Left Behind Tests

Remember that time 6 months ago when Florida students took that Florida Standards Assessment?  

Neither do they. And yet, today they are being handed a piece of paper with their results. From that test. 6 months ago. For my 6th graders, they had to wait for 5% of their life to pass to get their results.

This morning I found the results in my mailbox and gave them out. I felt so bad handing the scores to some of my students. I had some impromptu "data chats" with my students below the 50th percentile. I kept finding myself repeating the phrase, "Although, maybe you have learned this concept now. This was 6 months ago." This test doesn't show where they are now. Still, they see it as a reflection of who they are. 

After getting their scores that they couldn't quite understand, I could visibly see some students puff up in confidence or crumble in disappointment. Those numbers can really shape their self-image. Without the context of the test, they don't make sense. Students don't even remember what the test was about. And I surely can't tell them because I'm not allowed to look at it.

Our nation spends $1.7 billion annually on standardized tests and what is the point? What is the result? Hours and hours spent assessing students, only to find out how they did 6 months later. 

Only to find their results left behind on the floor of our classroom.

This blog post could get me fired

Whenever I feel overwhelmed by my troubles as a teacher, I take comfort in knowing that I can write about it. I feel my blood pressure drop swiftly as I step back and try to behold the larger picture. Knowing that there are people at the other end- you- reading it, parts the clouds even further. 

So I was aghast when I received an email from our Florida Education Association president, Andy Ford, stating that our freedom of speech was no longer guaranteed. He was giving us advice about how to handle questions from parents wanting to opt out of state testing. In his email to teachers he stated, "Gagging teachers is one of the many direct and intended consequences of Senate Bill 736, the very first bill signed by Gov. Rick Scott. Teachers can no longer speak out in the best interest of students or for themselves. Teacher evaluations are affected and job security can be threatened if teachers do not implement current policies... even those widely recognized as educationally unsound. The most effective and highly effective annual contract teachers can be released for any reason or for no reason at all."

This floored me. I read SB 736 a couple times for an educational policy class and never remembered anything about teacher speech in this bill. Just to be sure, I reread it this morning over my banana chocolate chip pancakes and coffee. I know, super exciting Saturday for this teacher. 

I was correct in my memory. There is no mention of teacher speech in the bill. What our president was trying to say is that we are now incredibly more vulnerable when speaking up for students. This is because of the changes in employment policies and the elimination of tenure in SB 736. It is my understanding that while there are protections from being fired in the middle of the year, districts can let us go without any reason at the end of the year. This may have been the case for local Hillsborough County educator Michael Weston See Diane Ravitch's blog post "Should Teachers Have Freedom of Speech? Hillsborough County Florida Says No"  For younger teachers like me, hired after July 1, 2011, we can only receive an annual contract. From SB 736:

1012.335 Contracts with instructional personnel hired on or after July 1, 2011.—

(1) DEFINITIONS.—As used in this section, the term: (a)
(a) ―Annual contract means an employment contract for a
period of no longer than 1 school year which the district school board may choose to award or not award without cause.

My dear USF School Law professor taught me that I am protected if speaking "as a citizen as a matter of public concern". SB 736 says yes, but only for that year. At the end of the year, you may be dismissed without any reason. 

Please vote in our elections this November. Democracy is not a spectator sport. We need a governor who is willing to listen to educators. According to Florida Senate Bill 736, teachers do not have protection to speak up for students.

Let me teach

If I were a doctor taking care of patients and doing a solid job, wouldn't it be strange if another doctor came in and showed me how to do something I already knew how to do? If I were a car repair person, having success fixing those vehicles, how weird would it be if another mechanic dropped in to demonstrate a repair I was already doing? Yesterday, I had an employee from the district come to my class to model a lesson for me. She told me I could "just sit back" and "take notes". I was not asked if this was something I wanted. No one told me that I needed it. Apparently this is what happens if you are at a school with very low test stores. They send you well-meaning distractions.

