APPR Stress Brings May Prep for Tests!

Many people associate May Day with the start of May.  Many schools, however, view it as the beginning of the pre-Regents test prep.  The old adage, "April showers bring May flowers" might very well be changed to "APPR stress brings May prep for tests!"

Much has changed in the nature of test prep.  When I went to school, there was little-to-no review for the tests.  I picked up a Barron's book and did my best, realizing that my grade was primarily a reflection upon me.  Since I started teaching a couple of decades ago in NYC, we have helped prep students for the Regents.  At the start, it was a selfless act to help students graduate.  Our department copied many helpful materials for student review.  We spent two or three weeks working intensely with them to master the content and the skills tested by NYSED. 

Today, the review is vastly different.  We are told to begin the review in May.  We are now reviewing for about twice the time.  The stakes are very high for teachers, administrators and, indeed, the school itself.  We recommend students purchase review books and, indeed, the school even sells them to facilitate the process. 

NYS recently passed a law limiting test prep to no more than 2% of the classroom time.  It is, in effect, as if the State is asking teachers to stand in the line of fire without bullet-proof vests.  It is professional suicide.  

Ironically, the greatest-known test prep centers of them all, Charter Schools, are not subject to this law.  They will prep to their heart's content and survive this era of educational deformity.  Public schools will be handicapped in this competition, closed down and converted into profiteering charters.

Test prep is not good teaching.  The only way it will go away, and not continue under some other name, is if our national leaders de-emphasize the importance of tests.  Educational deformity starts at the national level and then trickles down.  Secretary Arne Duncan has an infatuation with the test scores of China and South Korea.  

He has no concern for the costs of these scores.  In China, many children cannot afford schools.  Shanghai will attempt to shield its pristine stats from the effects of migrant children.  Teenage girls work in factories for thirteen hours a day, seven days a week.  They typically work for five to seven years, face burnout and are replaced by more teenagers.  South Korea scores well, but it has enshrined a system of Hagwon Hell, private test prep centers, the best of which will not be affordable to the poor.  Many graduates have trouble finding jobs and the suicide rate is high.  Test prep also kills creativity.  

We must remove the testing guillotine that NYS, and, indeed, D.C., has put over our heads.  Then, and only then, will children receive the best education.