Teaching to the Test

Is this what President Obama is saying?

According to an article I read in the AJC, President Obama addressed parents and students yesterday at a town hall meeting at Bell Multicultural High School in Washington, D.C. In his address, he said:

"Too often what we have been doing is using these tests to punish students or to, in some cases, punish schools"
 
"Schools should be judged on criteria other than student test performance, including attendance rate."
 
"One thing I never want to see happen is schools that are just teaching the test because then you're not learning about the world, you're not learning about different cultures, you're not learning about science, you're not learning about math," the president said. "All you're learning about is how to fill out a little bubble on an exam and little tricks that you need to do in order to take a test and that's not going to make education interesting."



"They're not going to do as well if it's boring."

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If I could have a few minutes with President Obama, I might rebut it by saying something like this:

WELL, HELLO President Obama!!.... are you familiar with Race to the Top?  Um, I think you are, because you have signed away on that initiative! You are in full favor of SOME aspects of testing.  You say you are concerned about the testing/and or classroom environment being 'boring' and worried about teachers teaching to the test, but you then want to turn around and support merit pay..... AKA....paying teachers based on how well the students do in this boring environment.  My goodness.  Mr. Obama, I think you left off one important point in the first quote I typed above. You said that, "Too often what we have been doing is using these tests to punish students or to, in some cases, punish schools."  Let's see... you included students and schools being punished, but you said nothing about PUNISHING teachers. In a sense it would be punishing teachers if their salary was decreased based on student performance on a few select tests.  Keep in mind, some students don't test well, some students have negative home factors, some kids bubble their tests incorrectly, some kids didn't get a good night's sleep, some kids didn't eat a good breakfast,... the list goes on and on. Plus, I really think you are totally contradicting yourself with your statements of testing leading to boredom in the classroom and then turning around and supporting a plan that bases teacher salaries on those same TESTS.

Here is a fun little satirical song with a message by Tom Chapin.

Let's just hope this is not the future of teaching!

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It is important  I state that I absolutely LOVE teaching. I have dedicated the last 15 years of my life to teaching students in grades 3-5.  It is a passion of mine! I want the exact opposite of what's depicted in the video. My goal is to teach and teach well.

My point in this blog is to point out how Obama seems to have differing views on testing when it comes to students versus teachers. He is concerned about too much testing and even thinks testing puts the classroom at risk of becoming a boring atmosphere. If that is the case, why would he think it okay to turn around and pay teachers based on a student's performance on these tests?  It simply doesn't make sense.

If you're still not sure why I am so concerned about standardized testing and basing a teacher's salary on the test, maybe this little video will help explain things.

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