Children and Standardized Tests

Last fall I had the opportunity to give a speech at a Moms for Kerry rally held before the election. It was thrilling to be a part of this venture as we worked as moms to get John Kerry elected. Alas, November came and George Bush was still president.

Here is an excerpt from that speech:

Currently, No Child Left Behind requires students to pass a standardized, fill-in-the-bubble test on a certain date. If the children do not succeed, the teacher and the school and the child are punished. Many teachers are forced to teach to the test rather than to the students in the classroom. These rigid standards amount to fear tactics meant to scare teachers and administrators into compliance. If you look in every classroom, in every school, in every city, in every state in America you will see one common thread. The people managing those classrooms are proud to be called teachers. I believe that fully funding No Child Left Behind, raising teacher pay; improving mentoring, professional development, and teacher training; and providing pay incentives for teachers who improve their skills and excel in helping students succeed will put a great teacher in every classroom. Having a great teacher in every classroom will lead students to succeed. When teachers are offered more than threats and fear, they give more willingly in return.

Today I had a face put to what I had written about. The TAKS scores for graduating seniors came out today and five students at one high school did not pass one or more sections of the TAKS and as a result will not graduate from High School. Some of these students are non-native English speakers. One was a child who struggled to write proper English in order to get above a 1 on the writing score. Another didn't pass the math test.

Of the five students, one was especially devastated. Invitations had already been sent out. Family was coming from out of town to attend graduation. Maybe Grandmother had prepared a special gift. George Bush or Rick Perry should come to this young lady and tell her face to face that she is not going to graduate. I don't know the details of why she didn't not pass this test. I don't really care. George Bush does not care. He sees a school district that 94% if its seniors pass the TAKS and thinks SUCCESS.

We need to fight for that 6% who can't or don't pass this test. Did they not try? Are they not capable of passing ever? George Bush may tell you if he even cared that she can take it again in the summer. Will there be a graduation ceremony then? Of course not. Does she deserve to graduate? I think so. Maybe hold her diploma until she passes the TAKS but don't punish a student who tried her best, who struggles in a subject, who didn't drop out, who kept her grades up, who finished the race and and then found out they had moved the finish line.

Comments

[Kara]

I'm with you on this one. I am a former teacher in Georgia where there is so much testing that you don't have time to teach! Good assessment should drive instruction for the individual student. These tests are running it off the road!