Now don't get me wrong, I absolutely love observing teachers. I've gladly given countless planning periods to watch others' lessons. I just ask that I have some say in when, how, and why. If you're coming uninvited into our classroom, I ask that you wow me. Otherwise, we have work to do. Ain't nobody got time for that.

This resource teacher took 45 minutes from my class to model a phenomenally boring lesson about summarizing. A super important skill, practically indistinguishable from our recent lessons on paraphrasing, but the content was unrelated to our current focus. However, my students were troopers, and most of them made me proud. One sweet girl shyly pointed out that our district resource teacher was plagiarizing, as she was not putting things in her own words. I almost hugged her.

To come in and model a lesson about summarizing is to say that I am not teaching summarizing, that I don't know how to teach it, or that I'm not doing it well enough. I don't take it personally as an individual teacher, I'm just taking it personally as a member of a profession that feels disrespected. My students and I lost our momentum from our research about national parks and conversations about Martin Luther King, Jr. Instead, we had to put on the breaks for a district charade of helping our children. Our weekly staff newsletter states something to the effect of "district walkthroughs may occur at any time." I have had 4 guests from the district just this week. If those well-intentioned folks would instead come in and work with my students, read with them, write with them, mentor them, then perhaps we could actually make a difference for these incredible kids.

I must admit while I was watching this model lesson, I thought I might pull out our teacher evaluation rubric just for fun! Ya know, so I could see how to be a better teacher. Let's just look at a few highlights:

• 1a Demonstrating knowledge of content and pedagogy- Accomplished. The teacher knew how to model finding key words and main ideas in an article. While she did not put the writing in her own words, she was able to point out misconceptions about text coding to students.

• 1b Demonstrating knowledge of students- Progressing. Our poor guest teacher had two boys who absolutely shut down the moment she began. She made no effort to get to know my students. I suppose the district believes knowing that our school has very low test scores is all the knowledge they need. One of these boys had recently switched classes and is having some teacher trust issues. Another boy in ESE shut down most likely because he is a very low reader and could not keep up with our teacher's notes.

• 1c Setting instructional outcomes- Progressing. my students did not understand what they were supposed to do and I had to go over the instructions once she left. 

• 3d Using assessment in instruction- Requires action. When it was time for students to do the work, she got up and left. She gave me a sticky note with the outline of her modeling, which could be done by a robot. In fact, is this what this is all about? Am I being replaced by a computer? I asked her if she wanted a copy of the students performance task but she did not. 

• 3c Student engagement- Progressing. The thing I fight not to do every day, our literacy specialist from the district did- have a lesson where I talk and students just copy down my ideas. There was no thinking required.

Please don't misunderstand me. I have my bad days. I have my lessons that fall short. But I don't insist on modeling them to other teachers.

I don't mean this to be a griping session about teachers' egos. It's just that this mania to increase test scores has these unintended consequences of distractions and disconnect, of meaningless work in the name of test-prep. Later that day, when I actually got to execute the lessons I had planned, it was a different world. My students engaged in deep questions about Martin Luther King Jr.'s life and his role models. One group of 9 year olds were even dancing upon questions of justice and race. This was much more nourishing as a teacher to witness than students mimicking a teacher's notes. Compliance is not learning. Let me teach.

The System Requires Action

When I'm not teaching, you can find me at a theater. Sometimes you can even find me teaching at a theater. So when I heard that a performing arts magnet school in my district had a vacancy, I jumped at the chance. I would do anything to be at that school. I'd even mop the floors. It turned out that the vacancy was for teaching Exceptional Student Education (ESE). My mom was a special educator for the deaf and hard of hearing for many years and I got fired up after brainstorming with her. This position was primarily for students with learning disabilities and it sounded like a great opportunity to grow. But truth be told, sometimes wish I were mopping the floors.

