This summer day diverged a bit from the others. Today I planned on meeting an incredibly talented colleague, Lori Carter, to map out my online presence as a professional educator. We’d just attended (and presented a session at) The Martin Institute’s Summer Conference in which the use of technology in classrooms boggled my mind. Allow me to provide some context. I am beginning to use more technology authentically in my classroom; however, I am still the person who clung dearly to her Sprint flip phone (with antenna) and spurned texting until 2009. Two thousand nine. Now I have a smart phone, and I do seem much smarter. My use of technology has grown exponentially, too, both in the classroom and in my personal life. Lori advised me that it was time to make the leap into the online world of professional presentation and networking. Brave New Me.
Since Lori and I planned to meet at school, I emailed my instructional leader to see if I could pick up my standardized test data. It had just arrived, and I was antsy. Allow me also to share that I teach in a fantastic, private school at which I am allowed a considerable amount of creativity and autonomy. My school does not view my success as a professional solely on test scores. We use formative assessments, report cards, parent and student feedback, classroom observations, and professional development that I can control, but numbers speak. Volumes.
My apprehension was steeped in judgment and desire to succeed. I do not teach to the test. I will not begin teaching to the test, and I think teaching directly to the test is one of the most unethical things a professional educator can do. This is especially true if the standardized test is substandard in preparing students for anything beyond the test. Many teachers are forced to teach to the test every. single. day. I was one of those teachers for the 5 years I taught in a large, urban, underperforming public school system.
So, I hadn’t taught to this test. But the rub was that I taught well. I had hard-working, hungry students this year, and I knew they deserved great test scores. While I hadn’t taught to this test, I had taught with the necessary skills in mind. We moved well beyond the skills needed for this test and my students focused on selecting books they knew they would love based on prior reading. We learned math basics in order to play math games. They were a fun bunch. After such a great year, any teacher would want the scores to reflect the level of success I could so easily document in so many other ways.
At the end of this day, the scores were a mixed-bag, maybe a bag of trail mix. You love the chocolaty greatness mingling with peanuts, but you might get a raisin in any given bite. The scores were an overall improvement for me as a teacher with many of those chocolaty bites, but there are still areas to improve. Standardized test data and their results are a slippery slope. I have quantitative specifics about how to improve and enhance my practice. The challenge now becomes how to integrate everything new to enhance and improve students’ test scores.
