GothamSchools — daily independent reporting on NYC public schools

slippery slope

December 19, 2008

When test prep is the focus, teachers say they can turn off

by Philissa Cramer, at 11:42 am

Ruben, a second-year Teaching Fellow in the Bronx who’s been toying with the idea of becoming a career educator, feels like he’s losing control of his classroom. And it’s not because his kids are on their worst pre-vacation behavior. He writes:

For starters, I don’t think I have control of what I’m teaching these days. It’s all Kaplan and NYS ELA Testing and on and on it goes. And with all that my own motivation has suffered. My planning has become somewhat rote and uninspired, and therefore my lessons have exhibited that same mundane quality. Of course, the end result is my students are pushing back and rejecting my teaching. And I don’t blame them.

Luckily the test is almost over. Once it’s behind me, I hope to get back on track. I hope even the math exam won’t throw me off, because I’ll find another way to prepare for it. Meanwhile, I have 2 weeks off starting next week, and I hope to regroup, recharge and remember how to do this job right.

Print Print
  • Mr. Benjamin

    It appears that the link is bad?

  • Philissa Cramer

    Thanks for the heads-up, Mr. Benjamin. The link should work now.

  • Mr. Benjamin

    I’m impressed with this blogger. It reminds me of one of my own posts last year lamenting the ELA test prep whirlwind. He’s evidently reflective and his narrative is compelling relating to the attendant transformations from a first to second year teacher. A good blog for those considering entering the profession.

    Thanks for the link!

  • Smith

    Sounds similar to my brief out-of-license, junior-high, ELA experience. It started out fun – the kids liked the test prep for the first few days. Then it sucked for weeks and weeks. I can’t believe the amount of money Kaplan made off that deal – between the workbooks and the consultants. But it worked: We got an A, and Klein gets labeled as a “reformer” in the press. Sometimes I just want to scream.

  • http://TheInnovativeEducator.blogspot.com InnovativeEdu

    Wouldn’t it be great if the high-stakes tests were in September? Then teachers could have the rest of the year to inspire and transform their students.

  • http://teacherleaders.typepad.com/shoulders_of_giants/2008/12/the-cloud-factor.html Ariel Sacks

    Wouldn’t it be great if the tests were designed such that true teaching and authentic learning led to higher test scores? Right now, there is nothing authentic about this ELA test. Students must choose the best of four answers, none of which they created, to questions they never asked, relating to passages they would never have read were it not for this test. The same is true for the writing portion. We all know there’s a formula for how to score well on the writing, even though those of us who actually write for a living as adults would never dream of using this formula. So we are stuck teaching skills that are not applicable to the real word of thinking, reading and writing. This is why our students rebel and why teachers feel so conflicted around this time of year. If we could redesign the test to be relevant to the world our students are living in today, 2009, what would it look like?

  • http://www.teachingmatters.org lynette guastaferro

    You know there is nothing wrong with skill of the week and making sure students master discrete skills. Especially in urban schools where kids are coming in lacking so many basics. The problem is that they need to be offered in a context that matters to the learners.

    Compare and contrast,
    identify the main idea,
    identify a word in context… pretty dull stuff….

    But not hard to integrate and offer in the context of larger questions and learning that really gets kids excited…

    This curriculum that narrows the teaching is the problem.
    Testing what kids have mastered, using data to figure it out and reteach.. is good thing.
    It will be great when the tests themselves get sophisticated enough to measure the skills we really want students to master.

  • http://teacherleaders.typepad.com/shoulders_of_giants/2008/12/the-cloud-factor.html Ariel Sacks

    great point Lynette. I attempted to create some new style test questions that test more of the kinds of skills I think matter today over at my blog: http://teacherleaders.typepad.com/shoulders_of_giants/2008/12/the-new-ela-test.html

    I tried to create some more interesting/meaningful contexts in which kids could demonstrate their skills and understandings. It wasn’t easy and they are surely imperfect. Feel free to critique and/or add your own ideas!

  • Pingback: If We Ruled the Test « Bank Street: The Alumni Blog

Tips, questions, feedback?

Contact us at .

Word from Our Sponsor

Follow GothamSchools

RSS
Subscribe to the daily email digest:

Chalk It Up

Recent Comments

2 comments so far today
View all comments »

Events Calendar

RSS Feeds

Newsroom posts Community posts All GothamSchools content

Archives

May 2013
M T W T F S S
« Apr  
 12345
6789101112
13141516171819
20212223242526
2728293031  

Copyright Notice