If you see Mr. Gunlock, tell him I'm doing my job.

 

State School Board President Tom Gunlock trotted out his tired defense of the Graduation Requirement on Ideastream this week indicating that those kids who find themselves short points, say they've got 16 of the needed 18, can simply get some remediation to pick up the extra two points. When the teachers teach the standards, there's no problem.

First of all, we've been teaching the state standards at my school for years. I know that Mr. Gunlock is fond of blaming teachers like me for not teaching the standards, but our success under the prior assessment system should prove my adherence to state standards. We're all exhausted by your teacher bashing. Your current assessment system is a mess, Mr. Gunlock, as are the cut scores you and the school board established. Own the problem you took part in creating. Fix it. Teachers like me are not the issue. Remediation is not the answer.

I'm teaching remediation classes in American History right now. My plan is to try to make an awful and unfair situation tolerable. I'm getting together twice a week with a cool group of motivated kids, and trying to keep it weird, entertaining, and reteach a year long course over 15-20 hours. It's ridiculous. If I'm honest, we spend half of our time together discussing sample questions, and examining how to approach a test essay. The shortest distance between two points is a straight line, as they say, and I would be doing these students a disservice if I didn't help them learn to take the test. You'll notice that I did not say learn American History, or the skills of a historian, or strategies to help them be successful on the job, or skills for college readiness. No, we don't have time for that because we have to jump through these hoops and hope to earn another point or two on a completely irrelevant assessment, so that (God help us) we can earn the 18 points necessary to graduate.

How about one more problem while I'm at it. The vast majority of kids in my urban high school in need of remediation don't have 16 points. They have 6, or 8, or 10. I know a kid with 12 points and only one test left to take, but it's difficult to attend remediation classes to prep for retakes because their courseload includes college classes. I can think of a half dozen kids who are currently gainfully employed, model employees as a matter of fact, who are not on pace to graduate. They can't miss work to go to remediation. Here they are "college and career ready" in real life, but will be unable to earn a high school diploma in this absurd system.

Prior to Board President Gunlock's non-solution, Senator Peggy Lehner explained that we needed these new assessments to increase the rigor that didn't exist before. Apparently, employers have approached her to explain that the kids just don't have the math and reading skills, the soft skills either, to be successful. 

See the above examples, Senator Lehner, and furthermore, I have been contacted by dozens of employers myself to provide recommendations for my students and never have they asked me about their math and reading skills. "OK, so Susan is articulate, works well with others, and exhibits responsibility, but how would you rate her reading skills." "Tommy is a great team player and critical thinker, but how would you classify his skills in mathematics." Even if employers were asking these questions, you are not measuring these skills within this assessment system. Certainly not to the degree that the test(s) should be any sort of determining factor toward their graduation.

In the Senator's defense, as my wife explained it, she went on to say some more productive things, and Dr. Lloyd, the Superintendent of Olmsted Falls Schools delineated the many problems with the system, the fluctuation in tests, methods of testing, and questionable validity. My apologies to both of them, especially Dr. Lloyd, because I couldn't get past this initial wave of bullshit to listen to the rest of the program. I am happy that the issue of the graduation requirement is being discussed. For a long time, I felt like no one was listening at all. The fact that possible solutions are being debated publicly by some very influential people leaves me hopeful. My worry is that the solution will fall short. Too many people seem to believe that there is value in standardized testing. If there is, it is minimal.

The entire Ideastream program was based on the premise that somewhere between 20 and 50% of this year's juniors will not graduate under the current assessment system, and this is too many. What is implicit in this argument, according to Senator Lehner, Mr. Gunlock, and others who share their sensibility regarding testing, is that there is an acceptable level of non-graduates. 

I, for one, can't accept that.

The acceptable level of students being prevented from graduating solely due to performance on standandardized tests, regardless of how many chances they get to take the test, is ZERO. There are simply too many variables for stakes this high to be tied to culturally biased, linguistically confusing, anxiety inducing assessments that measure little more than economic standing  Don't get me wrong, if a student is not attending school, not attempting coursework, or is deficient in the credits necessary as established by the state, then they have not earned a diploma.

Refusing a diploma because of test scores does nothing to help the student, nothing to improve education, and only exacerbates socioeconomic problems in our communities. 

As it stands, more and more people are beginning to get it. Dr. Lloyd has helped to orchestrate a mass demonstration at 10am on Tuesday November 15th on the South Lawn at the Capitol to pressure the State Board of Education and state legislators to fix this mess. Hundreds of Superintendents will be in attendance along with hundreds of local school board members, teachers, parents, and other stakeholders. It coincides with the Ohio School Board's meeting to discuss the Graduation Requirement. For my students and other high school kids statewide, the stakes could not be higher.

If you can get there to raise some hell, please do so.

Unfortunately, I won't be able to attend. I will be teaching according to the Ohio standards associated with 1920's American History, and preparing for my remediation class the following day. If you see Mr. Gunlock, tell him I'm doing my job, along with thousands of other Ohio teachers. It's time he and the others in power in Columbus do theirs.