The Treasure Hunter

I have been familiar with the goals of the organization Fair Test and  the work of its leader, Monty Neil, for the past several years. Because I trust them both, and because I believe it is imperative for informed educators and supporters of public education to continue their activities, I am re-posting Fair Test’s recommendations as they appeared in Diane Ravitch’s blog today.

FairTest has posted a list of recommendations for next steps in the fight against the misuse and overuse of standardized tests.

The long-awaited demise of the despised and failed No Child Left Behind is gladdening, but it doesn’t end the fight against the misuse of high-stakes tests. Some states may decide to continue NCLB-ing their students and teachers because bad habits are hard to break.

FairTest recommends:

Congress will likely soon pass and President Obama sign the “Every Student Achieves Act” (ESSA). This bill is the latest version of the long-standing Elementary and Secondary Education Act and replaces the universally despised “No Child Left Behind.” The new law presents both opportunities and dangers for the testing resistance and reform movement.

How can the movement use the opportunities, counter the risks, and win greater assessment reform victories? The first task is to continue to build resistance to high-stakes standardized exams in every state in the nation, especially by expanding the already large numbers of test refusals. Next is to transform this movement strength into concrete victories by winning state legislation and local regulations to cut back testing, end high stakes, and implement high-quality assessments.

ESSA pushes decision-making power about most aspects of accountability from federal education officials to the states and localities. It will take strong and savvy organizing to win needed changes. Here are some ways activists can bring positive change and avoid the law’s dangers.

Push for far fewer state and local tests:

Movement activists should organize to win these goals:

– No state standardized tests beyond those mandated by ESSA.

– No standardized local interim, benchmark, predictive, formative, or other such tests, including those embedded in commercial on-line curricula.

– A ban on standardized testing in pre-K through grade 3.

– Transparency in the number, and uses of tests, and time spent on test preparation

While ESSA mandates 17 tests (grades 3-8 in reading and math, plus three grades for science), states and districts require many more. A recent study shows the average public school student takes 112. With fewer federal accountability mandates, states and districts will be under less pressure to test incessantly. ESSA also contains funding for states and districts to evaluate and reduce their testing programs.

Organize to end your state or district’s high-stakes testing mandates:

– End state requirements that students pass standardized exams to graduate or be promoted to the next grade, as many states already are. These are not required by federal law or regulations.

– End requirements to judge educators by student standardized exam scores. ESSA eliminated any federal mandate for test-based teacher evaluation. Now activists must incorporate this change locally by preventing states from deciding to perpetuate these dangerous policies.

– Fight for tests to be no more than 51% of the weight in your state’s formula for ranking schools (the minimum percentage allowed under ESSA). Ensure that other indicators are educationally sound, and that states provide assistance (including additional funding), not punishment, to schools identified as “low performers.” ESSA does require states to rank all schools and act to improve the lowest performing, but the types of interventions are no longer specified in federal law.

Win better assessment:

Push to have your state become one of the seven that will be allowed to completely overhaul their testing systems under ESSA pilot programs. Ensure that the overhaul includes primarily locally-based, teacher-controlled assessments, such as projects and portfolios. The New York Performance Standards Consortium is currently the best U.S. example of educator-controlled performance assessments.

Get your state to pass an opt-out law:

In 2015, a few more states, including Oregon [link to statute] passed laws recognizing the right of parents to hold their children out of standardized testing, while similar opt-out bills advanced in one or both houses of several other legislatures. ESSA recognizes that families can refuse testing if a state has an opt-out law. The new law does mandate 95% test participation, but leaves it up to the states to decide what to do if a school or district does not reach that threshold. At a minimum, activists should organize to block moves to punish students who opt out or schools and districts with low participation rates.

Use elections to raise issues:

Use the 2016 election cycle to hold incumbents and challengers accountable for implementing assessment reform. Groups with appropriate tax status should consider endorsing/opposing candidates based on their positions on testing. Activists, including tax-exempt groups, can use questionnaires, candidate forums, bird-dogging, and letters to the editor to force candidates to take clear positions.

Recognize and Block ESSA’s Dangers:

ESSA allows states to use federal assessment funding to revise their testing programs modestly, such as by adding tasks, portfolios and formative assessments. However, these tools are generally intended to be incorporated into standardized tests, as with the PARCC and SBAC Common Core exams. Performance assessments cannot fulfill their promise if they become mere adjuncts to current state exams. Similarly, a provision allowing districts to use a college admission test such as the ACT or SAT as the required high school exam must be treated with caution; those tests are no better educationally than existing state tests, and they have not been validated to assess high school academic performance.

