Ch 5 of 20: Standardized Tests

Imagine a manager who works very hard, during the day and after hours, on weekends and vacations, and being paid only forty thousand dollars a year, sometimes even less. Imagine a manager who has to buy not only his/her own papers, pens and other office supplies, but has to buy them for his entire staff, from his own pocket, with a very slim chance to ever get paid back. And, how about hundreds of photocopies, paid cash at Kinko's, just because the company’s copy machine is either out of commission or tens of people are waiting to use it?

Picture a manager who is being pressured by the board of directors to increase productivity. He knows his paycheck is not going to be altered as a result, but his performance evaluation depends on it. Of course, he wants to do his best and provide top service to the company, so he asks the board for some guideline on incentives he could offer his employees for doing well and deterrents for an unsatisfying job. The response is – none, neither incentives nor deterrents. “Your employees will be just proud of the company”, he is told. “But if they don’t raise productivity - are they going to be fired?” asks the idealist manager. “No! Not at all! It is not going to affect them; they should do it for the sake of the company…”

Now, think about a teacher who is asked to raise his students’ standardized tests score, and whose performance evaluation is based on the performance of his/her students on that test. There is an enormous pressure on schools that, in turn, becomes an enormous pressure on teachers, to perform well on the standardized tests. I have seen teachers trying to do everything, including the impossible, to get students to perform well on those tests; volunteering endless hours, even weekends, with no additional pay, buying food for every single person in the class, meeting students during the summer to correct their report card grade if they increased their test score (even by ONE point. Even if that teacher’s job is not secured for the following year…)  I have seen schools forcing teachers to spend so much time on the standardized testing preparation that they don’t even have time to teach half of what they supposed to teach…

Why doesn’t it work? The answer is very simple. It takes a common sense of a child to point out to what thousands of sophisticated adults refuse to admit about the emperor’s clothing… that he wears nothing…

Our students know the truth. They know that the entire force of teachers, administrators and district leaders, are armed with NOTHING that can make them do well! If performance is not going to affect their report card grade they are not going to put effort in it… they know that nothing can be done to them!

You see, our students are just as smart as those employees who are asked to raise productivity. They ask – “What is there for me?”

If the employees know that raising their productivity does not come with a raise in their paycheck, and on the other hand, there is no danger of being fired, they are not going to perform – why should they bother? How much do they care about the image of the company?

If student know that the results of the standardized tests have no consequence on their report card grades, and they are neither going to benefit nor penalized for their performance - why should they bother to do their best on a long, tiring, and irrelevant test? What is there for them…? And they raise this very question every single time before a standardized test.

I have many stories about the pathetic hysteria that occurs at a school during the tensed time of the testing. I can tell you about countless hours put by paid and unpaid school employees who are assigned to the job as full time or part time coordinator (…and it is always more than a full time job…)

On my first year supervising a test I caught a student cheating (using a calculator when no calculators allowed). I dutifully dragged that student to the headquarters of the testing and reported him to the supervisor in charge. Soon enough I found myself being interrogated about the nature of the cheating, if I really saw it or just imagined seeing it, was it really a calculator or only seemed to be a calculator, and so on… At last I realized that I’d better cooperate with the nature of the investigation and leave room for a doubt that maybe it didn’t happen… it took me years to realize what scrutiny schools face if they don’t reach minimum percentage of participating students, and what exercises schools practice to reach this percentage…

