Re: principal apologizes for testing focus

[aburke5054@aol.com]

For the choir that sings that tests are to blame for everything, this 
is music to their ears.  The rest of us will be wondering why the 
district doesn't put a better principal in that school.  Someone who 
can figure out constructive, rather than destructive, ways of doing 
things.  Education is an odd industry - educators putting stories in 
the newspaper about the terrible job they're doing and expecting people 
to say, yeah, sure, it's all because of reading and math tests.

Art

-----Original Message-----
From: Nancy Patterson <patterna@gvsu.edu>
Cc: ARN Main List <arn-l@interversity.org>
Sent: Wed, 23 Jul 2008 9:07 pm
Subject: [arn-l] principal apologizes for testing focus


from the Cleveland Plain Dealer
----------------------------------
Rocky River Middle School Principal David Root critical of emphasis on 
school
tests - Regina Brett
'We don't teach kids anymore,' principal says
Wednesday, July 23, 2008
Regina Brett
Plain Dealer Columnist

The school report cards came out in June.

Rocky River Middle School did well on the 2008 Ohio Achievement Tests, 
re quired
to be given each year to assess math, read ing, science, social studies 
and
writing skills among all the state's public-school students in grades 
three
through eight. The school earned an "Excellent" rating and met the 
mandates for
Adequate Yearly Progress.

For all those accomplishments, Principal David Root has only one thing 
to say to
the students, staff and citizens of Rocky River:

He's sorry.

Root wants to issue an apology. He sent it to me typed out in two 
pages,
single-spaced.

He's sorry that he spent thousands of tax dollars on test materials, 
practice
tests, postage and costs for test administration.

Sorry that his teachers spent less time teaching American history 
because most
of the social-studies test questions are about foreign countries.

Sorry that he didn't suspend a student for assaulting another because 
the
attacker would have missed valuable test days.

Sorry he didn't strictly enforce attendance rules because all absences 
count
against the school on the State Report Card.

He's sorry for pulling children away from art, music and gym, classes 
they love,
so they could learn test-taking strategies.

Sorry that he has to give a test for which he can't clarify any 
questions, make
any comments to help in understanding or share the results of so 
students can
actually learn from their mistakes.

Sorry that he kept students in school after they became sick during the 
test,
because if they couldn't finish the test as a result of illness, the 
students
would automatically fail it.

Sorry that the integrity of his teachers is publicly tied to one test.

He apologized for losing eight days of instruction because of testing
activities.

For making decisions on assemblies, field trips and musical 
performances based
on how that time away from reading, math, social studies and writing 
would
affect state test results.

For arranging for some students to be labeled "at risk" in front of 
their peers
and put in small groups so the school would have a better chance of 
passing
tests.

For no longer focusing as a principal on helping his staff teach 
students but
rather on helping them teach test indicators.

Root isn't anti-tests. He's all for tests that measure progress and 
help set
teaching goals. But in his eyes, state achievement tests are designed 
for the
media to show how schools rank against each other.

He's been a principal for 24 years, half of them at Rocky River Middle 
School,
the rest in Hudson, Alliance and Zanesville. He loves working with 
sixth-,
seventh- and eighth-graders. "I have a strong compassion for the
puberty-stricken," he joked.

His students, who are 11, 12, 13 and 14, worry that teachers they love 
will be
let go based on how well they perform.

One asked him, "If I don't do well, will you fire my teacher?"

He cringed when he heard one say, "I really want to do well, but I'm 
not that
smart."

He wants students to learn how to think, not how to take tests.

"We don't teach kids anymore," he said. "We teach test-taking skills. 
We all
teach to the test. I long for the days when we used to teach kids."

Unless we get back to those days, principals and teachers all over Ohio 
will
continue to spend your tax dollars to help students become the best 
test-takers
they can be.

Nancy Patterson, PhD
Literacy Studies Program Chair
College of Education
Grand Valley State University
920 Eberhard Center
301 W. Fulton
Grand Rapids, Michigan 49504
616-331-6226
patterna@gvsu.edu
http://faculty.gvsu.edu/patterna

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