By Janet Garrett
It’s the first day of school. A five year old boy, we’ll call him Bobby, walks to school the door tightly gripping his father’s hand. He is wearing his new school clothes and especially his new shoes. He has a new back pack on his back containing all his school supplies.
He is nervous, even a little scared. The things that are upper most on his mind are “Will I know anybody? Will I make friends? Will my teacher be nice? What if I don’t know what to do? What if I get into trouble? I hope my teacher thinks I’m a good boy!”
I, his teacher, greet Bobby and his father at the door with a big smile. I invite them in and show Bobby where his cubby is, with his name on it, so he can put his things away. I tell him I am so glad he is here and that we are going to have a great day. I encourage him to give his dad a hug and say “I’ll see you later.” He does, much to his dad’s relief. Bobby and I go into the classroom. There are several children there already, waiting, sitting cross legged on the rug. There is another friendly lady in the room, helping the children get settled.
I begin class. I welcome my new students. I have them say their names. Then, I explain that I have a rule and that is that we are all friends in here. You are not allowed to say ‘you can’t play’ or ‘I’m not your friend’ or I’ll be your friend if you do something for me’ because we are all friends in here. Bobby smiles and I see his body relax. He smiles at the boy beside him who is smiling back.
I have taught for 34 years. This is the beginning of my last year of teaching. I know young children. I know their families. I have been in their homes. I see their struggles and I suffer because I see the struggles getting worse.
Over the years I have seen many fads and trends come and go. Over these last few years, however, I have become increasingly alarmed over what appears to be the systematic attempt to destroy the public school system across the nation. Public education is one of the foundations of our Democracy. It is one of the most democratic things we do, besides voting. It is, arguably, the only equalizing force in an otherwise unequal system. But that may be exactly the reason it is being destroyed. The destruction is coming from many directions and from both political parties.
It started with No Child Left Behind, a mandate without funding and a pretty way to say ‘No child left untested.’ Then came the vouchers and the Charter schools which take tax dollars that would have been used 100% for education but now allow the CEOs to skim profits off the top and educate the children with what is left. It is no surprise to me that most Charter schools are a miserable failure. Then came the Common Core, probably a good concept, but again, has had a terrible roll out. Worst of all, it has the for profit testing industry attached to it in a big way. The entire Common Core program is copyrighted so it can’t be changed. The Race to the Top hasn’t been helpful to education either. It comes with so many requirements that it costs the school districts more than they get from the program.
To me the worst thing that has come along, however is the private companies developing tests. This is clearly a money making proposition. The purpose here is to make profit, not serve our children. This is evidenced by the ever increasing number of tests being sold to State Departments of Education. These corporations have turned education on its head. An important fact is that Pearson is the biggest supplier of tests and is British, not American.
We used to teach children and then give them a test to see if they learned what they were taught. The purpose was to see if they needed to be re-taught the material.
Now with the testing industry we are teaching to the test. We lose vast amounts of instructional time to test prep and testing. This is going on now at every grade level.
This brings me back to Bobby and my kindergarten class. The state of Ohio Department of Education, now requires the Kindergarten Readiness Assessment (KRA). Half of the test is due by the end of September and the rest is due by November first. This test requires a minimum of 1 1/4 hours of teacher instructional time to administer PER CHILD.
The developer of the KRA advise that if a child is not doing well to suspend the test to another time. This appears, on its face, to be kind. In reality, it means that the teacher could potentially be tied up in testing for the entire first two months of the nine months of school. And that’s not all. There are two other tests which must be done by the end of September and redone in April. The legislators who enacted these requirements obviously have no idea what Bobby needs to start his school experience off right. Perhaps they don’t care. They certainly never took the time to ask teachers and parents what they thought.
Make no mistake, this is not an Ohio problem. This is happening across the nation. The tests are not always the same but the occurrence of high stakes testing is the same. I believe the federal government should step in and call a halt to all this testing madness. They could, and should regulate a number of things such as limiting the amount of instructional time that can be given to testing, how many grades are subject to standardized testing so that is doesn’t dominate every grade, how the tests are selected so that there is input from educators and parents, what content is on the tests so that they actually reflect what is taught, not dictate what is taught, who scores the tests and what is done with the information. I am very disturbed by the idea that some testing companies are data mining our children for profit, without the permission or even knowledge of their teachers and parents. This is an invasion of privacy and should be against federal law.
