Indiana's Project School Teaches Standardized Testing As Literary Genre

On the lesson plan for one Indiana school's students: historical fiction, poetry, nonfiction and ... standardized testing.

In his January State of the Union address, President Barack Obama laid out a number of goals to improve education for the country's youth. Among those objectives: to teach with creativity and stop teaching to the test. So one Indiana K-9 charter school is taking both to heart -- by adding standardized testing to its curriculum as a literary genre.

Instead of teaching students to memorize and master every subject or concept that appears on the statewide tests, The Project School in Bloomington, Ind. spent the two preceding weeks on test preparation -- teaching students test strategy and how to take the exam with a different approach.

This approach to standardized testing, school curriculum coach Heather Baron-Caudill says, is more practical in both an exam and real-world setting by teaching students critical thinking skills to tackle problems.

"In our world, you have to be able to write to a prompt you have to be able to do what somebody else expects of you in the moment they expect it of you --- going to a job interview, going to write your college applications, your essays to get into college. So we want them to know whats expected of them and be able to perform in any setting," Baron-Caudill told StateImpact. "We analyze testing with them and learn test-taking strategies... We want them to know how to be smart about taking a test. But we're not going to spend time and energy teaching to the test."

If successful, The Project School's brief, yet targeted and analytical approach to standardized testing could serve as a model for schools across the country that have crumbled under the pressure of federal and state standardized testing mandates.

In one of the largest cheating scandals in American school history, 178 Atlanta educators were implicated last summer for test tampering. Teachers and school administrators said they were pressured to maintain high scores under the federal No Child Left Behind law, as student performance on standardized exams is tied to school funding and teacher performance assessments. An investigation into the scandal found that Atlanta Public Schools officials created a culture of "fear, intimidation and retaliation."

But the overhead pressure wasn't unique to Atlanta. School districts from Pennsylvania to Texas to California saw similar problems, often identified by test erasure analyses, as investigations launched in systems across the country.

A Detroit Free Press survey last July reported that nearly 30 percent of public school educators say pressure to cheat on standardized exams is a problem at their schools, particularly at schools that don't meet federal standards, where 46 percent say cheating is an issue.

To lessen the strain of a one-size-fits all approach to student assessments, the Education Department has issued waivers to 11 states, allowing them more freedom from No Child Left Behind -- the Bush-era law that requires annual testing, results of which are tied to consequences for low-performing schools. States that seek waivers from the Obama administration are required to adhere to a measurement, curriculum and assessment plan proposed during the application process. An additional 26 states have applied for waivers.

Even so, some states are still trying to further lessen the emphasis on standardized tests. Virginia's state Senate voted to pass a bill in January that scales back statewide tests for 3rd graders -- cutting history and science from the list and only requiring English and math exams to allow teachers to focus on improving proficiency in those subjects.

The move by the Virginia Senate comes after a draft of a Republican bill would eliminate the federal requirement for statewide science testing. The draft legislation, introduced by House Republicans led by Rep. John Kline (R-Minn.), chair of the House Education Committee, marks a reversal of provisions under the current No Child Left Behind Law, which requires science testing at least three times -- once each during elementary, middle and high school.

In Texas, a Dallas elementary school that was given "exemplary" status for academic achievement was discovered to have only taught its third graders reading and math last year -- fabricating scores for every student in other subjects like social studies and science.

The Dallas Morning News reported in November that to propel the school's status, Field Elementary School Principal Roslyn Carter "directed and caused false school records to be created" so that teachers could focus on student excellence in reading and math.

Comments

[iLdoRight]

10:58 PM on 03/18/2012

Caption suggestion; " I'm Not Copying, I just Like Reading Her Dumb Answers ! "

[Merry Juerling]

12:11 PM on 03/17/2012

Until the high stakes (high percentatge of teacher evaluations, disparity in funding, etc.) are removed from the high stakes testing [aka Legal Discrimination], my children and I OPT OUT of the ruse of high stakes testing. According to the Joint Commission on testing, children should not be evaluated with the results of one test..nor should teachers or schools. Join the movement http://unitedoptout.com/

[blindjester]

10:19 PM on 03/14/2012

What they described is exactly what we have to do nationwide for test prep.

That's what test prep is.

It's not the least bit unique. It's just as bad as what we do everywhere.

[Marx Twain]

03:43 PM on 03/14/2012

"In his January State of the Union address, President Barack Obama laid out a number of goals to improve education for the country's youth. Among those objectives: to teach with creativity and stop teaching to the test."

