I have had an opportunity to work in both Texas and Massachusetts public
schools and medical schools. I have worked with gifted students and
teachers and professors and not so gifted folks too. It is not clear to
me that having fewer courses is necessarily bad. Neither is encouraging
students to do well by having a pep rally about a test necessarily a bad
thing. We do it for football, why not for a test that, like it or not,
affects whether students do or do not get a high school diploma? I am
not suggesting that opportunities to learn to play the piano or violin
or to sing and dance and make art should be limited to students who come
from households with higher than average incomes and college educated
parents and who are most likely to pass the TAAS And MCAS but let us
get real. Were other courses ever available to minority students?
Chicano students have not done well in Texas schools since schools were
first established. Black students at least had schools. My father
attended school for about three months because that was all the time
that shepherding goats in west Texas allowed. Many years later, while
working in El Paso in the early 90's I found that many students attend
school 50 to 60 days out of the 180 required. I met African American and
Chicano 12 year olds who did not attend school in either El Paso or
Lubbock. (The medical school with which I was affiliated has campuses
in both cities.)
The negative effect of high stakes testing on students should not be
underestimated. Neither should practices that exclude students from
good teaching, teaching that prepares students to read anything they
want well, that exposes them to a comprehensive and inclusive accurate
history from both the American point of view and the point of view of
others, that makes it possible for them to apply computational and
higher order thinking and problem solving skills in math and science and
music and art classes. The TAAS and MCAS are not the only practices
that negatively affect students. Instruction that is not based of an
accurate assessment of what each child knows before she enters the
classroom, programs that allow no flexibility, that do not take in to
account that many High school and even middle school students who want
to stay in school have to work, that do not give even willing teachers
the time and tools they need to connect with students on a personal
level (difficult with 35 students in each or your five algebra 1 classes
in a six period day) are on my list or factors that negatively affect
students' learning.
I personally know many teachers in two states who do not necessarily
like these test but who know that instruction has improved, whose
students are passing. I am witness to high school student engagement in
their own academic progress as counselors and assessment coordinators
and teachers help them come to grips with the fact that they as
individuals have to take this test on. I have not participated in a pep
rally but I have said to many students "I believe you can pass this
test. You are smart, good looking and you have goals. Passing this
test will affirm that you know your stuff, that you can move on to the
next step." My intention was to "pep" them up. I hope that I did. We
will all know whether our efforts helped by the end of February. Write
me then.
A young woman at my high school recently asked me three important
questions:
1. Do you know that high school students cheat?
2. Are people who learn fast more intelligent than those who learn
more slowly?
3. Do teachers take credit for teaching kids stuff students already
know?
She did not want to tell on anyone she wanted for me to help her make
sure that her teacher appreciated that she did not cheat, that the 78
average in a particular class was earned through her own effort. We
established that in fact many people believe that learning quickly
indicates greater intelligence but that once you learn something and can
use what you learn it is difficult to distinguish between a fast and
slower learner. As far as the third question, no question about it.
MCAS or no MCAS, TAAS or no TAAS there will still be an ACT or SAT or
LSAT or MCAT.
Perhaps we can examine how well we respect kids in school, whether or
not we welcome their parents and whether we will ever expend the
resources necessary to insure effective instruction and the good health
and well being of Americas children.
-----Original Message-----
From: Christina Perez [mailto:christina@fairtest.org]
Subject: [EDEQUITY Assesstment Dialogue] Changes in teaching practice?
.......I'm interested to hear if people in other states have witnessed the
kinds of changes McNeil described that have occurred in Texas. In
particular,
have you seen more direct "test prep" and "drill and kill" methods being
used, especially in lower-income schools and schools with high percentages
of
students of color?
Christina Perez
FairTest (christina@fairtest.org)
http://www.fairtest.org
and
TERC (christina_perez@terc.edu)
http://www.terc.edu
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.2 : Fri Apr 12 2002 - 15:16:56 EDT