Governor Markell thinks that Delaware students are taking too many tests, probably because he required them to take too many tests, and so Governor Markell is going to reduce the number of tests so as to relieve the massive burden he placed on teachers and students. How nice of him. Of course, he is not eliminating tests immediately. He wants a review of the situation, another task force, to determine which state and district wide tests are redundant, and then we will do away with the duplicative tests. So it’s not that tests are bad, or that many tests are bad, so long as they are not duplicative. So this is a delaying tactic to respond to the rapidly growing movement that is opposed to a lot of Markell-based and Federal-based efforts to reform education. People are upset, so maybe this announcement will placate some.
To me, it ignores the core (no pun intended) of the issue.
Why are we testing?
Gov. Jack Markell on Thursday re-affirmed his belief that good tests are a vital part of the education system but acknowledged that some parents and teachers have complained that students are spending too much time on them.
“Our educators, our students, and their parents all deserve the benefits of effective assessments that show when students are excelling and when they need extra support,” Markell said. “At the same time, tests that don’t add meaningfully to the learning process mean less time for students to receive the instruction and support they need.”
To be clear, the Governor is not talking about the tests a student takes as part of particular class, like History or Math. No, he is talking about the performance tests that the school district, the state or the Federal Department of Education require students take to determine their overall progress, which in turn determine who gets what education funding. And the reason to require that was ostensibly to make sure that those lagging behind or those failing these tests get the needed attention, or the needed funding. The real reason, revealed by the whole Priority Schools debacle, was to determine which public schools to close and what education funding to cut.
Tests on subject matter in a particular class, and your final grade in that particular class, are the most effective assessment of how a student is doing. If a student fails the test, either he or she didn’t study, or perhaps has some anxiety on taking tests or dyslexia. Either way, the responsibility on passing the test and getting a passing grade in a class is on the student.
That became unacceptable in the 1980’s. Parents could not accept that students were failing, that their child was failing, so of course, it had to be the teacher’s fault. Or the principal’s fault. Or the Superintendent’s fault. The School’s fault. The curriculum’s fault.
But for the existence of Teacher’s Unions, the first solution to this horror of a student failing would have been to fire the teacher. So we started down the path with all these “assessments” instead to determine how a student “performs” against a “standard.” To me, these assessments have always been a tool to undermine teachers, not help students.
So how about this as an Education Reform Plan:
1) We repeal No Child Left Behind
2) We repeal Race to the Top
3) We repeal all other performance-based smart balance learning assessment standards, rules, tests, etc that have been enacted and placed on our children from the beginning of time until now.
Then a student’s performance can be assessed through how he or she does in each class each year. And then maybe all the fucking money we are spending on tests, and teaching to the test, and determining which test is the best to assess performance, and which school to close or … ahem… “prioritize” can instead be spent on raising teacher pay, so as to keep the best teachers and to hire more better teachers. If you do that, you help the student learn. And then the student does better, if he or she wants to.
Now, the curriculum, and who gets to decide what is in it, is another issue for another day, and we will discuss that next week. But I think the best idea right now is to end all assessment tests everywhere. In Delaware. In Washington State. In California. In Maine. In Florida. Everywhere. Let’s go back to the basics.
I am sure the more intelligent adults will now scold me as being too simplistic. Yes, please defend what you all have wrought some more. Time to start over.