"I'm so sorry that you've been taught your educational worth is based on one flawed test."

[madfloridian]

Those are some of the words of a Florida teacher who wrote a letter to the editor of the Tampa Bay Times the end of April.

She apologized to her students for something that was not her fault at all. She made it clear how all-consuming high stakes testing has become.

She makes it clear that the FCAT scores were based on one set of standards even though they had been covering the new Common Core standards for which testing begins next year.

Studied and concentrated on one set of standards while being tested on others? That's simply unfair to all.

Spring Hill teacher publicly apologizes for FCAT

I'm sorry that for the six years you've been in school, you've had the FCAT looming over your head. I'm sorry that when you were just 8 years old in third grade, you had your entire year of work summed up by the state on a two-day test.

I'm sorry that you've had the pressure of trying to get a specific score on the test when they change how they grade the test each year.

I'm sorry that you've had to be tested on the Florida Sunshine State Standards this year, even though we've been learning on the new Common Core Standards, because I really have tried to make sure everything was covered.

I'm so sorry that you have been taught that your educational worth is based on one flawed test.

...FCAT may be going away, but testing obsession and overuse isn't. And for that, my dear students, I'm sorry.

I remember the hours we teachers spent making sure our gradebooks accurately reflected the work of our students. I remember the time the students and I spent together keeping student portfolios up to date. I also recall the teacher-made tests for our grade level that encompassed what we had actually studied.

I am glad I am retired now in this time when all that seems to have been thrown out the window, and that one single test on one single day is the ultimate decider.

[madfloridian]

1. What some students do while others in school take test.

Not by their choice or the teachers' choice. Not even a good choice. But the high stakes nature requires those who are not taking it not disturb those who are. One person in the comments at my post on this at DKos that her child experienced 3 hour lockdown with no restroom breaks. I have heard of that elsewhere.

From the Miami Herald

What do some students do during FCAT testing? Watch movies and play board games

The seasonal cinema — which one student referred to on Twitter as “auditorium days” — is an unintended consequence of Florida’s high-stakes testing program. The Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test and end-of-course exams last for weeks and now require that most FCAT and upcoming end-of-course exams be taken on secure computers in controlled environments monitored by teachers.

Problem is, students who would otherwise be in those teachers’ classes or in the converted testing labs have to go somewhere when they aren’t testing. So they sometimes end up in auditoriums and gymnasiums, or in classes playing board games. In some schools, teachers say classes are “frozen” in place for hours or even the entire day to avoid distractions, turning schools into a quasi-daycares.

“It’s a huge disruption,” said Janel Jackson-Lefebvre, a seventh-grade science teacher at Hialeah Gardens Middle. “We can’t do what we’re paid to do, which is teach.”

Florida Department of Education officials say that nothing about testing forces teachers to become babysitters. And Miami-Dade Superintendent Alberto Carvalho said stories of students idly watching movies by the hundreds are likely “an extreme minority rather than a generality.”

But frustrated students, parents and teachers say the logistics of testing hundreds or sometimes thousands of students at a school have turned testing time into a morass. And disruptions are expected to only grow in 2015, when the state requires for the first time that all public school courses include an end-of-year test chosen by school districts.

[Brigid]

2. This is insane.

I'll bet this doesn't go on in countries with real, functioning public school systems.

[laundry_queen]

9. Well

I'm in Alberta, Canada and we do have some testing in grades 3, 6, 9 and 12. However, the testing isn't the focus, and I don't believe the results are really tied to anything, except student marks and perhaps a general idea of how kids are doing. In the 12th grade, it's a bit more focused on the exams, since they become part of your transcript that you need for post-secondary (We don't have SATs here) and it's worth 50% of your final mark in any particular subject. But that is the only year where it is really important. It sucks that it's worth so much, since mistakes to happen. For instance, in my 12 grade biology test, they put in a question in a portion of the curriculum that was marked 'optional' and our teacher didn't go over it. She was SO pissed afterwards, that she quit teaching for a few years to go help write the tests, lol. It did bring my marks down considerably, but because my marks were so high it didn't matter, I still got into my program anyway. I worry about my daughters, whose marks are borderline for the programs they want...if they do bad on one exam, that's it for their admission to university.

