Words: Parents' Frustration

I had dinner with family friends this week and the conversation turned to education.  Their daughter is 11 and the parents are very involved in her schooling.  It was really interesting to me to hear a mother's perspective on 'hot topics' right now.  She voiced:

- Frustration with having extra studying specifically for standardized tests... shouldn't they be learning what's on the test in their regular curriculum??
- Concern for which high school her daughter will attend.  Due to a lack of limited 'good' high schools in Chicago Public Schools, they're already looking into private schools.  Also, isn't it unfair how they don't allot more spaces to their district for the selective enrollment schools?
- Frustration with how teacher tenure works - there is a teacher at their school that everyone knows is not a good teacher.  He doesn't assign homework, doesn't grade, and the parents who have a child in his class even feel pressure to teach them things at home that they're not learning at school! Why should this teacher get to keep teaching when he's ineffective?
- Lower standards and less pride in work than when she went to school.  For example, her daughter's friends will turn in work with poor handwriting, incorrect capitalization, or dirty food, and when asked, respond "my teacher doesn't care."
- Doubt that they're learning as much as they should be.  She mentioned all the studying she had to do early in her schooling in Peru, a visiting child from China who called her year in U.S. schools a 'vacation,' and being unsatisfied with the fact that so many teachers shy away from 'memorization.'
- Finally, uncertainty as to where the blame belongs.  Is it the teachers? Administration? School district? Society?  Isn't this the golden question. 

Wow.  That's quite a list of things to be concerned about as a parent.  It's a reminder that all the issues that schools and districts are dealing with do affect parents daily lives in a very real way.  I feel like their voice is the least heard, they are looped in the least about how and why things work, and it shouldn't be that way.    

 

Printed: Testing Sucks

 Only 7 percent of teachers believe in standardized tests, says good.is

As the author writes, 'If growing numbers of parents are considering opting out of standardized testing, and teachers themselves don't believe high stakes tests as essential to learning, why are we ramping up the amount of testing in our schools?'



Update: Tennessee is now factoring in standardized test scores into elementary students' course grades.  As the Tennessean said, ...the scores will count for 15-25 percent of all test-takers’ second-semester grades. Tennessee is believed to be the first state in the country with this brand of widespread student accountability in grades three through eight. While teachers welcome the change, the new rules are rattling some students’ confidence and have parents questioning the benefits.

At least 35 percent of teacher evaluations are based on the learning gains that the TCAP tests measure. “Teachers said, ‘We’re the ones being graded all the time — the kids don’t have any skin in the game,’ ” said Rep. Debra Maggart, R-Hendersonville, who supported the new law. “They don’t take these tests seriously."


Tennessee Education Commissioner Kevin Huffman said it’s too early to gauge whether the changes will improve test scores. 

So, what's happening is that the craziness to hold people accountable to numbers is trickling down, and now 8 year olds are worrying if they're smart enough to meet the scores.  Great.  What about addressing the root of the issue, like better teacher prep programs, better teacher development and coaching, and better tools for school-family integration?  We're headed in a great direction, U.S. Education System.

Words: Florida

"It's the perfect storm... low income families, and a school district that focuses too much on standardized test scores to provide for the social and emotional needs of the children." - A School Psychologist friend in Florida

Words: Testing Scores

"This freshmen says that he isn't being challenged in class, so he's failing.  Ha.  Have you seen his ISAT scores?  They're dismal... don't let him fool you, he just thinks he's pretty so he doesn't do his work."

Why are test scores more of an authority than the student himself?  There could be a million reasons why he has low test scores that have nothing to do with his intelligence.