Saturday, April 5, 2014

Teaching to the Test*: Duh?


                



       “Assessment” derives from the Latin ad sedēre, “to sit next to.”  A lovely image—reading the same page or screen, together; mirroring responses; the side hug of human warmth; creating energy between us.  How very far that is from what assessment has come to mean—teachers stomping at the board or marching the aisles as they drill students, frightening them and their parents about impending test dates, proctoring (shall we etymologize that?) patrolling rows of tykes whose feet might not even reach the floor.  It’s military, hostile, intimidating, and wrong.  These assessment systems serve the bottom-line of litter-box education—coverage and control.

        Teaching to the test teaches students that knowledge is packaged into neat three and four options—all of reality suffering from the fallacies of trifurcation and quatrifurcation—boxed into tiny squares, fill-in holes. Constant choosing between others’ alternatives—not of your own devising.  Emily Dickinson, stop looking out the window and define “hope” (1) to wish for, (2) to look forward to, (3) to mistrust, (4) all of the above.  Where are the feathers?  Where is the singing in the chillest land?  Or, Will, stop nibbling on your quill: True or False, “Macbeth is the moving force in Macbeth.”  Albert failed the exam that would have allowed him to be an electrical engineer—what if that discouraged him from investigating energy?  And math: True or False: 1+1=2?  That’s only true in the decimal system: 1+1=10 in the binary.

           When we teach to the test, that’s exactly what students learn, sort of—how to take tests.  Duh!

            Honestly, if it can be teach-to-the-test assessed—it’s not important.  If it’s important, it can’t be assessed.  I’ll repeat that: if it can be assessed—it’s not important. If it’s important, it can’t be assessed. 

           That goes for assessing teachers, as well.  The most valuable lessons are the ones we can’t teach, directly. When I asked my College Writing: Theory and Practice students (including the chair of my department and several other full professors) what they appreciated most about our work together, I was hoping that they would mention my zippy take on punctuation, or the body of new research we discussed.  Their first answer was my passion for writing and respect for students.  That was not recorded on any lesson plan for the course.

            Learning doesn’t happen in neat, linear increments. I assess my learning and teaching experiences by what stays.  It’s one thing to study for and pass the test—it’s another to forget what you studied under duress, and with NO MEANING.  One student, hating Shakespeare when she entered a class, ended up having a quote tattooed onto her ankle—“And though she be but little, she is fierce.”  That’s assessment for student and teacher, both.  When, years later, I learn that a former student is quoting Emily Dickinson in her activist campaigns—that’s assessment of us all.

           True education is about helping students to develop as creative, thoughtful, compassionate, energetic human beings.  It’s flat-out mean to reduce our educational systems to numbers.  We are truly living in George Orwell’s 1984—digitalized and dehumanized by Big Brother education.

                 Which segues us to the etymology of “test”—the Latin testis for "testicles."  There was a time when testimonies (same root) were conducted by the holding thereof for lie-detection.  Let’s stop ball-busting, shall we?



44 comments:

  1. I agree, when you teach a child now a days, you are just teaching them to repeat what you say. And that is all they teach right now in classrooms. But some teachers want to teach the students more instead of teaching them to repeat what they say, or how to take the standardized test. So I agree withe the teachers, teach more and test the children less. That way they can learn more in the classroom instead of fear what they are going to get on a test.

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  2. Thank you, Generra, for your thoughtful comments. You are a most faithful and sincere reader!!!

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  3. completely agree...it is almost as if we're just expected to be in a robotic mode when it comes to learning..School systems have managed to suck the fun and the life out of teaching and most importantly out of learning...Studies have shown people learn more when being in a anxiety free environment...Really makes me wonder have they been setting students for failure all along?

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  4. We have a make-wrong world, Daianna, where one-downing students is the main sport in education. And one-downing teachers, the next to main. Duh! Duh! and more Duh!

