What are Students Learning?

Being a preschool teacher I am fortunate that I have quite a bit of freedom in my classroom. I feel that it’s necessary to develop the whole child. I need to facilitate growth physically, socially, academically, and emotionally. I have the freedom to do this though projects and activities in the classroom that integrate all areas of learning. I have the luxury of including art, music, social studies, science, health, and physical education along with reading and math activities in my classroom. Even though I have regular observations from my principal and vice principal they are not accompanied with the same scrutiny and critical eye that my fellow colleagues receive. The other teachers in my school shoulder the burden of producing good test scores. This drastically reduces their ability to provide students with a broad and rich curriculum.

This year especially I have felt stress and frustration throughout the entire school. You must produce a class with good test scores or else the school may be put on probation, you may lose your job, you will be labeled a bad teacher, the school will be closed. These are all threats that teachers and principals are faced with on a daily basis. The tension in our school was strong; it could be felt by the parents, teachers, administrators, and students. Topics of discussions in staff meetings all revolved around the need to prepare students for the Illinois Standards Achievement Test (ISAT). It was the only focus.

Teachers were expected to follow very strict curriculum maps that would keep the children on track to learn all the information necessary to produce good results on the test. If an administrator found that you were deviating from the plan you must explain why. How was this helping the students to prepare for the ISAT test? If students had difficulty understanding some of the concepts there was little time to stop and re-teach. You must move on otherwise you would not cover everything that would be on the test. Many of my colleagues struggled with this. They knew what they were forced to do was not in the best interest of the students. It was not good teaching. However, refusing to do so would cause friction between themselves and administration and may cost them their job.

In Diane Ravitch’s book, Death and Life of the Great American School System How Testing and Choice Are Undermining Education, she discusses the negative aspects of the accountability movement. She puts into perspective the repercussions of focusing only on the test.

“The consequence of all this practice is that students may be able to pass the state test yet unable to pass a test of precisely the same subjects for which they did not practice. They master test-taking methods, but not the subject itself. In the new world of accountability students’ acquisition of the skills and knowledge they need for further education and for the workplace is secondary. What matters most is for, the school, the district, and the state to be able to say that more students have reached 'proficiency'."

When we simply teach to the test are we helping the student’s in any way? They may be able to pass the state test, but have they truly mastered the content in that test? To look even further, is this test going to create a student that has the knowledge to achieve at the next grade level, in the workforce, or in college?

I feel that these tests have their place in education. They can provide teachers, administrators, and school districts with valuable information; however, it should not account for the students entire curriculum focus. It should be one tool among many used to determine the students understanding. These tests have drastically narrowed the curriculum. Physical education, art, music, social studies, health, and science are given little to no attention in the classroom. Reading and math are the only focus. Students need a broad and rich curriculum that prepares them to be unique and creative thinkers.

Mrs. J