Another story is about a different standardized test, mandated few times a year by the district. During my first year, teaching full time, it was a periodic nightmare. Without any warning, the department head would come to me and instruct to administer this test immediately, make sure to check the open response answers myself, and submit it on the following day… Then, for a while, I didn’t see that test and almost forgot about it until several years later, when, due to an injury of the permanent teacher, I took over teaching algebra to classes consisting of repeated algebra students. These classes were very tough and challenging; I knew some of the students from previous years and was walking on eggshells dealing with them… All went quite well for several weeks until, all of a sudden, a command came from above – Administer the horrid test! Now, these are very low motivated students, who are so smart and calculated about where and if to put their effort. Certainly, they are not going to do anything that doesn’t pay to their immediate interest. Thus, I had to face an ethical dilemma - do I just let them take it easy, compromising about noise level in the classroom, and letting them pick at their neighbors’ test (stupidly – the test is only one version), or do I act on my conscious (and on the fear that administrator will sure come and check on them, and on me…) So, I started a losing battle, in a desperate attempt to get them to work quietly, as hard as they can, and on their own…  I lost not only that battle but I lost it for the rest of the year… from that time on I could not make them do anything any longer, and each day of the remaining two weeks of school I was praying that the day will be over without any major incident…

A curious finding about that specific test: When I received the tests results, I was surprised to find out that students’ performances were almost in an opposite correlation to their ability, according to my assessment. It took me a long time to figure out why. What I realized, at last, was that students who didn’t care, just marked all the answers without checking them, but did finish the test. Obviously some of their answers were correct. The good and conscious students took a long time to answer and check, but never got to the end of the test, and thus their overall score was lower than of those who marked randomly, but answered all questions… 

That much for standardized tests, their value for assessing students, and even worse, their value in assessing teachers…

Yet, time and again, teachers are being blamed for the failure of their students in the standardized tests. Blamed in the best case; evaluated, penalized and in some cases – being fired, in the less fortunate case. Blamed for something of which they have no control, nor do they have the tools to control it…

Ch 4 of 20: What is wrong with our education system?

EVERYTHING! Everything EXCEPT FOR … believe it or not… THE TEACHERS…

to teachers with love...

For the past ten years of being in education, I have NEVER met a bad teacher. I met teachers whose teaching methods might have not been ideal, in my opinion. I met teachers with whose opinion I did not agree. I met teachers that were not as organized as I thought they should have been, teachers whose response to a situation was different from mine, but not even one of them was a bad teacher!

All the teachers that I know love their job and try to do their best. They are very intelligent people with knowledge that goes far beyond what they teach, in their subjects and in general. They show up to school when they are well or sick, fresh or tiered, making almost impossible arrangements for their families to take care of their sick children, aging parents, or incapacitated spouses. They come to school early, some of them very early, and often stay late after school hours, long after their learners had gone. They remain at their rooms during lunch to accommodate struggling students, and they come in the evenings to endless required, or even only recommended, meetings.

Teaches spend a weekend after weekend preparing lessons, projects and tests, checking endless amount of papers, and planning new policies and methods in hope that maybe this time their effort will bring better results. They answer emails and phone calls from administrators, parents and students. They are available for anyone at any time, almost twenty-four hours a day, almost every day of the year.

Yes, there might be some CEO’s out there who are responding to communication coming their way at all times, maybe even on vacations and off time, but shall we compare compensations?

A teacher is paid for six hours of teaching a day. Yes, it does include, sometimes, one “free” hour, conference, for preparation time. I don’t remember too many conference hours that I actually used for ‘future’ preparations, let alone “free” time. There is, always, so much to do that teachers use conference hours to catch up on school errands, and they barely make it.

On average, and this is quite an accurate assessment, for each classroom instruction hour there is at least one, out of class, additional hour of work. It means that at the end of every school day a teacher had already worked two school days. It means that by the end of the school year the teacher had already worked for every single day of the summer vacation, winter vacation, and every other vacation. In most cases teachers had “covered” most of their weekends, as well, and probably more than that…

So – what IS, really, wrong with the education system?

