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Ellen Belcher is the Dayton Daily News opinion pages editor. She writes about state government, education, the environment, higher education and all things Dayton.
Martin Gottlieb is an editorial writer and columnist for the Dayton Daily News opinion pages. He focuses on the political process itself and does such national issues as war, the economy, taxes and Social Security, as well as a hodge-podge of local and state issues.Home > Blogs > A Matter of Opinion > Archives > 2010 > June > 04 > Entry
Guest column: When it’s all about tests, nobody will want to teach
This column was written by Peter Smagorinsky, professor of English education at the University of Georgia.
In a recent article in The New York Times Magazine, Steven Brill examines how Obama’s Race to the Top could revolutionize public education. The central assumption behind this plan, says Brill, is that what matters most in education is good teachers. Says Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, “It’s all about the talent.”
I couldn’t agree more. I like talent. I teach a lot of talented teacher candidates at the University of Georgia.
But I don’t teach them how to prepare kids to take the sort of “achievement tests” Duncan is imposing on the nation’s schools. Rather, I try to teach them to think about what, why and how young people learn, and how they learn to learn.
I hope to teach teachers how to help kids engage with a curriculum so that they both learn its content and how to integrate it into their own life experiences so that the material contributes to their cognitive, social, interpersonal and emotional growth.
My point is that it takes talent, and quite a bit of hard thinking and hard work, to learn how to teach so that students find school worthwhile and engaging, and schoolwork worth doing.
I find it hard to imagine that Duncan’s vision of public education will succeed for either students or teachers, because it’s entirely geared toward the tedium of test preparation.
Duncan’s plan is to restructure schools so that bad teachers can be forced out of the classroom and teacher retention will be based on student performance.
That’s a pretty appealing idea. I’ve been in schools where there’s plenty of deadwood on the faculty, often with sufficient seniority to provide lifelong job protection.
But dynamic and effective teachers, regardless of age or experience, are not respected for their skill at teaching kids how to take standardized tests. Rather, they are appreciated for pushing their students to learn in ways that stick with them and that lead students to reconnect with their teachers following graduation to express their thanks for providing important contributions to the quality of their lives.
The opportunity to create such experiences is what draws talent to the classroom and keeps it there.
Talented teachers are imaginative, industrious and thoughtful. They read widely, join broader communities of educators, spend time outside class working on their craft, and teach with an inquiring mind so that their reflections on their instruction serve to improve it.
Talented teachers bristle at the idea that they have to conform to the contours of testing mandates in order to be recognized as effective; teaching to the test strips them of the dynamic qualities that have made them effective to begin with.
Duncan might score political points by bashing unions and their emphasis on seniority, but his solution, I believe, will do far more harm than good.
All the talent that he believes will rush to the classroom and establish careers in schools in the wake of his Race to the Top initiative is more likely to avoid the teaching profession like the plague because it offers them so little stimulation.
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Comments
By Testing
June 4, 2010 9:15 PM | Link to this
What these kids will find out is that when they enter the real world, that most everything IS all about tests. They’ll be scored everyday in everything they do. They’d better get used to it and the teachers should prepare them for it.
By Jim
June 4, 2010 9:39 PM | Link to this
Testing, “What these kids will find out is that when they enter the real world, that most everything IS all about tests.” I couldn’t disagree more. There’s way too much testing in schools. Go back and reread the article.
By Reciprocity
June 4, 2010 10:41 PM | Link to this
What matters most in public education is educated students. Educated students are people that can conduct business in the real world. If a person can’t conduct business in the real world, they are headed straight to jail in the real world. The real world of business requires good skills in reading, writing, and arithmetic. All other public education other than the 3 R’s is political trash. To be effective, public education must reward the student, not necessarily the teacher, for good results. Public education should reward the student for good results, not reward the teacher.
