Emphasis on testing leads to sacrifices
in other areas
By Alfie Kohn
Even as teachers ready their lesson plans
for the new school year, they are keeping a wary eye on
Washington, D.C. A congressional conference committee next
month is expected to hammer out a version of President Bush's
plan to require standardized testing for students at every
grade level (from third through eighth) in every state.
Heated debate continues about whether
these exams really are accurate indicators of children's
capabilities and whether students ought to be flunked or
prevented from graduating on the basis of a single score. Less
attention has been paid to an equally important question:
Given that time and energy are limited, what is being
sacrificed when schools are forced to focus on test
results?
The answers are increasingly clear — and
disturbing — as evidence accumulates from across the USA:
- Science and social studies have been severely trimmed in
states that do not include those subjects on standardized
tests. For example, according to two Texas researchers,
Linda McNeil at Rice University and Angela Valenzuela at the
University of Texas, "Many science teachers in schools with
poor and minority children are required by their principals
to suspend the teaching of science for weeks, and in some
cases for months, in order to devote science class time to
drill and practice" on the Texas Assessment of Academic
Skills. (Higher test scores are then widely cited as
evidence of school improvement.)
- Despite the nearly unanimous view of experts that play
is critical to development, recess has been cut back as a
result of testing pressures. In Atlanta, where recess was
simply eliminated, at least one new school was built without
a playground. A recent survey of 225 Massachusetts school
districts found that many schools have cut physical
education programs in half, with some offering only 30
minutes per week. Parents in Virginia Beach and Palm Beach
County, Fla., have resorted to petition drives to bring back
recess.
- "The arts and music have all but disappeared from many
schools" in Washington, reports The Seattle
Times, a vanishing act observed from coast to coast.
- Because most tests focus on isolated language skills —
or, at best, analysis of short fragments of text — many
children are finding less opportunity to read real books.
One New York City teacher, compelled to use a heavily
scripted program called "Success for All," was asked whether
she was still allowing her students to read books of their
own choosing. Declining to give her name for fear of being
fired, she replied: "We haven't been doing any reading since
we started preparing the kids for the reading test."
- Community service, character education, democratic class
meetings and other programs to help children become good
people as well as good learners have been sharply reduced.
One primary-grade teacher in Milwaukee told that city's
school board in June that frequent testing of her students
means they can no longer contribute to a Thanksgiving dinner
for homeless people or prepare games for cancer patients at
a children's hospital.
- Extended activities in which students solve complicated
problems, apply skills to real-life situations or design
projects covering many subject areas are increasingly in
short supply. Among the lessons eliminated in the name of
"raising standards": a Boston school's in-depth unit in
which each class studied one country, culminating in a
schoolwide international fair; and a medical mentorship
program that paired New Rochelle, N.Y., teens with doctors.
- There are fewer opportunities to learn outside the
classroom. All field trips in Ravenswood City, Calif.,
elementary schools were suspended until after the spring
testing cycle.
The list goes on. From high-quality high
school electives to focused discussions of current events
(such as last November's historic election), some of the
richest learning opportunities are being squeezed out. And all
this is before the enactment of a new federal requirement for
even more testing.
From atop Mount Olympus, where no
children live, it may seem reasonable to demand "tougher
standards" and to recite slogans such as "accountability." But
in real schools, things look quite different. We need to think
carefully about the tradeoffs the current school-reform
movement entails.
Indeed, the evidence suggests that higher
scores in a given school or community may actually be cause
for concern. Reports of rising test performance should lead us
to ask, "What was taken away from my children's education in
order to make them better at taking standardized tests?"
Alfie Kohn's eight books include
The Schools Our Children Deserve. He lives in Belmont,
Mass. |