NOT the teachers! Yet they are the ones who are being blamed for all the ailing of our education system, and why not? They are the easiest target…

It always reminds me of a joke about a man who is looking for his lost key near the street light. When a neighbor asks him where he lost the key, he points to the other side of the street. “So why are you looking for the key here?” asks the confused neighbor. “Well, it is too dark over there…” answers the man, “it is much easier to look for it here…”

We are looking at the easy place, in the light, instead of looking where is right… The real problems and solutions are not under the comfort of the streetlights, but at the dark corners, far away from the easy and bright…

Yes, we all heard about cases of bad teachers, and yes, there are bad apples everywhere, but if there is one field where it is very rare, it is in education.

Why should a person want to become a teacher? For the money? For the respect? For the support?

No, a person who wants to become a teacher is an idealist (or a fool…), an optimist who just does not know how hard it will be to make his dream a reality; who does not realize that the system will consistently be against him and will continuously stand between him and the dream…

What do I mean? …Where shall I start…?

Ch 3 of 20: Part II: History of my education career

I was now a credentialed teacher, but for the first semester after the charter school experience, I worked as a daily substitute. Came December, though, I was ready for a full time job. As bad as teaching is, subbing is even worse, and the phone calls in the early hours of the morning gave me anxiety attacks. I sent resumes everywhere and was called, at last. I was interviewed, offered a job, and accepted it, all on Christmas Eve, and started the day after the New Year. These were support math classes for students who failed first semester algebra; an additional math lesson.

I had a supportive administrator backing me up, two excellent math coaches, young, capable, and very nice, and a dean who was decisively with me. I have never had such an excellent support before or since that position, yet another failure. For one week the students were great and even told me how much they liked my teaching. The math coaches, however, just smiled, knowingly, and promised– it will get worse… And it did… On the second week, students were testing their power, on the third week I was sending students to the dean on a regular basis, on the fourth week they hated me and made my life miserable. And, although the support team had never abandoned me, as it often happens, I felt a complete failure… At the end of the semester I was offered a full time position, but after few more short assignments that, luckily, ended before it got real bad, I left, unwilling to commit to a permanent position. For a while I worked as a daily sub. I also tried private schools, Adult Education, tutoring - private and through agencies. But, in December, I updated my resume and sent it to every school within a reasonable driving distance.

An unfamiliar school called me for an interview, and I immediately liked it and its staff; but I was contemplating teaching a higher math that was out of my comfort zone. My son suggested that all I need is to be one page ahead of my students… and I will forever be thankful for his advice. While stressing to the top of my ability, I had the best teaching experience, ever. This was exactly what I thought teaching should be – simplifying complicated concepts for students who strive to understand. Answering questions for learners who actually care to know, seeing the light in their eyes… These two math analysis classes will forever be the jewel of my teaching!

I was asked to return on the next school year, to temporarily replace a teacher on maternity leave. As the holidays drew nearer and no replacement came yet, the position seemed permanent enough, but right after the holidays vacation, only few weeks before the semester end, four out of my five classes were switched; new students and new subjects… My evaluation at the end of that year was so bad that I thought my teaching career is over not only in this school, but in the entire country… I fought fiercely against its unfairness and was promised that it will be reversed. I don’t think it ever did but, surprisingly, I was offered a full time position for the following year.

I had a full time job, teaching dream subjects! Yes, I had to travel between four different rooms, not having my own, and had a terrible geometry class that was assigned to the worst location, but I believed I would manage with time. Three weeks into the school year I was called to be told by the principal that due to low enrollment, my position is being cut… This was painful! Starting to feel successful, believing that this time will be OK.  I also had to leave a great group of fellow teachers; the kindest, smartest, funniest and most frustrated group that you will ever meet…

Next, I took an assignment at a school whose principal sounded nice, and for few days I thought I found the right place, but two weeks later, after my cell phone was stolen twice, I left. They wanted me to stay but could not give me a key to my classroom, or to the nearest bathroom, and with two – 2 hours blocks back to back, and a very short passing time, it meant 4 hours without bathroom break. Add to that a very difficult student population, not very accommodating administration, and… no teachers’ cafeteria (stand in line with students…), I decided not to stay there beyond the 2 weeks for which I was committed.