By Max
June 5, 2010 8:52 AM | Link to this
I agree with parts of Prof. Smagorinsky’s editorial. Teachers face an angry, over-taxed community, less job security, low morale in their districts, and being required to teach from the template of state test/ACT preparation. HOWEVER, Obama’s contingency of education’s success is ‘good teachers’ places far too much weight (and responsibility) on student performance contingent upon a teacher being ‘good.’ Well, what is ‘good?’ What seperates ‘good’ from exxcellent and poor? How does one measure teacher quality under the current ODE mania about testing? As a former teacher (university) we found the old ‘bell curve’ system of grading student performance was serving what some people agreed to what constitutes excellence (A’s),average (C’s), and failure (F’s). Under the Bell Curve system the average (C’s) were the majority of students with A’s and F’s being the minority. The problem with this system it presumed the existence of A’s or F’s to define the middle. It had nothing to do with education and artificially inflated student performance (in a curve graded class the highest grade of 85% is an ‘A’). That system failed just as ODE’s State tests measure nothing but how well a student takes a test on agiven day. All scores have four dimensions; the Student’s score, that score relative to other students in the district, the score compared to the state average, and depending on the test, a national comparison. The problem with this - and teachers discuss this daily - is the test results are essentially the results of a test-based curriculum. In other words, if a student passes the state test, then the state (and Obama) concludes the student has learned for good teachers. I’m not sure where Obama and ODE studied logic but this is a false conclusion. The results, in Ohio and nationally, demonstrate this is a failed system. The frustration in Florida (i.e. unions) bear this out since it has nothing to do with education. Auto mechanics will keep fixing a car as long aas the owner wants it fix. At some point, the car just needs replacement. The same is true in Ohio. We’ve tried everything except the obvious; let teachers do the job for which they are trained and being paid. Remove ALL unfunded mandates. Allow local boards to evaluate teacher performance - not the state - and involve the unions (it’s in their best interest) in the hire/fire process. At the university level instructors have a promotion and tenue process which has as a part called ‘student evaluations’ which has some teeth along with service(community), publication, professional development, etc. Perhaps bringing that uniform system into the public school context, in addition to removing the state tests and mandates, is something to install to the benefit of education, teachers, and,most importantly, the students. The level of ‘excellence’ being given lip service by Obama, Strickland, and to be fair, Bush, cannot be attained under the current systems. How can a profession attract creative teachers in a system where test prep is the curriculum? A BMV examiner can do that.
By Max
June 5, 2010 9:10 AM | Link to this
Postscript: One of the tennets of our political system is the notion of one-man-one-vote where the majority ‘rules.’ That works in our political system. However, when career politicians start extending the ‘value’ of the majority to education, then there is an inherent conflict between rhetoric and actual goals. If it is the ‘majority’ of students being considered, then we are setting standards to the ‘average ‘c’ student, not to excellence. Most people fall into the average group. This opens the door to a more volatile aspect; some students, regardless of school, teacher, economic status, etc., just cannot learn as well as others. Does that mean education fails them? It could mean one form of education is not their cup of tea and there are endless examples of high school and college drop-outs achieving success. With emphasis on ‘average student performance’ the students who have achieved ‘excellence’have nothing to challenge them in that environment. THOSE, not the failures, are the true casualties of the current system and why we, as a nation, lag out of the top ten nations in math and science.
By It's Great in Dayton!!!!
June 6, 2010 4:40 PM | Link to this
This is why the situation with DPS is hopeless. This is an example of the unstoppable downward spiral at what is perhaps the most desirable address in Dayton:————————-When the Schuster Center was built, the prices for the condos started at $350,000 and went as high as $1,000,000. There is now a condo in The Schuster advertised for $199,000, and so far nobody is willing to pay even that much.———————————— One of the premiere residences in Dayton, and nobody wants it at a fire-sale price.———————— ‘nuff said.
