Thanks mostly to NCLB (the last time democrats and republicans ever really agreed on anything), schools were held accountable.
Now, I believe schools have always been held accountable. Or, at least, they should be held accountable. School are accountable to the community, to parents, to businesses/industries, to our economy, to our democracy, and to our students.
No Child Left Behind decided to hold schools accountable with something different though: high stakes - standardized - tests.
Tests have always been 'high stakes.' If you cared about your grade at all, the tests you took in high school, were, of course, 'high stakes,' for they decided a significant portion of your grade. And make no mistake about this: there are 'good' tests and there are 'bad' tests. And I'm not just talking about essay tests vs. fill-in-the-bubble tests. I believe there can be good fill-in-the-bubble tests and very bad essay tests. Not to mention, does a test have to be either essay or fill-in-the-blank? Out in the 'real' world, how often do people take paper and pencil tests?
I'm going to be taking my car over to Pennington Fast Lube soon to have the oil changed. I don't know if they have their new employees pass a fill-in-the-bubble test when they sign off on them to change oil. I also doubt the new employees spend a lot of time reading textbooks on Henry Ford and the history of the automobile and the oil industry and engines. But I could be wrong.
But NCLB took that to a whole new level. The tests were cheap - fill in the bubble tests that maybe weren't so much about the knowledge they 'measured' but also about the skills to take them - and remember, Hartz spends more on testing kitty litter than we spend on testing our children. That gives you an idea of just how cheap the MCAs and NWEAs are. Link to where I found the information on that stat.
Here is the exact quote from John Merrow - “nothing illustrates our parsimony as powerfully as our spending on testing.” In 2006, the United States spent “just 15 cents of every $100 on NCLB tests,” while in the same year the Hartz pet product company spent at least 10 times more testing bird seed, flea powder and cat litter."
As a teacher of 20 years, though NCLB is long gone, I still see a sick devotion to high stakes tests. Not because they illustrate student learning. There is still a debate on that. Just look at the ACT. If the ACT was a true predictor of student success, then why do at least 50% of students leave college without a degree? In other words, a 31 on the ACT doesn't guarantee you a four year degree (in four years) and a successful career. In fact, at least one study found that the best indicator of college success is your high school grades, not your ACT score.
Why the devotion to test scores?
Oh, look at those who benefit from test scores (and not just student learning) -
1. The test companies. Just look at the money LHS paid out to NWEA for years. Yet, most of us never used the data at all. As I understood it to be, we just gave students the test because under NCLB, it counted as a 'high stakes' test. It was a box we could check off or a hoop the state made us jump through.
2. The test prep companies. John Baylor and others. We spent (and still spend) thousands of dollars to subject our juniors to ACT test prep during LINC. I think it has improved our ACT scores because the test prep programs give our students practice tests, show them tips or tricks (Baylor was great at this, talking about how the longest option for an answer is rarely ever the right one) for doing well on the test. But does this really measure our students' learning?
3. Administrators and school officials. They can show - through our test scores - that our schools are accountable. I liken this to having students write a five paragraph theme. It's easy to grade. It looks good. It's tidy. It's effective. But no one ever became a writer because of their passion for five paragraph themes. And when was the last time you saw a five paragraph essay in the 'real' world? Don't fool yourself for a second. There are superintendents, teachers, and school officials in prison for tampering with test scores to make themselves (and their schools) look better. Here is more on the extent of the cheating and tampering.
4. Students. Ha. Just kidding.
5. Teachers. Well, you have to take this one with a grain of salt. Tests - if designed well - certainly tell me where my students are and what I need to re-teach. But it isn't as simple as that. What happens if a student didn't study? What if a student just guessed right? What if the student just saw the test as a hoop and didn't put forth their best effort?
Do we focus on skills or pleasure or both?
At LHS we have been having this discussion. I'm convinced that the more we teach reading skills, the more we turn kids off to reading. This is worrisome as they live in a world of images more than words.
The problem with skills is that usually when you focus on reading skills, you read short information chunks (often taken out of context). Does that sound fun to you? Does that sound like it would make people fall in love with reading? Is that how you fell in love with reading?
Yet, that is often how reading is taught at the middle and high school levels. At least since NCLB came into being.
I feel for some of my remedial reading students with the skills work I give them. I have one set of work books that is devoted to the skills of inference, main idea, conclusion, facts, context, and sequences. These are taught through reading numerous short passages and then filling in bubbles to assess their skills.
I have another set of work books that is a little bit more enjoyable for students. I have a series of workbooks on various historical events - superstitions, Aliens and UFOs, daredevils, disasters, heroes and rescues, monsters, and phenomenon. Students read longer passages about events or people and then answer a series of questions (mostly fill in the bubble) about main idea, sequences, facts, and inferences.