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  6. Dr. Rich,
    I must say that this blog post was a great read as I prepare to enter my student teaching semester. The line that stuck with me the most was, "If it’s important, it can’t be assessed." The most important things I have learned in life have either come experience, not from school. I have learned the most in my education through meaningful class discussions, not final exams. As a future educator, I worry that I might be the teacher that teaches to the test. This semester I entered my pre-student teaching. The first thing I asked my cooperating teacher was, "How do you know what to teach?" I was worried that all my teaching energy would be required to go directly into teaching to the state test. To my surprise she responded, "Whatever you want." It was a relief, to know that not everyone focuses on just the assessment portion of education. I want my students to be able to look at education as something that increases their creativity and embraces it. Not people who look at education as a way for everyone to work at the same perfect standard society has set for them. The "creative, thoughtful, compassionate, energetic human beings" you mentioned are not created through state tests or standards, but through a teacher that teaches beyond the test.

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  7. Dr Rich,

    THIS NEEDS TO BE PRINTED AND POSTED EVERYWHERE. I have said it in another past blog post, but all my life as a student I was not free, I was trained. I was taught to be like everyone else and do what everyone else did. As a chid I always had troulble doing that which is why when it would come to the writing rubic, I would never follow them. I hated doing that. Teaching should not be about repeating and memorizing, teaching should be about how to use the most powerful tool we have (our brain). There is so much we can do with it. Why are we not being taught that? I don't want to know one way to think things, I want to know all the ways to think them. Which is why I enjoy your class and you as a professor, for allowing us to be free and to actually use our brians for once, because I know for me, I haven't.

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  8. Dr. Rich,
    I agree with Julie! This needs to be printed and posted everywhere. I like in the post that you said, "True education is about helping students to develop as creative, thoughtful, compassionate, energetic human beings". Growing up, I was not always offered the chance to be creative and to be myself. Everything had to be my teacher's way or the highway, and I hated not having the ability to express my creative capabilities. I feel that I was finally able to be recognized and acknowledged for my writing once I entered middle school/high school. I took a Creative Writing class in high school in which I actually won a contest, and had one of my poems published into a book. Thank you for being a great Professor and allowing us to free and as creative as we like. You challenge me in a way where I really need to think outside the box, which in all my experiences, I have never really been offered before.
    -Valentina Quesada

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  9. Dr. Rich,

    Learning to take a test … sucks. I can recall so many times when my teachers would be teaching, apologizing that we couldn’t ‘have fun’ that day or ‘wish they could teach differently’ if it weren’t for the tests that we had to take at the end of the year. Who were they really testing, anyway? I know they didn’t really give a shit about me … or else they would have come and talked to me about my problems and what I was struggling with. What were they going to do with these test scores if I didn’t get a good one? Remove me from school? That’s silly. Of course not. On the other hand, they were really ‘testing’ our teachers. They were seeing if they could create another military branch called education to sculpt the minds of the youth. Now, I appreciate tests. Haha. Did you really think that I meant that? No one likes taking test. Hell, why do you think I’m an English major? Taking a test is never fun. We crash for exams and never retain the information. Maybe if they took some of the damn pressure off the course (the test) the students would actually enjoy coming to class and spending their time talking about the importance of the subject rather than leaving it until the last minute when they want to rip their hair out.

    - Paige Bollman

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  10. Dr. Rich,

    This post on the way we are tested in our current education is something that I have thought about myself. As we grow older, we tend to doubt our abilities and are drilled into believing that being smart means passing tests with the highest scores. High school many times felt like a watered down military school where standardized testing was used to employ fear tactics. Humans are complex and differ from one another in many ways. Why do we treat education like we are all the same? There are numerous kinds of intelligence and we wouldn’t know this about others because we measure intelligence with the ability to pass tests. I know people who are smart with language, people who are smart with movement, people who are smart with sounds, people who are smart with dealing with other people and many more. I can even connect this to my own life experience. When it comes to exams, I don't learn to actually know, I learn to be able to pass the class. Due to this, I no longer care to keep the knowledge from some of the courses I have taken. I wholeheartedly agree with your quote, “True education is about helping students to develop as creative, thoughtful, compassionate, energetic human beings.” Education has become a competition for power, and not what it should have been originally: to get the students to love learning.

