Kathleen M. Cashin and Bruce S. Cooper are on the faculty of Fordham University. Dr. Cashin, an experienced educator, is also a member of the New York State Board of Regents. She is regularly in the minority on votes that increase the pressure for high-stakes testing. Dr. Cooper is a scholar who has written about school finance for many years. In this essay, they criticize the state’s pressure to raise test scores while sacrificing the social and emotional supports that students need to succeed in school. Schools across the state, restricted by Governor Cuomo’s 2% tax limit, must cut somewhere, and they are forced to cut such necessary services to students as social workers, psychologists, counselors, as well as the arts and athletics. These demands and the sacrifices they require will prove harmful to students, in the short run and the long run. A cardinal rule of medicine, derived from the Hippocratic Oath, is: “First, do no harm.” If it were the rule in education, the Regents and the State Commissioner would be judged to have done significant harm to the students in their care, whose well-being they willfully ignore in pursuit of ever higher scores on standardized tests.
Sacrificing Psychologists, Counselors,
& Social Workers—and Athletics & the Arts—to Test Preparation
Kathleen M. Cashin Bruce S. Cooper
To increase funds for the preparation of students for state tests, sadly, New York public schools and their districts have reduced the number of professionals for critical student services; these include guidance counselors, psychologists, and social workers, while removing often athletic coaches, arts and music staff. But how can we expect our children to flourish in schools socially, psychologically, and inter-personally if these students have fewer trained school professionals to turn to, should they need help, comfort, or support?
Thus, we are cutting the most important services for children, those that help them to develop as healthy, happy human beings, all because we are obsessed with spending more funds, hoping to raise test score results through test prep. As one school principal recently commented, “Just forget it if you are seeking a job as a school guidance counselor, as these jobs are few and far between!”
For example, New York State recorded a decline from 7,126 guidance counselors in local public schools in 2009, to 6,622 in school year 2011-12, a drop of 7%, even though the enrollments (and needs) had risen. Likewise, social workers in the state employed in public schools dropped by 6%, from 3,270 to 3,050 during the same time period. And nurses working in public schools in New York declined by 3%, from 3,662 to 3,544 during this time.
As another administrator recalls, when he was a student at a major N.Y.C. public high school, his guidance counselor frequently called him into her office and asked:
“How are you adjusting to school?” She would regularly check on my grades, attendance, and my adjustment to various subjects and classes. This attention and private time meant so much to me, and I remember her fondly to this day, as she helped me to become the person and professional that I became.
Even teachers of art, music, drama, and physical education – and other areas that often go “untested” by the state — are disappearing, again reducing children’s engagement, joy, expression, physical fitness, creativity, and affirmation. What have we as a society accomplished by turning schools into “test mills” where fewer kids are happy; and schools are now spending eight months each year prepping for state tests?
Funding for the music and art in schools in New York City, for example, has plummeted by 81 percent since 2006, from about $10 million for supplies, dipping down to just $2 million in 2012. Cultural partnership funding — to build bridges between N.Y.C. public schools and it important cultural institutions — likewise, has been reduced by 50 percent, from $26 million to only $13 million.
Results
Now, attention and time devoted to the “whole child” are now much less likely because teachers working alone in their classrooms are assuming more and more responsibility. And we see less staff who are trained and hired to help students — socially and emotionally — with a reduction in social workers, guidance counselors, athletic coaches, and school psychologists.
As a consequence, what are the effects of this drop in guidance counselors, now fewer in number in many schools, on children’s growth, stability, school attendance, as well the impact on levels of bad behaviors, such as physical bullying, and cyber-bullying? Those staff, specifically trained to address these students’ needs and problems, have diminished and thus are no longer around — or have so many students to serve, that they are not able to counsel students fully for college and career readiness.
We have data on the reduction in nonteaching staff, and on the rise of bad, anti-social behavior and depression among school kids; thus, we are believe that the drop in counselors and athletic-arts-music staff relates to the rising despair of students, who may have no one to whom to turn: fewer coaches, counselors, and psychologists in their schools.