Yet Obama supports closing schools based on test scores, tying pay to test scores, and evaluating teachers based on test scores. Isn't this the very definition of cognitive dissonance?

[Allthosewhowander]

02:57 PM on 03/15/2012

Dear Teachers,

Stop teaching to the test, but you better make sure those test scores are high. Your professional evaluations, livelihood, and school funding are all riding on them.

Sincerely,

The Fed

[PoundOFun]

02:42 PM on 03/14/2012

Here we go again with HP's choice of photo's.....black kids, only once again you got a black kid supposedly cheating on another student's work....HP, seriously, you really need to put yourself in check when choosing photo's to depict a storyline, you're almost becoming as bad as FOX!!

[Ellisha Gray]

07:10 PM on 03/14/2012

This isn't a story about cheating. It was mostly about this school's strategy for preparing kids for test-taking. He's looking at the other kid's paper, but I didn't think he was supposed to be cheating...

[PoundOFun]

08:04 PM on 03/14/2012

Once again I was trying to address the way HP uses photo’s of black people every time there’s a story about adversity going on in this country. As if we’re the only damned people struggling in America. I commented on the black kid cheating because that’s the reference I get when I see this photo. Was he cheating? Hell, I don’t know, but it’s the inferences one get when HP uses these photos to convey a story.

[-swift]

02:06 PM on 03/14/2012

Why are people upset? You told teachers that the score on the test is the most important thing. They're doing everything they can to get you the highest score.

[Student Commodities]

02:02 PM on 03/14/2012

Yes, we need to have some form of testing and summative assessments, but there are far more accurate forms of student assessments, e.g. formative assessments, that are becoming more and more marginalized as teachers emerge as little more than technicians or, as some have suggested, "curriculum delivery units" that have been swept into the business model of education.

There's a lot of money to be made in education and the growing number of private companies appointed to the task of "testing" is an indication of this fact.

The process of human education is complex. It takes time, love, adaptability, and vision. Our work, as teachers, is extremely important for the collective good, but students are not our “clients” and school is NOT a business. Competition and pseudo-accountability will not make us “teach better.” Education simply doesn’t respond well to a business paradigm.

Moreover, the high stakes summative tests are flawed for the reasons I stated below. They're not simply testing "science" per se, but rather culture and socioeconomic status. The high stakes standardized tests are biased and it's doing our kids a terrible injustice.

On top of that, how much are students learning when they're presented with a 4-answer "bubble in" test booklet? Is that really encouraging students to think critically and creatively? How about the other intelligences besides linguistic and mathematical-logical, which are the only areas emphasized in today's standardized tests? Where do those students fit in?

[Ellisha Gray]

07:18 PM on 03/14/2012

The purpose of tests in themselves is not to learn. It's to see what you know. And whatever the value of achievement in art, music, and social skills, they fall beyond what we expect schools to ensure that all students have mastered. The purpose of testing is not to grade kids' value. It's to make sure they're academically prepared for life after high school. Art and music are wonderful, but for the vast majority of children, it is more important to be competent in English, math, science, and history.

[MathEdResearcher]

09:03 PM on 03/14/2012

The purpose of the tests in themselves is to make money for the testing companies.

[XV8 Crisis Suit]

06:36 AM on 03/14/2012

Telling teachers not to teach to the test is like telling baseball teams not to practice baseball before the game.

[eceresa]

06:42 AM on 03/14/2012

Actually, no. A better analogy would be if we decided that the winning baseball team would be chosen not by who got the more points but by which team's fans cheered louder. Testing practice would equate to giving screaming lessons before the game, and it wouldn't matter if the players could play baseball, so long as they could get the fans to make the appropriate noise.

Baseball is the game in baseball. Testing isn't supposed to be the point of education.

[Student Commodities]

01:59 PM on 03/14/2012

Indeed.

[Ellisha Gray]

07:20 PM on 03/14/2012

No... Being able to do the tasks that the tests (when well-designed) require is the point of education. If students do poorly on a well-designed test that requires the knowledge they need, it says they are not getting a good education.

[eceresa]

06:32 AM on 03/14/2012

Disgusting. But also sort of understandable as a necessary response to the heavy reliance on misuse of student standardized tests to evaluate teachers and schools.

[Gary Stager]

04:26 AM on 03/14/2012

You're joking right? Is this "not" teaching to the test because the people teaching to the test say so?

The educators involved in this "project" need to undergo testing for symptoms of Stockholm Syndrome.