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    1. This post is so dear to my heart because I feel bad for the future teacher in me. Going to teach fourth grade in the near future I am very torn between knowing that ASSessments are BS!
      “Learning does not happen in neat, linear increments”.
      I have learned this through my life and now it has been reassured but what am I going to do with all of the standardized tests given to students in elementary school. I am very frustrated knowing that this is an unfair way to assess students. I will make it a point to remember that I can teach my future students things that are important that cannot be assessed and things that aren’t as important that UNFORTUNATELY have to be ASSessed. Meaningful contestations and lessons are the ones that have stuck the most in my education life and I know that the teachers which I have hated the most are the ones who have been really tough on but usually to make me a better human being and never because of grades. Looking back into my experiences with teachers, I remember the ones who have treated me like a human and not like a test grade.

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  11. As a Student, I can definitely relate to your notion that the education system is mean by making it's students feel like they're being downgraded, thus suppressing their drive for creativity. I am a bad tester; a terrible one I may say. Unfortunately, for me I was one of those students that had to study for and pass the test with no Meaning. I even wrote a paper suggesting using a child's creative skills for learning instead of being assessed like you are some kind of object that they have to categorized. Such BS, really that reprogramed my brain in a way that it has become difficult to deprogram. It's time for a change really they are people like you out there Dr. Rich, to start shedding on this issue.

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  12. This blog post really made me think. My career goal is to teach kindergarten, first grade or even teach ESL to elementary school children. But I can’t help think that they may look back on my teaching or any teaching, during that period in their life and feel judged for the things they may not have needed to be judged on. I want my students to truly learn, but also learn that they are growing as little people and they will improve as time goes on. I want them to look back and think that I taught them more than the typical subjects in school, but that I taught them to be themselves. I picture myself as a teacher and receiving cards and thank yous, even after not teaching them for some odd years. Those are the types of teachers I remember and still recall to this day. They will come across educators that will teach them BS, but I hope they remember the ones who haven’t. Such as myself, and what kind of teacher I will try to be. Assessment is a big part of teaching, but I will not forget why I became a teacher. Assesment will not be all I have to offer.

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  13. My heart became heavy as I read this post. Heavy for the education and learning for students. How we were taught and how kids are being taught now, was and is like we are robots. Don't read like this read like that, don't compute math this way, do it that way. Writing? For the love of God! Writing has always been my escape from life. To FREELY be able to communicate my thoughts feelings and emotions through many styles. From Poetry, Essays, free writing, Im sad to say NOTHING is really free unless you are alone and away from anyone who can ever view your writing. School has taught us to be these modeled students that follow curriculums to the T and if not, fail. Teaching has become a horror story for me as Im following "curriculum", meanwhile, trying to help my students shine from self expression, creativity and free will. Will this system of learning ever change? Probably not, so I feel an extra responsibility to my students to undue the BS they have been taught! it is my responsibility to help them dig deep for who they truly are and shine from within. Tests don't really determine a damn thing. It teaches students to remember what will be on the test , but as someone mentioned above, thus style learning doesn't teach life lessons, or truly apply concept.

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  14. Dr. Rich,

    This post speaks to me on a very personal level- I have been a victim to state mandated testing since the 2nd grade. I know that sounds very dramatic, but it's unfortunately so true. Ever since elementary school I have never been able to score high enough on the math sections of standardized testing- in turn landing me a first class ticket into remedial math classes my ENTIRE life. Now, to some having "extra" help through remedial math classes would come as support, benefitting a struggling student. Well that was never the case for me. Being pulled from my normal classroom to have math explained to me in a hectic, uncomfortable , "dumbed down" environment by teachers who strictly taught to the test not only lowered my self esteem, but also lessened my abilities to learn math the right way, so that i'm ACTUALLY understanding.

    Fast forward to college, taking my state mandatory mathematics section of the Praxis Core test (which is required in order to become a teacher) which yet again, I cannot seem to pass. Flashbacks to 2nd grade, sitting in the classroom being told- "you don't have time to learn this way, because the state needs you to pass this test."

    As an adult I now understand that test scores, grades, and grade point averages don't equate to intelligence levels, and most definitely don't reflect how much has actually been learned. It's a shame we are producing learners who are told they need to pass a test in order to get the job they want, or even just to be successful.

    Teachers and student's should not have to be assessed through performance on a test, yet everyday both are ostracized if scores aren't high enough. It's truly heartbreaking that the education system puts such an emphasis on numbers instead of assuring students are actually learning.

    Thank you for this post!