Hence, we are making demands that students now become college and career prepared, while reducing (or overburdening) the very staff members who are trained to help these students. These critical questions must be answered at the federal, state, and local levels:
1. What is the level of relationship between loss of staff and the rise in student bullying and cyber-bullying?
2. What are the effects of reductions in available psychological and guidance personnel upon the levels of: (a) student suicide, (b) self-mutilation, and (c) truancy and dropout?
3. And how has the increase in gang membership — and combat among gangs –affected students’ feelings of school safety, school climate, and productivity?
Thus, overall, why are we letting our schools become less humane, supportive, and communal. And how are some students taking steps to join or create more gangs for fellowship and a sense of safety in numbers—or trying in other ways to create their own “safety nets”? Unsafe schools may then become breeding grounds, where frightened children look for protection in neighborhood gangs.
In effect, students are creating their own victimhood by these actions:
• Looking to gangs for protection from other gangs;
• Missing coping mechanisms developed through counseling, guidance, and teacher relationships;
• Losing chances to learn life and life-coping skills in schools, along with other students and professional staff;
• Reducing available parental involvement and support in helping their own children learn to cope, practice, and succeed in school – and life; and,
• Losing real opportunities to practice social and personal skills at school and home.
We must recognize that caring for and supporting the socio-emotional needs of children are as important in the long-run as simply test-prepping our children’s way to a higher score on English, math, science, and social studies examinations.
Research and experience together show that children can learn, retain, and focus better when they are feeling and functioning as safe, happy, well-adjusted young people. Society has a real responsibility once again to make schools safe-havens for all children, physically and socially. For are we not truly our brothers and sisters’ keepers?
______________
Kathleen M. Cashin, Ed.D., is a member of the N.Y. State Board Regents and a clinical professor at Fordham University.
Bruce S. Cooper, Ph.D., is professor at Fordham University, Graduate School of Education, N.Y.C.
Contact:
Dr. Bruce S. Cooper
175 Riverside Dr. Apt. #2F
New York, NY 10024
Tel: 917 843-2281
Email: bruce.cooper@mac.com
Reblogged this on Kmareka.com and commented:
Oh, and happy social work month (sorry for the sarcasm!)…
Now that the charters are ready to receive carte blanche in the NY State budget, the staggering gap and loss to public schools that are outlined in the post will be multiplied.
In athletics, we have already seen the charters step in and “recruit” the area’s top athletes. Public schools have, for decades, put all kinds of safeguards in place to prevent this type of “shopping for athletes” within the schools. Sadly, charters have proven once again they are not “publics” as they blatantly build MVP teams from area public schools with impunity. This type of behavior will become more apparent as charters begin their push into the ‘burbs. But it’s all about the kids – right???
One of my daughters is an inner-city school social worker…in a charter school. (I still love her!) Whenever we are together, she shares story after story about how most of her time is walking kids off the ledge and showing them they have options in life beyond gangs, teenage pregnancy, etc. Without her guidance, many of these kids would drop out, engage in anti-social behavior, etc. My wife works in an inner-city public school. They can’t afford the same degree of services. In her school, the burden falls on already overtaxed teachers. Social workers do make a difference…regardless of where they work…charters or public schools.
If the conclusions at the end are true re how children are coping i.e. creating and joining gangs for protection etc. then what we are preparing them for is life/survival in a slum environment and we are seeing the development of yet another example of “… unintended consequences” resulting from an action/actions intended to improve our perceived position in the world. Instead we are creating another jungle environment – maybe this is the intent and a class, or classes, of dependent peasants to serve.
Think expendable worker bees …
I know PE has been cut.
But when they really cut sports, the test prep game is over. See Texas high school football.
Reblogged this on Middletown Voice.
The cutbacks in NYC are worth noting but so are those occurring elsewhere. Information from the 2011 MetLife Survey is worth noting even if not up-to-date.
