The 'S' Word

Yep, I said it, Standardized Tests! This weighty stack of paper is soon looming on us. For some teachers, authentic learning is thrown out the window and teaching to the test began a few months ago. Frustrating, isn't it? With No Child Left Behind, and other reliance on Standardized Tests, administrators and teachers have been cornered. Administrators put on the pressure to raise scores or their job is on the line. Teachers are told to do whatever they have to to get these scores up, and teaching to the test is pushed.

Fortunately, there are the teachers who realize everyday teaching, from day 1 of school, can be authentic learning that will ultimately support test taking. But the reality is so many inner-city students come to school underfed, lack of sleep, haven't done months of homework, are repeatedly sent to the Dean of Discipline for violence in the classroom, or are still at home playing video games. These are uphill battles that teachers struggle to combat every day. Just getting some children engaged in school is a challenge, let alone giving them a test that takes 5 days to finish. And what about those kids who just don't test well, no matter if they are poverty stricken or not? Some of you reading this can identify. Taking the standardized test was probably one of your worst school memories.

Research shows there is more violence in poverty-stricken home and community environments. For example, I had a student who had been up since 3am and told me he might fall asleep during the test. He explained that his neighbor stabbed her husband to death with a kitchen knife and the police were in the building all night. Other students of mine lack sleep every night because their bed is the couch in the living room; the room the adults are busy socializing, drinking, and smoking (illegal and legal) in.

"Hardest job? I'd agree if they didn't get summers, holidays and most importantly, snow days off." Here is a many who obviously does not have children, nor family or friends in the education profession. My suggestion to this man is go to a school for 1 day and follow a teacher. Rather than looking at the job from a far spectrum, see what the job really entails. Considering babysitters make $12 per child and teachers have 30 kids in a class that they TEACH, teachers are significantly underpaid. Good teachers consider themselves a parent in the classroom. Teachers take a 7 hour emotional roller coaster ride where we parent 30 kids at once 180 days out of the year. Mental health days are a requirement in this field. Even parents know that. Teaching is part of the puzzle, but cannot be blamed as the only scapegoat for failure on a standardized test.

I am beginning to sound like a skipping record, but how do we expect teachers to combat the lack of parental responsibility in (not all) many of these inner-city student homes? Firing these teachers or paying them less is not the solution. We need to begin by training these parents when the child is in the womb. Parenting is a job and requires some sort of mentorship. For those who did not get that mentorship growing up, it is time to send them to parenting school to slow down this vicious cycle.