    Jessica Jardonoff

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  15. Dr. Rich,

    This article has really struck a chord with me, specifically because I am using my "prep" time, as a 6th grade English Language Arts student teacher, to respond to your posts. Like I have mentioned to you during class, it is extremely painful to teaching 11 and 12 year olds how to "formulate" their writing. I hate teaching them how to spew information onto a piece of paper. It dehumanizes them. Each one of my students has a story; something important to say, but instead of encouraging them to share and grow, I have to teach them how to write a persuasive essay so that they can pass their PARCC exam, in tern, making Piscataway school district look better and make more money. Education is a business and it is disheartening. It almost makes me physically ill to think that I spent so much time and effort become a strong writer and teacher, and now I have to put myself in a word that is more interested in the dollar value rather than the student value.

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  16. I agree so . much with this post! I've been making this argument since middle school. Some days are better , and more focused than others. I don't agree with evaluating someone's retention of something based off a test or even a test grade. Grades should be based off effort shown to learn the material and demonstration that the student understands what is going on. Some people's strong suits aren't writing because they're not used to expressing themselves. Some people, like me had anxiety or even learning disabilities that haven't yet been diagnosed. I definitely support that learning is not linear. Evaluating based from tests and essays ,I believe is narrow-minded and archaic especially in an English setting.

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  17. Dr. Rich,

    I totally agree! What is it with these school systems that believes student should be evaluated based on a test??!! Not to mention... those IQ tests that determines your level of intelligence. Now, I have to take the Praxis and pass it otherwise, my career will be jeopardized!!! It's all about the business! It's insane! This is not what education is all about. Multiple choice and true and false question doesn't help student think. How are students learning by this? Students are being taught how to formulate a 5 paragraph essay (Intro ,(3)Body, Conclusion) and not allowing them to be creative. A systematic way on how to write a paper. It's all about what the teacher think and limits student from thinking out side the box.

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  19. Dr. Rich,
    I agree so much with this post. Teacher's today teach to pass a test not to teach the students. I personally feel that teacher should be teaching things that will help the student in life. Twenty years down the road, the test the teachers are pushing students to be prepared for aren't going to matter. What will matter is how those teachers impacted those children's lives and the lessons they have learned. I loved when you said: "True education is about helping students to develop as creative, thoughtful, compassionate, energetic human beings." I couldn't have said it better myself. When I become a teach, my main goal is to connect with the students and to help them develop as a person.
    Everything in the classroom today revolves around standardized testing. The students aren't given the opportunity to learn real content. It's a constant guessing game for the teacher always making their lesson plans on how to make the students pass the test. School curriculum shouldn't be centered around testing though, and I feel as we get farther into the future, that is the only thing schools are trying to prepare students for. Not what's to come after school, and real life lessons and situations.

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  20. I agree with this heavily. With the rise of standardized testing, it's more of teaching students what is right and what is wrong, instead of teaching them knowledge that is useful, and how to use their creative minds. When I tutor, my students always ask me, "is this the right answer." and I always ask, "is it? How did you come up with your answer". Afterwards, they explain their steps and realize that they computed the answer all by themselves. But learning isn't just right or wrong. There's so much more to it, and
    most teaching nowadays takes away from the value of true learning.

    My reason for wanting to become a creative writing teacher is because I want students to use their imagination, and learn through using their creative minds.

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  21. When I was in high school, my local middle school got in a LOT of trouble. When it came time for the new freshman students to take their standardized tests, the students asked the teachers for help. The teachers were confused and gave the: "you know you cannot ask questions" speech. The student were even more confused because their teachers in middle school helped them. Why? To get better test scores.

    There's so much disagreement when it comes to standardized tests, and I see both sides of the argument. But at the end of the day, since I want to become involved in the education field, I want my students to learn. I don't want them to know how to perfectly fill in a circle on a scranton sheet, rather have them critically assess the questions and think outside the box. This is definitely going to be a challenge for myself as an educator, as it is a challenge for almost all educators. The 'testing' idea of education is not something I look forward to, but I am looking forward to getting my students to be excited about the future educational aspects that come their way. I hope that I will be able to make a difference in their lives.

