Idealizing standardized testing

Earlier today, my boyfriend sent me this article:

Let's Teach to the Test
By Jay Mathews

You may have heard that teaching to the test is bad, very bad. But I have yet to see any teacher preparing kids for exams in ways that were not careful, sensible and likely to produce more learning.

To view the entire article, go to http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/02/19/AR2006021900976.html?referrer=emailarticle

I sent the following response:

I didn't like that article. I've read a lot of Jay Mathews before. I've even emailed him several times while working at the education nonprofit last year, trying to get him to visit one of our parent workshop and student tutoring nights at various high-needs schools in DC. Never got a response. :) I haven't minded most of his work, but this article is underinformed.

I obviously agree that standards-driven instruction is a good thing. And, in a lot of schools, teaching to the test isn't such a bad thing either. But in schools that have already been labeled as 'in need of improvement' or SURR schools (Schools Under Registration Review), teaching to the test takes on a very different form. Principal's bonuses and reputations depend upon their ability to make test scores rise by any means necessary. That's when you get administrators popping into classrooms multiple times/day, screaming at kids about their test scores. Administrators become overbearing, insistant upon test prep-only units, and often berate children by publicly announcing their embarrassing test scores. (Bear in mind that many of the kids who are earning 1's and 2's on their tests have learning disabilities that have gone undiagnosed... but that's a whole other issue...)

What bothered me even more though is the amount of money that went into test prep. At many failing schools like mine, thousands of dollars were spent on test prep materials this year. (read this short passage, answer these multiple choice questions...books upon books of this) Meanwhile, teachers are having to spend hundreds of dollars of their own money on basic classroom necessities like pens, holepunchers, and staplers.

Non-tested subject area teachers like science, social studies, and art are going without textbooks and essential supplies like maps and simple lab equipment. Subjects that aren't tested are deemed unimportant and low priority, so our kids are slipping even further behind in those areas.

My biggest concern by far though is the effect that test prep instruction has on students. Test prep for ELA was painfully dry and boring. Read this passage. Answer these multiple choice questions. Here are the correct answers. Let's look at why yours were wrong. Then start over again with another passage. As an English teacher, my goal is to slowly but surely introduce my students to becoming lifelong readers and writers. Nothing will sour kids on reading and writing faster then shoving extremely boring material down their throats day after day and trying to tell them that this is how you become a good reader/writer. It's inauthentic. Effective instruction is authentic. If Mathews was more familier with the research, he'd know that kids do not learn much from test prep units. They learn from developing habits of strong readers and writers over time. That happens when instructors find ways to appeal to their interests. Test prep- in the form that it takes in most any failing school- leaves little to no room for exposing students to the intrinsic benefits of reading and writing. You should see some of the passages they're asked to read. I love to read, and I find most of them extraordinarily boring.

I understand the need for assessment, and I realize that how to prepare students for state exams is a complex and controversial topic. I do not have any magical answers. But I do know that Mathews is writing from a very limited scope. He clearly has not been in many classrooms at failing schools, or he's been there when the teachers and administrators have their p.r. faces on. (No administrator is going to bust out their spreadsheet of test scores and refer to a child as "a one" (their previous test score) with a reporter in the room, but they feel no qualms with doing it on a regular day. I know this not only from my experiences, but from my discussions with countless other TFA corps members at grad classes who brought similar complaints.

In failing schools, test prep deprives kids of the opportunity to see learning as fun or interesting, and it deprives teachers of the freedom to create authentic, interesting learning activities and lessons.

Thanks for sending the article and letting me rant.