“It has always seemed strange to me...The things we admire in men, kindness and generosity, openness, honesty, understanding and feeling, are the concomitants of failure in our system. And those traits we detest, sharpness, greed, acquisitiveness, meanness, egotism and self-interest, are the traits of success. And while men admire the quality of the first they love the produce of the second.” - John Steinbeck Cannery Row
I have made time to endlessly harass my Department Chair and our Associate Principal tasked with state testing to see the American History scores of my students. It's been nearly a month since the state required itself to submit them to districts, and I've yet to hear anything. I know that the scores will be lower overall when compared to the Ohio Graduation Test. The new assessments are an entirely different monster. I can only assume that my colleagues are withholding my scores for the sake of my sanity. I would like to take a moment to first assure them that I can handle the information, and second say, let me see the scores already.
They may just think I'm a raving lunatic, or have no idea why I'm so concerned. They're busy people with many other matters to attend to, I'm sure. The truth is, I take all of this very personally, as many teachers do. Just like it was my responsibility to assure that my students passed the Social Studies OGT, it is now my responsibility to assure that my students score a 3 on the American History test (2.57 being the average necessary per test to reach 18 points to graduate). If I'm pragmatic, then I need them to score 4's and 5's to compensate for the Math scores that have been abysmal according to reports.
Perhaps my mentality is wrong. After all, our standardized testing system in Ohio is excessive in its high stakes, has little validity because of its constant state of flux, and like all standardized tests measures little more than relative poverty. No matter how great a teacher I become, it is improbable that my influence can overcome the harsh reality of economics.
Because of this and a multitude of other social, psychological, physical, environmental and academic issues, there is no realistic way that I can assure that my 140 or so students will score a 4 or 5. I mean no offense to my very intelligent, hard working, and charismatic students, but standardized testing systems are designed to fail a certain percentage of students. The cut off for proficiency is set after the tests are graded. Last month the state school board decided to change the cut score for Geometry so that 52% scored proficient or above. The flip side to that, of course, is that 48% of kids failed to earn adequate points to stay on a path to graduation.
So, why am I so concerned about scores on an American History assessment that is a part of a testing system in which I am in wholehearted disagreement? Because these are my students and their concerns are my concerns. They are dealing with high school, a time in one's life that is difficult and confusing enough without a systematic attempt to prevent your graduation. All I'm trying to do, as their teacher, is to make life a little bit easier, and effectively instill some content knowledge, skills, and critical thought.
Now if you did watch the RNC this week, my comments run contrary to the prevailing conservative opinion of public schools and their teachers as expressed by Donald Trump, Jr., "Our schools used to be an elevator to the middle class. Now they’re stalled on the ground floor. They’re like Soviet-era department stores that are run for the benefit of the clerks and not the customers, for the teachers and the administrators and not the students. You know why other countries do better on K through 12? They let parents choose where to send their own children to school."
I'm going to ignore the comment about parents in other countries taking widespread advantage of school choice. They don't. I'm more concerned about the persistent myth that American students (and in turn their schools and teachers) perform poorly in comparison to other countries. When you take into consideration the relative size of the United States, and the number of economically disadvantaged students that we educate, our scores are comparable, if not better. Mr. Trump's entire premise is simply not based in reality. According to the Economic Policy Institute...
"If U.S. adolescents had a social class distribution that was similar to the distribution in countries to which the United States is frequently compared, average reading scores in the United States would be higher than average reading scores in the similar post-industrial countries we examined (France, Germany, and the United Kingdom), and average math scores in the United States would be about the same as average math scores in similar post-industrial countries."
If this is true, then maybe I'm not like a clerk at a Leningrad Gold Circle circa 1982. Maybe Donald Trump Jr. has never set foot in a public school, and has had everything handed to him his entire life including his current title of "businessman", so has absolutely no idea what he's talking about. Maybe the public schools really are successful. Maybe the standardized testing system is completely and utterly unnecessary.
Maybe I shouldn't care so much about these scores. Except that I do.
The problem is in the paradox. I have to concern myself with scores on assessments in a testing system that favors rich over poor, that assures failure, and that I unequivocally despise.
I have to concern myself because my students' graduation depends on it. I am their teacher and I've chosen that position to teach history and look out for their interests. Even in a system designed to make us look like failures, while our detractors use rhetoric, misinformation and fear to turn public opinion against us, it is what teachers do.
