In her style of perennial truth and wisdom, Lucy Calkins' (1998) describes a scene of walking into her school's office to find her principal's door closed. Instead of the secretary's usual beckon to, "Go on in," she said instead, "Have a seat." Eventually, someone approached Lucy and whispered, "The scores are out."
She says, "Of course. Now it was clear. They were holed up with the scores."
"They were sitting with their hearts in their hands, learning what the Lord High Executioner had determined."
Calkins goes on to describe the actions... the "quick scan job, the way one's heart leaps and falters to the tune of percentiles." She discusses how numbers are assigned to children (and in 2014 to teachers and schools)... how a student, Jasmine, who was a prolific reader but scored a "71" on THE TEST, reacted, "I'm a 71. My brother, when he was in fifth grade, was a 94. My brother was really smart." This child, now a fifth grader, worried that she would not get into college when she was older.
So Calkins gave Jasmine a practice CTB test and sat back to watch what happened. All indications were that Jasmine should have experienced greater success on THE TEST. So what was going on here?
Finally, another colleague encouraged Lucy to look at the raw scores on THE TEST. Jasmine had responded correctly to 28 questions--but out of how many? Upon closer examination, it was found that Sandra, a classmate of Jasmine's, had answered 29 questions correctly. BUT SANDRA HAD BEEN RATED IN THE 91st percentile!
It was true--one question had made the difference of 20 percentile points!
How was Jasmine's life altered by this one question on one test? How did it change her perception of herself as a reader, a student, as someone with potential?
What can we learn from this story?
Despite collaboration time for and emphasis on data analysis and data walls, do teachers really know how to read into "and underneath and behind" the scores? Calkins says the most truthful words of reason that we could ever think in this situation, "We need to know what a person can and cannot conclude from these scores." If teachers learn to do this, we can be empowered with knowledge, thus regaining our voices to talk back to the critics--these days, that seems to be just about everyone.
Politicians and those behind the power of corporate money/charter schools want us to feel crippled with doubt and hope that the more confusing they make this process of norm-referencing (which innately makes it impossible for everyone to pass), the less likely we will be to speak out. To further ensure our silence (or at least to stifle us), they invent layers of ways to "fail," including assigning "school letter grades" with insidious "consequences" that hide behind an inscrutable formula--thus, who can argue? Check out what happens in Indiana when your school is in need of being "turned around" (by private companies, of course)\--essentially, anyone "authorized" by politicians (including other politicians) can close your school, take it over, take your funding, fire your teachers, and (if you still have a union) further dismantle your rights to collective bargaining.
Fun fact--in the 1990's, Indiana had a law on the books that actually (and rightfully) made it illegal to use norm-referenced tests in this way. I wonder who decided that it was not only legal, but righteous? Not parents, not teachers, not principals, and--most importantly--not children.
All stakeholders need to ask the right questions, thoughtful questions, and expect answers. This has happened in a few places, most recently in Texas. The Dallas News recently printed an article debunking the so-called "school reform" that had occurred in Texas due to testing, testing, testing--known as "The Texas Miracle". That's right--it was all a lie... ah-hem, a mistake.
I already knew that for a plethora of reasons, the first of which came from a friend of mine--who was an excellent teacher. In the late 1990s, she left Indiana and became a teacher in Texas. She lamented about how little her students could do compared to those in the same grade in Indiana, how such low standards/cut scores made it appear as though Texas had a "miracle" in its student achievement, and how her students struggled terribly. And education was all about THE TEST. She was one of first casualties in the war on public education--and students. She left teaching entirely, just a few years later--a sad day for America.
In REIGN OF ERROR, Diane Ravitch describes this as, "...the transfer of public funds to private management and the creation of thousands of deregulated, unsupervised, and unaccountable schools have opened the public coffers to profiteering, fraud, and exploitation by large and small entrepreneurs.”
How can we put a stop to the contagion of testing? How do we regain control of America's education system?
There are people/corporations behind this epidemic that have more money than some countries!
Those of you who understand sociodynamics realize that it will take a "critical mass" of citizens to stand up and express infuriation and informed concerns at this out-of-control pathosis in our society.
We may not have the astronomical funding like that coming from Bill and Melinda Gates, Wal-Mart's Walton family, Rupert Murdoch of News Corp., or Jeff Bezos of Amazon.com and The Washington Post. But we outnumber them--we ARE the critical mass.
Our relentless voices, votes, and outrage are the only things that can turn this Titanic around. What will you do to express your thoughts on this matter?
I close with Barry Lane's rendition of "More Than a Number". If you're a teacher, this will help you remember why you went into teaching in the first place.
MORE THAN A NUMBER (from "Songs for Sane Schools")
Music by Barry Lane & Lyrics by Amy Ludwig VanDerwater (2012)
I am quiet in the classroom.
I don’t always raise my hand.
I don’t always answer questions.
I don’t always understand.
But I always have ideas
when I stare up at the sky.
My sister likes to tease me
for always asking, “Why?”
I am more than a number.
I am more than a grade.
I know the constellations.
Here’s a painting that I made.
I read books in my closet.
I will not be a ‘2’.
I am more than a number.
I’m a person just like you.
I speak one language here
and another in my home.
I daydream in both languages
whenever I’m alone.
I’m good at climbing trees.
Mom’s teaching me to sew.
I am full of secrets
a test can never know.
I am more than a number.
Watch me fold this plane.
I snuggle with my beagle.
There’s music in my brain.
Someday I’ll go to Egypt.
I will never be a ‘2’.
I am more than a number.
I’m a person just like you.
If you think I can be measured
by numbers on a screen…
...if my whole school becomes a test
where will I learn to dream?
I love to do hard problems.
I write stories, and I laugh.
My gifts are so much greater
than the data on your graph.
I’m more than a number.
I invent things when I play.
I collect shells and fossils.
Please hear me when I say
I will not be a ‘1’--
a ‘2’, a ‘3’, or a ‘4’.
I am me. I’m a mystery.
I’m a child – not a score.
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