Corporations such as Pearson and the right-wing American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) are promoting a dangerous version of “performance assessments.” They have perverted ideas developed by progressive educators, and the language used to describe them, such as “performance tasks” and “embedded” and “formative” assessments, to promote centrally controlled, largely on-line testing and instruction. The movement must strenuously resist these maneuvers, not by abandoning the fight for high-quality assessments or the labels we use for them, but by distinguishing educationally helpful from harmful practices.

The Next Reauthorization: ESSA is due to be reviewed by Congress in 2020. It is not too early to think about what kind of federal law can be won as the movement builds more clout and wins more victories at the state and local level.

Since Charles Dickens receives much attention at this time of year with his beloved story, “A Christmas Carol,” I am posting  an essay today that I wrote a while ago about his novel, “Hard Times.” In that novel I found a wonderful satire on the foolish and harmful educational practices of his time that closely resemble the practices today. Read about them and laugh–or weep.

Did you know that Charles Dickens denounced the Common Core Standards more than 150 years ago and didn’t think much of the value of teacher education either? In his 1854 novel, “Hard Times,” Dickens devotes the first two chapters to satirizing education in the grade schools of his era, and it looks a lot like the teaching recommended for our schools today.

Right away, Dickens introduces Thomas Gradgrind, owner of a small school in an English industrial town, who makes clear to his companions, the school master and an unamed visitor, what he thinks education should be: “Now what I want is, Facts. Teach these boys and girls nothing but Facts. Facts alone are wanted in life. Plant nothing else, and root out everything else.”

Next, the three men enter a classroom, and lessons begin with Gradgrind in charge. He looks around the room and points to a young girl: “Girl number twenty,” he calls out. She stands up and gives her name: “Sissy Jupe, sir.”

“Sissy is not a name,” charges Gradgrind.“Don’t call yourself Sissy. Call yourself Cecelia.”

After learning that Sissy’s father performs with horses at the local circus, Gradgrind demands of her, “Give me your definition of a horse.” When Sissy doesn’t answer, he turns to a boy named Bitzer and repeats the order.

Bitzer recites,“Quadruped. Graminivorous. Forty teeth, namely twenty-four grinders, four eyeteeth, and twelve incisive. Sheds coat in the spring; in marshy countries, sheds hoofs, too. Hoofs hard, but requiring to be shod with iron. Age known by marks in mouth.”

“Now,”gloats Gradgrind,”girl number twenty, you know what a horse is.”

Later, while lecturing the class on the foolishness of using representations of horses and flowers as home decorations, Gradgrind calls on Sissy again, asking her why she would have such pictures on carpets where people would step on them. Sissy, no longer tongue-tied, replies,“It wouldn’t hurt them, sir. They would be the pictures of what was very pretty and pleasant, and I would fancy….”

“But you mustn’t fancy,”cries Gradgrind. “That’s it! You are never to fancy”

Having humiliated Sissy once again, Gradgrind turns the lesson over to M’Choakumchild, who, Dickens tells us, has been thoroughly trained to be a teacher: “Orthography, etymology, syntax, and prosody, biography, astronomy,  geography, and general cosmography, the sciences of compound proportion, algebra, land-surveying and leveling, vocal music, and drawing from models, were all at the end of his ten chilled fingers ……He knew all about all the Water Sheds of all the world (whatever they are), and all the histories of all the peoples, and all the names of all the rivers and mountains, and all the productions, manners, and customs of all the countries, and all their boundaries and bearings on the two-and-thirty points of the compass. Ah, rather overdone, M’Choakumchild. If he had only learnt a little less, how infinitely better he might have taught much more.”

Dickens then ends the chapter with a metaphorical musing that compares M’Choakumchild’s teaching to Morgiana the slave girl’s actions in the ancient story,“Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves”: “Say, good M’choakumchild. When from thy boiling store, thou shalt fill each jar brim full by-and-by, dost thou think that thou wilt always kill outright the robber Fancy lurking within—or sometimes only maim and distort him?”

Today we educators might say,”Common Core originators and supporters, do you trully believe that with your continual emphasis on close reading and text analysis, without giving students any access to background knowledge, that you will curb only their imagination and curiosity–or perhaps fully destroy their interest in reading and persuade them that education is just a waste of their time?”

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Today’s post is an essay I wrote many years ago that I think bears repeating in light of today’s mechanical practices for teaching reading ding and writing. The only change I made is the addition of a fable written by a seven year old girl in our school in Wisconsin.  It is one of many pieces of children’s writing I still have.  Many of them are just as remarkable as this one considering the ages of the writers.

