If you read my 4:00 a.m. Rough Draft, you'll be glad to know I didn't send it. After I edited it many times and thought I had sufficiently toned down the snark and sarcasm, I asked JC to read it. He started reading and said, "I'm about three sentences in, and you shouldn't send this." That's when it is nice to have a blog - a place to rant away in a letter that never gets sent. He then said to me, "Have you researched to see if what you are saying is actually true? Would the kids pass without all this prep work? Maybe that's what it takes." Good point. Off to research I went. What I discovered depressed me even more. Apparently, the hours upon hours upon hours of test prep that our elementary school requires IS necessary for kids to pass the EOGs. Our school ranks in the top 20 of over 1350 elementary schools in the state when ranked according to EOG scores. Our percentage of students who met the standards by passing EOG's last year in reading ranged from 87-89% in third through fifth grade. The other nearby school that is an option for my children to attend had passing rates of 58-67%, right in line with the district average of 64-70%. The state average was 53-60%. In math, our school passing rate ranged from 81-87%. The other nearby school was 54-79%. The district average was 59-61%, and the state average was 46-47%.
To repeat, the state average for children who "met grade level standards" by passing EOG's last year in math was 46-47%. What? Fewer than half the children in our state are considered grade level proficient for math? What is wrong with this picture? Is the test too hard or confusing for their understanding of the material? Is the teaching that bad? Is the curriculum too difficult for their level of brain development? Is there too much information crammed into the school year, and teachers can't cover it all? Are so many children behind that they'll never be able to catch up? Is it a combination of any or all of those? Our school, apparently, has figured out how to work the system, and they are doing it well. Despite the fact that passing scores across the state and our district tend to fall in the 50-60% range, our school is consistently scoring in the upper 80's. All that test prep works. The hours of online test modules for homework, the Xeroxed copies of old EOG's that they do in the classroom, the weeks of instructional time that is taken away in lieu of test prep.... it all accomplishes the goal of increasing test scores. No matter how much I hate it, I can't argue the data. If the goal of education these days is high test scores (which it seems to be), then our school is doing that well. Any complaints I may have about the methodology would be shot down quickly with the numbers showing success.
That's not the way it should be though. Where is the disconnect between the teaching, the curriculum, the materials, and the testing that roughly half of our state's students aren't able to pass an end of grade test? Do half the students need to be held back each year to repeat the grade?
If the only way to be successful as a school is to do weeks of intense test prep, then the tests aren't measuring the students' knowledge that they have gained over the course of the year. The tests are measuring how many times the students have taken sample tests.
I don't have any answers... just lots of questions. It all feels broken, but I don't even know where to begin with a fix. Sigh. I suppose I'll just sit back and enjoy next year with nobody in third through fifth grade. That's my one glimpse of positivity right now.
It feels broken because it is broken.
No Child Left Behind and similar initiatives are designed to create some way to measure and track how schools perform. This creates both intended (a way to compare schools' performance) and unintended (teaching to the test)consequences. At our annual beach vacation, we've spent part of each week for the past 10 years discussing this with the parents there -- which includes teachers and a principal.
I think your comment about "working the system" is spot on. Incentives drive behavior, and some schools have figured out the best way to achieve their incentive-driven goals based upon their student population. Other schools may not have figured it out, or they may have other factors that make it difficult to achieve higher EOGs, or maybe they're making progress but it's still below where it should be. It's also possible (or likely) that the wrong incentives are in place.
Posted by: dave handelsman | Monday, May 11, 2015 at 08:50 AM
Here's a new research project - how much money does the state spend on test materials? I maintain that the true beneficiaries of testing are the marketers of tests.
From a number of years spent tutoring in Dallas public schools my insight on the math scores is that many of the math problems on the tests are word problems. If a child is a poor or slow reader they are going to have poor math scores.
Posted by: Joan | Monday, May 11, 2015 at 11:04 AM
Have any of your kids read the Origami Yoda series? In the later books in the series the kids start a rebel alliance against all of the school's testing regime. They're very entertaining books (even if the fictional solution isn't necessarily realistic . . .)
