Op-ed from a 5th grader: Tired of standardized tests, "no child left behind, etc.

[villager]

Ventura 5th-grader tired of state tests

Matthew Goodkin-Gold

Testing is rearing its ugly head once again. To schools, this means the hectic month they have to teach kids the subjects they barely touched on during the rest of the year. To the less-advanced kids, testing brings the miserable month they try to learn these subjects. Then, of course, there are the advanced kids. I can say from experience that the month of testing is the most tedious and dullest month of school for the advanced students.

We unwillingly sit through some four-and-a-half hours of "educational instruction." In other words, the teachers have to lecture us on things we've known for years.

This will be the fourth time I've gone through these days of school in which most kids sit through class biding their time until the end of the school day. And every time, I think how much good it would do if no one had to worry about testing.

Testing causes problems year-round. Teachers have to teach to the grade-level standards of the test, so kids who are already above that level learn almost nothing all year. We go to school for six hours a day and, on the average day, due to the standard curriculum, get nothing out of it.

If teachers had the weight of teaching the required curriculum for testing off their shoulders, they could teach fun and interesting topics. For example, my school's fifth grade goes to Catalina Island every year as part of our outdoor education program.

My science teacher used to teach marine biology, a fascinating subject, for many months beforehand. But this year, due to teaching for the standardized tests, she had to radically cut down on how much she taught.

<snip>

http://venturacountystar.com/news/2007/may/06/ventura-5th-grader-tired-of-state-tests/

[Nikki Stone1]

1. A great article connected to this problem: "The Business of Public Education"

http://www.zmag.org/ZMag/articles/girouxjulyaug98.htm

The Business of Public Education
By Henry A. Giroux



The assault by corporate America on public education has taken an ominous turn in the last decade. Funded by an array of conservative institutions such as the Heritage Foundation, Hudson Institute, and the Olin Foundation, the corporate drive to undermine public education has enlisted an army of conservative pundits many of whom served in the Department of Education under Presidents Reagan and Bush. Some of the more well-known members of this reform movement include Chester Finn Jr., Lamar Alexander, Diane Ravitch, David Kearns, and William Bennett. Providing policy papers, op-ed commentaries, appearing on television talk shows, and running a variety of educational clearinghouses and resource centers, these stalwart opponents of public education relentlessly blame the schools for the country’s economic woes. Citing low test scores, a decline in basic skills, and the watering down of the school curriculum, Ravitch and others use such critiques to legitimate the ideology of privatization with its accompanying call for vouchers, charter schools, and the placing of public schools entirely in the control of corporate contractors. More specific reforms simply recycle right-wing ideology critiques calling for the replacement of teacher unions and “giving parents choice, back-to-basics and performance-driven curriculums, management ‘design teams’ and accountability.”

Underlying the call for privatization is a reform movement in which public education is seen as “a local industry that over time will become a global business.” As a for-profit venture, public education represents a market worth over $600 billion dollars, and the importance of such a market has not been lost on conservatives such as Chester Finn, Jr. and David Kearns, both of whom have connections with for-profit schooling groups such as the Edison Project and the North American Schools Development Corporation. At the level of policy, the right-wing assault by all reports has been quite successful. More than 28 states have drafted legislation supporting vouchers, choice programs, and contracting with for-profit management companies, such as the Edison Project and Sabis International Schools. But the public’s perception of such ventures appears to be less enthusiastic, and rightly so. Many firms such as Educational Alternatives Inc., which took over the Hartford and Baltimore public schools, have had their contracts canceled as a result of numerous complaints. The complaints range from the way in which such firms deal with kids with learning disabilities and engage in union busting to the charge that their cookie cutter standardized curriculum and testing packages fail to provide the quality of educational results that were initially promised by such companies.

But there is more at stake in the privatization of public schooling than issues of public versus private ownership or public good versus private gain. There is also the issue of how individual achievement is weighed against issues of equity and the social good, how teaching and learning get defined, what sorts of identities are produced when the histories, experiences, values, and desires of students are defined through corporate rather than democratic ideals.

