New Readicide strand: how is testing harming our students and what can we do about it?

[Kelly Gallagher]

Because the first strand is getting long, I will start a couple of new ones.

In this strand let's continue the discussion about the harmful effects of testing and what we can do to turn the tide.

It seems many teachers intuitively know that the over-emphasis on testing is not good for kids, but these same teachers are also under a lot of pressure to raise scores. Thoughts? Solutions? Approaches?

[Jocelyn Downs]

I think we need to look at this in another way. I was just reading comments about why we teach Shakespeare, and I saw very little information about what students learn from Shakespeare.The focus is more on what teachers love about teaching Shakespeare.

I ask here, what should we be teaching students, and how will we know what they've learned? I agree that over emphasis on testing does damage. I'm searching for the relevance in teaching English, and I believe that the stanch denial of any value in assessment perhaps has put us in a perilous position to support the value of our profession.

[Kelly Gallagher]

Hi Jocelyn,

I have MUCH to say here, but I'm going to save it until next week (when the topic switches to teaching).

[Katrina Gonzales]

As another Texas teacher who just spent the day in a TALA workshop, day one of three, I was floored to hear a seventh grade teacher say that, at her school, reading and writing are separate classes because....are you ready for this?....because of the TAKS test! That way, the teacher "isn't under so much pressure" (in Texas, writing is tested at grade 7.)

At our school we block reading and writing together for grades 5-8 because it makes makes sense educationally. I can't fathom dividing the two simply to eliminate pressure on the teacher. Whatever happened to the student? Oh, yeah...testing!

[Ramona Lowe]

I'm also in Texas. My district lets the middle school campuses decide how to teach ELA, either integrated or separate. We've been working to push the integrated approach and some campuses are on board, but many are like the principal who won't consider it, saying "I want teachers to teach to their strengths." Personally, I think getting a middle school reading only position is the cushiest job around.

I've talked with TEA and it's clear that they think integration is the way--look at the new TEKS. However, "local control" keeps them from being more forceful.

[Katrina Gonzales]

Thank goodness my principal is what I call a true literacy leader. Several times, splitting the ELA block has reared its ugly head, and she has stuck to her guns. I really cannot see any benefit to separate ELA into reading and writing except to help out the teacher. Two years ago, I taught seventh grade and had both tests. I don't see that I did anything different than what I do in my eighth grade class. Alas, the TAKS test has created another situation that doesn't keep the students in mind.

[Mardie]

In my first year of teaching, I was put into 6th, a testing year here (Ontario, Canada), for 4 years. I watched as the tests changed over the years and became significantly less valuable, less valid in my view. They started out with mostly short to long answer questions: summary, TS and TW connections . . .. They gave the kids beautiful glossy magazine-type reading selections, stuff kids might have even wanted to keep! Now the tests are black and white print (including images, that's if they include images) and it's almost entirely multiple choice. I can't help making connections to that discovery moment when you realize that the brand of cereal you've been buying is no longer full of 'wheaty goodness', but is now mostly sugar. And, the box is half the size for the same price. (Ok, so it was never really full of 'wheaty goodness', but now . . . ARGHHH!)

Good tests are tough to score when you're trying to keep your costs down.

[Nancy Tomaso]

In response to Heather's comments about students who make great gains in reading but the test scores do not reflect the growth---

I wholeheartedly agree with you. I am a reading specialist and I work with primary grade students. I have a first grader who worked very hard and now reads on grade level (guided reading level J according to Fountas and Pinnell). However, he scored in the 3rd percentile on the MAP test last month. (The MAP is an achievement test taken on the computer. I question the validity...) Gee, he has some ADD issues and I am sure that had an impact on his score (we lovingly call such students "mad clickers"!). Not only that, in K-2, the MAP test in Reading is also a listening test! The kiddos listen with headphones. Can you imagine a kdg. or 1st grade student sitting still at a computer for 30 plus minutes taking a reading test- often at the end of the day when they have checked out????

One of the other buildings in my district is even teaching to the MAP test! They give the students "sample problems" which mirror the actual test items. Sure that building has all but two or three first graders above the 35%tile (our cutoff for reading services) but don't you think this will bite them in the butt later on when next year the kids are not truly reading at the level the test indicates they do?

So, I just want all of you fine teachers to know that the overtesting begins years before you get the kiddos. A test score is a one shot deal and there are so many factors that play into it.

[timothy shea]

As a teacher educator, I realize that I am preparing my future English teachers to be subversive and rebels if they are going to help their students engage with reading and writing in authentic and meaningful ways. While an aspect of this role thrills me, I wonder just how long I will be able to maintain healthy relationships with schools when they find out that much of how I teach their future teachers to educated goes against so much of what the schools embrace as the way to teach. I am motivated by my past students who remind me repeatedly that the fight is well worth it. It would be nice if it got a little easier to fight, nonetheless. :)

[Kelly Gallagher]

But what an important element in the educational chain. Teacher prep programs are generally doing a poor job teaching all content areas the value of reading (and don't even get me started on writing across the curriculum). I am sorry to say that I don't anticipate the fight to get easier any time soon.

[Alan Sitomer]

Teaching our next generation of teachers is why I decided to become a Professor (in the early evenings) at Loyola Marymount University and my entire experience, in so many ways felt like I was guiding them in ways to be subversive... because serving the best needs of the students was always more important than serving the needs of the buffoonish paper-pushers who came up with some of these wrong-headed policies.

Incredible how it really almost takes a rebel yell into a dark night to do right by the next generation of educators. Otherwise, they might grow up to believe that success on bubble test assessment actually is the ultimate aim of public education in the United States!

[RHE]

Alan,

I appreciate the satisfaction in teaching rebellion, but are you really being fair to your students that are entering a world that is so test oriented. My middle school campus principal is a football coach, and he manages to numbers. I would think you would teach your students to be successful in a very challenging environment. Maybe this is one of the reasons 50% of new teachers don't make it past year 5. Which I might add, I just finished Woo Hoo!

[Amanda]

This book came along at a point in the year where I was really ready to throw in the towel. I've always loved being a teacher, and never once said "Ugh, I have to go to work". I've never classified what I do as "work" or a "job". Unfortunately, after this year, I am really questioning the way our schools are being turned into factories that are producing generations of non-thinkers, non-readers, and non-writers. Basically, in my school, our administration handed down that we all have to teach the same exact things and give the same exact tests at the end of every unit (which turn out to be all multiple choice, scantron tests). I have always been a believer in balanced assessments, but now every test that I have to give is a poorly written multiple choice test! How is that going to allow students to fully express their thoughts? I think originally they had good intentions in trying to hold teachers to teaching important skills (we had teachers who would just pull random worksheets and had no scope and sequence in what they were teaching), but now we are all being turned into robots. The lowest point came when I had to give a student with a 2nd grade reading level a 100 question multiple choice test with questions like, "What type of dance did Cole do in Chapter 12?"...questions that have no meaning or importance. It was heartbreaking to see the look on his face when he saw how long it was. What blew my mind even more was that the other teachers in the department thought it was a good test! When I tried to question why we were doing something like this, they never really gave me a solid answer.