[yeoman6987]

3. I had to take a test to get my Bachelor's Degree

From Florida State which I thought was ridiculous. It was called the CLAST exam. Luckily I passed but some didn't and never graduated. Tests are dumb in my opinion no matter the level.

[aroach]

16. Two here for BSBA

I had to take the Senior Assessment which was over the general ed and the Major Field Test over my major. Both while trying to finish term papers and prepare for finals.

But, I graduated a week ago!

[yeoman6987]

17. Congratulations!

I am so proud of you. I wish you the best!!!!!

[tech3149]

4. The hardest job I ever had was trying to be a teacher

I never wanted to be but I was the best choice at the time.
My "students" were adults. They were fairly well motivated to learn because their jobs depended on learning as much as they could. It was unbelievably hard to catch who was understanding and who was not. Then trying to figure out how to present the information in a way they could understand.
It was a truly humbling experience. I can't even imagine how much harder it would be with children.

[theaocp]

5. How many times do I have to hear

other teachers say something like, "This job would be much better if I could just come here and teach." When will people just listen to the teachers themselves?

Remember, it's not: "Those who can, do. Those who can't, teach."

Rather, it's: "Those who can, teach. Those who can't, make up laws about teaching."

[marble falls]

6. Great post, wonderful comments by you. Thankyou. I thought it was just Texas.

[madfloridian]

11. Not just Texas.

Not by any means. Thx for kind words.

[Shoonra]

7. Fla Comprehensive Achievement Test is just more misdirection

As with the No Child Left Behind testing, this FCAT actually corrupted the educational system. In order to make it possible to test every kid in the state and get the results fairly quickly, it becomes a computer-graded multiple choice test. It cannot measure a child's creativity or artistic aptitude, nor social development or a lot of other things that we hope that the educational system addresses. Just right and wrong answers to hard factual questions like math, science, and history.

Moreover, we make the teachers' careers and salaries dependent on the test results of their students. In this way the teachers are bullied into complicity or worse.

The result is that the schools and teachers devote all their energy to teaching to the test. Stuff that cannot be measured in the test, like musical ability, are completely ignored. Any topic that might interest the kids but isn't on the test is completely ignored. The schools hammer away at math, science and history. Schools become less pleasant, the kids are less well-rounded, and eventually the nation's culture is affected.

[madfloridian]

10. Great post, so many good points.

Thanks for your thoughts. It's such a corrupting of the whole educational process. I guess I have blinders on, but I can't imagine why more people don't care or worry about this? Arne Duncan recently had the nerve to say that criticism toward his policies was "lots of drama, lots of noise".

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/wp/2014/04/18/arne-duncan-dismisses-critics-lots-of-drama-lots-of-noise/

He's may be a great basketball player, but he's a lousy Sec. of Ed. And whenever the criticism gets too heavy out come the puff pieces about his basketball ability.

[Overseas]

8. K&R. Well said.

[LeftishBrit]

12. k&r for what is sadly an international problem

[madfloridian]

13. Yes, it is an international movement to make public education profitable for big business.

I have often written here about Teach for America, TFA, and how it has been pushing their recruits into schools that have recently laid off long time teachers.

I find myself wondering just how involved they are throughout the world. This is from the Teach for All website. Have you seen it? Makes me wonder.

http://www.teachforall.org/our-network-and-impact/national-organizations

Check out how many groups there are. Teach First is the one for the UK.

[reformist2]

14. Students in some states are renaming the "Comprehensive Assesment" part of the acronym "Child Abuse"

The amount of anxiety it's causing students really is immeasurable.

And for what? Because some politicians don't trust our teachers.

[madfloridian]

15. And the politicians pay no attention to parents or educators.

They have been shut out of the conversation. It's so hard to know that no matter how high your grades, the test is the only thing.

A friend came in all upset last week...her honor student niece did not pass the FCAT. She had been told she may not get to graduate with her class.

And the more complaints there are the more arrogant Arne's attitude. And he gets away with it.