Within the language of privatization and market reforms, there is a strong emphasis on standards, measurements of outcomes, and holding teachers and students more accountable. Privatization is an appealing prospect for legislators who do not want to spend money on schools and for those Americans who feel that they do not want to support public education through increased taxes. Such appeals are reductive in nature and hollow in substance. Not only do they abstract questions of equity and equality from the discussion of standards, they appropriate the democratic rhetoric of choice and freedom without addressing issues of power. The ideas and images that permeate this corporate model of schooling reek with the rhetoric of insincerity and the politics of social indifference.

Stripped of a language of social responsibility, the advocates of privatization reject the assumption that school failure might be better understood within the political, economic, and social dynamics of poverty, joblessness, sexism, race and class discrimination, unequal funding, or a diminished tax base. Rather, student failure, especially the failure of poor minority-group students, is often attributed to a genetically encoded lack of intelligence, a culture of deprivation, or pathology. Books such as The Bell Curve, and films such as 187 and Dangerous Minds reinforce such representations about African-American and Latino urban youth, as they perpetuate a history of racist exclusions. Similarly, such racist exclusions are being deepened by the informalities of privatization schemes in which schools mimic the free market, with the assumption that its regulatory and competitive spirit will allow the most motivated and gifted students to succeed. There is a shameful element of racism and a retrograde Social Darwinism that permeates this discussion, one which relinquishes the responsibility of parents, teachers, administrators, social workers, businesspeople, and other members of the wider society to provide young people with the cultural resources, economic opportunities, and social services necessary to learn without having to bear the crushing burdens of poverty, racism, and other forms of oppression.

Education in this framework becomes less a social investment than an individual investment, a vehicle for social mobility for those privileged to have the power to make their choices matter, and a form of social constraint for those who lack such resources and for whom choice and accountability betray a legacy of broken promises and an ideology of bad faith.....

[RevCheesehead]

2. So, NCLB is actually leaving the bright kids behind.

What is this? Georgie wants everyone to be as mediocre as he is? :eyes:

I'm impressed that a fifth-grader is writing at this level. :thumbsup:

[proud2BlibKansan]

5. Yes this is a bad law for the bright kids

And the low kids (that's my specialty) are also getting screwed because we don't have the remedial programs we used to have for them. We have to spend our money on test prep.

[RevCheesehead]

10. I despise mandates.

"We need to solve a problem; therefore, EVERYBODY will have to do...."

I'll bet most of the people who put this crap together spent very little time actually teaching. That makes about as much sense as a bunch of conservative white men making decisions about abortion.

Oh, wait - those are the same people, aren't they? :puke:

[HughBeaumont]

7. Less educated = more obedient.

Corporations (including our government :) ) want their workers thinking just enough to serve a purpose, not to break out of their station in life.

Of course, that leaves some incredibly smart people who vote Republican for whatever reason. I'm still trying to figure out that one.

[RevCheesehead]

11. Good point.

The answer, of course is the same as it always is.

My nephew once asked me what the difference was between Republicans and Democrats. (His parents are repukes, poor kid!)
I said, "Well, Christian, Democrats care about people."
"What about Republicans?"
"They care about money."
His dad (my brother) was in the car. He couldn't respond, because he knew I was right.

[HughBeaumont]

16. Approaching every situation with "How is this going to make me RICH?"

Or some other variation of "what's in it for ME?"

[RevCheesehead]

17. Mmm-hmm.

In the church, we call that "idolatry."

[NashVegas]

13. Actually, It's the Opposite

Or our jails would all be crowded with those who've earned BAs, MBAs, etc.

[DerBeppo]

15. So, would you support the elimination from the State in

the education system?

[The2ndWheel]

21. Or the more formally educated you are, the more you have to lose

so you stay obedient because why else did you spend all that time, effort, and money?

[HughBeaumont]

28. Especially since today's bachelor's degree is worth what yesterday's HS diploma was.

Imagine a day where you have to obtain a masters - just to remain employed. Not to advance, but to remain employed. I don't think we're too far away from that.

[MadHound]

31. Welcome to being a teacher

Teachers already have to obtain a master's degree in order to retain their employment. Once you are out of college with a bachelor's and your first job, you have four years to get a start on your master's, or you're screwed.

