Award winners say reliance on results harmful to learning
August 19, 2009
BY MAUDLYNE IHEJIRIKA
Some of the area's best teachers -- most of them from public schools -- say increased focus on standardized testing has negatively impacted the way they teach, the way students learn and education overall, a study released Tuesday said.
In a survey of winners of its prestigious excellence in teaching award, the Golden Apple organization found 72 percent of respondents believe so-called high-stakes testing has hurt education.
"One thing remains constant with standardized testing. It is a way to categorize students. It is not about students learning. It is not about teachers teaching," said one winner, Griselle Diaz Gemmati, a teacher at Norwood Park Elementary. "It is about allocating or refusing or denying funding."
Like Diaz Gemmati, 55 percent of the top teachers said the reliance on test results in the controversial No Child Left Behind Act has hurt teaching and learning.
According to 80 percent or more, it's more important to teach their students the skills of critical thinking and problem solving, communication and collaboration and creativity and innovation and flexibility and adaptability.
Our comments:
At Pleasantdale, kids are not taught to own knowledge. They are merely taught to rent it. The focus is on test prep. The students are taught how to take tests and how to choose the correct answer. They do this over and over and over again.
Why is it that students at Pleasantdale take so many standardized tests? They take the ITBS not once, but twice every year. They take the DIBELS three times each year. They take the GATES-MacGinitie test. They take the CogAT. They take the SSIS test. They take the EXPLORE test. They take the ISAT which is the only mandated test.
All these test require preparation; all this preparation takes away from actual learning.
Our district pays Dr. John Wick, a statistician, approx. $25,000 per year to teach teachers and administrators how to prep students for tests. He then analyzes the data and tweaks his instruction so the students will do even better the next time.
"It is a way to categorize students. It is not about students learning. It is not about teachers teaching." This statement epitomizes exactly what is being done in our schools. It is why students at Pleasantdale can get a perfect Explore score but never make the honor roll.
Sunday, August 23, 2009
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3 comments:
It is another start of the school year and my kids are excited to be back and in school and learning. Every year I watch their excitement turn into an overwhelming feeling when the teachers start piling on homework. Last year my middle schooler had more homework than my freshman who was taking upper level classes. There is something wrong with that thinking. Inappropriate homework makes kids not like school. So I am calling out all parents who feel the same way to voice their feelings and concerns that they have about their child's homework. This school should reflect the needs and wants of the community and not reflect the needs and wants of a few people on top who do not experience all the rules they enact. When a rule is made, they are many many unintended consequences that do more harm than good. The people on top have zero awareness. This zero awareness turns them into ineffective leaders who run and hide secrets.
Our teachers (and administrators) are so welled trained by outside professionals that they are losing their innate ability to teach from their love for teaching. (Passion is a derivative of love. You cannot make someone love something and therefore have passion.) It is as if their personality is being slowly replaced by outside sources. The statements they make to you as a parent leave you wondering if they have any of their own cognitive abilities left to evaluate the rhetoric that they have been taught about teaching. These philosophies they have learned from the conferences have been drilled into their heads. Some of them, then in turn, turn around and drill them into you as a parent. You walk away feeling like this person was trying to brainwash you. Your ability to reach people comes from inside of you. Yes, you can be trained, but an observant listener can see that the speaker doesn't own their own words and has been well trained. As a parent you leave with not being able to believe anything they say. Sending the teachers to all these conferences shows little faith in their own abilities to teach. What could be the motivating factor in all this for some people? Could it be passion or $$$$$$$$$?
It's $$$$$. The higher the test scores go, the more the administrators can and do pay themselves. This is why Pleasantdale won't join the consortium at LT. Every local school has joined but Pleasantdale. It was in the paper the other day and LT sent it in their newsletter that Pleasantdale is the ONLY school that won't join. Pleasantdale doesn't want anyone to know how poorly their kids do when they get to LT otherwise they would join. Instead, they have their own set of tests that they go by. They use Dr. Wick to compile stats and maneuver everything so our scores look good. Do you have any idea who writes these tests? Dr. Wick!!! How could our scores not look good when you have someone that writes the questions, coaches the teachers during team meetings and in services and sets up a website so our kids get the answers right. No wonder our kids do well at Pleasantdale. It's all a facade.
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