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  22. I like your imagery on assessments. It seems like everyone in our educational system is one way or the highway and it is a military like mentally that a lot of teachers have. Since I have been in college, my professors come into work really enjoying their career paths, wanting their students to take their minds farther than they think unlike the teachers back in high schools and middles. I often had teachers who had nasty attitudes all the time, were super strict and gave no attention to the opinions of their students. Being at Kean and getting to evaluate my teachers, I love how my professors encourage leaving comments on improvement because its gives the professor the chance to know what works and does not, and what to work on.

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  23. I liked the way you described assessments. Everything that you described is everything I weren't through from elementary school until I finished high school. The teachers were about following the lesson plans which in the end would prepare us kids for the test that we would have to take, I've had plenty of teachers that were just there and had attitudes and didn't care about the students thoughts. But once I came to college it was a whole different story. Professors really want to hear what you have to say they like that they encourage it. Professors really want to help you and encourage you and make you the best at what you want to be. Especially in your class I could see this and I think it truly bettered me as a writer and I thank you for that.

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  24. Dr. Rich,

    I feel the same way about teachers whose main focus is getting students to pass tests. If their intentions are to teach about materials on tests or how to pass standardized tests such as the SAT, then that is all that their students will learn. Teachers feel stuck because they need students to pass tests in order to look good at work and to keep their jobs. However, I think that their duty goes beyond edTPA lesson plans. If a student does not learn necessary skills and information that can help them survive outside of a classroom, how does anything really benefit the student as a person. Teachers forget that students are more than that. They are daughters and sons. They are future presidents and professionals. They are athletes and actors. Life goes beyond a classroom and its tests. There are more things to life than tests. Furthermore, most of what students learn for tests is simply repetition and memory. Once they no longer need to remember that information, they push it to the side and forget it in order to make room for new information that will be on the next test. It is a cycle of notes, memorization, testing and repeating the information correctly, forgetting to make space, and repeating the cycle. There is no true substance in teaching like this and the students hardly have anything to gain from it.

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  25. I totally agree with this kind of tests does not help at all in the real world. I had the same experience since first grade, I always had a problem with taking math tests. Shy as I was and still am, made my life so difficult, believing my whole life that I was not very smart. Going back to college, I finally had confidence enough to break this barrier that was in my way for many years. This kind of tests only degrades, and stress students even more. I understand that teachers can also feel pressured to teach students and give them grades because their own reputation is on the line, but what people don’t realize is that they are doing great damage to future professionals that may run this world. Many things that I learned how to be a professional and survive the real world was my own life experiences and my college education, teaching me how to think critically about different things, to think out of the box. It surely opened my eyes to a different world I had never seen before. Taking these kinds of tests, did not help me at all to be an individual. It is just sad that public education is so poor in preparing the children for the real world. It is my job as parent to really help my children not to follow the same pattern, and that taking tests does not define them and who they truly are.

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  26. Maryann

    That picture really defined the post, I thought that was awesome. It was like the student was a robot you could tell he was all anxious. Standardized testing is scary and it wont reach every student. We all have different strengths so it is hard to test on a set measure and define that as pass/fail in education. My favorite quote on this topic is, “Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid” -Albert Einstein. As a future educator I am not looking forward to the pressures that standardized testing will bring about for me and my students. There will not always be one absolute correct answer, life is not that easy and obviously drawn out. Educators should be encouraging creativeness to solve problems deal with world issues rather than rote memorization on core skills. So much pressure is being put on students that they break down and that is the last thing we should be doing to students, discouraging them from learning. I believe students should have an understanding of core academic skills and be held accountable for their learning growth however these standardized tests are doing a considerable amount of harm. “True education is about helping students to develop as creative, thoughtful, compassionate, energetic human beings”.

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  27. Five out of six of my classes include tests, and five out of six of those professors teach for the test. For about two weeks there will be lectures and notes and the day before the test I memorize my notes word for word without knowing what any of them mean. On the bright side, I still do well on tests. I am an education major and I can honestly say that I don’t have any understanding of what I learned in Bio 100 two semesters ago. The only memory I have of that class is staying up till four in the morning aimlessly memorizing words that meant nothing to me. I have been doing this since I was in elementary school. A lot of my teachers from grade school would focus more on getting us ready for the state tests than teaching us material of value that we can use after we take the state tests. One of the only teachers that taught me a few things that I remember is my creative writing teacher from high school. The reason I remember his lessons is because he made class interesting and took the time to help us understand. He was passionate about the course which made me passionate.
    Priya Jhaveri