More than one third (36%) of teachers reported that during the past 12 months there had been reductions or eliminations of the following programs in their schools:
arts or music (23%), foreign language (17%) or physical education (12%).
Overall, these cuts were more frequently reported among teachers in urban areas than in suburban or rural areas (46% vs. 32% vs. 32% and reductions or eliminations of arts or music programs were greatest in schools with more than two-thirds minority students than otherwise (30% vs. 19%).
Cuts in K-12 programs in the arts have been accompanied by an up-tick in the practice of outsourcing arts education to “service providers” who may be unpaid or reimbursed paid through grants from school boards. Among these are volunteers, managers of after-school and on-line programs, community arts agencies and booking agencies that arrange gigs for underemployed artists.
This ad hoc service-providing approach allows schools to claim that arts education “is taken care of” with a now-and-then exposure to art, artists, or people who lay claim to an affinity to art.
Imagine that as a policy for education in science, or social studies, or mathematics.
Click to access MetLife-Teacher-Survey-2011.pdf
It would be helpful to know how often the cuts in arts and music resulted in the loss of teachers.
It’s always preferable to have these teachers as part of the faculty and true, certified teachers. However, good, certified art and music teachers are sometimes difficult to find. So sometime “outsourcing” happens for that reason.
You can look at teacher shortages by state, with projected shortages for the year ahead at https://www2.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ope/pol/tsa.pdf
Shorages depend a lot on whether states require studies in the arts, and at which grades, then geographic region, size of the school, and district wealth. Reports from teachers in the visual arts show that these teachers are increasingly asked to do test prep or prove that their teaching has contributed to school test scores in ELA or math.
This is a tragedy! When Fine Arts, PE, and Mental Health Support Services are eliminated from children’s learning environment it should be the last straw. Those are the nurturing elements that support and enhance children’s social and emotional development, help them develop a strong sense of self (identity), help them make healthy connections to their environment, inspire them to love learning, and bring joy into their lives. Those are also elements of a healthy learning environment that builds strong leaders and good thinkers, and helps children feel empowered.
Research has shown that a child’s social and emotional development is a greater indicator of future success than test performance. My observations, from 30 years as a school counselor, have shown that to be true also. However, the CCSS test focused school environment is a paradox. it promotes the opposite of what is known through research and experience as necessary for a healthy learning environment for children.
There is something very SINISTER about decisions like this, as well as the educational reform movement in general. Why are we allowing politicians and billionaires, who have no educational expertise, no child development expertise, and no mental health expertise, to make decisions that impact children’s lives so dramatically?
The educational “impostors” making these decisions can only be described as perpetrators of abuse to children. The fact that Pearson’s standardized tests, like STAAR, are designed to “intentionally” cause “frustration”, “confusion”, and “intimidation” to children sends up red flags.
Why aren’t more people paying attention to those red flags!
As a trauma-trained school counselor with years in the trenches of crisis intervention, and after observing first hand the psychological damage to children from the chronic stress in this punitive test obsessed school environment, I would like to speak out and
say that Pearson is a “wolf in sheep’s clothing”.
Pearson designs standardized test and materials that have demonstrated their harm to children. The Dept of Education promotes Pearson & Common Core materials knowing that teachers, parents and mental health professionals have spoken out about their harmful impact on children’s health. Why are we not having Congressional Hearings to investigate the Dept of Education and Pearson?
The perpetrators of the Education Industrial Complex are “bullies” to children.
These bullies obviously get pleasure from the power they experience from making children “suffer”.
These adults who bully children are immature, insecure people who were probably bullied as children (most likely from domineering parents and teachers).
Their displaced anger is projected onto others down the chain to the children.
Adults who bully children usually perpetrate the same abuse that they experienced as children. That abuse may be psychological, physical, or sexual.
It is time that we say STOP to this cruelty to children!
