In response to the question, “Can You Do the Wrong Thing in the Right Way?,” this teacher responded with a fascinating account of how she conquered the testing monster in her first-grade classroom.
She writes:
I’ve been thinking about testing too. A lot. I teach first grade. My students arrive at the tender age of 5 or 6 and exit at 6 or 7. I give my students 6 benchmark tests a year, 3 in literacy and 3 in math. This past year, 4 more tests were added to the roster – this time on computer. That adds up to 10 – yes 10 -multiple choice tests every year for children who still cry for their moms, pee on the carpet, fall asleep spread eagle on the floor, and poke, prod, tease, and growl at each other. Oh –did I say that the children can’t read, at least for the first third of the year –the first 3 or 4 tests?
I am told the tests are to help inform my instruction. But I know the truth. The tests are there in first grade to get the kids ready for the tests in second grade –the tests that really matter – the tests that will count on the schools’ API and AYP reports. (California tests 2nd grade).
As a pragmatist, I’m efficient, organized, hold traditional values, and like rules and order. I know how to do what is expected of me and how to show results. So I reasoned I could use these structural strengths to get the tests over with, show the expected results, meet the smart goals, so that I could move on to the creative part of teaching –the part that cannot be quantified– the part of teaching where I get to interact with the children I am charged with developing academically, I get to know their passions, fears, ideas, the part of teaching that educates children – where there are no borders between painting and reading and playing basketball and building towers and writing , the part of teaching that is magical, that combines knowledge of standards, expertise, and passion on the part of the teacher with excitement, willingness, surprise, and vision from children.
But that is not what happened. Every breathing space I created for myself and my students by my efficiency got filled up with another expectation. More students – 18 one year, 20 the next, 24 for a few years, then 26; a new policy of all-day, full inclusion of special needs children in the general education classroom; a neighborhood impacted by the housing market decline and its resultant mobile population – causing more to move in and out of my classroom during the year; a school in program improvement – in effect designated as failing, and the resultant punishments – more administrative scrutiny, narrowing of curriculum to math and reading, canceling of arts programs during the school day; flight of families to school with better scores; and noisy classrooms in buildings without connecting walls.
So I got tired. I got beaten down. I got discouraged. And if you think I had it bad, think of the kids. Imagine a teacher for them who is always cross, always serious, harps about the test, never takes the time to ask them how they are doing, is too busy to tie a shoe lace or rub a boo-boo. That is me. I cringe as I write this.
Standardized tests don’t just stop my students from thinking, they teach them not to think. Imagine a 5 year old child who doesn’t read, and may not even speak English. They look at an 8 by 11 inch white paper devoid of all but one or two sketches. They listen as I read the question to them. Then I read the 3 or 4 choices. They pick the choice and fill in the bubble. Imagine the time I spend teaching them how to find the question, scroll with their eyes through the 4 choices, all while listening to me drone on and repeat the question and the choices until all 26 of them have bubbled something in. Imagine that this one test has 8 pages of questions – 15 or 20 questions in all. No wonder I’m cross. No wonder their eyes are glazed and they are growling.
But it gets worse. I am complicit in this next part. Standardized tests actually make students stupid. Yes, stupid. Not only are the kids not thinking, they are losing the ability to think. In my zeal to get administrative scrutiny off me and my students, I mistakenly thought that if I give them the test results they want, then I could do what I know was best for my students. To that end I trained my students to do well in these tests. I taught them to look for loopholes; to eliminate and guess; to find key words; to look for clues; in short, to exchange the process of thinking for the process of manipulation. I capitalized on my knowledge of young children, and the fact that they want to please adults and like to get the answer “right”. I justified my actions by saying that I had no choice, that the consequences of low test scores at my school were too dire to contemplate, and I wasn’t willing to put myself in professional or financial jeopardy. Clearly, testing made me stupid too.
I can’t speak for all my fellow teachers at my school, but I suspect many of them would, at the very least, recognize similar behaviors in their test-teaching practices. So, when despite our best collective efforts at raising test scores failed and my school entered 2nd year program improvement, I surrendered my stupidity and started speaking up, and eventually speaking out. I read research, blogs, government publications, and journals. I read widely from educational, historical, economic, pediatric, and psychological literature. I challenged administrative authority at my school to do the same – read, think, debate, discuss, and much to my surprise, did not get rebuffed. Astonishingly, I got ignored.
At about the same time I woke up out of my testing-induced nightmare , I started to notice the monster I had helped create. My students were only happy when they got the answer right. For many years my collegues and I had noticed a trend in young children – a trend toward passivity in learning. We had theories – all the kids had TV’s in the bedrooms, they had far too much screen time – computer, games, cells, TV’s in cars, lack of adult supervision and interaction, lack of conversational models at home, lack of social models at home, the list went on. But what wasn’t on the list was what I was culpable for – I had become about the right answer. They wanted to please me. They knew that if they waited long enough I would help them find the right answer. And I did.