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  28. As a college student I can speak for everyone when I say not every students remembers what they were taught 2 to 3 semester ago because of what subject we are learning now. However, there are indeed some subject that will truly resonate with every single student because it all depends on how the professor at that time made it interesting to know. Students will give absolute attention to what the teacher is showing as long it's fun and engaging. This was absolutely me because i would only care for subject that were fun and the engagement of professor and student are coinciding with one another. This Shakespeare class is actually something that I will remember because of how we were engaging with one another and I enjoy that a lot. Even when we did the props with Cymbeline; I found that very fun and exciting. I would rather do that than just to teach a course and hand out a test for the class and expect them to pass. Now what kind of class would that be? It seems I would never know because i enjoy the classes I am taking so far.

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  29. Nadia Radwan
    It makes me really sad that teachers aren't allowed to have a creative classroom anymore. When I had to interview a teacher for a class assignment the first thing she told me is that the district's main priority is passing the praxis. She said that most days are spent preparing them for it and that the kids hate it but there's nothing she can do about it because they monitor everything. That literally sounds like a prison to me! Not a classroom. To make matters worse she isn't allowed to do any lesson planning. Everything comes prepackaged on these text book subscriptions that her and the other teachers have to use. These platforms give step by step word for word instructions. When I asked her whether or not the kids get to read novels or poems like I remember doing in middle school she said no, they just read short passages like the ones that appear on the praxis. Hearing that pissed me off so much. It seriously makes me mad that this is how my career is going to be. Ever since i've found out about this I've been planning to stay to get my masters and become a college professor because there's no way I am doing that for the rest of my life.

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  30. Nicole Diefenbacher
    Dr. Rich
    ENG 3000*01

    Teaching to the Test*: Duh?

    While I was and still am good at school, I hated school. I was a horrible test taker in middle school. I remember one time, we had to take a standardized test. We had to answer two questions about a story. Each question had two parts. I had thought that one page was for part 1A, so I wrote my entire answer on the page. Later I realized that one page was for both parts of question one. I remember realizing it and getting visibly upset because I thought if I didn’t pass this standardized test I would not move up to the next grade. Obviously I had no idea that standardized tests didn't mean anything at the time, but the school placed so much importance on passing them that I thought this mistake I had made, that seemed colossal at the time, was going to ruin my ability to move up to the next grade. Schools place so much importance on silly things like how to take a test. I am 22 and just learned how to change a tire. I have no idea how to balance a checkbook, or do taxes or handle home expenses, but I’m so happy I was tested on and passed the Pythagorean theorem, which I have not used ONCE in the past 4 years since I graduated high school. I just wish schools focused on more than just memorizing and passing tests.

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  31. I can confidently say that I do not remember most what is being taught in my college classes let alone middle school. The constant assessments in middle and high school became the norm. It was not about how the students understood the materials, it was about assessments over assessments. I was very excited to learn about different subjects in college, but I was hit with a test (Placement test) my first time in college. i felt that it was going to be the same as high school. I am an education major which means that I had to take the Praxis core. I struggled to pass the Math section because it was very hard for me. But the funny thing was that the test was all materials I had learned before at one of Kean's math classes. I even got an A in that class, but I had to take the Praxis a couple of times before I passed. I passed that Math class because it was part of the education requirements to pass that class, so I aced the tests but I was not learning anything which hindered me later with the Praxis test.
    Priscilla B.




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  32. Dr. Rich,

    I really wish that every single educator in the world could read this article. This sums up exactly how I feel about tests. Tests teach us to look for only one answer, the right one. But there is more in life than just the "right answer". We should be able to explore and use our minds to think outside of the box. Tests pack us into a box and don't allow us to think for ourselves. They ask us questions like "What did Shakespeare mean by this?", "Explain what they mean...", HOW SHOULD WE KNOW? There is no one answer to that. Let us explore! This education system is turning us into mindless rats following any thing that is given to us, just finding one answer. I don't want to be that way. I want to be able to think for myself.