Additional experiences: Over the course of experimenting with education venues I came across so many types of alternative education settings – from continuation schools, adult schools and home schooling that the public education offers, all the way to different sorts of private schools and tutoring institutions, many of which are contracted by the district to provide education services. Millions of dollars are spent on private tutoring agencies to assist under privileged students, with questionable benefits to the students, but undeniable profits to the institutions. With the trend of privatizing education, it, apparently, became a profitable business, but produces, in my opinion, very poor results…

Through years of experience and volume of experiences, there were only very few institutions that really impressed me, however, one element of education never failed to impress me - the… teachers!

Ch 2 of 20: Part I: History of my education career

My first professional contact with a school was as an observer, part of my credentialing duties. I then volunteered to stay there to help, and on the next year, I came back as a (paid) teacher aide, working in Special Ed and ESL classes. On the following school year, I was offered a position as a math teacher in the special education department, and after a long hesitation decided to take it.

And so, armed with all the tools and enthusiasm of a new teacher, and, thankfully, with ignorance about the well trained, fearless troops of high school students, I signed my first teaching contract at a well-respected high school in the neighborhood. Yes, I knew it is not going to be easy teaching an SDC class (Special Day Class), but I had an experienced teacher aide, classes were small, less than 15 students, and a supportive staff, so what could go wrong?

That year was an introduction to what was to come in the following years. Students who talk over you, completely ignore you and your teaching, who are so rude that you are taken a back because no one had ever talked to you this way before. Students who come to school without supplies, and abuse the supplies you give them; Flying paper airplanes, erasers, crayons or broken pencils. Books filled with graffiti, profanity in most cases. Parents that cannot be reached because they are not around, have moved away, didn’t pay their phone bills. Administrators who are overwhelmed with problems, limited by regulations, restricted by budget cuts; so burdened with their own difficulties that can hardly help you… 

My aide, helper, would step in half an hour late and start a chat with students about shopping and sports, or would tell them stories about her family, ignoring my mid-lesson instruction. Of course, they liked her far better, and it did not help my standing with them, or with her.

Then there were the IEPs, Individual Educational Plan. It took me a long time to learn how to write them, until I realized that most recommendations are the same (a seat at the front, shorter homework, longer test time), but I resented spending conference hours catching up with the load.

However, despite all the difficulties, that year was my best teaching year. Not credentialed yet, but I had energy, fresh ideas, and the belief that all students are created equal. Bad behavior or inability to grab a concept was just not acceptable. I made the entire class retake the chapter on Solids because I could not believe that comprehending Volume and Surface Area is beyond any student’s capability. I sent students to the office, disregarding reprimands from the deans, made calls to non-existing numbers, had parents sit in the classroom with their misbehaving students…

At the end of the school year, though, I was quite sure what I do not want in teaching – no IEP writing, no helping aides, no special Ed! But I was not worried. I was on my way to becoming a math teacher, and with the shortage of math teachers, I would have no problem finding a job in the general education… I was practically expecting jobs to fall on my lap without any effort.

The first eye-opener came from that same school. I thought I did quite a decent job and was expecting an offer. It came, but only for special ed… Thus, I started my journey looking for a position in the general ed. “Math? you won’t have any problem…”, every one told me, so I applied at the district, answered few ads at teachers’ sites and was waiting for the phone calls to pour in, but only few job interview invitations came, mostly from charter schools. One school called back and offered me a position. They didn’t press me into signing the papers so I took my time, still waiting for the rush of calls from all those desperate schools…The summer almost wore off. I went on vacation and came back, and at last realized that the charter school offer is the only offer I have, and I’d better hurry up signing the papers before I lose this one too…

That year was some experience and at the end of the school year, I made every effort to complete my certification because I made up my mind never to be a full time teacher again… as one of my credentialing classmate said – “let’s get the certification so that we never have to teach again…”