Posted by: Catharine | Monday, May 11, 2015 at 04:13 PM
Dave - agreed. I guess I can understand the desire to track school performance. It just seems like if 50% or more of kids aren't performing "at grade level expectations" across the board then the expectations are too high or the test used for measuring is flawed.
Catharine - no, we haven't read those, but it sounds great. I may need to read it myself! Maybe I can start my own rebel alliance.
Posted by: Ann | Monday, May 11, 2015 at 07:37 PM
Another huge problem is what the actual % correct on the test is considered passing. On some of the reading, at a 50%(ish) you would get a 3 and a low 60% = "projected level 4" -- it is INSANE. I hate doing all this test prep as a teacher, but it isn't as much the material as it is the actual test taking strategies that the kids need practice with. They have no idea how to narrow down the choices or how to read the question to try and find the "right" answer. Even with my 5th graders, they have trouble sometimes choosing between the last 2 logical choices and many times it is because they take too much of their background knowledge into account and not looking strictly at the text. Is it ridiculous, yes. Is it necessary, yes to an extent. The test scores determine so much now from their math course for middle school, to being identified for AIG, to whether or not they pass the 3rd grade. A colleague and I put in our "requests" for teaching next year for anything other than 3rd grade (i.e. K, 1, 2, 4, 5). It is that much worse in 3rd now with the read to achieve law. Be thankful your first two didn't have to go through third like it is now. I am thankful my kids didn't have to do what I am required to give.
Posted by: Stephanie | Monday, May 11, 2015 at 08:14 PM
Ack... Steph, you have me nervous about Addie's third grade year. GAH! This pressure-cooker atmosphere has gotten worse and worse every year. Next year will be a breath of fresh air in 2nd grade, but I'm dreading the last three years of elementary. :( It really shouldn't be that way. It is freaking elementary school!!
Posted by: Ann | Monday, May 11, 2015 at 10:03 PM
OK... so I just read this article about Read to Achieve. It sounds horrible. Absolutely horrible. I loved the quote from the teacher who said, "I don't need 36 tests to tell me who is reading on grade level and who isn't. I already know who those students are. And 36 tests won't make them better readers. It will just make them hate reading." EXACTLY. Steph, you think I could hire you to homeschool Addie for 3rd through 5th grade?
Posted by: Ann | Tuesday, May 12, 2015 at 09:50 AM
Forgot to add the link. http://www.ncpolicywatch.com/2014/03/20/students-teachers-grapple-with-read-to-achieve-law/
Posted by: Ann | Tuesday, May 12, 2015 at 09:51 AM
Albert Einstein: "A Society's competitive advantage will come not from how well its schools teach the multiplication and periodic tables but from how well they stimulate imagination and creativity."
Barbie
Posted by: Barbara Eldridge | Tuesday, May 12, 2015 at 12:20 PM
Absolutely -- do you have benefits? :) I really wish I could do something like that -- small group, awesome lessons, impromptu field trips. I would love it. I LOVED homeschooling the girls in 2nd grade -- best 7 months ever :)
Posted by: Stephanie | Tuesday, May 12, 2015 at 08:22 PM
Ann - This testing business seems to be world-wide. The following is from a letter to the editor of The Times of the UK.
"The torment of our exam-ridden children:
It is madness that schools, in a desperate pursuit of prestige, are tormenting children through their obsession with examination results."
Posted by: Barbara Eldridge | Monday, May 18, 2015 at 11:57 AM
Steph - man, if I thought I could afford your salary and benefits, I would hire you in a heartbeat!
Barbie - you can forget about imagination and creativity. I think that is gone. Elise uses more imagination and creativity in middle school than the younger ones do in elementary... and the youngest ones are usually the ones full of great imaginative thoughts! No time for creativity though... too many multiple choice tests to take.
Fascinating quote from the UK... I had assumed all the testing madness was a US thing.
Posted by: Ann | Tuesday, May 19, 2015 at 10:22 AM