[PTerrys]

05:20 AM on 03/14/2012

No, this is teaching students how to properly think about questions and respond to prompts.

Teaching to the test is basing curricula on objectives for an exam.

The difference is not subtle. This is not novel. All good schools do the first. They teach you testing techniques and strategies. Ways to think about problems and how to understand what the question is asking. If you come from a background that doesn't use language the same as the test writers, a simple question can be confusing. Even if you do, questions are not so straightforward.

Simply mastering objectives (such as percentages, fractions, or division with decimals) will not be always be enough to get an exam right. Knowing what a main idea is not always enough to identify a main idea on an exam.

[abacsik]

02:12 PM on 03/14/2012

My son once got a second grade FCAT practice test question wrong because he knew that the correct way of referring to a penguin living at the south pole is NOT with "who" -- The question was: "Who lives in Antarctica?" and the test creators thought the correct answer was penguins. My son said: "scientific researchers and explorers weren't an option in the list of answers, so I said nobody lived there" -- this is the conundrum students often find themselves in when taking tests -- sometimes the questions reflect a failure on the part of test creators -- in this case personifying the penguins. I always allow my students to challenge a badly worded question, but with standardized tests there's so much secrecy about the questions you would never have the chance to issue a challenge.

[Marx Twain]

03:50 PM on 03/14/2012

No, testing is a totally legit subject for a genre study. Haven't you read Updike's version of the WISC test? Great plot development. Or the beautiful, yet haunting, imagery by Toni Morrison when she wrote the CSAP? You're definitely missing out.

[Student Commodities]

01:09 AM on 03/14/2012

This is exactly what we have to teach when we teach to the test. Teaching test taking strategies is time not spent in content areas. And, on top of it all, they're biased, flawed tests! For example, a typical science test question on a given high stakes standardized test in a given grade level is really a language test question, wrapped in cultural test, question wrapped in a socioeconomic test question.

Consequently, this approach works to exclude so many. This is not education. This is not learning. But this is what schools have to do just to ensure their annual funding these days.

[jel3800]

10:11 PM on 03/13/2012

Amazing....while I was inschool teachers had o rouble applying test results directly to grades. With tests reflecting on them, they are very willing and ready to cheat.

[eceresa]

06:33 AM on 03/14/2012

Your animosity toward your teachers could probably be better directed at yourself.

[jel3800]

01:36 PM on 03/14/2012

Animosity??? Where do you see animosity?? And why should it be directed toward me?? I dont even cheat on my taxes ....nor my wife
I am simply reflecting on the artical as reported in this forum. If you dont like what these teachers are doing to be reported.you should direct you animosity toward Huffinton Post.

[bubbaofnewyork]

10:04 PM on 03/13/2012

Just what we need for innovation in the 21st century.. A new generation of test takers to take the lead in a world class economy. Shameful. Parents, go to your legislators and tell them to stop this madness. Your children deserve better.

[Student Commodities]

01:10 AM on 03/14/2012

Indeed!

[PTerrys]

05:26 AM on 03/14/2012

Kids should be able to pass these exams. These exams let us know that not all kids are learning what they should be learning. The bar has been raised in the past 20 years on what people in the real world need to know.

The legislation could be reversed, sending us back to the 80s, but that won't do much for the students.

The situation is far more complex than legislation. The politicians act as if we need to catch up to the rest of the world, but really we need to catch up to the "best of the world".

Otherwise, we better be prepared to send Average Joe to Mexico to work in a factory with the adults that know as much as him, Average Jose.

[eceresa]

06:38 AM on 03/14/2012

The kids should be able to pass the exams. And they overwhelmingly can, where they come from stable, relatively affluent homes. The low test scores clump in poor areas, which suggests strongly that the problem is less one of schools and more one of society, culture, and our income distribution.

But having said that, we run into a big problem when we start to view the tests as an end rather than as a means. As a means to evaluate where kids are, they can be of some limited use. They're a blunt instrument, and more or less useless to evaluate teachers or individual schools, but they can give us some general information about a student. When we start to view passing the test as the goal, rather than one checkpoint along a road, we start to see disgusting stuff like the program this article is about. You really shouldn't be on board for that. It's counterproductive at best.

[Allthosewhowander]

03:06 PM on 03/15/2012

Standardized test models do not assess what people in the real world need to know.

[urbanlad]

09:20 PM on 03/13/2012

I'm feeling really nauseous now. I keep looking for the punch line but there isn't one. Taking experiential and practical real-world learning to a new low.