Testing- The Cancer Killing Education Today

Since January I have been tutoring at a Boys and Girls Club here in Dallas after school four days per week. I have kids from 2nd through 7th grade and they are placed in the tutoring program based on report grades. I have really enjoyed my experience there so far and have of course really enjoyed having daily one-on-one relationships with kids again, since I really miss that in the library. I especially love my little 3rd and 4th grade boys...they are so energetic, yet still so sweet. One of these special guys is a little boy I will call "Corey." Corey is talkative, loves basketball, and loves to tell a story, but it only took a couple of sessions to realize that he is quite a bit below where he needs to be for a 4th grader. However, he is a hard worker and he definitely is willing to try. That's why the incident I'm about to describe disturbed me so deeply.

Last Tuesday the 4th, 7th, and 10th graders took the TAKS writing test. The other tests will be forthcoming throughout the spring, but the writing is always the first test to be administered. On Monday, I decided to go over a few writing tips with the 4th grade group, including techniques for strong beginnings. As we worked, Corey began to get frustrated because he was struggling with his beginning and with what I was demonstrating to the rest of the group. He then said, "Oh, well, I'm not going to school tomorrow anway." I quickly reminded him that it was a test day and that he really needed to be there, to which he responded, "But my teacher told me to stay home tomorrow." What?? I just looked at him with my jaw dropped, and he continued, "Yeah, she told me to stay home tomorrow and she would buy me a Game Stop gift card." Jaw dropped even further. I began to slowly ask him a few questions like what did his parents say about that and how many kids did his teacher tell that to...he responded that he was the only one. As I looked at Corey with his wide, innocent eyes, my heart just broke. Here was a kid that is struggling, that wants to do well, that really tries, but that was being sent a strong message that in essence said, "There is no hope for you. You're too dumb to pass this test, so just stay home so you won't mess up my test scores." My heart broke because I don't think Corey even realized that was what his teacher was telling him...but one day he will look back and he will understand what that game card meant. One day, sooner than later, he will internalize the message that his teachers gave up on him, that he wasn't worth teaching, that he couldn't produce a certain test score, so he's better off at home.

This is what testing has done for us. This is the result of the oh-so-noble No Child Left Behind. The thing is that after Corey told me this, I pulled him to the side and began to work with him one-on-one. For about 15 minutes, I worked with him, talked with him, guided him in his writing...and in just a few minutes, he had written a decent opening paragraph. He was so proud of it that he stood up on a chair to read it to the rest of the group. Was Corey going to pass the writing test the next day? Probably not. But that's not the point. That's not the end-all, be-all. The point is that when I worked with Corey for 15 minutes, I saw progress. I saw potential. I saw a child who deserves to be believed in, a child who needs support, but not a child who is better off at home.

Testing has gotten so out of control that there is no way that it is an even remotely accurate measurement of student achievement or of teacher ability. In Dallas ISD, teachers each year are given what is called a CEI score (classroom effectiveness index). This score is based pretty much on test scores and measures whether students showed growth from one grade to the next under that particular teacher. These CEI scores are factored into a lot of decisions. However, as a former sixth grade teacher, I discovered how unfair the CEI score system really was. I had over 90% of my students pass the reading exam, but I still did not receive a high CEI because they hadn't shown growth from the year before. Every year, we get incoming students from all these elementary schools around here that are 'recognized' and 'exemplary' and students that supposedly were 'commended' in reading and math...yet when they get to sixth grade, suddenly they don't even know their multiplication facts and can barely read. This is a district-wide problem. The students will flat out ask our teachers what the "code words" are going to be during a test or how the teacher plans to give them the answers. This is what they are accustomed to doing in elementary and are baffled when my co-workers here in middle school don't do that anymore. Oh yes, best believe teachers have figured out how to beat the system, whether it's by bribing their lowest kids to stay at home, or by changing answer documents, or by giving student's answers. This is what testing has done to education. This is what our state spends millions of dollars each year on while we cut thousands of jobs and cram 40 kids in a classroom. Do you think the pressure to cheat is bad now? Just wait until next year when a teacher is struggling to keep her job and her head above water with 250 kids a day to try to teach....the test is a joke now but will continue to become even more meaningless and even more a cancer to public education in the years to come as budgets are slashed but testing expectations increase.

Right now, teachers all across the state are hurting. Our hearts are literally breaking because no one seems to understand. No one seems to be listening. We are screaming at the top of our lungs but it is falling on deaf ears. No one seems to understand or care how serious this crisis is!! Why can’t we make people understand? Why can’t we make them understand what we go through every day, what we see every day, what we need every day? Why can’t we make them see how important we are? Why can’t we make them see how crucial our work is? Why is it so easy just to give 100,000 of us the “axe” in one single swipe of a pen? Why can’t they look at children and see what we see? Why can’t they look at our future and see it the way we can? The most helpless, powerless feeling in the world is being a teacher in the state of Texas right now, watching the cancer of high-stakes testing suck the life out of our schools, out of our profession, out of our children, and out of our future....watching powerful people slash money and jobs and schools like they mean nothing....watching more and more children not just slip through the cracks, but be literally shoved through the cracks while we stand helplessly by-- voiceless and unimportant.