In anticipation of this untenable situation in my classroom, I lined up an army of help. The ‘friendly lady’ who was in my classroom that first day is a friend and a retired teacher. I have three retired teachers, one retired school secretary, and a retired playground supervisor all coming in to volunteer in my classroom. I am determined that my last class, before I retire, will not be short changed due to the greed of the testing industry and the ignorance and ineptitude of the Ohio legislature and Department of Education.
But , sadly, my personal solution to this problem is not one that will work for others. I have heard many stories of Kindergarten teachers, in desperation, putting their students in front of movies all day so that they can test their students one by one for hours on end. There are Bobbys across Ohio who are starting their school year, being led into a classroom and put in front of movie after movie. These Bobbys are led in by obviously stressed and nervous teachers. Since children take their cues from the adults in charge, they sense that something is wrong and are more agitated than they would be otherwise. Some of them have not had breakfast. Some of them come from violent home lives and are terrified that they will be beaten if they make mistakes at school. They get up from the movies and attempt to get reassurance from their teachers, who are testing other children . In some cases the stressed teachers respond to these interruptions in anger which increases the stress level in the classrooms. How does this square with what their parents have told them to expect? How does this square with what the children needs? I want to state loudly, that I do not blame the teachers who are doing this. I blame the state legislators and the state board of education for creating this situation. This is a tragic way for a child to start school! Bobby needs social interaction. He needs physical and mental activity. He needs to start learning from day one. One of the beautiful things about teaching young children is watching how fast they learn, grow and develop. Even after all these years, I still get goose bumps when I witness a child reading for the first time. My students have been in school for four weeks and what they have learned already is amazing. Not so for the Kindergarteners stuck in front of movies all day.
Later in the week, I call Bobby to my table alone. I ask him questions, show him pictures and objects to assess him on this state mandated test. He becomes nervous, being questioned closely by his teacher. Some questions he over thinks and gets wrong because he is thinking beyond the scope of the test. His answers show me, his teacher, that he is a very thoughtful child but his scores will be low and as a result, I will be required to put him in a remedial program, which I can see he doesn’t need and will waste his time and school district money.
The problem with these tests is not that there is any one question at is harmful to children. It is the sear weight and volume of these tests that cause the entire educational process to come to a screeching haul. And the sad thing is, in all this testing, I am not able to get to the information I really need. For example, two of the tests ask for the children to name a few letters. As the child’s teacher, I want to know how many letters, and which ones the child knows so that I can teach what is needed. Only after all of the required testing is done, can I ask for the information I really need.
The legislators keep tightening the noose on public education: requiring more and more time devoted to testing so that there is less and less time for instruction, raising the bar on school district grading systems to make schools look worse than they really are, extracting funds so that profits can be made. Every place I go where teachers are gathers, I hear the same conversation, ‘How can I get out?’
Three years ago I had a Chinese child in my class. Her father was an exchange professor at Oberlin College. At our first parent teacher conference I gave the father an eight page report on his daughters progress and went over it, with him, in detail. At the end he sat back and stared at me. ‘This is a very detailed report,’ he said. ”Yes’, I said, ‘It is.’ He said ‘We were concerned when we came to this country because we have heard very bad things about American schools but I am very impressed’. ‘I know,’ I said. ‘The politicians work very hard to make us look bad because they want to privatize our public schools so that someone can make profits off of our children.’
People ask me, from time to time, what I think of the state education. I tell them we desperately need Educational reform. We are going DOWN not up. What children need is not to be taught how to pass endless tests. They need to be taught problem solving, creativity and most of all a love of learning. We must give them the tools they need to learn. We are teaching children, today, for a world we cannot foresee.
We need to take all the tax money that is being squandered on vouchers, Charter schools and the non-U.S. based for- profit testing companies and put it into the classrooms of America. We need to make schools joyful, creative hives of industrious learning where no one is judged and everyone can develop their unique gifts and qualities.
That is my vision for education in America and I am willing to fight hard for it. That is one of the reasons I am running for the US House of representatives in Ohio’s 4th District. I am running because I care. Because of my long years of experience working with children and their families, I have a greater appreciation for what is needed. What we need is a new, child centered, not profit driven, education agenda.
Janet Garrett
208 Eastern Ave.
Oberlin, Ohio 44074
440-724-9981