Talking the Talk

The brainwash is complete.

300 hours of reading endorsement classes, 180 hours of ESOL classes, 18 credits toward a master's degree, and countless hours of professional development, training, and data analysis have fried my brain. In the midst of rousing morning discussion of the newly released FCAT scores, I actually uttered the phrase, "progress monitoring assessment tool."

I used it correctly. And I knew what it meant.

My mom looked at me like I'd lost my damn mind, and to be honest...I don't blame her.

Seriously, though. There are a few problems that really bug me about the testing system our state so lovingly shoves down the throats of all its teachers and students. My kids did really well in math--I'll give them that. But over half my students--half my honors students--didn't pass reading. Which means they'll be in both AP English and Intensive Reading next year, at both the top and bottom of the barrel. How does that even make sense? It doesn't. And I'm not suggesting that they all be removed from the honors track and sent directly to remedial English, though that would certainly work for some of them. The problem isn't with the kids. It's not even with the teachers. It's with...dare I suggest it? The test.

We hear the same thing every year: our 10th graders don't pass the FCAT reading because instead of just multiple choice questions, they have an additional "performace task"--a written response. Poor performance on the written responses can cause a kid to lose an entire achievement level, and can make the difference between passing and not passing. So I ask you--if we know this is the problem, or at least part of the problem, then why do written responses only appear on one test each in elementary, middle, and high school? If the purpose of the FCAT is to truly monitor and assess student achievement, then why in God's name do they not give them the SAME KIND OF TEST every year? And why in God's name do they continue to beat teachers senseless with data that doesn't accurately reflect student progress or achievement? It's like asking them to draw a picture of a dog one year and a cat the next, then saying they failed because the two pictures aren't identical.

And that doesn't even BEGIN to cover the ridiculously ridiculous way the data is then manipulated to come up with our school grades and deciding whether we meet AYP. During the same aforementioned conversation, my mom mentioned how 47% of their students made learning gains, but it didn't matter because they needed to show 50%. Are you kidding me? Are our priorities seriously so freaking skewed? So the entire year goes in the fail pile because only 47% made learning gains? How about, I don't know, celebrating that 47%? That's 47%, almost half the student body, who made some sort of gain in their testing scores. And guess what--that 47% represents STUDENTS.

Remember them? They're the ones who get hurt the most by the constant reduction of achievement to a bunch of meaningless statistics. You can tell me all day that this percent of my students passed this or failed that, and it goes in one ear and right out the other. What I want to know is how Joe and Susie and Tom and Mary did. Looking at a bunch of numbers on a piece of paper does nothing for me--but I will remember the girl who came up to me in tears on Thursday because she didn't pass the FCAT. I will remember her and next year I will work that much harder to help her be successful...because that is why I go to work every day--to teach my kids. Not to analyze data until my eyes cross, or lament the failure of some instead of celebrating the achievements of so many, but to help each individual little teenage person who sits in my room learn something new, to experience self-discovery, to ask questions and find answers.

I don't want to just talk the talk--though I apparently do that pretty well--I want to walk the proverbial walk. Sometimes it really feels like that's all we do anymore is talk. Let's walk, people!

Rant off.