students that did not pass our year end standardized test struggle to self-regulate. The ones who did pass, are very self-regulated. Is there a correlation? What if I could find a way to help the students be more aware of where they are in the process of becoming more self-regulated and then intentionally help them move forward in this growing process? Not only could they potentially pass the year end standardized test, but they would of course, become more complete as humans.
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2 comments:
Brilliant. You should be sending these as letters to the editor in your local papers, national, anywhere.
I've wondered how large an impact the testing has had. 7 weeks is a TON of time for kids to be testing, rather then learning. And it seems many, but not all schools have to endure it. How do we, as teachers, parents and advocates, fight for our schools to be released from that chain?
We have to get vocal Ariah. Very vocal. I had some hope with the new administration, but things don't seem to be heading anywhere. It is going to take a grassroots movement to make some change happen. Each district is a little different, but pressure from the parents, parents getting educated about what is really happening, will begin to make ripples. We are moving to national standards in another year, which will then be followed by a national test. Can't decide if I like this or not.
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