The difficult part is balancing the skills with the overall pleasure and engagement of the lessons.
Now contrast that with reading a real book. A real book that matters to the kids. I just re-read The Outsiders. I first encountered it in 9th grade English. The book changed my life. I remember discussing it and doing some creative writing assignments about it (the most memorable being when I had the chance to re-write a scene about Johnny and how he gets beat up by the Socs in the blue Mustang). I didn't analyze it for the main idea, sequences, facts, and inferences. I just loved it.
What is more important? What should we focus more on in school? We already have a generation whose reading scores are terrible. Example #1. Example #2.
Is it a coincidence that this generation has been exposed to the "skills first" approach to teaching reading?
What can be done instead?
Well, call me nuts, but I like the approach that this English teacher suggests - If I had to pick one thing that makes the biggest difference in the quality of any person’s education, the quality of their life, really, it would be reading. And I’m not really talking about basic literacy—not about the ability to read—I’m talking about reading for pleasure, to satisfy curiosities, to understand how people work and find solace in knowing we are not the only ones who think and feel the way we do.
That kind of reading.
So how can this be done in schools? How can this be measured? One thing that has grown up around this focus on skills first when it comes to reading is that students do what is 'called' fake reading. Or finding hacks to work around the reading without actually reading it. I think this sounds a lot like the reading that is actually promoted through out-of-context reading that most students are forced to do in skills packets and so on.
The suggestions are simple
1. Make time for what's important. Like any skill or passion, if you don't use it in real context often, you lose it or it weakens. Give students time to really read. If that's a magazine, let them read it. If it's a Stephen King novel, let them read it. If it's a blog, let them read it.
How this worked for me - when I was young, I was fascinated with heavy metal bands. I stumbled upon the magazines Hit Parader, Circus, and Metal Edge. I read those every time they came out. I think they came out twice a month. I read them cover to cover starting in 1985 up through 1995 or so. And guess what happened due to all that reading? My vocabulary grew. I began to broaden my reading selection. I recall reading about Metallica and their song "The Thing That Should Not Be" from Master of Puppets. In an interview James Hetfield, Metallica's lead singer and guitarist, said it was based on the works of H.P. Lovecraft. Guess where I headed next? Yep, to the Red Lake Falls library to get a copy of Lovecraft's stories.
I was on my way to being an English major and teacher. All thanks - at least in part - to crappy heavy metal magazines like Hit Parader and Circus which I could find in our local grocery store or gas stations.
2. Give students ready access to books. I recall Mrs. Matzke's classroom having these tall, rotating book stands, full of novels. I was fascinated by them and looked them over all the time. She also had a list at the back of the room of novels college bound students should read. I would look to see if any of the titles interested me - I recall seeing H.G. Wells' The Time Machine being on there - and ventured down to our school library to see if they had a copy (they did and I read it over the course of a couple of study halls).
3. Make reading visible. My mother was a reader. She loved mysteries. So I had a great role model in her, for she was always reading books and then later, due to her vision problems, listening to books on tape.
Then I found out that many of my friends (namely, Simon Geller, who had a penchant for Sword and Sorcery/fantasy books, and Jamie Coenen, who, like me, loved his Stephen King and Dean R. Koontz) who were role models for me in loving to read.
4. Talk about books. Students needs to see that not only do adults read, but students need to hear us talking about books. This is why I have a stand of book up by my podium. These books are the most iconic ones I've ever read. These are the books I reference a lot in class (such as my college Western Civ text, The World is Flat by Thomas Friedman, Outliers by Malcom Gladwell, and Twilight Eyes by Dean R. Koontz). Whenever I reference an idea in class, I'm quick to hold up the book and talk about how I read it in the book. I also blog about the books I'm reading and what I'm learning. No one talks about the great skills packets they read to help them figure out inferences or sequences.
5. Be patient and relentless. Don't give up if a student has found the right book. Don't give up if they struggle. There is a book for everyone, a book that can open up the world of reading to them. Or at least a book they can devour and learn from. In English 12, the book is Night. Students devour it. For some it might be the last book they ever read, but there is no denying they are captivated by it. In College Comp II, it's the Sticky-Note book report where students find books that coincide with their interests. The ones that always seem to captivate students are - The Devil and the White City, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, Tuesdays with More, Columbine, Bomb, and In Cold Blood.
In all the success I've had with this latter project, and I've had success with it at my remedial reading level too, the thing to do is get them a book that they really like and then get out of their way and let the magic happen.
But that isn't as sexy as a test score. And that's what's wrong with high stakes testing and the 'teaching' of reading today.
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