[MountainLaurel]

24. That's nothing new

If you go back to the days when corporate entities like coal mine companies funded the schools in the communities they operated and owned, quite literally, the companies deliberately undermined the education system (hiring people without a high school education to teach high school, for instance, because they were related to corporate bosses or someone to whom the company owed a favor)for which they were responsible. Meanwhile, the companies generously funded things like high school athletic teams, because it provided entertainment for the working people, helping them forget how badly they were being screwed and somewhat rehabilitating the company in the eyes of the people.

[ATK]

8. no one wants to hear their child isn't one of the smart kids

so schools must teach down to a level that leaves brighter children bored.
if the schools were allowed to segregate classes according to ability instead of the standard age/class levels, the brighter kids would be more able to fulfill their potential.

go back to the days where the less able kids were directed to a skill set instead of college

[RevCheesehead]

12. Or a one-room schoolhouse.

My favorite time in elementary school was when the teacher used curriculum that allowed us to go at our own pace. My best friend and I were called to her desk one day, and she said "you're almost done with all the material I have. You might want to bring a book to read to class."

[ATK]

14. ours would select the book we were to read when her work was done

books I later read for English Lit in 9th grade.

[pnwmom]

23. It's not a choice between "teaching down" or tracking. My child, who was also

in a one hour daily "gifted" program, was in a regular classroom that included children from ages 9-11. She remained there even when she was one of the oldest and most advanced. A skillful teacher can manage to teach students of an enormous range of ability and background, similarly to how a teacher in a one-room school house could teach both the oldest and the youngest students.

[ATK]

25. many teachers coming out of college are D-U-M-B

stupid.

not all, but there are studies that show that the cream of the crop isn't heading to the teaching profession.

and if you tell me its about money, I'll direct you to the pay scale in Fairfax County Va or Germantown OH...where teachers are making between 50 and 80k for 10 months of work.

[Odin2005]

30. It's because the pay is crap, crap pay = mediocre teachers.

If we want good teachers we need to make the pay high enough so people who would make good teachers will actually become teachers instead of looking for a better-paying job.

[ATK]

42. teaching isn't about money. well, that's what teachers always say

when they talk about why they teach.

http://www.oxfordpress.com/news/content/shared/oh/progress/2006/salaries/valley.html?no_owrap=true


66k for teaching elementary school?

[proud2BlibKansan]

35. Okay, post the study please

I am asking for a link to that study.

As for your allegation about the work year, teachers work 50-60 hour weeks all year and then either work or go to school in the summer. (We are NOT reimbursed for tuition either.) So no, we don't work a 10 month year. I have taught for 27 years and this summer will be the first one EVER that I have not worked or gone to school.

And man, I get tired of this false talking point.

[ATK]

41. it's not a study its their public information of teachers salaries

here's just ONE from Germantown Ohio. Fairfax, VA publishes theirs as well. I know 2 of the people on this list, personally, they've been teaching for under 5 years

http://www.oxfordpress.com/news/content/shared/oh/progress/2006/salaries/valley.html?no_owrap=true

and 50-60 hour weeks aren't unusual for people who don't get summers off.

[proud2BlibKansan]

43. No I want the study proving that teachers are "dumb"!

As for your complaints about salaries, I think those are great. Kudos to that district!

And since you think these "dumb" teachers are over paid for such an easy job, why not go get a teaching degree yourself? 10 months work, great vacations! What is keeping you? Or would you rather be a critic?!

[ATK]

45. I said MANY, not MOST. Its a subtle difference

and it's a study called "teacher quality, teacher pay" by Frederick Hess, April 2004

found that Under Graduate Education Majors tyically have lower SAT and ACT scores than other students and those with the lowest scores tend to stay in the profession longer.
in adittion, the lower quality of the undergraduate institution one attends, the more likely they are to wind up in the teaching profession.


and I have an accounting degree.....I work about 60 hours a week, ALL YEAR. I get 3 weeks off.
out of college I worked about 90 hours a week.

if you're going to compare jobs, don't try it with me. I CAN do your job, you CAN'T do mine.

[proud2BlibKansan]

46. Oh no you don't

I am asking for a link. Not your opinion or what you "recall".

After that link, please post any study that links SAT and ACT scores to teacher quality.

I will be waiting.

Oh and yes I COULD do your job. I majored in Math. I have taught accountants.

