How much money does your Mom make?

This week we focused on a couple chapters of William Ayers book "To Teach the journey of a teacher." In chapter seven Ayers states "The single most powerful predictor of how a child will do on any standardized tests is how he or she did on the first test ever taken, and the single most powerful predictor of how a child will do on that first test is the economic status and educational background of the parents."

Ayers opines that we could save a lot of time, energy, money and stress simply by asking a single question "How much money does your Mom make?" Based on the answer given that child would be placed on the totem pole of students in the classroom. So, so sad.

In Tested; the novel by Linda Perlstein, the K-5 elementary school is put through an enormous psychological burden of standardized testing in order to crawl back up from not making adequate yearly progress. From September through March of the year that Ms. Perlstein spent with Tyler Heights Elementary; for seven full months of a nine and a half month school year; they spent their full days readying for the standardized test that would tell them; as Ayers states, how well the rats have run in their maze, on that particular day.


At Tyler Heights there was never any direct mention of teacher retention statistics; but some pretty powerful verbiage. Their one teacher of color was leaving; she could not take the stress anymore and had begun interviewing in a school where parents participated; kids read well and passing state tests was a matter of course. One that didn't need to serve breakfast; and assumedly, a school that was not a Title I school. The school that she wanted only went through second grade; thus no standardized testing.

They were losing Mrs. Williams too; she decided at the end of the year that the plans for next year were again so rigid and militaristic that she could not be part of it. Telling the teachers what was to be planned during their planning periods was the proverbial straw. I can't imagine not being able to prioritize my planning time for the most important work first; it sounds degrading.

So one of the major issues at Tyler Heights; that of teacher turn-over; was arguably worsened by the stranglehold that the NCLB corrections placed upon the school. It seems that because of the testing; and the teaching to the test, these teachers could not continue at this school. Even with the scores that they posted, these kids would be faced with a near thirty percent new faces come fall; and teachers attempting to collaborate would need to start the process all over again, and for how many times in a row? It wears you down. It would wear me down.

Ayers was right in his statement that as hard as folks work to prepare the kids for these tests they simply cannot erase the heart-shattering differences in what they come to school already knowing; "exposure to real books, conversations about the content of stories, a word-rich and literate environment, and an understanding of the power of language." Substituting an ability to take multiple choice tests is not of equal value.

At the end of the book the Principal was replacing about the same number of teachers as at the beginning; roughly a third. The laser sharp focus on the MSA and how to get and keep their numbers up mowed through teachers as much as their intent to make a difference in the lives of children with few advantages had brought them to this school. They could not take the stress.

Even after the scores had been posted the teachers at this school knew what William Ayers had stated "standardized tests can't measure initiative, creativity, imagination, conceptual thinking, curiosity, effort, irony, judgment, valuable dispositions and attributes. What they can measure and count are isolated skills, specific facts and functions, the least interesting and least significant aspects of learning. It seemed a hollow victory for a number of teachers and more of a personal achievement for the Principal.

Ayers states elsewhere that there are some positive assesment tools; and that assessment is a necessary thing. Portfolio's, projects and performances make his list of possible evaluative tools that would give the teacher's a look into what is occurring inside their students minds. It would be outstanding if it were all schools that could "afford" these assessments; and not just choice schools, charter schools and more conventionally private schools.

At some point will Tyler heights be allowed to do science experiments before April? To write poems and visit places of interest, to connect MSA vocabulary words with real life rather than with flashcards? You can hope that eventually this will happen, but what happens when their Principal has a heart attach (again?) or must leave to care for her mother? What happens when the new Principal will not give 85 hours a week to this position? Do they slide right back down the statistical totem pole? How can it be acceptable to anyone; including Tina, that this is what it takes from the staff, the administration and most of all the students in order for them to be deemed worthy of adequate yearly progress and no longer a failing school.

I think the school is failing; they are failing the human beings that work there; on both sides of the teacher's desk. The teachers are burnt out and numb; the Principal is literally killing herself and the kids have learned in four years to answer multiple choice tests and write a BCR. No more, no less. If life includes those two skills these kids have it made; but as Ayers stated; I believe this standardized testing has narrowed the life chances of half of the kids taking it.

***Last week the question was posed: what would a classroom look like with less teacher talk and more interaction... I think it would look like kids taking turns writing tests and teaching sections to each other; it would look like gadgets and gizmo's and blogs and wiki's. It would be skyping to Zimbabwe to check in on friends and their school. It would be a caring community where kids have an opportunity to be active in their learning. Different color flags for different areas of education that the kids can wave when they percieve that this lesson in Social Studies is really about the science of volcanoes and how that moved people from one area to another. And then Julie would show up and demand they produce a volcano from the items in her basket... and they would. Athena would drop in and want to know from their vocabulary lists in Spanish what words would pertain to this lesson; and how they would say "the volcano is erupting, and i made it myself!" At that point someone would put on the Presidents of the United States of America and play the song Volcano. Incidentally, Gary Locke has a solo in that on our DVD. Meanwhile, Mrs. Becker-Brown would be in the mingling with the masses; duct tape over her mouth while the kids sang the song; learning all the vocabulary they need. And yes; I will post the song on our wiki.