All this testing is making me testy....

Teachers have been sending me order forms for this bumper sticker with advice it needs to be spread across the nation: High-Stakes Testing Is Destroying Education. It's not only the testing, it is now the observation of teachers who are doing the testing. I've been in several public and parochial schools the last few weeks and the only way to describe schooling is "a state of fear." Students are in panic that they won't achieve well on the tests, parents are fretting over the education their children are receiving, teachers are stressing over the narrow curriculum they're forced to offer, administrators are alarmed by the importance of the scores and, well, I'm somewhat sick of it all.

Learning is no longer about learning. It is about robotics. We've created an inane system that is not working, does little, and is, as the bumper sticker reports, destroying education. These communities need to be fixed. Teachers and students deserve the investment of support; not the management tool of examinations that assess very little.

I heard from a teacher last night who shared a story of the hell she's been living in. For two years, administrators in her school have been policing her and harassing her, reporting to higher ups that she needs to be monitored and watched. Within the last few months, however, these administrators were removed and placed in other schools. New advisors are now in charge of giving her feedback and they are seeing what I always saw. Their feedback has been stellar and supportive. She went back to her teaching philosophy to visit why she went into the profession. She revisited scholars she appreciated and mentoring she valued. She realized that the new observers of her classroom valued this, but the ones before did not. They had no academic or valuable reasons for their criticism. She is exhaling now, for the time being, that student-centered curriculum and guidance may be a new norm. The fact is, though, these individuals can be replaced quickly by other Delores Umbridges who lack of classroom experience and are completely misguided. Part of this, I feel, is the fault of universities. How do they let such individuals into leadership roles? How do they get by? There's plenty of blame to go around.

My advice to everyone now is to get vocal. The cartoon  of a student taking a test to prepare for the test that will be give before the test is extremely accurate. Parents, taxpayers, and community leaders should be alarmed. The revolution is needed. Running schools as assessment emporiums has gotten out of control.