    Sarah Otero

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  33. Seanette Martin
    April 11, 2019
    Eng 4817
    Prof Rich
    Teaching to the test
    My favorite part of this blog is “if it’s important it can not be assessed.” I have always felt that test were overrated. Why should a test determine how much a student has learned or their understanding of a certain topic? Have teachers ever thought some people just aren’t good at taking test. Me personally when it’s time to test I go completely blank no matter how much I study or how much I absorbed once that test is in front of me I am completely blank. Does that mean I don’t understand or comprehend what I have been taught? Absolutely not but for me that just means that I am a horrible test taker but that has nothing to do with my understanding of what I was taught.
    When I become an educator I don’t plan to give test because many times there’s no take away at the end of the semester besides test test test. I know for one of my classes this semester we took a midterm and next up is the final. After I finished my midterm I can’t even tell anyone what was on that test because I truly don’t know it was so much expected especially in a boring course. So experiences like this definitely help me to know what to bring to my own classroom and test taking just isn’t it for me. I will find other ways to assess but demanding, overwhelming test just don’t cut it for me.

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  34. When I was a sophomore in college, I had to observe a classroom for a certain amount of hours. The teacher that I observed spent two hours going over practice questions on what could be on their parcc test. These questions were similar to what is on the parcc, but not necessarily the same. Therefore, could this be helping, or could this just be a waste of time for the teacher and students? I asked her why do you spend so much time going over the parcc test, rather than doing it in increments? She then told me that she has been spending so much time on this because if her students score poorly on this parcc test, then it is reflected on her teaching. She was just tenured and still in her early years of teaching, therefore, she was nervous about that happening.
    I think that this is definitely an issue that public schools are having today. Teachers are spending so much time preparing students for a test that scares the living crap out of them. This brings me back to my own experiences with testing. I remember having so much test anxiety that I would freeze at the test. All of the time spent on practicing and going over material in class washed right out of my brain. It is a shame that these required tests are the way that they are. They are nerve wrecking, and are not benefiting these children in any way. However, assessments on the other hand, can be nerve wrecking as well.
    My favorite line in this blog is, “True education is about helping students to develop as creative, thoughtful, compassionate, energetic human beings.” I truly believe that this should every public school’s mission statement, and they should live up to it.

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  35. This post needs to be put everywhere. Please show this to your other colleagues. Test only allow the student to prepare for what is going to be assessed then that information leaves their mind and on to the next information they need to memorize. Why are teachers or professors subjecting students to just learning what they have to and moving on? Why can’t we learn to learn and not to be assessed and graded? When learning a new subject I feel like all the information sits on my chest waiting until the day my teacher hands out that 50 questions on a white piece of paper and then the minute I leave the class its all gone. Every student crams and learns nothing. We are so nervous to be objectified by letter grades, we forget why we are actually going to school and learning what we love to learn. I am going to be a teacher and I am extremely nervous, but excited because I want this exactly for my students. I want to be the teacher the students recommend to other students because I helped them in ways not just in the classroom. Maybe a student in my class is having trouble at home and coming to my class helps change their lives and they grow up to be successful and proud and they come back and say it was because of me. I want to make a difference as a teacher, not do the same boring routine. I want to stand out like Dr. Rich and help students want to come to class, not because they have to but because they want too.

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  36. I must say that when reading this blog post I repeatedly kept exclaiming “Yes!” This is one of the many blog posts that I can agree with. I took liking to your statement, “True education is about helping students to develop as creative, thoughtful, compassionate, energetic human beings” because often times students do not have the opportunity to be themselves. They are constantly told to do as the teacher says. In certain classes students are not given the opportunity to voice their ideas and think creatively. They are stuck inside of a box of right or wrong answers. Unfortunately, students are not to express themselves. I believe this is why I had various questions in your classroom. I am used to there being guidelines for assignments and you did not provide that. You wanted your students to take risks and be creative. Although, I did not like this at first it allowed me to use my own thoughts and dig deeper. The teachers I usually have are not concerned with student’s creativity. Due to this, I am always concerned about doing what the professor wants and studying to get an A. This is saddening especially when I get the tests and still do not remember what I studied the previous night. As a teacher I plan to lift my students up and teach more than material that may be on test. Its heartwarming to hear that your previous students appreciated your passion for writing and respect. This may not be what one expects to hear but I believe it is significant as it shows there is more to teaching than tests.

