Teaching

Today is the final day of the first round of major testing this year. The tests my kids are taking are called the Minnesota Comprehensive Assessment, or MCA's. These tests are what we call "high stakes" because they have a significant impact on our lives. These are the tests used by the federal government to determine if we are making adequate yearly progress, AYP. There are something like 20 total cells which are measured. For example, black boys are one cell, special ed girls are another, free and reduced lunch is another, and English language learners. If you school has more than 20 kids who meet the criteria for being in a cell, then you must have 100% of those kids pass. If you have 19, they can all fail, no biggie. Each year that you don't make 100% in a cell, you are put on what is called "AYP", which is confusing because it is actually a list of people who didn't make AYP. At any rate, every year you are on this list the school suffers some consequence. I don't remember them all, but something like the 1st year you have to pay for any tutoring that a family may want, the 2nd year you pay for bussing to a different school, etc. This is all beyond non-sensical because one of the more major reasons schools don't make AYP is lack of resources, and then every year you don't make it you have to spend money on things outside of the classroom as part of your punishment. Additionally, the cells are accumulate separately. For example, imagine you are a school that has recently had a rise in ELL kids, like some of the farming communities a little further out from town. These teachers have spent much of their careers teaching white, middle class Catholics and Lutherans, and now they have a significant population of Hmong, Latino or Somali students. The teachers may be wonderful educators of their previous students, but it takes them a few years to learn the best techniques for the new kids. In 2007 they are on AYP for ELL. And in 2008. But, by 2009 they have spent an enormous amount of time on teacher training, goal setting and innovative teaching and they get 100% of their ELL kids to pass! Whoo hoo!!! However, in the meantime, the bad economy has forced some other families out of the city and their population of kids on free and reduced lunch has grown enough that they will now be counted in this cell, and they don't all pass. This means that they will be on AYP for the third year. Of course they all want all their kids to pass, which is why they have worked so hard to help the ELL kids... but now they are on year 3 of AYP. They are stressed. They need to re learn how to teach a new population of kids in poverty, which is a highly transient population anyway and often can be hard to form relationships with, not to mention that they often have been in a few schools already and their learning lacks continuity and has huge gaps. Now, this school has 2 years to get all of these kids to pass or they risk being shut down and reconfigured. Jobs could be lost, families disrupted.

At my current school the stress is high. We have spent most of the year preparing our kids to one degree or another. We have offered after school classes, practice testing and additional help. We have monitored our F's and had homework lunch for anyone failing. We have prevented play time in sports or other extra curricular activities for kids not passing. We have worked hard. Parents over-ride us, or won't let their kids stay after for whatever reason. The media bashes us for not doing enough. Kids increasingly bring weapons to school, or bullying gets out of control and schools are blamed. My colleague was punched in the face yesterday for breaking up a fight between two girls over sweatpants. It is insane. And now, today, I sit here with my own future, to some degree, in the hands of these kids.

As a reading teacher, my content is one that is included on the tests. In the fall, when this year's data is released, they will look first to the English and Math teachers to either praise or blame. And yet, though it is certainly my job to teach them as well as I can (and I am the first to criticize bad, lazy, ineffective teachers) ultimately, that passing depends on them. Can Jon pay attention long enough, or will the promise of his ipod after the test push him to rush? Can Tiffany forget about her parents divorce and her fathers treatment for mental illness so that she can read these passages? Will Tom, a child generally disenfranchised from school, with parents who do enough drugs that even I know about it, even care enough to read the questions? I am not allowed to look at the tests at all, so I don't even know what the questions are, nor can I predict if all my preparation was even in the right vein, as I have no idea what they were tested on today.

Tell me, does there exist and equivalent in the business world? Are there companies who rate their workers exclusively on how the client responds, in a situation where the worker is not even allowed to see the questions being asked of them? This can't possibly be the norm else I can't imagine a single cell phone customer service person remaining employed more than a week. Plus, my clients are not even adults. I mean, if I was aware that my bad response or lazy attitude on a customer service survey or questionnaire could actually cost someone their job, I would give some real thought to what I said. Not so with a 13 year old. These test have no effect on their grades or advancement or anything and they don't even get the results for 4 months, so to them it is just an annoying thing they have to do that the teachers are all crabby about.

This system is messed up. Let's all just hope that my kids cared enough to do their best so that I can continue to have a job long enough to see it fixed.