An 'Act of War?'

As always, remember that John's book The Influence of Teachers is for sale at Amazon.

The news that Education Secretary Arne Duncan is willing to give waivers to states struggling to meet the demands of No Child Left Behind (NCLB) has been greeted with a sigh of relief in lots of places. He calls the law 'a slow motion train wreck' while bemoaning the failure of Congress to write a new version of the law, which actually expired in 2007.

Whether the 'relief' will be anything more than a Band-Aid remains to be seen, because the Secretary and Domestic Policy Advisor Melody Barnes made it clear that, to get waivers, states will have to meet certain federal expectations regarding charter schools, the evaluation of teachers, and the acceptance of common core standards. The feds are not backing away from intense federal involvement in public education and may in fact be ratcheting up.

Even so, I don't see the Secretary or anyone in the Administration examining what strikes me as the root of the problem: NCLB's demands for more and more testing in reading and math.

Here's what I have come to believe: we test too much in reading and math, and that narrow focus means schools are not teaching other basic subjects like history. A 2007 study by the Center on Education Policy (PDF), a middle-of-the-road organization, found that "approximately 62% of school districts increased the amount of time spent in elementary schools on English language arts and or math, while 44% of districts cut time on science, social studies, art and music, physical education, lunch or recess."

What's more, I believe that an unintended consequence of focusing on reading test scores is that many kids end up detesting reading.

Start with reading: When 83 percent of ALL of our low-income third graders, whatever their color or ethnic origin, cannot read competently or confidently, our country has a reading crisis. And because we know that 75 percent of those who are behind grade level at the end of third grade are unlikely to ever catch up, it's a crisis that demands action now.

But what exactly is the crisis? Do we teach reading incorrectly? Badly? Are educators still fighting the reading wars over whole language versus phonics? While the correct answer to all three questions is probably a qualified yes, it is our emphasis on passing reading tests that is the most significant piece of the problem.

I don't question the test scores: they are what they are, but what they reveal is how well the kids did on the reading test, and not much else. I say that because I have confidence in my own observations over recent years, and I have seen and heard low-income FIRST graders reading competently and confidently -- in schools where the fourth graders score poorly on reading tests.

They can and do read in first grade, but by fourth grade they cannot pass a reading test. And my conversations with a few of them suggest that they basically don't like to read:

I know that the plural of anecdote is not data, but here's my hypothesis: Popular curricula -- no doubt created in response to NCLB -- emphasize (and drill in) the skills of reading in ways that actively teach children to dislike or even detest reading itself, because the goal is high scores on reading tests, not 'a nation of readers'. The net result is children who can read but basically hate it. They don't do well on reading tests because they instinctively rebel against being treated as little more than numbers; they aren't allowed to read for pleasure but instead are drilled in 'identifying the main idea' and so on.

As E. D. Hirsch, Jr. has observed on many occasions, if we want children to pass reading tests, they should read, and read, and read.

Perhaps you are rolling your eyes: "Here Merrow goes again, blaming tests," you may be thinking, but that's not the point. Tests don't kill curiosity; it's the constant testing and the primacy of tests that turns kids off.

NCLB is the villain of the story. Since NCLB became law in 2002, the amount of standardized bubble testing has doubled, according to Marshall 'Mike' Smith, former US Undersecretary of Education -- and other observers.

Schools do not teach what isn't going to be tested, and they do a bad job of teaching a subject when all that matters is the test score. Treat a human being as little more than a number, and the results are predictable.

Because state-wide testing is essentially limited to math and reading (with a smattering of science now), those subjects are highlighted, while other important subjects -- like history -- are sidelined. What is the effect of this policy? We can answer that because we have a reliable national test in other subjects, including history. Witness the 2010 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP): Just 17 percent of 8th graders scored at a proficient or higher level (which was an increase over 2006!!). In the 4th and 12th grades, history repeated itself, with no statistically significant changes since the last analysis: Only 12 percent of seniors and 20 percent of 4th graders reached proficiency. How bad is our students' understanding of history? Over half of all 12th graders scored below the 'basic' level.

