testing the vulnerable among us

[Teresa Saum <teresak@PRAIRIE.LAKES.COM>]

I keep trying to speak for my students as I explain my vehement opposition
to high-stakes testing to people who want accountability. I may have written
some of this here before and if so, I'm sorry for the repetition. Someone
today wrote about special education students and I just wanted to add my
feelings about how the testing mania is affecting students in my school.

I work in a special education school. We call it an alternative education
setting but our students are all clients of a residential treatment program,
kids from eleven to nineteen years old, away from their families and their
homes and the schools they know, many suffering from severe emotional
disturbances or mental illnesses that make the simplest school tasks very
difficult. Last year, in February, eighteen of our students took the
Minnesota Basic Standards tests, some for the first time, some for the
second time, some for the third time. Most of them didn¹t pass.

Jerry, a boy with a significant intellectual handicap got 25% the first time
he took the test, he says by coloring in all the D¹s. Because the things he
learns in  school are very different from the things on the test, his
teacher wanted him to be exempt from further testing. The principal from his
home school, a member of Jerry¹s IEP team, insisted that Jerry should have a
chance to take the test and pass it. The rest of the team disagreed; the
chance of Jerry getting the 75% required to pass was slim. He insisted Jerry
should take the test. The rest of the team finally relented and Jerry¹s IEP
stated that he would need 15% to pass the test. But he couldn¹t have that
modification retroactively, so he had to take the test again, trying to get
15%. Is that a good use of educational dollars? Does it tell us anything
useful about Jerry?

Who should take the tests, who should be exempt, what modifications are
necessary, what accommodations will help the student pass; all are questions
that have puzzled us as we try to do the right thing in the face of this
troubling practice. A few years ago, a state department test technician
announced at a meeting that anyone who could hold a pencil should take the
test. Larry, who had spent all year learning to count to twenty and to tell
the difference between a quarter and a dime should take the test? Yes, she
said. Anything less would be discriminatory. Larry, who had trouble
remembering his phone number and didn¹t know the alphabet, poignantly
described how every day of his life felt like he was trying to stay alive in
a pool with sharks circling below him. This was the boy we should sit down
in front of the test, knowing that his name was probably the only thing he
would get right?

One of the students in my school has been diagnosed with bipolar disorder
and severe depression. He was supposed to take the writing test last year
for the first time. Exemptions shouldn¹t be granted until after a student
tests once, they tell us. We wondered how Tim would do since he can¹t stay
awake most days long enough to write a sentence, much less write an essay.
Tim came into his classroom and sat down. His teacher explained what the
test was for, that he needed to take it in order to get a diploma, that it
would help us know how to teach him better, that we could  change his IEP so
he didn¹t have to take it next year if he didn¹t do well this time. He
looked his teacher in the eye and said, "I¹m in tenth grade and I write at a
fourth grade level. What¹s this test going to tell you about my writing that
you don¹t already know?" And he refused to write one word.

Many of our students do qualify for modifications or exemptions, but if they
continue to take the tests with modifications, what will that tell us that
we don¹t already know? Some of our students, not on IEP¹s, must take the
tests and pass. Students who have been in different schools every year,
students who can¹t name a biological parent, students who have been homeless
much of their lives will have to take the tests and pass them in order to
receive a diploma. Some will qualify for other plans that might make them
eligible for a modification or an exemption, but we wonder about all the
needy students in bigger schools and bigger districts where teachers and
administrators don¹t have time to worry about every student. What will
happen to them? What purpose is served in denying them a diploma?

We watched the faces of our students as they came in to take the test.  We
offered doughnuts and juice boxes but it didn¹t help. They knew they were
facing a firing squad. They knew, most of them, that they wouldn¹t pass this
time, or next time, or the time after that.  We know that in spite of their
best efforts and ours, they won¹t pass. Who is being held accountable? And
for what?

Teresa

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