Hello, all. This is a piece I wrote about our group's latest action to inform the public-especially teachers- about the dangers of NCLB and standardized testing: That Extra Three and a Half Feet
As a twelve year veteran teacher and science lead for my school, I can happily say that I have enjoyed not only teaching children, but meeting other teaching professionals. A quick chat here, a group planning session there, a “copied” lesson here (hey, anything to help kids learn)--it’s been uplifting. The encounters I have had have been mainly positive. Since the inception of NCLB, however, many teachers’ tones have changed. The enormous pressure to raise test scores has been relentless, and many of my closest friends have left the field for other things rather than facing the onslaught to come. Four years ago, I became so concerned about this that other professionals, parents, and I created Educators and Parents Against Test Abuse. The intent has been to inform other parents, teachers, and other community members about the pain and misery that many children are facing in classrooms today and the negative impact it has on their learning. Our latest venture as a group was to go to a local teacher supply store on its biggest sale of the year to meet specifically with educators and to ask them to sign a petition to congress to dismantle NCLB and restart the law from scratch. I mean, how could they not? The majority MUST be feeling the pain that I and others are, right? Many people would be surprised at the responses we received.
I arrived at the store at approximately 9:50. There was a mammoth line out the door of at least 100 teachers. I excitedly set up my table inside the store, with a bright yellow sign blazing with the message, “TEST, TEST, TEST, TEST + KIDS= : -( , CHANGE NCLB PETITION“ , waiting for the flood of folks to dart to my area and jot down a quick signature. I expected the hordes of people surround me and shout to the sky, “Yes! Someone has finally listened! Hallelujah!” (Ok, maybe not...my delusions of grandeur got the best of me at the time). The doors opened and then...nothing. Customers rolled in, grabbing carts and began maneuvering sporadically to get closest to the bulletin board border packets ,or calendars, or some other random, preprinted items. My EPATA partner and I looked at each other quizzically and thought that, “Ok. They are in a hurry to get their stuff. Give them a break. We’ve all been there.” Time rolled on, and for ten minutes, people mainly shopped. Moments later, a line began developing in front of the register---just about three and a half feet across from us. Smiling like eager salespeople, we sat patiently, not wanting to disturb the line, expecting folks to step away for a moment and speak with us. No one budged. We couldn’t believe it. What more could we do? We were in a TEACHER STORE, with TEACHERS, on the biggest sale day of the year, and no one would approach us. I made some grumbling comment about teachers having non-confrontational personalities and how could they ignore us, when my partner suggested that we move the table (three and a half feet!) right next to the line, and that she would go around the store and talk to people (now, it must be understood that we had an agreement with the manager to stay put, but we were desperate). Thus, an experiment into the human psyche ensued--were people against us, or just scared of losing their spot in line?
The results became immediate. Folks began leaning over, above our table and began signing. We were relieved to say the least. Our faith in the teaching profession was restored! I would like to say, at this point, that I have always hated reading educational research that reports the results of a study were “mixed”. How irritating! It’s like there was no experiment to begin with, and one can only start over with some new idea, or haggle with some experts over what the data “really” mean. However, as the day strolled on, that’s exactly how I would characterize it. At first, before the move, maybe 1 in 10 stopped and signed. After the move, we had one in four signing. Many comments were made to us, mostly supportive, but there were a few that made my skin rankle. A teacher said she liked NCLB because, “Our educational system is not turning out good thinkers.” I almost scoffed aloud, but maintained my composure and replied, “And you think standardized testing is going to HELP them with that?” She then said she didn’t agree with taking NCLB completely apart, to which I said, “But the law requires that 100% of students MUST be proficient by 2014, or imposed sanctions can close schools. Do you believe that that will happen using these tests?" She said,” No, I don’t think they will make it to 100%”, and moved through the line obliviously.
It was an interesting disagreement, and the only lengthy verbal one, but I would be lying if I said that there were others that didn’t sign for that reason. We had a very difficult time wrapping our heads around some teacher responses to what seemed to be an obvious injustice to kids. In our defense, many teachers were with us, stating emotionally that they couldn’t believe that more weren’t signing. Others said that they were fearful of being caught talking against NCLB, as if they were working in a prison camp. One teacher said she was doing reading buddies with her first graders and a third grade class at her Reading First school. The kids were choosing books when the principal came in to check on her class. The principal absolutely panicked and said, “What are you doing? They can’t do that during language arts time!” The teacher had to change the buddy time to an afternoon because it didn’t “fit” with the mandated program. How nauseated we were to hear that and greatly empathetic. Another kindergarten teacher said, “They’re testing kinders now. It’s so sad. They can barely hold a pencil.” Two parents came to us to sign at other points during the day. One said, “My son comes home during testing with headaches. I get worried during that time of year.” The other said, “My daughter had so much anxiety, that she created a sore in the side of her cheek during testing from biting it. She’s only in third grade and she’s starting to say she doesn’t want to go to school.” We were absolutely heartbroken for her. Yet, there was a tone of submission in her voice that spoke like the myriads of parents who see symptoms of sickness in our educational system from NCLB, but because the blood is not “gushing”, the emergency to save their children is not great enough. What they cannot see is the irreparable damage happening in the brain. What is even more concerning is that many teachers are allowing it (some even helping it) to happen and not stopping it.
Our day ended at 3:00. Final count: out of 400 or so people that went through the line, we had approximately 100 signatures. Not bad, in a general sense. We made some contact and passed out information to those that would accept it. I think that if we had not moved when we did, the amount we received would have been much less. So, are teachers just disconnected and self-preserving? I guess one could argue that. But I think it’s a different answer than that. I think they are stuck in the “busyness” of working in their own personal space and trying to make it to the next day without any major upheavals in their lives. Parents are, too, I would imagine. Some educators are also fearful of reprisals from their home schools for attempting to speak out, which is depressing because our country was founded partially on the struggle for free speech in the face of tyranny. At some point, many citizens are going to look up and see a tsunami crashing down on them. But maybe even then, they wouldn’t acknowledge its existence. It takes the courage, luck, and a little ingenuity, of those who believe that one must still do the RIGHT thing to change public opinion---even in the face of adversity. Who would have guessed that three and a half feet would’ve made a difference?
Joseph Lucido Fifth Grade Science Lead Educators and Parents Against Test Abuse/CalCARE Fresno, CA
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