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In first grade my oldest son wrote a fairy tale, “The Bat Who Eats Children.” When I read the finished product I saw a coherent story with complete sentences and correct spelling and punctuation throughout. Although I credited his teacher with editing for technical correctness, I was sure that the story was of my son’s own making. He had modeled the plot on the fairy tale, Hansel and Gretel, which I had read to him more than once, and borrowed the bat character from television’s Sesame Street. The events and characters’ behavior in his story were just minor variations on the original. Although at age six my son was not yet an accomplished reader, he had learned the basics of writing from being read to at home and in school. No one had outlined the structure of a fairy tale for him, told him how the characters should behave, or pointed out examples of fairy-tale language, but he knew them all.

At that time I was teaching high school English, and laying out a path of reading and writing for my students that was similar to the one that was working for my son. When I taught a unit on short stories, for instance, I did not ask my students to analyze the structure of a story or identify the types of sentences, which the Common Core Standards now expect students to do. Nor did I ask them to write in their personal journals every day as many Writers Workshop advocates do. Instead, we talked about the overall message of each story and how it was laid out, the behavior of the characters, and the frequent surprise endings. I concluded the unit by asking my students to write their own short stories. As I expected, most of them did very well. They had learned the basics of the short story genre.

Much later, as principal of an elementary school I learned more from our teachers about the power of reading to teach writing. They did not use commercial textbooks or workbooks but real pieces of literature suited to students’ interests and needs. Then, they used some of those sources as models for student writing. One popular model in primary grade classrooms was, Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day, by Judith Viorst. After reading that book, children used it as a model for writing about their own bad, good, boring, or whatever kind of day. They were free to use as much or as little of the original story as they wanted. Some of the final pieces of writing showed only minor changes from the model, but others were truly creative. More important, however, was the fact that all children had learned important things about the structure of one type of children’s literature.

Here is an example of a fable written by a seven-year-old girl after her class read and talked about famous fables. Although the teacher may have done some editing, I have made no changes in the version that came to my attention.

Once upon a time, not my time and not your time, but once upon a time the moon was all alone in the sky.

Now directly down there was a skunk village. Now there was a problem. Each night the skunks wouldn’t have enough light. Finally one night the genius of the skunks had a council. He glued a match on a board. By accident one of the skunks struck the match and a ball of fire shot up in the air—shaped like this *.  The skunks thought it was weird but from that day on they called it a star-y, but the skunks forgot how to pronounce it and started to call it a stara. But one day a new skunk said, “Look at the stars.”

 And so it was that from that night to this night the stars have been twinkling.

Sachi Komai

Now, as a writer myself, I still believe that the best way for students to become writers is by reading as much good writing as possible and internalizing the various structures and techniques they encounter. For extras, the habit of reading will also increase their vocabulary, improve their spelling, and help them grasp the fact that many of the conventions of written language are different from those of spoken language. More than lessons on how to write an effective argument or an informational piece students need to immerse themselves in the worlds of stories, poems, myths, fables, business letters, opinion and information essays, advertisements, instructional manuals, newspaper articles, memoirs, biographies, and whatever else captures their interest. Although only a very few will become professional writers, almost all of them will be able to do the kinds of writing needed for success in “college and careers” and every day life just as Sachi had done.

Today’s post is my first one since November 18th, when I took off for visits to the Midwest and the east coast. It is about good news for public schools in Philadelphia that I found in the local newspaper, “The Philadelphia Inquirer.” If I had stayed at home for Thanksgiving I might never have known about it.

Readers not familiar with Philadelphia need to know that that this large, historic, bustling city also has high rates of poverty, gang violence, and crime. In addition, its public schools have been under-funded for years and many of the school buildings are in poor condition. In recent years charter schools have blossomed all over the city and several public schools have been closed.

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Today, four days after Thanksgiving, I am thankful for the wisdom and dedication of Philadelphia’s leaders who have committed themselves to revitalizing the much neglected and scorned public schools. Unlike politicians in many other places they are not pushing for higher standards, more rigorous learning, and better test scores, but working to provide students in public schools with the services that will help them to live healthier, happier, and more rewarding lives.

Last Monday Darrell Clarke, the City Council President, announced that the city’s leaders were now “Speaking with one voice.” He promised that they would work together to ensure that the Philadelphia School District’s buildings would soon “be crowded with essentials for urban children and their families: social services, health care, and job training.”  He added that schools would soon have all the services already present in the city’s jails: “You can’t tell me that we can deliver these services in a prison and we can’t deliver them in schools.”