By fortressdayton
June 7, 2010 4:36 PM | Link to this
If you don’t think the emphasis is on testing, then consider this: they have taken the time and money to change the OAT to OAA, because Ohio Achievement ‘Test’ puts too much pressure on the kids and their performance is better when they take an ‘assessment’. From March until the end of May my son’s school was engaged in pre-testing, testing or post-testing activities for nearly five weeks. They are learning what is on the tests. These kids are not taught how to think, how to analyze or how to re-frame concepts. It reminds me of all the japanese kids who learn English, get an A+ in vocabulary and can repeat phrases verbatim. But they can’t construct a simple sentence on their own. The incessant testing is a scourge and our good teachers are being destroyed by it. When i graduated, nobody questioned whether I knew the material, because I was graded fairly and honestly -not on a section 8 curve! When you lower standards, then performance will drop to meet that standard. Look around Dayton and say it isn’t so. Any obese person gets a handicapped tag, they all can get one. ( out of ten kids get school lunches for free because they are ‘poor’, yet nearly half of all school kids are overweight, if not obese. Who needs a diploma when I can go to Life Skills, smoke dope and copy my homework from a smarter kid? And if i fail? Shucks, I’ll just take the test again…and again..until I memorized it. We are a nation of Lowest Common Denominators and Takers, and the Testing Fetish is just another way to cater to that need.
By Bubba
June 8, 2010 8:49 PM | Link to this
This article makes me all misty-eyed. I spent some of the best years of my life in the 5th grade. I loved those dog goned tests!
By FBB
June 11, 2010 8:25 PM | Link to this
I’d love to know in what “real world” you live? I’m sure “these kids” would like to know too, so that they can avoid it and enter a world for which they are prepared to think, be analytical, be creative, an engage in inquiry.
By reciprocity
June 12, 2010 9:07 AM | Link to this
A real person doesn’t need a middleman in order to think, be analytical, be creative, or engage in inquiry. That’s your hangup, teech, rhymes with leech. Leave them kids alone.
By Basil
June 12, 2010 9:30 PM | Link to this
Well written and thoughtful article. We need to find the balance between the testing and overall student achievement. The tests are not preparing the students for careers or for the real world. We need to measure student achievement, but we need to measure it comprehensively!! The government is trying to fix something with a simplistic, one-size fits all test that measures knowledge in the so-called core areas. The tests are not measuring 21st Century skills and a well-rounded preparation for careers and for life.
By Wanacare
June 14, 2010 6:08 PM | Link to this
It might as well be abut tests since the House of representatives which includes, Michael Turner are talking about laying off 300,000 teachers in the US. They have spent $ Trillion on military & $500 Million on leisure fun for Guantanamo guards. Not 1 penny for the release of what is recorded by both Pres. as innocent men & 22 children in Guantanamo. The Pres. also said he was glad the case of the kidnapped vacationer from Canada didn’t get his case heard & now the Wicky-Leaks whistle blower may have the Pres. put a hit list out to assassinate him before he can reveal any more US terrorists activities. The Pres. could release the innocent father of 4 Uk children from Guantanamo since he knows the man is innocent, but that not make some Cheney followers happy, even if the man has been in solitaire for years and he is innocent.
By Susan Hall
June 14, 2010 6:11 PM | Link to this
It might as well be abut tests since the House of representatives which includes, Michael Turner are talking about laying off 300,000 teachers in the US. They have spent $ Trillion on military & $500 Million on leisure fun for Guantanamo guards. Not 1 penny for the release of what is recorded by both Pres. as innocent men & 22 children in Guantanamo. The Pres. also said he was glad the case of the kidnapped vacationer from Canada didn’t get his case heard & now the Wicky-Leaks whistle blower may have the Pres. put a hit list out to assassinate him before he can reveal any more US terrorists activities. The Pres. could release the innocent father of 4 Uk children from Guantanamo since he knows the man is innocent, but that not make some Cheney followers happy, even if the man has been in solitaire for years and he is innocent.