Month: April 2015

Onderwijsgek at nl.wikipedia

Today was day 2 of M-Step testing (Michigan’s NEW standardized test) for my 7th grade students. It was a sad day for me. Our day started off with a two hour block of time set aside for our ELA test. We walked down to the computer lab with hands full of books, drinks and food (all for after the test). Many of my students were still in wake up and/or breakfast mode. As the all important directions were read a few students still getting their morning salutations taking care of and clearing out the cobwebs in their minds.

As the students began the test, you could feel the eagerness and desire for success fill the room. This feeling dissipated quickly as the students attacked the daunting task ahead. Reading and listening to multiple articles while answering multiple choice questions and writing short answer responses, the once poised upright figures perched in front of computers turned into slouched mush like figures fidgeting with headphones and tapping keyboards. The two hours crawled by at a snails pace, as each students lost their grit and gave into “just finishing” the test.

I understand the logic of giving “standardized” tests like the M-step. Our society wants to see the efforts and student growth from schools to tell if our students are learning. Does this methodology work? It feels like educational malpractice. This process goes against all that teachers learn in their training. Assessments that support student growth and achievement don’t operate this way.

• Assessments need to be timely. – M-Step is not
• Assessments need fast feedback – We don’t know when M-Step results will be shared yet
• Assessments should measure students’ growth- M-Step is a norm referenced test that ALL students take and it does not adapt to their knowledge level
• Assessment should allow for students to chose how to express knowledge – M-step doesn’t even give our students a pencil and paper option.
• Assessments should be created by teachers based upon what they taught- M-Step was mainly created by a corporation based upon standards that may or may not have been taught . (We have 7 weeks left in school year)
• Assessments should be short and integrated into the flow of instruction. M-Step is disrupting normal instructional patterns over 3 weeks of the school year for my 7th grade students. (While also tying up all computers labs so technology is limited for instruction.)

Common core standards are good. This type of testing is giving them a bad name and making our students appear to not be learning everything they should. Could we make an assessment system that works?

WHAT IF…

• States trained teachers universally on the new standards
• Teachers created questions based upon the standards to create a state question bank
• Districts could create local tests using question banks to measure what was taught built using local curriculum maps
• Assessments could be given in small chunks at the time of learning units completions to place them in the flow of learning.
• Students and staff could have instant feedback to adjust teaching and promote students learning and growth.

This could work. Just requires trust from the state in the districts and teachers!

I came to the startling revelation yesterday, I am being consumed by education! It is eating my life away and I have to change to fix it. It must have started nibbling on me a few years back when I took a leadership role in our MEA Local. I felt I had the leadership skills and the knowledge to help guide our unit. The Michigan Legislature decided it was time for education to take larger bites out of teachers. Changing teacher tenure laws, right to work laws and teacher evaluation laws all within a couple of months. At first the larger bites mainly missed me. I weaved carefully through the landscape. Avoiding major bite wounds. The efforts are now showing their toll.

Teachers have always tried their best, giving it their all to make sure that THEIR students learn, are cared for and grow during their time together. Now I was asked to give more. Wanting to be an effective teacher, I always give all I can. Giving all I can at work and fighting the constant political criticism of teaching, funding cuts, and changes takes its toll at home. I have giving all my energies at work and neglected my home. My wonderful wife reminded me yesterday that I do more and am nicer to students and co-workers than my family. She is right. I need to change. I need to let the attacks, the criticisms, the inequalities go. Focus on education has consumed me. Instead of celebrating my wife’s bonus from work, I offered words of resentment. “Teachers don’t get bonuses!” That is no way to treat my wife.

I have let the educational landscape turn me into a cynic who complains about every aspect of society due to the neglect to education. This is cannot be healthy for anyone. I know this is why teachers are leaving the profession. It is devouring us. I LOVE TEACHING, but it has turned me into the worst husband and father as it eats me up. I have lost the ability to focus on the fun and positive in my life. We only live once and I don’t want to be the crotchety old guy sitting in the rocker at the coffee house alone.

I write this as a word of warning. Be a union member, raise awareness but don’t allow it to eat you up and seep into every aspect of your life, like I have. It can consume you if you do! I am now realizing how much I allowed the negativity in teaching seep into my home life. If I can’t get it out I will have to move on to another profession, but I LOVE TEACHING so I hope to figure out it out!

Schools are supposed to create students that are college and career ready. What does this mean? How can education make such a blanket statement? It is especially concerning since roughly 70% of the careers our students will be employed have not be created yet! The Center for Education and the Workforce’s website states “35 percent of the job openings will require at least a bachelor’s degree, 30 percent of the job openings will require some college or an associate’s degree and 36 percent of the job openings will not require education beyond high school.” This data shows that there is diversity in education obtainment and careers, yet our schools struggle to allow for this diversity. Students have to master similar skill sets and ALL take the same standardized test. Teachers are all judged on how this diverse group of students performs on these standardized tests. This is all done in the name of being “College and Career, READY!”

The main focus of schools curriculum is to teach content standards. Teachers spend hours creating lesson plans on how to address these standards to mastery. Most of these standards are subject specific like being able to recognize irrational numbers or explain the chemistry involved in photosynthesis. How do these skills connect to ALL careers? especially the ones that just only require a high school diploma? Standardized test like SAT, ACT and the newer Smarter Balanced and PARCC frequently describe themselves as being College and Career readiness assessments. Maybe college and a few careers but surely not many careers. These test solely assess learned standards. Is this what most careers are looking for?

Ben Davies states that most careers are looking for skills in: communication, teamwork, self-motivation, project management, flexibility, interpersonal communications, and organization. The recent changes towards the Common Core State Standards does reflect Ben’s sentiments as the standards are reflecting more work habit skills and less content knowledge. Does this show up on the assessments? Not YET. (This could be the topic of a later post)

Education needs to offer students many pathways to develop skill sets for college and careers, focusing teaching the valuable work habits with less emphasis on content. Students need to have choices based on their interests so that they can find success. Why have math, science, history, and language arts? Lets have students build and create things that use all the knowledge obtained in these 4 classes.

Schools aren’t failing, schools just don’t have the flexible offerings that exist in our society. Society has the high school graduate jobs: retail workers, customer service employees, etc. Schools need to teach how to communicate clearly and work with others. Show up to work on time, work the technology tools and maintain an organized space. Society has community college graduate jobs: Office manages, lab techs, etc. Schools need to offer classes that show how to run an office and manage others, make detailed measurements and write up lab reports. Finally, Society has the bachelors degree jobs: Engineers, sales manages, business professionals. Schools need to have offerings that allow for understanding of how these jobs work too.

Schools need to offer pathways, tell students the career possibilities at the end of the path and then let the students choose!