[ATK]

49. gave you the title, author and date of publication. you're a teacher

what would you tell your students.

accounting and math have very little in common, unless you look at arithmetic and basic algebra

[WritingIsMyReligion]

51. People whine so much about the "elitism" of gifted/talent programs.

It's really very pathetic. Motherfucking kids don't even want to be in G/T half the time--it's their parents who whine and moan and mess up honors classes.

[gkhouston]

27. not all "bright kids" do well on those tests, either.

The state where I finished high school introduced standardized testing as a must-have in order to graduate the year after I graduated. The test was offered during the years leading up to the beginning of "must pass to graduate" and I was pressured to take the test my senior year. You see, testing day was considered an unofficial senior skip day, and the principal was hoping for some good test scores. A rather exasperated Social Studies teacher took it upon herself to lecture a few of the "good students" on our responsibilities. She went so far as to say, "I don't know what your problem is. You couldn't fail this test if you tried."

Most of the seniors skipped. I took the test. :evilgrin:

Weeks later, there was a small article in the local paper about the test results. It mentioned that the 12-grade scores were noticeably lower across the entire school district. I often wonder if someone else made the same choice I did, or whether it really took only one person to skew the scores.

[pnwmom]

32. Naughty, naughty! LOL.

Even the bright kids who don't do it on purpose might not do well on the test, though -- because standard grade level tests don't show all that a bright student is capable of. And even a very bright student is capable of making dumb mistakes. (My capable math student could do algebra in elementary school -- but she could still make an arithmetic mistake, or copy one of her answers incorrectly. So she might not look like a very good student on a purely grade level test.)

[gkhouston]

34. true enough. I remember a standardized test in junior high where

I did great on geometry (a subject I hadn't studied formally yet) and lousy on addition and subtraction. :blush:

[pnwmom]

36. Unfortunately, a lot of potentially excellent math students

get overlooked for that very reason. The 7th and 8th grade advanced math teacher at my child's school said that one of his biggest frustrations was in getting the teachers of the younger students to send him the students who could most benefit from advanced math instruction -- they weren't always the ones who were best in arithmetic!

[RevCheesehead]

40. It was you.

:evilgrin:

[WritingIsMyReligion]

50. Yes, it does. I am one of them.

Fucking POS law makes everyone come up to standard, and doesn't let those BEYOND the standard keep marching forward. Very ugly law for all gifted/talent children and children who don't function well in traditional education anyway.

[proud2BlibKansan]

3. Wow!

Great writing for a 5th grader!!

[dogday]

6. My daughter is in the same grade

and she does not write like that, she is more the story-teller type... Great letter indeed...

[HughBeaumont]

4. School is supposed to be "fun"?

Er, when was this? School was about as fun as a root canal, and as an adult having to spend upwards of 2 hours a damned night with his 6th grade child struggling to finish his homework, I find it unbelievable that we have instructors that still think "well since the Russians, Indians, Asians and Europeans are still beating the pants off of us in nearly every area of study, the solution is to throw MORE homework at the problem! It MUST be the KIDS!".

While this little kid is intelligent and articulate enough, and he is right about the frustration experienced with standardized testing, he's going to be one sad little boy when he reaches 7th grade, when the corporatization and sterilization of young minds starts.

[youthere]

9. Our school district took all the kids that showed..

"GREATER THAN" a 12 month improvement on the standardized tests on a swim day and they get a pizza party afterwards. The kids that did show greater than a 12 month improvement stayed in school. Mind you, the kids that made the honor roll got no special "prize", the kids who got no demerits all year got no special trip or activity, but the ones who really shined on the basic skills test got rewarded. Message to all students: YOUR BEST IS NOT GOOD ENOUGH and THESE TESTS ARE THE ONLY THING THAT MATTER TO US.

[FourScore]

18. My children are in a Montessori school.

That's the best way to go!!!

[gollygee]

33. The one by me is $7,000 a year

It would be lovely though.

[GliderGuider]

19. The Teenage Liberation Handbook

One of the most subversive books I've ever read, and this includes Steal This Book.

My 22-yr-old, after completing a forgettable 4 years of high school, suggested we homeschool my 16-yr-old and convinced us to get this book. Needless to say, the younger one is learning so much more than she ever would have in a classroom.

This is a massive switch in my thinking. I loved school! Every minute of it!

