TOWARD A NEW VISION FOR OUR CHILDREN AND THEIR SCHOOLS: I HAVE A DREAM...
Where time spent engaged in inquiry, reading, making art, writing, interviewing, dancing, problem solving, dramatizing is more highly prized than time spent filling in bubbles, choosing the right answer to someone else’s questions or logging on to prove you read...
Lester Laminack
Every time that I am reminded of it, I am daunted by it. "It" being standardized assessments. How are the stresses and the pressures going to effect my teaching? Better yet, how is it going to effect my will to stay in the profession and to keep on teaching?
This entire fear or doubt in my future as an educator was set in motion last year when one of my first TE professors gave the class a bit of a reality check. After talking about standardized testing and how a lot of teachers quit because of strict curriculum and having to follow every detail, he fed us a statistic. He said that out of the twenty people in our class, one out of five of us will leave the profession after at least five years. Surprisingly, I have to admit that the first thought that came into my head was that I would, most likely, be one of those people. I have to explain, though, that I definitely do not want to be that person. I decided to change my major to Teacher Education because of the obvious: I love children, I want to do whatever I can to help them develop into sophisticated human beings, and to make a difference (among other things). So, all of this seemed impossible to attain after our discussion on the reality of a teacher's job. Nevertheless, we will all just have to "cross that bridge when we get to it" and hopefully be able to find some balance.
The reason I bring this topic up is because of a certain blog I follow and recommend any Language Arts major to read: Two Writing Teachers. One of the writers blogged about a recent conversation she had about standardized testing with her second grade daughter. It consisted of the daughter, H., asking if her mother was impressed by her test scores. Her mother said, "Not really," and of course the seven-year-old was upset. What her mother tried to get across to her was that she should not value what others think about how she did on some "silly" test; she should always try her best as a student and be proud of herself for that reason alone A test like that won't show who a person is, how creative a person is, etc. The problem that the mother was trying to fix was preventing her daughter from labeling herself, her worth, and her abilities as a student.
^^^ This is great and as people commented on her blog they gave some really positive feedback, but not without a "BUT" or "HOWEVER"...
My brother is a teacher and he works at one of those schools where the teacher's pay is directly affected by how well the students do on their standardized tests. He told me that last year, he got a raise because they all did well on the tests, while the teacher down the hall lost her job because of how her students did on the test. However, there were also others reasons why she got let go. Anyways, my brother told me this and then he asked why it would matter if the scores affected the pay if you are doing your job. If I'm doing my job and trying as hard as I can to give these children all that they deserve, I'm not going to lose my job. Either the students will do well, or the administration will understand that some years it just doesn't go as planned. Through all the bad days, you just have to remember why you chose this profession. Its a relationship--just like any relationship you have with a person. You have to remember why you want to be around them, even when you are fighting. Ok, I'm done going on that long ramble...haha
ReplyDeleteI definitely agree with you- the pay isn't important. You initially go into this profession knowing you won't be making a ton of money and that's fine.
ReplyDeleteBut the thing that's so hard to be witness to is how low scoring students start to believe that they aren't smart and that they aren't capable of improving. Their self-concept and motivation to achieve may decline over time. So, all in all, teachers have to remember not to change their expectations of students after looking at the results of standardized tests.
I read this article for my TE301 class and it compared the expectations for students of the U.S. and Japan/China. In the U.S. the emphasis is on ABILITY (natural talent) rather than effort in assessing the academic potential of students; you pretty much either have it or you don't. In Japan/China they consider hard work a more important factor than ability in a student's academic achievement. They don't regard low scores as a sign of low ability, but evidence that a student hasn't yet achieved his/her potential through persistence and hard work.
That was one of the best articles I've read while in the TE program so far and I'm going to adopt the Japanese/Chinese thinking on this matter into my future classroom.
Here's the link to the article: http://www.ncrel.org/sdrs/areas/issues/educatrs/leadrshp/le0bam.htm