One of the hottest topics in our Problem Student
Problem Solver workshop staff development
sessions has gotten to be participants’ upset
at the damage they see being caused by overzealous
state-wide assessment testing. As you may know,
some states have become so concerned about
measuring student progress, that many they have
highly rigorous testing. In some regions, teacher and
administrator employment and/or salary are based
on test scores. In at least one state, personnel
have been caught forging test results. In another
state, schools are actually given report cards, and
graded, with some schools failing. In other regions,
professional sport team mascots and cheerleaders
are hired to urge students to score well.
In one state, part of the progress assessment testing, includes having students write an essay. One teacher
wrote the local newspaper to tell of her dismay when
one of her students wrote his essay on his return to
middle school following a period of dropping out due
to serious difficulties he was facing. The essay
was judged unsatisfactory when scored for
the test on such measures as grammar, punctuation,
etc. The teacher now had the difficult situation
of having a young, vulnerable student receive a
failing score on a highly sensitive topic. Worst
still, apparently the student’s story would also
have been failed even if the essay’s focus had
been to lament the death of his mother, or to
describe the beating of his sister. There is no
provision to adjust tests to the special needs of
students, or to give consideration to special
circumstances. This inflexibility is true across
many states that use progress testing.
The teachers and counselors who come to our
workshop, often ask if there are approaches
that could work better than what they view as
“education at all costs,” when students are
expected and pressured to produce regardless
of any family problems, disabilities, crises, or
personal horror that a child may be living with.
There are much better ways, and some of
the best, are described below. But, testing
does not leave only challenged kids buckling
under the pressure. My own 13 year old,
easy B+, honor roll mention, doesn’t-even-
study-much, normally unflappable student
burst into tears recently,terrified that she
will flunk the 10th grade tests she will face
that are still more than 2 years away!
Here Are Adaptations to Consider:
** What Could Replace “Education at All Costs?”
So often adults have two viewpoints towards
educating youngsters in distress. Some adults
say that no matter if the child is being beaten,
or goes unfed, or whatever the distress, the
child must still complete homework on time,
take tests, etc. This can heap more misery on
the shoulders of a deeply troubled youth.
Others take the opposite tact and say they
don’t want to add to the child’s problems,
and so they won’t expect much from them.
Sadly, this means the child may not get the
education they still need. Instead of these
extremes, find the balance between these
viewpoints: never abandon your educational
mission, but don’t accomplish it all costs.
** Understand How Much Pain Exists
Non-mental health professionals may be
shocked at the surprisingly high numbers of
children in pain. The literature suggests that
perhaps 10% of the children (or a family
member) may struggle with substances; 10%
may be emotionally disturbed; 20-30% may
face sexual abuse or incest; 10-15% may face
verbal, physical or emotional abuse. Even
though these numbers don’t take into account
the overlap across these groups, that’s a lot
of kids facing a lot of pain.
** Stop the Pressure
There are ways to evoke a desire to perform
well that doesn’t have to be experienced as
pressure. So many teachers believe that the
pressure that is being exerted in their state
is absolutely counterproductive to testing, and
they are probably right. Instead of pressure,
show how education skills will be needed in
the adult world, and how critical they
are to the kids’ futures, rather than relate
learning skills to scoring well on assessment
tests. Education is meant to prepare kids
for the adult world, not for taking tests.
** Train Kids to Be Students
We don’t formally train youth to be students.
Very few schools have a formal, written-down
plan to teach attendance, punctuality,
motivation, test-taking, homework management,
discussion skills, how to focus, etc. If these
nuts-and-bolts skills were systematically
taught instead of just being expected, more
kids might learn more, and yes, test scores
could be enhanced.
** Train Kids to Manage Anxiety and Problems
We also don’t teach students how to manage big
problems from home, and anxiety about tests and
school. Learning problem management and how to
overcome anxiety will be skills a child will need for
an entire lifetime, and yes, could enhance test
scores.
** Stop Micro-Managing Teachers
In many states, teachers are treated like money-
grubbing scum. Teachers do the most important
jobs on the planet, often for humble pay, and
without thanks while also serving as parent,
psychologist, nurse and pastor to many lost
souls. Instead of making teachers’ jobs
harder, give them more support and better
training. Much of today’s teacher training is
not geared to face the big social and emotional
problems that arrive each day with the kids. We
also have schools where classes include a
whopping 38 youngsters and the sky can be seen
through the holes in the classroom. We expect
teachers to teach against all odds, all while
consistently criticizing them and reducing their
budgets.
** Stop One-Size-Fits-All Testing
Few accommodations are made at all in performance testing. A child who was raped the night before,
or slept under a bridge, or witnessed terrible
domestic violence, must still perform. No one
wants lower standards, but build in some type
of breathing room for students with serious
or pronounced distress, disabilities,crises,
cultural differences, ethnic differences,
language differences, etc. In one state,
many of the schools that performed
poorly on state-wide tests were
communities with many minority group
members. Little effort seems to have
been made to ensure that these tests
were fair to children who were
different from the dominant culture.
So, their school flunked.
** Stop Telling Schools They Flunk
Imagine you are a six-year-old and you hear that
your school flunked. Imagine the impact on you,
especially if you struggle academically, or have a
low opinion of yourself, or you already live with
racial bias, or you’re a new immigrant feeling
adrift in a new world…where even your school
flunks. Let’s find more grown-up ways of
referring to schools that struggle.
If you want to see how the education world
looks from outside the box, be sure to check
out the hundreds of surprising, wonderful
methods and ideas on our web site
http://www.youthchg.com. You won’t find
a focus on content or testing, but you will
find common sense methods that work to
build motivation, stop work refusal, help
traumatized youngsters, and improve
class participation.
Get much more information on this topic at
http://www.youthchg.com. Author Ruth
Herman Wells MS is the director of Youth Change,
(http://www.youthchg.com). Sign up for her free
Problem-Kid Problem-Solver magazine at the site and
see hundreds more of her innovative methods. Ruth
is the author of dozens of books and provides workshops and training.
For re-print permission for this article, contact the author by
email (dwells@youthchg.com.)
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