more bad conservative ideas

[chelidon]

morrigandaughtr, your recent post made this story appallingly perfect:

Houston to tie teachers' pay to test scores

Because after all, heaven forbid (literally), that we teach children to think. That could upset the whole system. No, we need to teach children to parrot back verbatim the correct responses to the correct questions, and any teacher who dares to actually teach, we'll just have to punish them, of course.

As I wrote the other day: "My couple of years working in one of the top 5 public school districts in the country (Fairfax, VA) really soured me on standardized testing, and most of the rest of the teachers and administrators (and, I daresay, all of the *good* ones) held nothing but contempt for No Child Left Behind, and the hugely negative impact it had on any actual learning, in the interest of instead developing and meeting standards. The Republicans pushing the agenda devalued the source of any such argument as merely poor teachers afraid to put their work up to any kind of objective judgement. Feh."

The world of the neocons is looking more and more like the planet Camazotz, ruled by IT, in Madeleine L'Engle's Wrinkle In Time. Where are Mrs. Whatsit , Mrs. Which & Mrs. Who when you need them? I guess that's us, eh?

Comments

Legislature swings, like a pendulum do (apologies to Roger Williams)

[christeos-pir.livejournal.com]

If the teachers could write the tests, I'd be in favor of this, just because of the inanity of the "No child left behind" rubbish.

Re: Legislature swings, like a pendulum do (apologies to Roger Williams)

[chelidon.livejournal.com]

Yep, and I'd guess the chance of their letting the teachers write their own tests is small -- more likely it'll be some committee, made up of politically influential (i.e. Republican) people or their minions, who will use the opportunity to push whatever material and educational "standards" they see as significant, and make sure anything they don't like doesn't get taught, because it won't be on the tests, so teachers will in effect have to take a paycut to teach it -- time taken away from the "standards" translates into lower test scores for their class, and you can bet administrators will be wielding more than salaries, very probably promotions and the jobs themselves will be on the line. Rather a scary thought. The teachers in Texas can't strike, and they pretty much have to lump it and go along with what they're told to do.

I saw this all play out at Fairfax, which, as you know, is about as liberal as Virginia gets, and even there, the Republicans used the standards and testing process to subtly, or not so subtly, affect the curriculum in ways they never could have gotten away with otherwise.

Re: Legislature swings, like a pendulum do (apologies to Roger Williams)

[christeos-pir.livejournal.com]

And if it's not some stacked committee, it will be -- for public schools anyway -- some staffers in the State BoE, who, for all their best intents, don't know the specifics of the teachers, their teaching styles, and their students. It really comes down to the fact that one size only fits all if you're Procrustes.

[christeos-pir.livejournal.com]

PS: I think you mean Madeleine L'Engle.

[chelidon.livejournal.com]

Yep, brain fart, thanks.

[catbirdgirl.livejournal.com]

I've been rereading those books this week... this place feels more and more like camazotz every day.

[chelidon.livejournal.com]

*sigh* Maybe L'Engle could do another sequel, where kids from another world come and save us ;>

[threejane.livejournal.com]

Nothing is ever really perfect but I actually agree with most of the ideas of the Standards Movement. One of the good things that has arisen from NCLB (No child ...) and the accountability dialogue is the idea that all children are entitled to an excellent education. In the past, there has been a real discrepancy between the achievement rates of middle class children and those who are not. That gap is closing. Also, even though Special Ed kids have been guaranteed certain rights by the courts for decades, not all schools have followed best practice. Now, they are being forced to do the things that research tells us is most beneficial. More Special Education children are being included in General Education classes. We also have higher standards for these kids. Teachers are getting more training and there is an increased emphasis on cognition and higher level thinking skills in the classroom.

[chelidon.livejournal.com]

Personally, I totally support the concept of equality in education, something that has been long lacking. After I worked at Fairfax County Public Schools, the person who had been my boss there went to take a senior position at D.C. Public Schools, where she lasted about a year and a half, and I heard from her what that system looks like from the inside (as well as knowing some people who had kids in the system). Sad, and totally unfair, the difference in the general quality of the educational experience between one and the other, and the main difference between the two districts was the relative affluence, race and education level of the students and their parents (which was reflected in the condition of the facilities, skill and motivation of the teachers, and so on). So perhaps more standards would have helped in that situation, but I'm not sure. And from what I've seen, the way standards were implemented in NCLB puts too much emphasis on rote learning, and that's my concern with standards in general. Who makes them, and how they are made, and how they are tested for, can has more to do with politics or philosophy than education.

And, as I saw at Fairfax, a school's overall score in the standarized test becomes the be-all and -end-off of education -- it's used to give or withhold awards, bonuses, peer recognition, attaboys for the kids, and so on. One of the effects is that the classrooms, the schools, and the entire school system becomes completely fixated around this one little number, which is supposed to represent the quality and skill of the school system, of each school relative to one another, of the teachers in each class, and ultimately, of each kid. So in that case, it's maybe not so much the fault of the test, as how it is used, but that kind of thing seems to be human nature, much as I.Q. tests used to be given such focus -- that one little number came to be seen as a distillation of worth, as opposed to what it is, an indication of how well you do on one particular kind of standarized test.

On a totally different note, looks like I'll be in Austin for 4 or 5 days in early Feb. Maybe we can get together while I'm there?

[threejane.livejournal.com]

I would like that very much.