The apparent outcome of this national policy: citizens who do not know much about history and are unlikely to pick up a book (where they might learn some history).

To echo "A Nation at Risk" (1983), if a foreign power had done this to us, we'd consider it an act of war.

But we are doing it to ourselves.

I am curious to know your thoughts.

 

Follow John Merrow on Twitter: www.twitter.com/john_merrow

Comments

[vickiemcelroy]

04:23 PM on 08/14/2011

After 8 days of mind numbing preplanning in my Georgia School System I have metaphorically come up with the present educational environment. Education in 2011 has become educational Communism. Bill Gates is Marx, Arnie Duncan is Lenin, the Bolsheviks are the flavor of the month educational authors and professors and the administrators who want to experiment with your children. Now, granted education needs changes just as czarist Russia needed changes, but look what the Bolsheviks did to 20th Century Soviet Russia. The idea of everyone doing the same lesson and taking the same tests is no different than the Communist idea that everyone was interchangeable. Creativity in our educational system brings innovation in our society. How many world changing innovations came out of the Soviet Union during this period. In using common assessments and common lessons 21st century education is crushing the creativity in teaching and learning, especially in the advanced level student who has a passion for learning and creating his/her own idea. Students and teachers who want to explore their subjects are penalized by having to do the same thing as everyone else. At a time when we are scrambling to train more scientists and engineers we need to celebrate our best and brightest with innovative education, not break their spirits with mediocre educational and testing expectations.

[raechel]

11:34 PM on 08/13/2011

Mr. Merrow, could you please explain to me why the act of measuring outcomes unavoidably corrupts the education profession and causes it to focus only on what is measured, resulting in worsening outcomes and ineffectiveness? We measure the work of engineers, and although everyone agrees that there is more to engineering than defect rates or whatever, engineers don't suddenly find themselves unable to design turbines. We measure everything involved in medicine, but nurses don't claim that they are forced to focus only on vital signs or urine output, and doctors are still able to deliver babies even though fetal monitors are used. The work of accountants, attorneys, computer programmers, actuaries, architects, and psychologists is measured; they don't claim that they must stop doing the "whole" job to focus entirely on what is measured.

Please someone, tell me why I shouldn't just decide that the people who complain about testing are simply afraid to be evaluated because they are afraid they'll be found out.

[testmenot]

04:18 AM on 08/15/2011

Is it possible that you are not aware that schools are spending less and less time teaching? I am in a school where ten years ago students learned during 180 days. Last year, not including preparation for the tests, we spent more than 25 of those days just testing. During the rest of those days, it's common knowledge that teachers teach to the test. But to answer your urine analysis question: it is true that nurses do handle those little plastic cups. Do they like it? Would they continue to do it if that was the majority of their time spent? No and no. And they are adults who are mature enough to work through difficult circumstances and get paid to do so. Children are not mature enough to do the same things that adult professionals do. When was the last time you took a standardized test? Answer: you probably don't remember! If this doesn't make sense to you, then you now know how students feel: confused and frustrated.

[raechel]

08:01 PM on 08/15/2011

Why? It's your profession. Why have you stopped teaching? You are simply making my point, and I want to know why it is that educators can't handle being measured with more professionalism.

I take standardized tests fairly often, and have since I was in kindergarten. Big whoop. I do not believe it is the students who are confused and frustrated. They never were in the past, and the only thing that has changed is the TEACHERS. This is not about students being confused and frustrated; it's about TEACHERS.

[Christina L Mullinax]

08:59 PM on 08/13/2011

My experience is not in reading, but in math, and in higher levels. I am in my junior year of Math Education, signing up for many of my upper level classes. I transferred from a tiny community college where the majority of math classes were remedial, and I tutored those subjects and saw how bad the problem was. I thought this was just for small community colleges, now in a major stay university I find the same story. 25 remedial level math calls, elem and inter algebra, 40+ students in every one of them. Over 1200 students not able to complete a college level math class, half of them won’t be in a college level class next semester either. I am not a teacher yet, but I don’t need to be one to see that is a major problem. Whatever we are doing right now, isn't working.

