High-Stakes Tests Push Kids Out of School

[Bob Schaeffer <bobschaeffer@earthlink.net>]

HIGH-STAKES TESTS PUSH KIDS TO STREETS
Rochester Democrat and Chronicle -- July 27, 2008
by William Cala, guest essayist

What is the purpose of public education? Historically, it has been to 
make good people, to make good citizens and to nurture the individual's 
talents and skills. However, over the past 100 years, these noble 
principles have been kicked aside in lieu of a sterile testing agenda 
set by politicians that has ignored the needs, wants and dreams of 
students, families and local communities.

If schools do not reach certain numeric benchmarks set by bureaucrats, 
they will be closed. Is it any wonder that we find that social studies 
tests given in rote, repetitive practice drills in the City School 
District became the final exam without alteration? No explanation or 
rationalization can justify this blatant example of cheating.

How widespread is this type of corruption? I suspect that this is the 
tip of the iceberg. Administrators and teachers are put under enormous 
pressure to churn out better test scores at any cost. Since this 
onslaught of high-stakes testing began over a decade ago, genuine 
concern for authentic student performance as measured by what is 
actually taught in the classroom, by teacher knowledge of pupil 
progress, has all but disappeared — thanks to threats from bureaucrats 
who care not about children, but rather about satisfying wrong-headed 
politicians who have created laws governing classroom learning that uses 
methods proven to yield abysmal results. As a result, we find 
administrators and teachers doing things that they themselves find 
reprehensible. We are test-prepping our kids into the dropout line 
(fewer than one-half of minorities nationwide are graduating). School is 
becoming irrelevant. Research is clear on what motivates kids to engage 
in school work. Children want to be loved by their teacher, to be 
respected for who they are and to feel that their skills and talents 
will contribute to society's improvement. Pupils need and want to be a 
part of democracy, not the target of bad politics in disguise as democracy.

The pressure to use tests as the only means of educating children has 
dramatically increased teacher anxiety and depression, and is driving 
good teachers out of the profession. Unfortunately, many teachers and 
administrators have resorted to lying and cheating to accommodate the 
system instead of standing up to it to protect children in their charge. 
How many will we lose before we refuse to participate in a fraudulent, 
harmful system?

It is said that tests are meant to improve education and enable children 
to achieve higher standards. However, dropouts have increased since the 
onset of high-stakes testing (especially among minorities, 
English-language learners and special education pupils); the curriculum 
has been narrowed to an English language arts and math obsession at the 
expense of the other disciplines (at least one Rochester city school 
didn't even offer the required ninth-grade global studies course for two 
consecutive years); problem-solving and creativity are treated as 
luxuries instead of integral to the school day; and students' need to 
find out "why" has become forbidden territory. Sadly, schools have been 
dumbed-down to absurdity. Do we really believe that 30 out of 87 
correctly answered questions on a high-school math exam "meets standards"?

It's time to scrap high-stakes tests and use ethical, responsible, 
sensible, motivational means that actually connect and reach our 
children. Failure to do so will continue to push students out of school 
into the streets or to prisons.

Cala is a professor at Nazareth College and former interim 
superintendent, City School District.

http://www.democratandchronicle.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080727/OPINION02/807270356/1039/OPINION