I love my job. I do. I think it fits me, and i think im getting better at it, and i hope that years from now i'll be really good at it. But the public education system is so flawed. And, sometimes it rears it's ugly head for me to remember what a political beast it is.
We spend ALL year preparing for this ONE 60 question, standardized test, mandated by the state, that we dont even get to see ahead of time. We have tutorials before school, tutorials after school, tutorials on saturdays, tutorials during class periods. Every single day our warm up includes old questions from this very specific test. We spend the weeks before school starts going over data of this test's scores. We take a practice version of this test in the fall to see who needs tutorials to ensure they will pass the real test in the spring.
I have a kid in my class who is falling through the cracks of our flawed system. He is a gifted kid that takes tests very well, but chooses to never to the assignments i give to him. Now that TAKS is over, i have given my classes a 3-week project to work on. Nothing difficult, just time consuming and they have all of their class periods with all of my supplies to complete it. Nine simple assignments in 9 days. Most of the kids work very diligently. Some even completed it over the weekend and already turned it in...and then there is my difficult student.
He doesn't care, so he chooses to sit and stare at the wall. I talk with him about his future and the importance of completing assignments and he doesnt care. I call mom, she won't answer the phone or return my emails because she also, doesn't care. And do you know what i just found out? As long as he passed all FOUR of the standardized tests for his core subjects, then it doesnt even matter if he fails all 7 of the classes he is taking as an 8th grader, he will be moved on to the 9th grade. So yes, you DID just read that correctly. It is quite possible for a kid to do NOTHING all year but take tests, and he will still move on to high school without ever touching a shred of homework or classwork. Most kids are scared of their parents and so one call home usually fixes this problem. But not in this case, of the uncaring parent.
This makes me sad and lose sleep. Not only are we setting him up for failure when he gets to high school and MUST pass his classes, or when he gets a job and MUST do things he doesnt like, to collect a paycheck. But this whole thing also negates the 187 days of hard work that I put in to teaching him. I run errands to get supplies with my own money, dream up new games for them, get up early to make copies etc... and NONE of that matters as long as he can fill in a few bubbles correctly.
And for the cherry on top...we have been told as teachers that "school doesnt just stop after the taks test, KEEP teaching". Teaching what? YOU have beat it into their brains all year that this little 60 question test in my subject is the only thing that matters, and now you prove it by moving them all along to high school.
My exboyfriend used to say, "dont complain about things that you dont have a better suggestion for". And I've always agreed with that. But in this case, i dont know what the solution is for our country. I dont know what the best way is to make sure all kids in america are learning the same things from good teachers. But i know one thing. Standardized Tests aint it!
