Teach a Little, Test a Little, Teach a Little, Test a Lot!

Teach a little, test a little, teach a little, test a little, 

Cheat, cheat, cheat, test a lot, teach a little more

Teach a little, test a little, teach a little,
Test a little, cheat, cheat, cheat, test a lot, teach a little more

Teach a little, test a little, teach a little,
Test a little, cheat, cheat, cheat, test a lot, teach a little more

The above take on Meredith Wilson's song "Pick-A-Little, Talk-A-Little" from The Music Man is inspired by the last decade's seeming D.C. testing scandal under Chancellor Rhee in which schools like Noyes saw fantastic gains, fantastic merit pay and a fantastic number of erasures on its exams.    

Multiple-Choice Question Below

Why might teachers dislike an emphasis on high-stakes testing?


(Hint:  Pick as many answers as you like.  They may all be right)

A.  Due to the high-stakes testing, my teaching is regularly interrupted by uniform quizzes meant to monitor whether or not my students are being adequately prepped throughout the year.  (I had to slaughter the teaching of Asian geography this year in order to finish the content in time for the first uniform quiz.  Then, I found myself well ahead of schedule for the second uniform quiz).  

B.  These assessments are uniform and may fail to touch on many of the materials and points covered by individual teachers.  Things may be reduced to the lowest common denominator of content.  

B.  The assessments have been known to have errors.  (My tests also occasionally have errors, and I'm not proud of the fact, but at least I have not foisted my errors upon everyone else!)

C.   These assessments encourage teachers to teach to tests.   It sucks so much of the joy out of teaching and, doubtless, out of learning.

D.  The high-stakes assessment foisted on schools are more politically than educationally motivated.  The level of difficulty, conversion charts or cut-off points are shifted for political ends.

E.  As witnessed by last year's results from the Common-Core-based tests in N.Y., the students are punished by adults for political ends. They are pawns.

F.  These high-stakes test force teachers to focus more on test prep than imaginative and creative problem-solving.

G.  They force schools  to whittle away at the budget for drama, the arts, music, physical education, language, anything that is not tested high-stakes style.

H.  Tremendous amounts of funding are fed into the Testing Industrial Complex and teachers sometimes can't get the paper or board markers necessary for proper instruction.

I.  These tests will encourage teachers (who wish to hold onto their jobs in the era of VAM) to flee classrooms in which students have the misfortune of doing poorly on tests.

J.  The high-stakes testing may encourage a rash of cheating.  Witness Rhee's D.C.

K.   Some schools ask teachers to switch to test prep a month and a half before the Big Test.  Teachers must crunch material like an accordion to make the deadline.  Current topics go  out the door.

L.  The tests have little practical application for real life. 

M.  Even in college, tests are structured very differently.  With fewer multiple-choice questions, they better assess students' understandings and encourage higher-level thinking skills.   Most college teachers construct their own tests.  They have the academic freedom to actually test what they teach instead of teach to a test.  They are even trusted to grade their own tests.  Imagine that!

N.  When students fail high-stakes tests, it sends home a very strong message that may permanently affect a student's view of his or her own abilities.  The last N.Y. State Common Core tests were unconscionable.  The tests failed 70% of the state's students.  ESL students, children with special needs and minorities suffered far worse than the average. 

O.  Students may lose interest in schooling if so much of it is test prep.

P.  The students who fail may stop buying into a system that has stacked the cards against them.  They will fall farther and farther behind.

Q.  Teachers who teach as drill sergeants will be rewarded.

R.  Teachers who try to inspire creativity in thought and teachers who attempt to foster the growth of diverse student talents in the classroom will be beaten back if their students do not ace the standardized, uniform test.

S.  Schools, in the traditional sense, as centers of learning, become obsolete.  Only test prep centers are needed now. Stanley Kaplan and others already provide these services. 

T.  Students learn to memorize simplified versions of material so they can pick out the right multiple-choice answers.  No matter how the test changes, teachers and students will adopt new test prep strategies in order to  "game the system."

U.  Due to the high-stakes nature of the exams and past cheating scandals, teachers will no longer grade any exams from their own school.

V.   Schools may no longer be allowed to administer the exams.  The test makers now become very wealthy middlemen at the expense of classroom supplies.  When the whole system goes electronic, at great expense, the technology will surely fail. 

W.  Testing companies have a double boon by making review books catered to their exams.  Sometimes these books will use the same passage as found on the standardized test.

X.  We are no longer training the valuable kind of citizens that a democracy needs to thrive.  Standardization will triumph over individuality.

Y.  Highly educated individuals and free thinkers may no longer find teaching a rewarding profession.

Z.  Society will drown in reams of meaningless data analyzed by lofty statisticians who fail to recognize the world crumbling around them as the basic needs of students are no longer met.