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The last time you talked to a teacher did you ask that teacher what their biggest complaint is about being a teacher? That is if you can get them to tell you because teachers are very careful about complaining about their jobs.
This is a question I ask teachers all the time and what I get time and time again is having to teach to the test. Teachers are caught on an awful treadmill of the quest for high test scores......... why?
School districts need those test scores high to bring in more students which brings in more money which helps the local economy.
States and the federal government (No child left behind) impose mandatory testing and they also put the pressure on for high test scores.
In Washington State we had mandatory testing and this is our report card after teachers spend a good chunk of the year teaching just for the testing they will be giving.
http://reportcard.ospi.k12.wa....
As a parent with a son with a disability who does horrid at testing I, along with teachers, can testify that mandatory testing does not tell the whole story and often harms the learning process with many kids like my son. It ties the teachers hands and takes the creativity out of teaching.
My son was very quiet as a young child, even when prompted with questions his response was often delayed and few words. He was a premy so I watched his delayed progress very closely, I saw a little boy through those eyes that couldn't seem to get out.
Reading was a struggle and comprehension was shockingly low. We were terrified, by 2nd grade his performance was so low his teacher requested the A team test him so we could figure out what we were dealing with. The conclusion of the testing they gave him showed he had a below average IQ and gravely gave me the news in a meeting. They told me that he would just fall farther and farther behind and would always be in classes with kids who were delayed. I sobbed.
One of the members of this A team was an hearing audio specialist. She had not tested him because the initial common hearing test showed his hearing was fine, but she knew those tests often do not tell the whole story, so she spoke up and said let me test him. God bless her.
Her test showed our son has Central Audio Processing Disorder and that some sounds in words my son could not hear. CAPD has been described as listening to spoken words under water, English for my son was the same as hearing a different language for other people. My son, all of his young life, was having to decipher what people were saying before he responded. To make matters worse people with CAPD memory does not work the same. Normally when you have a memory, to access that memory you use the same channel through the brain that makes access quick. For CAPD people they have to forge a new channel each time to access which causes a delayed response. So when a teacher would ask my son a question in front of the class he would just say I don't know to get the pressure off him even if he did know.
This was the beginning of a long journey of doctors, specialist outside the schools and intense brain work, yes the brain can be changed. When my son was tested visually by a neurologist, he tested way above average IQ which left me wondering WTF is IQ anyway?
I am making this long story short by saying today my son is in his second year of college with an IEP that allows him extra time for testing in a room with no distractions. He has a B average all the while working full time as a cashier in drug a store, pretty amazing. The job is just as valuable as college because the forced interaction with customers has greatly improved his interaction skills and eye contact. My son has endured, bullying and teachers who had no time to teach him because of class size but at the same time he is lucky, he has great empathy for those that struggle and had amazing special ed teachers who did take the time with him because he wanted to learn. Those same teachers follow his progress today with great wonder and pride, bless them all. It is a testament to my son that he never gave up, so many do and I don't blame them because the up hill battle is overwhelming.
The love I have for this teacher who did this extra testing to discover the CAPD (a disability very few knew about at the time) in 2nd grade is beyond what I can ever express in words. Her extra effort is not surprising to me because I come from a family of teachers and I know the stuff they are made of.
My frustration with this system we have is teachers are forced into a box, kids are forced into a box and the outcome is not good. There is a certain percentage that do well in the box and achieve well in college but I have to ask what they contribute to society in the end of the education road, they test well yes but how creative are they? Can they think outside the box?
Teachers are blamed all the while their hands are tied.
The experience with my son had me questioning how many kids can not learn the traditional way? How many are smart but are labeled with low IQ because of the testing that is used? What percentage of kids are left behind in the wake of the course we have forced our educational system to go? Do you wonder about this? Who invented the bell curve and why is it acceptable to just teach to the top of that curve, with the idea that these are the only kids that can learn?
Yes the system is broken and at a time when we need creative smart teachers and students the most, what we are getting is a system of forced testing for data to prove results that a certain percentage of our kids have memorized enough material to do well on the test.
It leaves me wondering have you talked to a teacher or a student lately and ask them what they think about our educational system? They are the only ones who will have the answer.
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