The School Accountability Trap

Everyone is for school accountability. I have not met a single person who would suggest that schools should have carte blanche to do whatever they want, however they want, with no eye for "results."

However, with the No Child Left Behind reauthorization debate underway, the definition of that unassailable word, "accountability," is under attack by interests with an eye for pumping up statistics rather than students' actual learning.

By far, the cheapest, easiest, and most intuitive way to mass-assess children is through standardized testing. Testing is a fine and necessary tool, but not when it is the only tool to judge the success or failure of a school, a teacher, or a student. Very unfortunately, America's public schools have been forced to accept this punitive and incomplete system, and the culture of high-stakes test obsession has taken root. If you have spent time in a high-needs school -- the very kind No Child Left Behind ideally aims to help -- you probably agree that the enormous volume of time, money, and energy devoted to the big test does not have the students' best interests at heart.

Still, many powerful people support the currently contaminated system of accountability, often with shifting or sanctimonious rhetoric. When I had the opportunity to speak with Assistant Secretary of Education Doug Mesecar and education writer Jonathan Kozol on NPR's Diane Rehm Show last month, Mr. Mesecar repeated the common assertion that the standardized tests are useful diagnostic tools for teachers to know what students need to work on.

It is scary to hear such a specious statement come from someone as powerful as the Assistant Secretary of Education. Here are two inconvenient facts:

* In New York State this year, 8th grade students will take their literacy exams in mid-January -- less than halfway through the instructional year! The scores come back at or after the end of the school year.

* In Texas, elementary and middle school students take the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills (TAKS) in October with tests based on the previous year's content. The scores return months later, so that the results of an assessment of a student's third grade skills come toward the conclusion of his fourth grade year.

Teachers don't need standardized test scores to tell them how to help their students -- they know how to help because they actually know the kids, and assess them in meaningful ways right from the first day of school. Teachers form relationships with their students and evaluate a steady stream of varied schoolwork. To gauge a student's needs and academic proficiency, that student's production in class provides a significantly truer portrait than the pressure-laden test.

The high-stakes test could be likened to an out-of-focus, extreme close-up snapshot, taken at an unflatteringly tense moment and then developed in the lab months later. The final picture is not a fair representation of the subject.

Also, with the test as the be-all and end-all, the teaching of crucial but untested skills (art, social studies, health, physical education, public speaking, collaboration, critical thinking, community-building, etc.) is falling by the wayside, despite the Department of Education's confident-sounding statements that they aren't.

We are losing our way with how to nurture the next generations of Americans. With the future of No Child Left Behind currently at stake, now is critical moment to step away from the stranglehold of high-stakes testing, and look to our country's wealth of progressive education research for how to achieve accountability without robbing our students of their formative school years.

Dan Brown is a teacher and the author of The Great Expectations School, a new memoir of his first year teaching in the Bronx. He will be reading from and discussing his book at 7 p.m. on September 25 at the KGB Bar in New York City.

Comments

[YellerDawg]

In Texas, we teachers call it Drill and Kill. Drill the skill until you kill the thrill. It's trite to say that we teach to the test. Nothing matters but TAKS scores. Our test is a joke. It's manipulated every year by politicians, administrators, and every other group with an agenda. We're so proud of minimal gains, yet sixty percent of our students are dropping out, at least in my urban district. Our district won't even admit that it manipulates those numbers. To add insult to injury, teachers seem to be buying into the whole testing regime. It's really quite easy to do nothing but TAKS worksheets all day, every day. WE baby-boomers are retiring, and I don't know who is going to replace us. I love it when I hear people talking about getting rid of bad teachers. We don't have enough teachers now. Bright, capable people are not lining up to become teachers. Why would they? We are the most disrespected profession in America. Oh, I know. Everybody tells me that teachers should be paid more, but nobody wants to pay for it. The respect for teachers that many people claim is a mile wide and an inch deep. We have a dismal turnover rate. So, soon our schools will be staffed by inexperienced people who think standardized testing is the be-all end-all. Do I sound bitter? I'm just sad, because I see what this testing madness is doing to my students. They deserve better, so I buck the system, and I'm known as a loose cannon. Too bad. They can't argue with success, although they try.

[BeyondPopper]

Sir, "accountability" is not the only word whose meaning is lost in this debate.

Well, truth be told (what a concept!!), EVERY word loses its meaning once the Republicans get hold of it.

But what I'm focusing on now is "results." What are results in education? Every student learning the exact same facts at the exact same time? Facts that some centralized bureaucracy determines mean that the student is educated?

In point of fact, the real "result" of education is a thinking, reasoning population that can discover the facts and ideas they need to earn a living and control their government. But this last is exactly what the Republicans want to avoid.

The entire economy of this country and any other is built on the foundation of free, universal, public education. We cannot allow the ideologues of the Republican right-wing con-men to destroy both.

And Every Child Left Behind But Those of the Wealthy is their means for doing just that.

[Ben Dixon]

Well by your logic then lets do away with the SAT since how can one high stakes test show a college what a kid can do?

[CaveatMagnusFrater]

Excelent point. It's nice to read something from a like thinker. I don't eat plums because I don't like peaches. They are both fruits afterall.

mike

[elr50]

One fact missed is that in Texas failing schools are mandated to use a cart based program to remediate their needy students. Who owns this program? I'll give you one guess, but a hint-the family name starts with B. Cozy huh?