Saturday, February 02, 2008 7:34 AM
by
jtspencer
why I want to quit
I recieved an e-mail this morning telling me that I need to send a list of "bubble kids." (not in the John Travolta, Boy in the Bubble way, but rather the ones who are close to reaching a higher level on the standardized tests.) I don't mind offering tutoring. Our team regularly gives up our prep period three days a week to tutor students in writing. I don't even mind the notion of giving common assessments. It can help teachers figure out what they need to emphasize in the future.
The problem is that test scores are now the bottom line. Nobody asks "why should students read and write?" or even a more relevant, "How can we motivate them to read and write?" Instead, they assume poor achievement scores are the result of low skills. They assume that the best way to test is to offer fill-in-the-bubble, basic knowledge questions. Many of these questions are hopelessly irrelevant.
Here are two sample dumbass questions:
- Which of the following would you most likely use in research: an atlas, a dictionary, a textbook, an almanac. In my class, the answer is: none of the above. They either find an academic book from the library or they use Google. The "correct" answer is an almanac. Again, the chance that they'll ever use an almanac in life is slim to none.
- What is most likely the theme of the book Bucks, Broncs and Spurs?: money, sports, a rodeo, wild animals. Nearly all of my students chose sports. After all, the Bucks are a basketball team (albeit a sorry excuse for one) and so are the Spurs and the Broncs are close enough to Broncos, a football team. The rest marked "money" because that was the only word that urban kids understood.
So, it has me really depressed. I am now spending each day doing a reading assignment with standardized test questions that students fill out. It makes me want to cry. It makes me want to quit. I want to break past the factory model of education and help students to create something authentic. But we're stuck spending our time searching for bubble kids. I'm not sure how many more years I can do this.