Now ESE teacher is not a very sought-after position around the country. The government knows this. They offer loan forgiveness up to $17,500 for teachers who teach ESE for 5 years. A mere Title-1 teacher receives only $5,000 of loan forgiveness after 5 years. So what do you have to do to get that dough? At my school, we deliver ESE services in a co-teach model. This means I am always in the classroom of a regular ed teacher. It's like you're living in someone else's house. You want to cook something in the kitchen, but your food isn't in the refrigerator and the stove is being used. Your roommate might be nice, but really, you guys can't agree on where the couch should go. Then every once in a while, you get a teacher- ahem- roommate that loves musicals and pepperoni pizza like you do, and you know you'll get along just fine.

I teach with 4 different teachers and have 4 different preps. Look, it's difficult enough to have 4 different preps, but now you want me to do it with another person? When do we plan? A recent study from the article "Professional Learning in the Learning Profession" by Linda Darling Hammond et al tells us how most European and Asian countries spend 15 to 20 hours outside the classroom (meeting with parents, planning with other teachers, preparing lessons, meeting with students). Conversely, American teachers are typically given a whopping 3-5 hours a week to plan. Come on people, responding to emails alone may take 3 hours a week. I know I admitted to being a drama queen earlier, but really.

Besides co-teaching, I have a caseload of 25 students. As a case manager, we keep an eye on how students are doing in other classes, collaborate with those teachers, keep in close contact with the families, and administration. We monitor students' individual goals and ensure accommodations are being met in the classroom and on district and state exams. We have Individual Education Plan (IEP) meetings and complete enough paperwork to drive this hippie insane. Each IEP takes me 2-5 hours to write. In my district, ESE teachers used to have 2 planning periods- one for paperwork and one for planning. Then our superintendent took one of those planning periods away, promising IEP assistants to help with all that paperwork. Later, she took the IEP assistants away and now we just have one planning period. Fun fact: in order to "reduce" our amount of paperwork, the district made the font smaller! No exaggeration, my school psychologist served on the committee that made that decision. 

If I had my magic wand, I would give all teachers 10 more hours of outside planning a week. Special ed teachers would have a smaller case load, or less preps. What a titillating fantasy. I can feel my brain fill with happy endorphins as I imagine what could be if we actually had the time to design instruction that met all of my students' needs. 'Cause really, I didn't become a teacher to sit in meetings.

Unfortunately, there's a new barrier to recruiting and retaining ESE teachers. My district, like so many others around the nation, began using a new evaluation system for observing teachers in the name of accountability and teacher effectiveness. As a regular ed teacher, I have always done very well on my evaluations, thanks to my incredible mentor teacher. She is one of the few of the thousands in the county that gets perfect scores every time. I used to watch her on my planning periods and she would share all of her tricks with me. Never, have I ever, received the scarring "requires action" rating. Until now.

I do not think that the same rubric should be used to evaluate special educators who are also case managers and co-teachers if we are not given additional time to manage both responsibilities. I also believe that evaluators of special educators should have experience in special education to really understand what's going on in the class. It would be unreasonable to have a kindergarten teacher evaluate what happens in a high school math class, or vise versa. It is unfair that special educators are expected to teach in the same manner as the regular ed teacher while managing a caseload of 25 and everything that entails. Here is an excerpt from the email I sent to my evaluator after my evaluation:

Dear Ms. __________,

It was a pleasure meeting you earlier in the year and I enjoyed your feedback from my formal observation. I know you observe a lot of teachers and may have difficulty remembering the circumstances of my informal observation, but I was absolutely surprised by the results.

I would like to take the time to clear up any confusion or misunderstandings that may have occurred during my informal observation.

You observed me at _____ on __________ during my 8th grade language arts class that I co-teach with a teacher named ______. Before you entered the room I warned you that I would not be leading in that particular class and encouraged you to attend one of my other classes that I would be leading that day. You assured me that you understood each day in a co-taught ESE classroom was different, but from the results of my observation I do not see that understanding. I feel as though you were evaluating my co-teacher and not me.