Most parents of elementary age children and young teachers are products (victims) of an autocratic punitive school environment that has existed since the 80’s when the perfect storm of high stakes testing combined with “assertive discipline” came into being. These teachers and parents may not recognize this environment as punitive or harmful to their children. Can we who do recognize this destructive force at work in the schools please reach out to them and educate them. They need to understand that this Common Core Environment has intensified to the level that mental health professionals are now calling it what it is: An invalidating environment for children that is high risk for psychological damage.
Pearson’s tests should have a Skull & Cross Bones emblazoned on the cover!
Teachers and parents of elementary age children must be awakened from denial to the realization that this punitive school environment of Common Core is NOT NORMAL.
It is a “wolf in sheep’s clothing”!
My opinion is that the only way to stop this abuse is solidarity between teachers and parents and REFUSE to TEST.
My opinion is that “covert” Narcissistic PD is the underlying disorder of the government and corporate “leaders” who are supporting the education reform movement. While they are attempting to “break” the public education system, they are also “breaking” the children. They have no empathy or compassion for children or teachers, no guilt about abusing children or teachers, nor do they understand what constitutes a healthy learning environment for children. Their denial and self-absorbed greed only allows them to see $$$$.
My opinion: Joyce Murdock Feilke Austin Texas Texas Parents Opt Out
Kids in our low SES neighborhood school are motivated by hands-on learning and articulating their thinking vs. writing. They are not the typical pencil paper, sit in a chair all day students. They like group activities vs. individual competition. They like working with math manipulatives (not the dreaded engageNY that forces kids to produce their own through drawing–another pencil paper task) and the limited alternatives to solving the ridicuoulsly worded story problems. By the way, engageNY is not totally free. We cut down a forest at a time printing lessons and scripts. Our classroom environment dictated by CCS is breaking the spirit of our students beginning with kindergarteners. We have a full-time counselor and social worker, but the aggressive behavior and gang mentality persist.
Now we are in the testing period. More time wasted practicing and learning how to use the tools. Classroom instruction are a bust and we haven’t tested yet for our 6-wk window. How do we get valid grades for the last trimester when there is no time left for teaching? And the time that’s left is a joke. Students think school is done after weeks of testing. I feel the same.
The meaning of school has change drastically. Kids and teachers don’t share the same enthusiasm for the love of learning and being lifelong learners. It has lost its spontaneity. I guess you call this the human factor. Testing creates competition and a sense of failure for many. The curriculum undermines teachers assuming they don’t know how to teach. It’s eerie to see CCSS stamped on all current material and resources. Education has been branded like cattle.
To the list of cuts let me add school librarians. Reformers claim to be interested in literacy but the school librarian is often one of the “specials” to be cut even though for many children their school library is the best way for them to access a variety of reading materials that appeal to them. http://www.sdkrashen.com/content/articles/protecting_students.pdf
Jon, I share your view that teaching has lost it’s joy and spontaneity. It has become “all work and no play, which makes Johnny a very dull boy.” (that goes for teachers too)!
At least one third of the teachers in my elementary school are now looking for work outside the profession. My kinder class is doing literacy curriculum with imaginative play completely phased out and only 20 minute recess daily. It is a stressful, rigid, boring environment that causes children and teachers to lose their spirit.
There is very little opportunity for social interaction between the children, since most of their CCSS worksheets are designed for independent work. There is no opportunity for relaxed conversation or spontaneity in our classroom, since our rigid schedule is demanding and inflexible. I don’t really have an opportunity to get to know my students on a personal level, since we are expected to maintain our detached business like atmosphere. We do have one art/music/pe class weekly, but when those go away it will be very depressing. The atmosphere of our school has become gelotophobic.
As a teacher, I feel restricted and controlled in everything I do. I have no freedom to use my own creativity in designing lesson plans, which causes me to think I could easily be replaced by a computer. Maybe that is the goal of CCSS and the reformers?