[jal6641]

02:05 PM on 08/11/2011

Reformers need to stop pushing their data driven testing mania. Until then, schools will hound their teachers to teach to the test, and this will squeeze the joy of learning right out of their students.

[raechel]

11:39 PM on 08/13/2011

The question is why the educational system is so dysfunctional that objective measures of effectiveness scare it into cheating, focusing on test scores alone, and no end of whining and self-pity. Schools need to stop hounding teachers to do the wrong thing -- teach to the test. As for the students' "joy of learning" -- too late. That's been gone for a long time. I think it's the teachers' quality of life that is at issue here.

[testmenot]

04:25 AM on 08/15/2011

Schools do not hound teachers. The Feds hound states, and the state will fire you and take over your school. Schools are no more in charge of their fate than you are in any attempt to avoid paying your taxes. Let's say we asked you to continue to pay until you reached 100 percent. Would you lose the "joy of paying"? Quite likely. And what if after you paid all you could, they came and asked for more?
You don't get it if you think objective measures scare anyone. What scares us is people like you who don't realize that the Feds are asking for 100 percent performance by 2014. If only ignorance was that easy to eradicate!

[umbrarchist]

09:33 PM on 08/10/2011

Read what? Before 4th grade I had no idea what to read. Almost everything was boring.

Now we have computers and there is free stuff to read. But we also want kids to learn science. So why don't we kill two birds with one stone? But science fiction has gotten dumb since the 70s. It is a strange world with computers everywhere.

All Day September by Roger Kuykendall
http://www.feedbooks.com/book/2295/all-day-september

THE YEAR WHEN STARDUST FELL by Raymond F. Jones
http://winstonscifi.blogspot.com/2010/04/synopsis-for-year-when-stardust-fell-by.html

Eight Keys to Eden by Mark Clifton
http://www.xenodochy.org/ex/abstract/eightkeys.html
http://www.onread.com/book/Eight-Keys-to-Eden-6514/

The Fourth R : George O. Smith
http://www.onread.com/book/The-Fourth-R-17950/

Black Man's Burden by Mack Reynolds
http://www.feedbooks.com/book/4826/black-man-s-burden

[Kent Brockman]

08:26 PM on 08/10/2011

In 1990 the late Vito Perrone wrote that calls for standardized testing and increased school accountability always coincide with periods of economic uncertainty. Economic circumstances produce the magic cure all education fads and vice versa. The publication of A Nation At Risk coincides with the largest upward wealth distribution scam in American history. As real outcomes steadily decreased, the data driven reformers ushered in in the wake of A Nation At Risk became the firmly entrenched education establishment. Can anyone say the schools are better right now compared to where the data jockeys began back in 1983?

[davidwees]

03:16 PM on 08/10/2011

This is a great article. I recommend taking the time to watch the whole video. The only problematic thing I noticed is the statement "All learning happens through reading." That's a generalization. Much academic learning happens through reading, but much of it happens through discussions and just plain thinking through a problem.

[raechel]

11:42 PM on 08/13/2011

And drawing. Doodling. Mixing things together. Building things. Experimenting. Imagine -- no learning until writing was invented and reading was nearly universal. It's a miracle we survived.

[eceresa]

12:48 PM on 08/10/2011

Schools once did teach what wasn't going to be tested... before we started to misuse tests by trying to evaluate schools with them.

[raechel]

11:48 PM on 08/13/2011

Remember, standardized tests have been used for at least 50 or 60 years. Oddly, they weren't "harmful" until we began to use them to evaluate teachers and schools, rather than students. And suddenly schools and teachers are unable to teach effectively, because they "must" focus on the tests. Hmmmm.... I believe this says more about our education system than it says about the tests.

[eceresa]

09:11 AM on 08/14/2011

I believe it says more about your ignorance of the subject than anything.