One day, during small group math rotation, I put up privacy boards during the practice part of a lesson on math reasoning. The story problem went like this: There are 10 buttons on my coat. 6 are red and the rest are blue. How many are blue? We have worked on these kind of problems frequently, and the children have seen them in test format. Using connecting cubes as buttons, the children had to make a model of the problem. Three kids cried that day. The stress of thinking for and by themselves got to them. You see, many of the children had become expert at copying – watching what other children did in the group to get an answer and then providing “their” answer a nanosecond later. The children did not trust themselves enough to even attempt an answer. Their discomfort was palpable, and I was appalled.
Crying notwithstanding, I continued to use privacy boards. I also started to coach the kids about my belief in their abilities. I found that as they worked out a math problem using manipulatives to represent objects, I could lean in and coach them, one to one. Then, when they all had their answers, we pushed down the privacy boards to explore what we had all done. Ever so slowly, over many weeks, they started to regain their confidence.
You might wonder why I had not been doing this kind of teaching all along. I had, 11 years ago, pre-NCLB. Testing, along with the breadth of the standards and the resulting mountain of material to cover, much of it developmentally inappropriate, slowly eroded my professional judgement. Pressure to produce results through collaboration and mind-numbing analysis sapped my energy. A constant barrage of media stories about the ineffectiveness of teachers, some of it supported by leaders at my own school, drowned my spirit. Then I heard you, Diane, speak as a guest of my district and union. I started to read your work and have never looked back.
So thank you from the bottom of my heart. You are truly brave. You inspire me to speak up and speak out. You remind me that knowledge is power –I had forgotten. Now I get my ducks in a row, collect my facts, back up my intuition and experience with research, and speak up without fear or rancor. And in the process of speaking up for myself, I speak up for my students. And ever so slowly I start to rebuild my confidence too.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
What an incredible message! Thanks, you made my day!
As a 5th grade teacher, I can see myself in this post. I remember the days when we taught kids to think, to reason, to learn for the sake of knowledge. As I enter the last few years of my career, I have given myself permission to teach that way again. I feel for the young teachers wo have never known what is is like to teach for the sake of knowledge and not for test scores.
I’m curious how this is “conquering the testing monster”? I would guess that this approach would also raise test scores, on top of being better for the kids’ confidence?
In which case, wouldn’t this just be improved pedagogy?
Genuinely curious: Was there something about this change that directly conflicted with the benchmarks? (I am not a testing hawk, I think they frequently receive too much focus. But I don’t see the connection in this story.)
Great letter and another empowered teacher. Good for you! I wish others would experience this epiphany of tests numbing the creativity and critical thinking of our kids.
What a well-written and enlightening commentary.
It’s amazing that even expert teachers are becoming trained performing animals because of the standardized testing circus barons and their ringmaster education administrators shoving these routine test and performance practices down our throats in order to keep public schools alive.
What an extraordinarily moving testament! Thank you for continuing to think when you are being told not to.
Thank you for your painful honesty. As a fellow first grade teacher, I completely identify with everything you’ve said. We are adding a barrage of new computerized, nationally-normed tests to our already overcrowded testing schedule this year. I’ll remember your message of strength and confidence as I continue to strive to provide high-quality learning experiences for my students. I will use that data to inform my instruction, but I’ll follow the needs of the child first.
I see the same behaviors at the high school level. The school district gives lip service to critical thinking and creativity, but their hearts and careers are only in the test scores and the perks they will acquire for good testing. High school exit exam. State testing. District periodic assessments. English language acquisition/proficiency tests. Students are apathetic because everything is about testing and not about their learning or their future. Many students, especially those who have been low achievers, are very disengaged from school . At the high school level, it is very appalling because these young people will be on their own in a few years in college, at work, and raising families of their own.
Thank you for this important piece. Inspiring.
This is inspiring, but how many other teachers have been unable to reach this kind of epiphany yet? How many students are suffering with these horrific requirements? It’s so frustrating and disgusting that little babies are being forced to do these tests over and over again.
Wonderful ! ! !
Yes, inspiring but, Diane, one doesn’t “conquer the testing beast”. That testing beast is worse than the zombies in a B movie. The more it is attacked, the more it morphs into something different.
The only way to nuke this testing beast is to read and understand Noel Wilson’s “Educational Standards and the Problem of Error” found at: http://epaa.asu.edu/ojs/article/view/577/700 and use that information to completely destroy the concept of the testing beast. “If the mind can conceive of a testing beast then the mind can conceive how to destroy that beast” (apologies to N. Hill). Wilson has done the conceiving now it’s up to us to do the actual work destroying the beast.
Keep up the good work! The DEFORMERS are evil and greedy, and the last thing they care about is our young, esp. those who do not come from rich, entitled parents.
