Set Our Teachers FREE!

Have you ever heard the old phrase, “shoot yourself in the foot”, when someone refers to self-sabotage? Well, if you have, then you can probably appreciate the image above even more. With standardized testing in USA public schools so rampant, we might just as well be sticking a pistol in the mouth of education and our students.

I don’t always agree with the New York Times but an Editorial Opinion piece in yesterday’s edition really has my 100% agreement (Well, more like 80% agreement. I’m not in favor of blaming Bush for every problem in the world, including hangnails).

The article, entitled “High-Stakes Flimflam” was written by Bob Herbert, an Op-Ed columnist for the paper. Mr. Herbert interviewed Daniel Koretz, a professor at Harvard’s Graduate School of Education and shares the results of that interview.

Basically, the article states that testing “zealots” have got a stranglehold on USA public schools. I couldn’t agree more!

Some people would like to blame No Child Left Behind (NCLB) as being responsible for the massive quantity of testing, and test preparations, that are occurring in our schools. However, the article goes on to state that in the name of accountability and “boosting classroom performance”, this “high-stakes testing” has been going on “since the 1970’s in some states”.

I have to agree, however, that since the inception of NCLB, with it’s implications for increased or decreased federal funding attached to test results, testing has gone haywire in the USA.

In“Set Our Teachers FREE! A Plan to Save Public Education”, Don Kingsland demonstrates how more and more classroom time is allocated to preparation for testing, as well as the actual testing itself, while education levels and graduation rates are dropping NATIONALLY.

The New York Times article gives an excellent explanation of the relationship between testing results and federal funds.

“If teachers, politicians and others have a stake in raising the test scores of students - as opposed to improving student learning, which is not the same thing - there are all kinds of incentives to raise those scores by any means necessary.

Ah, Hah! This is exactly what Don has been saying all along. Professor Koretz continues:

“The problem is that you can raise test scores the hard way by teaching more effectively and getting the students to work harder, or you can take shortcuts and start figuring out ways to ‘game’ the system.”

The author makes the very valid point that we can guess what’s been happening. As Professor Koretz is quoted as saying:

“We’ve had maybe six good studies that ask: ‘If the scores go up, can we believe them? Or are people taking shortcuts? And all of those studies found really substantial inflation of test scores.”

One of the major flaws, in my opinion, of NCLB is that there are no nationwide standards for measurement. I’m not a fan of NCLB and I think this is one of it’s major weaknesses. Yes, Reading and Math basics are imperative, but without the same standards nationwide, what is the use of bothering to measure?

Professor Koretz’ final quote is very telling.

“We’re creating an illusion of success that is really nice for everybody in the system except the kids.”

Tomorrow, I want to talk more about the pathetic showing our BEST students made in international competition and explain more about how we are deluding ourselves that some of our public schools are good. Tomorrow, I’ll share more about the results of the Fordham Institute Study and “The Proficiency Illusion”.

Soon, hopefully, everyone will understand the need for a complete revamping of public education in the USA. We need The Kingsland Plan and we need it NOW!.

Emphatically!

Brennan

Filed under: Education Reform