In recent weeks, I've had a few readers ask whether the problems I've encountered with standardized testing in my children's public schools might be indicative of bad teaching, rather than bad tests. The best teachers, so the argument goes, don't let the tests get in their way-they stick to their tried and true pedagogical methods and never teach to the test. In our school district in Lexington, Virginia, this is largely true when it comes to reading and math. The state's guidelines in those areas aren't very intrusive, although NCLB's requirements drive the special education teachers crazy. However, our local teachers explain that Virginia's very specific curricular guidelines in social studies and science ensure that in those subjects, teachers must focus extensively on test content, with less time for assignments that emphasize critical thinking and writing, or subjects beyond the state's requirements. As one elementary teacher explained: "Any public school teacher in Virginia who says that they aren't teaching to the test is being disingenuous."
I'd love to hear from other teachers (and parents) in Virginia and nationwide about this issue. To what extent do standardized testing requirements tie your hands, and ensure a lot of teaching to the test? Or do you find that the testing in your area does not substantially affect the content and style of instruction?
Meanwhile, here is an excerpt from my recent memoir, Love in a Time of Homeschooling, which describes the testing in our area, and the disgusted responses of teachers and principals:
In Virginia, third grade marks the onset of annual standardized tests, something all states employ, but some are more zealous that others when it comes to dictating the schools' test-driven curriculum. In the 1990s Virginia instituted a new curriculum called the Standards of Learning, or SOLs-an appropriate acronym, since most parents and teachers I've met seem to feel that when it comes to the SOLs, we are all shit out of luck. As one high school teacher put it: "The SOLs are the monster that is devouring our schools."
If Julia's wandering mind had been our only challenge-if her school curriculum had been full of exciting and challenging materials, taught with creative approaches-I never would have opted for homeschooling. But Virginia's ardent embrace of our nationwide test-prep culture pushed me over the edge. I kept looking at the bland content in Julia's worksheets and tests, thinking "Oh, c'mon. I could do much better than this."
Most of Julia's teachers felt the same way. During her early years at Waddell Elementary, the teachers consistently lamented the effect of the SOLs on their program. "We always had standards," one veteran teacher sighed, but now the standards were being dictated by strangers in Richmond, and there was little time left in the day for teachers to use their own imaginations. "More than 80 percent of our curriculum is mandated by the state," another teacher explained. "And don't let anyone tell you that we don't teach to the test. We absolutely teach to the test."
To make time for extra test preparation, Waddell had abandoned many of the teachers' favorite units. "We used to do a first-grade unit on dinosaurs," one teacher recalled. "The children loved it." But since dinosaurs weren't part of the first-grade standards, they had become extinct in the classroom. "I used to do more creative writing," a fourth-grade teacher noted. "But now with all the testing, we don't have time for it." The Roots and Shoots garden was another SOL casualty, incorporated less and less into the children's schedule. By Rachel's fifth grade year, she would complain that they never visited the garden at all.
John (my husband), who had started his career as a K through 12 music teacher, felt a personal loathing for the tests. "When I taught in the public schools we didn't have these strict standards. If a teacher had a passion for chemistry or politics, he could share that. Teachers could play to their strengths. Now you don't have the time to elaborate on the finer or more interesting points of a subject. All you want the kids to do is spit out that the symbol for salt is NaCL."
"In the end," one local principal explained, "the SOLs make great teachers good and good teachers bad."
None of Julia's teachers seemed to mind Virginia's math and English requirements. Math and English were the bread and butter of elementary school; it was fine for the state to insist that grade school teachers hammer home the basics of arithmetic and reading comprehension. The problems stemmed from the state's increasingly specific mandates in science and social studies, which covered everything from elementary economics to Virginia state history. When I told a friend about Virginia's fourth grade test on state history, this veteran public school principal threw back her head and laughed. "My teachers would revolt if we instituted a standardized test on Pennsylvania history. The whole concept behind standards is to cover basic knowledge that is essential for everyone-not to memorize facts that are specific to one region." Unfortunately, with each successive year Julia seemed to spend more and more time memorizing highly specific facts for multiple choice tests.
To me, multiple choice is the greatest sign of the failure of American education-a form of testing developed for the convenience of grading machines, which has little to do with real learning. Genuine education involves thinking, writing, making connections and drawing conclusions, but at Julia's school, as at many schools nationwide, writing played second fiddle to fill-in-the-bubble.
Waddell was such a promising place, it was sad to see the teachers dragging around their state-mandated ball and chain. But our little school was a good foot soldier in Virginia's SOL crusade, which meant that Julia and I, along with all the other families and teachers, kept marching in step.
That march became especially dreary at the end of the third grade, as Julia prepared for her first standardized test in social studies. School districts throughout Virginia were issuing flashcards from a private company that gave its package the silly title: "Race for the Governor's Mansion." Trying to be a dutiful parent, I quizzed Julia on the cards and was dismayed by their poor quality.
"Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness are ________ that all Americans enjoy," one flashcard read. "Inalienable rights," Julia responded, repeating Jefferson 's words from the Declaration of Independence. I flipped the card over. Privileges, it read. How ridiculous, I thought, to have the children memorize an arbitrary word pulled out of a hat. In fact, the flashcards would get worse in upcoming years, containing numerous errors. "What ancient cities farmed on hillsides?" Greece and Rome. "What country was home to several great empires?" Africa...
Here is a link to a Washington Post op-ed that I wrote about third-grade flashcards teaching that Africa is a country. The Virginia Department of Education responded by correctly pointing out that the state doesn't make the flashcards-something I had failed to note in the piece. But I wrote back to them and explained that the flashcards are the symptom, and the SOLs are the disease.
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