I can relate to this teacher. At some point I, too, realized I had turned into the teacher that I did not want to become. I think of the teacher that I wanted to be when I wrote my philosophy of education statement for my job application what seems like a million years ago. I think of my first few years as a teacher. I was teaching first grade at the time. We had thematic units and work stations where the kids were actively engaged in their learning. Education was meaningful and purposeful. Kids were learning and enjoying learning. I loved teaching. After some time in upper elementary grades I returned to my first love, the primary grades. I originally thought that I would be escaping the testing craze that began in third grade in my state. Boy, was I wrong! Second grade, my new assignment, reminded me of my time in third grade. Gone was the joy of learning through discovery and the fostering of children’s creativity. In their place were worksheets and more worksheets. The curriculum had been made teacher-proof with lesson plans already provided, numbing my mind as well as my students’. I was told by people with no experience in the primary grades what second-graders should be able to do. After teaching several grades over more than 25 years, I can assure you there is no such thing as a typical x-grader! I tried to play along. I tried to get the kids to jump through all the hoops, but I never felt that what I was doing was good teaching or meaningful for my students. I am trying to regain what was lost. I have cut back on the worksheets that I eliminate without getting into too much trouble. And, after having conversations with my principal about what is appropriate for my students, I have discovered that we are more similar than dissimilar in our philosophies. Thanks in part to the Common Core (believe it or not!) we are getting rid of our reading “anthology” as well as some district-wide assessments that only proved that second-graders aren’t good at taking certain tests. I feel that the tide is turning and that if enough teachers advocate for their students and their needs, we may be able to save education yet.
Oops: the sentence should read:
I have cut back on the worksheets that I CAN eliminate without getting into too much trouble.
Wow! Testing in first grade is insane. I’ve been thinking about this kind of thing recently, because I’ve been looking at a Waldorf school for my kids for next year, and it turns out that Waldorf schools provide an amazing natural experiment in NOT giving any explicit instruction in reading before 2nd grade. The data seems to say that explicit reading instruction in Kindergarten and First grade is unnecessary (http://literacyinleafstrewn.blogspot.com/2013/06/waldorf-schools-are-interesting-natural.html).
And if you can’t read, the tests are even less valid than they are already–AND kids have to have the kind of unpleasant experiences you describe with the privacy boards and all. Yikes. Thanks for writing about this.
I’m a parent of a first grader and very frustrated with test taking. How can a child read questions to a test when they cannot comprehend very well? My son is an excellent reader but he doesn’t comprehend the text very well. How do you teach comprehension? All I hear is he doesn’t do well on his tests and he needs to read more. How much more should he read after reading for 30-40 minutes everyday? My son will not be a “yes Man” as an adult so stop shoving test down his throat so early.
What a great personal testimony. My district isn’t yet this crazy but I fear it’s coming. Thank you so much for sharing your story.
Diane,
Did you see this article in Education Week? http://www.edweek.org/dd/articles/2013/06/12/03commoncore.h06.html?intc=EW-DD6.13-EM
I was struck by the costs. In Tacoma, for example, our research and evaluation director is quoted as saying, “There is a lot of curricular work necessary to make sure things are mapped out properly and that content is in sync with the standards,” says Pat Cummings, the director of research and evaluation for the 30,000-student Tacoma, Wash., public schools. About 800 students participated in a Smarter Balanced pilot in April, using mostly laptops, and some PCs, to take the tests.
“You want a kid to take a test that relates to what is going on in the classroom,” Cummings says. “The only way to make the Smarter Balanced assessments meaningful is if common core is effectively integrated into the coursework.”
However, for all of our students 3-12 grade to test, we’re going to have to spend millions on wi-fi upgrades, device purchases, and software both for testing and test prep, not to mention the money for curricular work “to make sure things are…in sync with the standards.” On the other hand, the district approved RIF’s for up to 12% of our Career and Technical Education teachers this year. I know several teachers have received notification of non-contract renewal. So we can afford all this technology but we can’t afford the technology teachers?
How does the Danielson Method address this teacher?
As a 1st grade teacher also I feel your pain. These children come to us from kindergarten really not knowing how to read, write, or even think out side of the box and we are shoving test at them. At my current school we give pre and post test for math and science 4 times a year so that is 16 test, we give MAP testing 3 times a year with 2 math and 2 reading portions each time so that is 12 test and then EVERY week we give a reading benchmark. This doesn’t include all of the other test we give throughout the weeks. My students started saying ANOTHER TEST. How are children supposed to enjoy school when we aren’t able to teach for enjoyment, but just to pass a test.
Thanks so much! Me as a parent see the same thing at home. We get so into school work we forget to realize kids need to be loved and cared for without always trying to teach them what will help them at school. To read a book mean to try to get ar points for school. Its not reading enjoying the book anymore.I must go back and do my first work over to. Thanks again