I have broken down my biggest concerns by each objective. Hopefully I can provide enough evidence to have this evaluation reconsidered:

3A Communicating with students (requires action)
Peer stated, “The teacher does not demonstrate an understanding of the content and purpose of the lesson. Therefore, there is no communication of the lesson’s purpose or direction to students. The teacher does not give directions or clarify any student confusion. No time is allotted to discuss what they are expected to learn or work on.” To begin with, this lesson was a continuation of the prior day’s work. Extensive directions were not needed as they had already received the directions the day before. Students were working on identifying the different types of ad techniques by reading an article, paraphrasing the information into a graphic organizer, and providing examples. I believe time is more precious than gold in the classroom, and from what I and Mr. _______ observed from their previous work, there was no need for extra directions or clarifications to the class. It was time for them to demonstrate their learning. I did, of course, float around the class providing support and clarification to students who needed it. I was able to reiterate examples for students who needed it, though few did. The class average was a 90% for students on this assignment. The directions and discussion had taken place before, the students understood what they needed demonstrate, and they did it very well.

3B Using questioning and discussion techniques (requires action)
Peer states, “The teacher does not ask any questions to promote thinking and the students have little opportunity to discuss content or questions. The teacher does not pose any questions to students. There are several missed opportunities to probe students for discussion. Students are given no time to talk about their thoughts.”
To begin with, my evaluator was in one far corner of the room and could not have heard questions I asked students, questions about vocabulary, comprehension, and time management. As I explained to her, I would not be leading that period. The assignment students were working on was the building block to many larger, quality discussions that took place. This assignment was used assist students with a gallery walk in which students looked at ads that they had brought in and discussed the different techniques with their peers. It was a highly engaging activity that could not have been as successful as it was without the foundation of that day’s activities.

3D Using Assessment in instruction (progressing)
Peer states, “It is unclear how student learning is being monitored. While the teacher circulates and monitors progress, students are unable to self-assess based on vague criteria provided by the teacher. The teacher does not clearly communicate assessment criteria to students. There is limited feedback offered to students as they work.”
Students know they can always talk quietly with a student at their table if they would like to assess before the teacher does. Perhaps they were nervous having a stranger sit at their table and did not want to talk. The criteria was established in the previous class. There was ample modeling and discussion. Students were to identify all 11 ad techniques in their own words. They had to read the explanations and then paraphrase. They did not have to use complete sentences, this was for their notes. Students also had to locate textual evidence to support their paraphrasing which they did with ease. Finally, students had to provide examples of the different ad techniques in their own lives. The previous week, students had carefully tracked their media and advertising consumption. They provided examples easily. That being said, there are 7 students who are ESE in that classroom. 5 of the 7 students completed the assignment with the same proficiency as their peers (minus conventions such as grammar and spelling), 2 students required more prompting and cueing for staying focused or needing clarification or encouragement. These 2 students were given extra time for the assignment but still did not complete it or turn it in. This is a separate independent function issue that is being addressed through extensive communication with their parents.

I do hope you do not take any of this to come from a place of malice or disrespect. I know how much peers care about education, especially our teachers and students. I am sure you understand how important these observations are to all teachers. I am concerned that the observation system is not equipped to accurately evaluate ESE fuse teachers and their unique responsibilities. I do not believe that this observation was representative of my teaching. I do not feel like my evaluator fully understood what was going on in the class and how that lesson fits into other lessons. I do not feel that I was being evaluated, but instead that my co-teacher was being evaluated.

Thank you for your consideration.

Respectfully and warmly,

_______________

Do we really want to tie money to these evaluations? Who is going to want to teach our most vulnerable students if it means a cut in our pay? It's no wonder that 40% of the vacancies listed on our district website are ESE positions. Someday, I hope to be a part of changing ESE. They need more resources, teachers need more time to effectively collaborate. Differentiated instruction requires a great deal of planning. Make time to plan or plan to fail. Teachers have told me that they have removed ESE from their certification to ensure they do not have to teach it. I signed an agreement to earn my certification this year, but after my experiences, I do not plan on earning it. What does that mean for me? I don't know, but I'm willing to deal with the consequences.