Standardized tests have been around longer than you think, but they're useful for some things and not useful for others. Using standardized tests to evaluate students isn't harmful, though it's important to remember that it's just one, rough indicator. It can be useful.

Using standardized tests to evaluate teachers isn't harmful either. Most states require teachers to take a skills test before they get a teaching license. No problem there, because the teacher's being evaluated on a test that the TEACHER took.

But when you use student tests to evaluate teachers, you get garbage data. You'll get numbers back, but they don't really tell you anything about teacher quality. When we use garbage data to make important decisions in a system, that causes big problems in the system. "Good" and "bad" labels are attached based on those garbage numbers, and rewards and punishments meted out, that have no basis in reality. And when people know they're going to be evaluated on garbage data, and might lose their jobs because of it, they've got a strong incentive to stop doing their jobs and start trying to manipulate the garbage data. None of that, when applied to education, makes for good schools.

[testmenot]

04:31 AM on 08/15/2011

OK, so here we go again. Testing was always harmful, and real teachers everywhere would rather teach than take tests. Suddenly? After ten years of NCLB, and every teacher everywhere saying the same sorts of things, it sounds like you have "suddenly" become aware of the conversation that's been going on all around you. What you again fail to realize is that testing is fine until you ask 100 percent of students to pass or you label the school a failure. I have four college degrees and never received 100 percent credit while earning any one of them. Is that failure? If the "education system" doesn't stand up to the Feds, will you? Not likely.

[sydneymoon]

10:04 AM on 08/10/2011

"What's more, I believe that an unintended consequence of focusing on reading test scores is that many kids end up detesting reading."

Amen

[Robert Schwartz]

09:46 AM on 08/10/2011

The tragic irony in the narrowing of the curriculum is that if you teach math and reading through the lens of science and art and reading through history, test scores would go up. If you taught students to think and use higher level reasoning, test scores would go up. It's so much easier to regress to standardized test prep because teachers do not need to be supported more than throwing a Teachers Edition at them with accompanying teacher script. This is the legacy of NCLB. Somewhere along the way, standards become synonymous with curriculum and everything else became irrelevant and un-funded.

[raechel]

11:51 PM on 08/13/2011

Who made standards synonymous with curriculum? That seems like the lazy way out to me. What kind of profession considers its standards to be the full extent of professional practice?

[Robert Schwartz]

09:13 AM on 08/15/2011

It's sad, but true. The alignment with textbooks and standardized tests to the standards have caused administrators to push teachers to just push the literal translation of the standards as learning objectives.

[bruninyc]

08:58 AM on 08/10/2011

oops. Typos. I meant to say: reading was great and debate always ensued after class.

[bruninyc]

08:56 AM on 08/10/2011

NCLB has not left many children behind in education and has created a generation that is lacking in natural curiosity. In NYC we have many choices in high schools, most are the same - lack of creativity in curriculum and in intellectual thought.

As a mom of a 14 year old, I want the Arts. So what do I do? I enroll my son in lessons in classical guitar. I want the sports, I enrolled my son in dragon boat racing. This is costing me a bundle. I can't help but think about families who can not afford these so called "extracurriculars"?

Growing up in Southern California, I remember having music not only with recorders but real instruments like violin, guitars, horns, harps.. My gym class consisted of not only climbing up the rope (which I struggled) but also archery, track & field, and even synchronized swimming! Although I am not an Olympian athlete nor am I performing for a philharmonic, those courses made me feel whole.

Reading was great and debated ensured during class. Math was always laborious, but it was taught with knowledge in mind and not passing the test. What has happened in our classrooms?

Einstein have once said: “The intuitive mind is a sacred gift and the rational mind is a faithful servant. We have created a society that honors the servant and has forgotten the gift.” Yes. Our children are now servants. We owe them the gift.

[jal6641]

02:10 PM on 08/11/2011

Then we need to stand up and stop these crazy Reformers in their tracks! Beautiful quote. I'm going to post it in my classroom.

[testmenot]

04:32 AM on 08/15/2011

Amen.