Your choice of the word “eerie” is true: ” It’s eerie to see CCSS stamped on all current material and resources. Education has been branded like cattle.”
That is a good description because the hostile corporate takeover is turning schools into systems of management like those used for livestock! It is all about “conditioning” children to “perform for tests”, like little workaholics who can follow commands, but cannot think for themselves or be creative. Work and boredom has become normal.
I think it is “eerie” to see children who have blank stares and work in silence most of the day without spontaneity, imagination, or play. I think the reason Pearson designed CCSS materials to be confusing and frustrating is part of the plan to dismantle public schools. The more parents recognize their children are having anxiety and depression, the more they will be inclined to put them into private or charter schools.
Drs Cashin & Cooper,
Thank you for an insightful article. I wish there was a way for the reformers to absorb this information.
Because of the harsh test focused school environments of chronic stress, most children no longer have a “safe haven”. The same seems to apply to their home environment as well, since most parents have become indoctrinated to focus on their child’s “performance”, at the expense of validating their emotional and social needs.
Children and teenagers are searching for connections to anything or anyone who can give them affection and acceptance for who they are. They are getting tired of being used to perform for and please adults. They will find surrogate family connections in gangs or whatever group will accept them for who they are. Trouble is, most children don’t have freedom to form their own identity in the autocratic environments that now exist in homes & schools, so they will spend a lifetime searching.
As a librarian, I am shocked at the increased rigidity this year, where our elementary students are told which library book that must choose.
Children have lost freedom in learning.
They are physically and mentally controlled to the extent that schools appear more like prisons. Reminds me of the book “The Twelve Year Sentence” by William Rickenbacker in 1974. How much worse things have become since then!
The increasing trend toward stark harshness in US schools is now a big problem,
and when Fine Arts and Student Support Services are gone, it will be dark.
I worked abroad teaching in Africa for four years after completing my Peace Corps assignment. I was shocked to see the change in the schools back home in the US. It is difficult to believe, but my students in Tanzania had a healthier and more progressive learning environment than here. They were always excited about learning and loved school. We had a relaxed environment and they were allowed freedom to use their creativity and imagination to develop higher thinking skills, which is opposite from what I see happening here. They spent a lot of time with outdoor studies, and cooperative learning that included the arts. I was more of a facilitator and helper, very unlike the authoritarian teacher I am expected to be in my classroom now.
The children went home after school to play, and help their mothers with their cottage industries. The community, even though impoverished and with bare essentials, had a happy atmosphere of togetherness and connections that are absent in US schools and communities, causing children here to feel isolated from their environment.
I think it has become normal in the US for teachers and parents to function in chronic stress and feel “unsafe” since most now have grown up with it from all the economic problems, wars, and harsh school environments. Families have become more withdrawn and isolated, and the schools seem to be generating more harshness and stress and isolation for children rather than connectedness.
I think overall US society has become mean and callous, like “every man for himself”. I think that causes parents to be even more smothering to their children out of a sense of fear. Children are very perceptive to stress in their environment in families and at school. This seems to be what is causing children in the US not to have a “safe haven”. When trapped in chronic stress of jobs, etc, people become more autocratic and domineering and self absorbed , without recognizing the impact it is having on the children. There just doesn’t seem to be much comfort anymore for children in schools or families. Mostly I see them using video games or tv as an escape.
Now that I am enrolled in Montessori certification, I plan to start my own school in order to preserve my own goals as a teacher. It is impossible for me to maintain my creative spirit and stay in the environment that has been created by high stakes testing.
I know my comments here are “preaching to the choir”, but why doesn’t the US use Montessori in public elementary schools since it is the best method for children to learn?
Advocating for schools to become “safe havens” is great, but that’s opposite from what’s happening all over this “test craze country.
What’s really happening looks like “The Heart of Darkness”, 1984, and “Hunger Games” all rolled into one big conglomerate called Common Core.
If this monster could be measured on a meteorological scale, it would be an F5!