    Bailey Vick

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  37. Dr. Rich,

    I have stumbled upon yet another wonderful post, which I am passionate about! I have always felt that assessment from teacher to student is overrated. The purpose of assessments should be to see whether or not a student has taken in information and can comfortably and confidently spit it back out to the teacher. If the student is not capable of regurgitating the information back to the teacher - then the teacher must rethink of a way to re asses the student. It is not the student's fault that they are feeling under pressure and overwhelmed with the material presented in front of them. Each and every student starts out as a virgin to academic knowledge- pure, raw, and untouched. It is the teacher's job to softly introduce academic information to break the ice and involve the student in school. If a teacher is aggressive and abrasive toward his or her students in the classroom, they most likely will not do well when being assessed down the road. This seems like it should be common sense to me, but then again I have always known that I have wanted to be a teacher since well, as far back as I can remember. I know - that sounds cliche, but it is the honest truth. To others, this may not be common sense and it may be something that others need to learn - and that is okay. Not all of us are born teachers. One purpose of being a teacher is to learn all types of students - adult and children. Knowledge is endless, and that is really beautiful.

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  38. Teaching to the test irritates me so much. Students are trained to have a limited amount of answers and not think outside the box. It kills me because of how creative some of our students can be and yet they don't allow themselves to express this because they aren't given the opportunity by us as teachers. The curriculum tells us that we need to teach a certain way and about certain things and that's it. No matter if the method works for the student or not, they NEED to learn it THIS way and no other way. It's absolutely ridiculous to me. When I was growing up, we were taught math in a totally different field. So is that now the wrong way?? It makes no sense to not let these students venture out and learn things how they can adapted it in their own minds.

    Nancy Koster

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  39. This was a fun and easy read. As a student, I despise testing because it condenses a semester’s worth of knowledge in just a single piece of paper. If what we learned from the semester could be condensed into a three page packet, then why am I learning it? Why not just save everybody the time and simply just give me the packet and answer to learn from? Honestly, it’s the same concept, anyway. Most students, including myself, memorize the answers to questions for the upcoming test that is worth most of their grade. After the test has come and gone, they (and I) make room for the next test. This is essentially what has happened to the education system. Students don’t have the desire to learn but just simply to get the grade and go.

    To reference one of your other posts, education, now, is about the credit and not the benefit. We should be reading or delving into subjects that matter to us as individuals. This does not necessarily mean hard core courses like anything in the STEM field, but those that enrich the soul like writing poetry and acting. These creative “easy” courses do not have a specific grading structure, this could be all for the better. In creative classes, we expand our minds in a different way, putting forth our most vulnerable selves. We look deep inside ourselves and in some cases, are able to heal the broken parts of our past. One of my favorite quotes is “turn your pain into art.” This does not necessarily mean that all good art has to come from pain and suffering, but rather, it comes from a place where you have to be brutally and completely honest with yourself. Vulnerability and having the courage to put your poetry or art out there for others to see and feel is, by far, more important for humanity to fully immerse themselves in the joys of life.

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  40. I have such strong opinions on testing especially standardized testing. I have never been a good test taker and I still am not a good test taker. In school we are taught to memorize and repeat for one day to test then to completely throw away the information. I learned amazingly over this semester in shakespeare survey and poetry because it had no testing I was able to relax and relish the literature and take it all in without having to worry if I remembered every scene all I needed to do was enjoy it then take a piece of it and look at it deeper.

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  41. RIGHT ON DR. RICH!!!

    Often do people/teachers want to teach in a dull and lull manner. Or on the flip side, use teaching as a means of intimidation. What the heck for? Teaching isn’t black and white because no student is the same. I believe in getting to know all of my students individually. I create time with them and listen to what interests them. This is easier because they’re younger but that’s also a form of assessment. Everything that you do and say with kids is an assessment. We are not robots nor should we act like them.

    When it comes to testing, reviewing and practicing i would create a game for my class. If children want to play then let’s play. This game is a version of Jeopardy. It gets them moving, laughing, thinking, talking and learning. I also shared how parents can do the same thing at home for fun. An assessment is wanting to know if someone comprehends a lesson/task and will they be ready to move forth. Duh? That sounds like life to me. Figuring out what works and doesn’t, trial and error.

    Meagan AWP 5000

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