The world has changed and none of my kids has ever even liked school. The 22-yr-old is acing her 3rd year at Ryerson University in Toronto because she's learning stuff that's important to her and the instruction is passionate and mostly self-directed by the profs.

From Wiki: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Teenage_Liberation_Handbook

The Teenage Liberation Handbook: How to Quit School and Get a Real Life and Education (ISBN 0-9629591-7-0) by Grace Llewellyn is a book about unschooling. Inspired by John Holt's educational views, among others, the book encourages teenagers to leave full-time school and let their curiosity guide their learning. It includes suggestions and resources regarding traditional academic areas, as well as chapters about talking to parents, social life, college, and exploring the world.

Llewellyn, a former teacher now disillusioned with the education system, also discusses the many reasons why schools are not providing a positive learning environment, why the methods employed are not effective and why many young people are miserable there for much of the time. She provides a guide to living ones life in a way where we simply "absorb information from the world around us" rather than spending over 12 years in an institution learning from a distance.

And a book review: http://www.educationrevolution.org/teenlibhan.html

The Teenage Liberation Handbook
by Grace Llewellyn

Your life, time, and brain should belong to you, not an institution. This Handbook is for everyone who has ever gone to school, but it is especially a book for teenagers and people with teenagers in their lives. You'll read:

* good reasons to think about quitting school.
* how to reclaim your natural ability to learn and teach yourself.
* how to get your parents' support, keep your friends, and stay out of legal trouble.
* how to design a personalized education you can get excited about.
* how to go to college without going to high school.
* how to find volunteer positions, apprenticeships, and other work opportunities.
* how other unschooled teenagers live and learn.

"This is a very dangerous book. It contradicts all the conventional wisdom about dropouts and the importance of a formal education. It is funny and inspiring. Do not, under any circumstances, share this book with a bright, frustrated high-schooler being ground into mind fudge by the school system. This writer cannot be responsible for the happiness and sense of personal responsibility that might ."
-Bloomsbury Review


"Sooner or later you're going to realize that you've been cheated out of a real life by missing a real education-when that time comes Grace Llewellyn's Handbook will save you a thousand hours of frustration, false starts and missed opportunities. Anyone who follows this clear blueprint is certain to meet the future with courage, enthusiasm, resourcefulness and the abundant love of life that the author has. She demonstrates brilliantly that school and education are two very different things, defining the latter precisely and with such a wonderful zest the reader is left dazzled with his own rich possibilities. Get this book now so it will be on hand for the great emergency when you wake up."
-John Taylor Gatto

[Reverend_Smitty]

20. I was in elementary school back in the early 90s...

and I can tell you from personal experience that testing week was some of the dullest times I've ever spent in a classroom. I usually brought a book to school so I could read when I was done with a section waiting for the time limit to expire. The only positive I could remember is that we got free juice and granola bars on break...lol. However I don't remember drilling for a month before like this kid is talking about...I can only imagine that it is exponentially worse today. I feel bad for the kids today, the system is trying to churn out little obedient robots

[Blue-Jay]

22. I think that fifth grader had a *little* help writing that.

Just a tad, mind you. :eyes:

[Posteritatis]

26. 'Cause no fifth graders read or write at or nearan adult level, right? (n/t)

[Blue-Jay]

38. Apparently not.

[proud2BlibKansan]

37. Oh I believe he wrote it

He sounds like a bright kid. We do have a few of those around.

[Blue-Jay]

39. Sure. There are many bright kids.

I just think this particular one had a little help. I didn't disagree with the sentiment, I just don't think that the message was unassisted.

[proud2BlibKansan]

44. What makes you think that?

I know plenty of bright 5th graders who could have written this.

[Lisa]

29. and yet, the Bushies who insisted on standardized tests have been accusing public schools ...

... of catering to the lowest common denominator, and squashing intellect and creativity.

Evidently Matthew gets the concept of "irony".

[proud2BlibKansan]

47. That makes sense

since the latest 'advice' we are getting from the US Dept of Ed is to abandon our efforts at helping the lowest kids and concentrate on the middle and top groups.

[villager]

48. *No* Bushie wants to see "creativity" -- outside of lying about financial bookkeeping

--thrive anywhere...

True creativity simply threatens them.