This is a terrific article, written by David Patten, an Ohio teacher of history and government.
Patten begins this way:
“I have found it! After little thought and less reflection, I have found the answer to the problems of American public school education. Best of all, my solution will cost no money, save the taxpayers millions of dollars, and produce a well-educated citizenry. The solution is simple: eliminate any and all high-stakes proficiency testing and unleash the power of the teachers to do what they do best — educate our children.”
It gets better and better.
This is David Patten:
“From the moment I was hired to teach history and government in the North Olmsted schools to the moment, years later, when I walked away, I had the audacity to believe that I had been hired for my expertise. I taught the entire range of students, seventh through 12th grades. No matter what the age or ability level, I actually believed that I had something to convey to my students and that I could truly refine thought and inspire learning. And why not? I graduated summa cum laude with a 4.0 GPA in two majors. I was already a published writer and had traveled extensively. Given those brazen assumptions, to me the textbook was a mere afterthought, a reference. State and district curriculums were only skeletons, and I would flesh them out. My students would learn through hundreds of pages of highly detailed learning packets that I wrote. I also created slide shows and, later on, PowerPoints, which dovetailed with the information contained in the packets. These tools formed the basis of class discussions, thus touching all the learning styles. The students read the packets, learned visually and learned orally. It did not stop there. Projects that I created became a hallmark for many of my classes. My students would write historical fiction along with modern and historical position papers. They would participate in “great debates,” their own teaching projects, a historical magazine project and a world geographic magazine project. Last, there were the required reading books. Books such as “Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee,” “Son of the Morning Star,” “The Prince” and “Treblinka” were read and thoroughly analyzed through lengthy class discussions.”
Please read it. You will be glad you did.
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Diane Ravitch's blog 
My husband is a retired teacher of history and government. This teacher sounds like the kind of teacher my husband was. Teachers like them are the rule rather than the exception.
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He’s absolutely right. I doubt many of you here voted for Bush, who began the madness in concert with Teddy Kennedy, but if you voted for Obama, I have zero sympathy for you. You broke it; you buy it. When public school teachers demonstrate in front of local federal buildings for the President’s resignation, then you won’t be the liberal snob hypocrites that Patten is. MEANWHILE, his type of good teaching is still going on in private schools and in some charters all over the country.
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We were chosing between McCain/Romney and Obama. Jesus Christ was not on the ballot. Predictably we had to choose between two flawed candidates. Welcome to democracy, Harlan.
The shame is when our elected officials inevitably do stupid things and the citizenry remains silent.
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Actually, there were three or four candidates on the ballot in most states. Choosing Jill Stein would have sent a message about exactly what kind of education (and government as a whole for that matter) that the people want. Yes, it probably also would have gotten Romney elected, but would that have been an entirely bad thing? Obama imposes RttT (and spies on Americans, and drone bombs the rest of the world and….) with nary a peep from good liberals. Do you think Romney could have gotten away with what Obama has?
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FANTASTIC!!!!!! A MUST READ!!! This should go viral!
Thank you, David Patten, for setting the present in a clear eyed understanding of the past, present, and hopefully not the future as would be the hope of those that would claim ownership of this country and steal it from the children .You are a wonderful writer and I hope you would continue to educate through your written word. I hope you won’t mind my interjecting your words into this comment, but these are your brilliant insights that were important to me.
“But test scores for any school, real or not, camouflage the true crime. I never feared proficiency testing. Instead, I loathed it. Proficiencies forced me to eviscerate the very elements that gave students a meaningful, vital, life-long learning experience. Distilling education into a number through high-stakes testing is nothing more than a fan dance in a corporate burlesque show. People become the equal of commodities; students are thereby converted into the widgets of our nation. Such is the price of oafdom.”
“Joining the Common Core Ohio will soon gut the OGT exams and will join 44 other states in administering the Common Core tests. It is a distinction without a difference. Core testing is merely the flip side of the same cruel coin and will offer the same educationally decrepit results. I would rather place my faith in the educational judgment of people like those brave teachers who laid down their lives protecting their students in Newtown, Conn., than in having to obey a gang of bloodless bureaucrats crunching numbers. Their high-stakes obsessions are fishhooks in our flesh. To paraphrase Kierkegaard, “life must be lived forward, but it can only be understood backward.” I saw the before and I endured the after. If we are to live forward, then the solution is simple: We must rid ourselves of proficiency testing and let the teachers teach.”
Perfect!!!!
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Project based learning is also measurable. Projects are authentic assessments of applied knowledge, not simply regurgitated bubble answers or formulaic essay writing.
Over my 38 years of teaching social studies (including, economics, government- political science, world history, sociology, AP US, and a course I created called “Living in America…an integrated look at how we live) I as well as many of my colleagues devised similar projects and devised NON textbook sources….more often than not primary and secondary sources so students could inquire as to the whys and hows of things, not merely the who, what, when, and where. Often we deconstructed entire films such as Spike Lee’s “Do The Right Thing” to examine the nuances of how art reflects life and examines major social issues throughout the ages.
I could go on and on about the specific projects I and others I know created but we have so many teachers throughout this country who do these things on a regular basis, that is not necessary.
What is necessary is that our nation’s parents and leaders know this, that they realize that many of the world’s greatest teachers, using the world’s leading pedagogies are right in front of their noses yet being bashed and tossed aside as to lead to the downfall of the Great American Education System.
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Powerful. The politicians who advocate more testing need to hear from such teachers. They live in a world of abstractions, and they are going to prefer theirs (“You get what you measure”) to others’ (“narrowing of the curriculum). It’s extremely important that they get the actual stories, on the ground, like this one. The millions of stories like this one.
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David Patten just laid down the best piece I have read so far on this subject. Thank You. You must keep writing and thinking.
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As a retired teacher, I am appalled by what is happening, but recognize serious problems with some teachers. Many are influenced by expectations of those in power and some have no interest in improving their pedagogy. One problem is that those in power have no idea about improving teaching or creating an atmosphere where teachers can come together to share ideas.
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Reblogged this on David R. Taylor-Thoughts on Texas Education.
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Amen Bother!!!
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