From Someone Who Is In The Trenches

One thing I really wanted to highlight on this blog was the experience and viewpoint of someone who is in the classroom everyday. No, not my 9 year-old, but a teacher. I have had the opportunity to pick the brain of a 5th grade teacher who is currently working at a Southern California elementary school. She has been teaching for 18 years and has taught 2nd, 4th and 5th grades. We corresponded via e-mail.

"I always knew I wanted to teach. I attended a private school until the age of 7 and then transferred to a public school. I loved it! The teachers were fun, we went on field trips, and yet, I was still able to learn what I needed to learn. I went to college back east and returned to California in 1990. I started teaching in the fall of 1991 in a 2nd grade classroom. It was the most stressful, difficult thing I had ever done. I remeber thinking to myself, "What have I done?" But, after awhile, I had more confidence in my skills as a teacher and I think the students responded to that."

"Over the course of the next decade, I moved from 2nd to 4th to 5th grade, where I've been for the last 4 years. 5th grade is challenging, but I really enjoy it. Within my time at different schools within 2 different school districts, I have noticed an exponential increase in testing. The amount of testing that I am doing with my students is overwhelming. I want to do everything I can to ensure my students' success. So, over my summer break, I try to find new ways to incorporate the testing curriculum into my lesson plans--I want to teach the things that I believe my students need, and still hold to my own teaching style. I want feel that rush of creativity that I felt when I first started teaching. Sometimes, I succeed. Lately, it seems I'm not."

"When it comes right down to it, I see 5 major problems in standardized testing (I am presenting very general examples for your readers so I don't get too long!):

1) I have to test my students on subject matter that I have yet to teach them.

--Because of the testing schedule that is mandated by the federal and state governements and the local school district, I have to keep to a particular curriculum schedule. However, with some of the testing, there is a discrepency between the range of subject matter that is covered within each test. On one test my students may need to know basic math skills (division, fractions, etc.), but on another test they may need to know some geometry. So, although I try, I am forced to watch my students test on things that I haven't had time to teach them.

2) I often receive the results to my student's tests when it's too late to adjust the curriculum.

--Depending on the test that I have given, there have been times when I have received my student's results weeks (or months) after we've moved beyond that portion of other areas of the curriculum. Now, depending on the subject area, I may have to revisit that portion, or simply decide to keep moving toward the next test--while leaving the results unattended.

3) I am held accountable for my student's test results while I am not provided with the tools and resources to give them every opportunity to raise their test scores.

--The standards that school districts, administrtors and teachers are held to are not kept in line with the resources provided to the individual classroom. I am alotted a certain number of copies per month for my classroom--but it is only about 40% of what I actually need. I have 34 students in my classroom and I am given only 30 math books.

4) Testing does not take into account English Language Learners.
--I have ELL students who do not perform well on the standardized tests. They may "fail" each and every test given. However, when presented with their overall progress from throughout the year, they have made extraordinary improvement. Standardized tests will mark them as failing students when they are not because their overall progress is not reflected in the standardized testing matrix.

5) I am "teaching to the test".

--I have heard this phrase for several years. I realized 3 years ago that I am that teacher-I base my year's curriculum on when my students take each test and what subject area they will be tested on, not what they need to be secure in to move on to the next stage in their lives (although many will say that they testiing and the student's needs are one-in-the-same, I disagree)."

"I hope that what I have provided will be of some help to [the readers of your blog] in realizing the insurmountable situation that teachers are in each and every day."