Standing with Clarke was Mayor-elect Jim Kenney. The two had just returned from a trip to Cincinnati where they visited the city’s newly created community schools dedicated to providing the full range of health services and learning supports for students and gathering places for their families and other involved citizens. In those schools they saw well-equipped dental clinics and eye centers where students could get not only eye examinations but also free glasses. They also saw attractive areas for community members and volunteer tutors to meet and plan activities. Mayor Kenny has pledged to create 25 community schools as well equipped as those in Cincinnati over the next four years, starting as soon as he takes office. He said, “ We can do this if we stop complaining about not being able to do it. If we can build two mega-facilities to house sports teams, we can take care of these kids.”

Clarke’s and Kenney’s announcements were met with approval by school leaders and the community activists attending. Otis Hackney, a current Philadelphia school principal and a past a community school leader, selected by Kenney to be the new Chief Education Officer beamed with enthusiasm. The only people who appeared unenthusiastic were the leaders of the city’s charter schools. Clearly, they were displeased about not being included in the proposed school improvements. As the mayor made clear, “This model can apply to any school, but we have a responsibility to take care of our public schools.”

All I can add to Clarke and Kenney’s statements is “Amen.”

The first thing I want to say today is that my husband and I will be out of town from Nov. 19th until Nov. 28th. We are going to the NCTE convention in Minneapolis and from there to Philadelphia to spend thanksgiving with our children and other relatives. I will not post any commentaries during that time and, maybe, not until a few days after returning home. I sincerely hope that you all have a great Thanksgiving and are not upset about having nothing new to read on “The Treasure Hunter.” 

Now, about today. I am posting a piece about education in Finland that appeared a while ago on Diane Ravitch’s blog. Even if you read it there, I think it’s worth a second read to fix all the information about sane public education in your minds for further comparisons with our “deformed” system.

While our five-year-olds buckle down to show that they have mastered academic skills in math and reading, the children in kindergarten in Finland are playing.

When children play, Osei Ntiamoah continued, they’re developing their language, math, and social-interaction skills. A recent research summary “The Power of Play” supports her findings: “In the short and long term, play benefits cognitive, social, emotional, and physical development…When play is fun and child-directed, children are motivated to engage in opportunities to learn,” the researcher concluded.

Osei Ntiamoah’s colleagues all seemed to share her enthusiasm for play-based learning, as did the school’s director, Maarit Reinikka: “It’s not a natural way for a child to learn when the teacher says, ‘Take this pencil and sit still.’” The school’s kindergarten educators have their students engage in desk work—like handwriting—just one day a week. Reinikka, who directs several preschools in Kuopio, assured me that kindergartners throughout Finland—like the ones at Niirala Preschool—are rarely sitting down to complete traditional paper-and-pencil exercises….

This is scandalous! How can they expect to be global competitors when they don’t buckle down and learn to suffer through stultifying exercises?

And there’s no such thing as a typical day of kindergarten at the preschool, the teachers said. Instead of a daily itinerary, two of them showed me a weekly schedule with no more than several major activities per day: Mondays, for example, are dedicated to field trips, ballgames, and running, while Fridays—the day I visited—are for songs and stations.

Once, Morning Circle—a communal time of songs and chants—wrapped up, the children disbanded and flocked to the station of their choice: There was one involving fort-making with bed sheets, one for arts and crafts, and one where kids could run a pretend ice-cream shop. “I’ll take two scoops of pear and two scoops of strawberry—in a waffle cone,” I told the two kindergarten girls who had positioned themselves at the ice-cream table; I had a (fake) 10€ bill to spend, courtesy of one of the teachers. As one of the girls served me—using blue tack to stick laminated cutouts of scoops together—I handed the money to her classmate.

With a determined expression reminiscent of the boys in the mud with their shovels, the young cashier stared at the price list. After a long pause, one of her teachers—perhaps sensing a good opportunity to step in—helped her calculate the difference between the price of my order and the 10€. Once I received my change (a few plastic coins), the girls giggled as I pretended to lick my ice cream.

Throughout the morning I noticed that the kindergartners played in two different ways: One was spontaneous and free form (like the boys building dams), while the other was more guided and pedagogical (like the girls selling ice cream).

In fact, Finland requires its kindergarten teachers to offer playful learning opportunities—including both kinds of play—to every kindergartner on a regular basis, according to Arja-Sisko Holappa, a counselor for the Finnish National Board of Education. What’s more, Holappa, who also leads the development of the country’s pre-primary core curriculum, said that play is being emphasized more than ever in latest version of that curriculum, which goes into effect in kindergartens next fall.

“Play is a very efficient way of learning for children,” she told me. “And we can use it in a way that children will learn with joy.”

Imagine that! Finland will surely lose the race to the top of global competition if they keep up this play methodology. They should do what we do: drum the kids into silence, require them to march and sit in rows, teach them to keep their eyes on the teachers at all times, and require that they are college-and-career-ready from day one!