Cannot make a race horse out of a mule

A few years ago after sitting in a staff meeting, all teachers were charged with the expectation for pushing all students to excel in their high stakes exam called the End-of-Grade assessment. I happened to overhear a veteran teacher proclaim what was instructed in the above title of this blog post. IMHO, that statement reflects a great sense of negativity, therefore I feel that this is an unfair statement to say about any student that is capable of demonstrating academic excellence.

May is upon us now, and all teachers are in test preparation mode. Teachers have to break out of the habit of teaching to the test which they have been accustomed to over the NCLB years. Race horses are built for endurance and trained all their lives to be number one. So do you think there is any truth to this veteran’s statement? Please share your thoughts.

High-Stake Assessments + Brain-dumps

Disclaimer: What I share on this blog are my views and do not necessarily reflect the views of my school district.

Just a thought…

When I was once in the IT field, one was once stressed in passing tests such the series of MCSE (Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer), A+, and CSA (Certified Solaris Administrator) certifications. To these and other tests, there exsited a dark-side that people (usually desperate) tend to gravitate. What I am speaking of are braindumps. Please follow the link to Wikipedia where it gives a more definate explaination. There is a negative connotation to them because one is supposed to gain IT knowledge through classroom experience, however braindumps alleviate that need for official training. 

Knowing that this exists, I wonder if students or just students in jeopardy will become hip to the previously mentioned IT trend of retrieving large relevant chunks of information in preparation for these high-stake assessments. With the stress of passing the test, is this what high-stake assessment vendors push on teachers to push on students to make the grade?

Your thoughts please…

What troubles me is…

Maybe I am getting old or getting frustrated in the level of professionalism I am encountering in the education. Please excuse me if it sounds like I am venting in my blog, however it is due to what is happening in the classrooms that I have been observing and the expectations that Administration has also noticed around the school.

Someone new to the teaching field usually learn a few things to survive in the classroom from college classes, boot camps, veteran teachers (do they exist any longer?), and most definitely from the students that you teach in the trenches. Most of the time, the researchers in textbooks say that the level of management usually indicates the level of learning in classroom. It troubles me when teachers have students used to do nothing. The failure of stepping up hurts everyone. I have seen it from year to year (historically!), when the teacher give up, students give up. I thought that NCLB would defeat this with highly qualified teachers at helm.

In my humble opinion, students do not care about high stakes assessments. Students pay attention to their peers. I guess some brilliant educator figured this out and labeled as learning communities when students are able to learn from their peers. I think that this idea developed after the explosion of cooperative learning.

Going back to high stakes testing, I challenge high officials in the school to take those assessments that students are accountable in taking and post their results to the public. I know that it would never be done, but it would be good for grins and giggles. Or maybe not? Maybe it would expose the injustice of our teachers not providing rigor and cooperative learning environment in our grade school career. Geez… I never used a calculator when I was in school. I never worked in a group and collaborated with my peers to learn a topic presented by teacher. I can also say that I was taught by the best educators that South Carolina had to offer (except that Geometry teacher I had in high school).

I have been sitting on this post all week. I guess I need to talk about something else. Since it is Friday, let me go and chill…