The system requires action.

What shoes go with FCAT?

Yesterday your child's education went on hold. It is officially FCAT season in Florida. Don't worry, your child's normal education will resume in two weeks.

Getting ready for school Monday morning, I had to guffaw as I wondered which shoes to wear for FCAT (Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test). I didn't want to make too much noise wearing some sort of clickety-clackety heels. Perhaps in defiance, I wore them anyways.

Let me paint a picture of what it's like to walk in the shoes of a teacher administering the FCAT. Your already early arrival of 7:10 may begin even earlier this day. You report to school well before the sun. The testing headquarters are in the windowless In School Suspension (ISS) room and open at 6:30 am. You walk into the room, where the weary guidance counselors have been transformed into paper-pushing-schedule-making-pencil-sharpening-drones. They are not able to counsel students this time of year as they are tied up in testing preparation. You recount all of your tests and grab your goodie bag. You head to your room to figure out which movie you will be showing that afternoon. Or if you're like me, you plan to finally take the opportunity to do that artsy project whose benefits can not actually be measured.

The students file in begrudgingly, fully understanding the magnitude of the three hour sentencing that awaits them. As their fearless leader, you try to maintain a balance of airy calmness, cheery energy, and solemn dignity. After all, you are being scored today too. Then you have the challenge of getting 300 kids to use a restroom with only 3 stalls each. There are late busses. Most students seem to have gotten a good rest last night, but some are already having a bad day. This is just one test. One day. One snapshot. Yet it weighs so much on them and us. It determines which class they will be in next year: honors, advanced, or intensive. Starting next year, it will determine our pay scale. That's a story for another day. Regardless, the stakes are high.

Finally, all students have arrived and gone to their testing room. It's now time for about 20 minutes of directions and material managing. The test finally begins and I have free time to catch up on grading papers and plan lessons! NOT. We are supposed to walk around the room monitoring the students. If a student is caught cheating, we could get in deep trouble. I'm talking lose your job or certification. I know some teachers will read a book or check their email, but I come from the school of CYA. So I watched those chillins take that FCAT. Okay, at some point I got really antsy and started making a wedding to-do list. Some might think this sounds like a nice break, but there is something rather draining about doing nothing in an environment where there are a million things to do.

My students hardly lifted their nose from their books or their pencils from their paper. Of course, there are the token kids who just want to stare out the window. There are a few short breaks to stand, stretch, and eat some pretzels. Finally, students are done but don't have the energy to celebrate. It's lunch time. I drop off my tests in ISS, this takes 10 minutes as I scored very low in my "ability to survive in a bureaucracy" on my district entrance exam. By the time I grab my lunch and walk to the cafeteria, I am told I have 15 minutes to eat. I protest but they remind me that today is FCAT day. I walk into the teacher's lounge and my teachers are outraged but not surprised that I have been told I have 15 minutes to eat. I go back to speak to my assistant principal, but before I can open my mouth he says, "You get your 30 minutes." He's not all bad. FCAT stresses out everybody.

Too add to the insanity, it's an early release day. We switch classes one more time, and I take my students to our video conference room where we do a virtual field trip. Pretty cool. We learned some things today despite FCAT's best efforts.

How many days are lost to testing in an already very short school year? In an 180 day school year, I estimate that 26 days are used this year in the name of standardized testing. That's 14.4% of our school year dedicated to filling in bubbles as a measure of a student's (and now a teacher's) achievement.

