Tuesday, January 23, 2007
Job #13: Charter School Teacher (cont.)
The most recent season of the brilliant HBO series 'The Wire' focused on education. Their depiction of standardized testing as just another racket where the numbers are being "juked" was pretty much dead on.
My second semester at the Charter school, I was told that I was going to be in charge of teaching a class preparing students for the state tests and then administering the test. According to the Administration, my job was mostly to make sure they did a little bit better than last year. Schools are graded and evaluated not so much on how the students do on the test but mostly on whether the students do better than the year before. If you do too well, the school plateaus, leaving no room for improvement next year. Supposedly many schools kick out their worst students in order to keep their numbers up.
There was no real danger of plateauing at the school where I taught. And frankly, it would have been hard for the test scores to be worse. Our students were the ones kicked out of all the other schools.
I tried to teach them basic English skills as best I could. According to the Administration, my main job was to encourage them to actually show up for the test and once there to actually fill out the entire test booklet. "If half the students show up and actually take the test we'll do better than last year." My job was to remind them that there would be doughnuts and juice available during the test, and that everyone who took the test and obviously tried to do well would get to go on a field trip to Funtastiks Family Fun Park. I was also supposed to tell the students that the Administration would be personally going over their tests to make sure they had "tried to do well."
Looking at the tests before sending them back to the state is, of course, strictly forbidden. My respect for the powers behind these tests couldn't be any lower, but I myself never peeked. The Administration did, though, and only a small portion of the students were invited to Funtasticks for go carts and laser tag.
No Child Left Behind - The Football Version
1. All teams must make the state playoffs and all MUST win the championship. If a team does not win the championship, they will be on probation until they are the champions, and coaches will be held accountable. If after two years they have not won the championship their footballs and equipment will be taken away UNTIL they do win the championship.
2. All kids will be expected to have the same football skills at the same time even if they do not have the same conditions or opportunities to practice on their own. NO exceptions will be made for lack of interest in football, a desire to perform athletically, or genetic abilities or disabilities of themselves or their parents. ALL KIDS WILL PLAY FOOTBALL AT A PROFICIENT LEVEL!
3. Talented players will be asked to workout on their own, without instruction. This is because the coaches will be using all their instructional time with the athletes who aren't interested in football, have limited athletic ability or whose parents don't like football.
4. Games will be played year round, but statistics will only be kept in the 4th, 8th, and 11th game. It will create a New Age of Sports where every school is expected to have the same level of talent and all teams will reach the same minimum goals. If no team gets ahead, then no team gets left behind. If fans do not like this new law, they are encouraged to vote for vouchers and support private teams that can screen out the non-athletes and prevent their children from having to go to school with bad football players.
: 1:23 PM, January 24, 2007<< Home