Don't believe me? Here's the breakdown:
4 days for FAIR (3 times a year, but there's always at least one day where the computers don't work and we have to go back)
3 days FCAT (2 days reading, 1 day for math. This is just 6th grade. I'm not counting the 2 weeks where various grades in the school disrupt our schedule for FCAT testing.)
3 days for district writing exams
2 days for school-purchased FCAT practice, Write Score
1 day for Brainchild, a school-purchased web-based FCAT practice "tool"
1 day EPAT, practice software for reading FCAT
2 days district language arts end of semester exams
1 day Stanford Norm Referenced Test (NRT)
2 days practice moving to the correct testing room
7 days to FCAT tutoring

I'm glad I missed the tidal wave that is FCAT in my own Florida education. I graduated in 2004, just barely missing the world of "there is only one right answer." But now I teach it.


I snapped this photo (not during the test!) of my students' confiscated electronic devices. I thought about grabbing the bag and running away. There's a couple grand right there!

The grass is always greener

This summer I took an awesome trip to South Korea and Japan. I think it's true that one of the best parts of a trip is coming home. I felt a deeper understanding of what it is to be American. Let the patriotic music swell. This week, I came back to my classroom with a renewed sense of purpose and an appreciation for the importance of public schooling. These hallowed halls are where we lovingly brainwash our youth with our stories, our hopes, and values.

Many Americans look to countries like South Korea and Japan, throw up their hands in despair, and wail, "How are they doing so well? What are we doing wroooong?" Funny thing is, Asians are looking right back at us. We admire their discipline and high scores. They yearn for our creativity and innovation.

The Two Faces of Hagwons

I think one of the most poignant examples of our differences is South Korea's hagwons. Hagwons are for-profit academies, or cram schools, that students attend after their full day of public school. Think after school tutoring programs on steroids. In 2010, 74% of South Koreans participated in some sort of extra schooling, lengthening their school day from 8am to 10pm. There is immense societal pressure to perform well on college placement exams. In actuality, these exams turn out to be more like life-placement exams. Many point to this stress for the reason why South Korea and Japan boast the highest teen suicide rate. Things have gotten so out of hand that there is now a law that hagwons must shut down by 10pm. In fact, there are Seoul officers that raid non-compliant hagwons based on tips from neighborhood informants. See this article in TIME for more info Teacher, leave those kids alone 

A couple years ago, my good friend and college roommate got a job in South Korea teaching English. This summer, I stayed with her and had the privilege of seeing a hagwon for myself. The six elementary students I observed in my friend's classroom were having a grand ol' time learning and laughing in their English class. Would it be better if they had dinner with their families? More time to play soccer? Sure, but the fact is that the pressure to do well is very real, and hagwons offer that edge that students need to succeed in their country. But are they really learning the information? Or are they simply cramming facts to be forgotten after testing? The number of hours that Koreans are spending on education is not the reason why they outperform Americans.

Why are they outperforming us?

Let's encourage our friends and family to think twice before they disparage our country's education system for a lack of achievement on international standardized tests. The fact of the matter is, Americans have never done well on these tests since we first began participating in 1964. That year, we came in 11th place, out of 12 nations in math, yet went on to have the largest economy in the world. We continue to place in the lower quartile, but this does not reflect our achievement as a nation. When you compare our highest achieving students to similar students in other countries we compare very well. The reason we continue to place so low is that we have the highest child poverty rate of any advanced nation in the world. America comes in at a 25% child poverty rate.  Twenty-five percent! What brings our scores down is that we have to average in such large numbers of students who live in poverty, compared to Korea's 8%. If you are interested in finding out more, Diane Ravitch always says it better than anyone My View: Rhee is wrong and misinformed

If we really want to raise our scores, we must tackle child poverty. Not a popular political move. It's easier to blame the teachers.

*Fun Facts
1. It is perfectly acceptable to take naps at school. Last year, my friend was told by the school secretary she'd have to come back in a couple of hours as the assistant principal was sleeping.  
 2. Corporal punishment is still alive and well and I was surprised to learn my friend uses this. She doesn't abuse her students, but she does assign squats as punishment. They'll probably thank her later for their amazing quads.