Thanks, Mrs. Aguilar
I SAT DOWN to write this swan song to the current volume on a windy Saturday morning in early April -- the day after the National Assessment of Educational Progress released its reading scores for fourth-graders. The brief item in my local newspaper about those scores was not encouraging. It focused on the fact that there's a growing gap between the highest-scoring readers and those who score the lowest on the test. Indeed, "fourth-graders who ranked among the nation's top 10% of readers scored slightly higher than they did in 1992, while the bottom 10% lost ground."
And to what did Education Secretary Roderick Paige attribute this outcome? He called it "evidence that federal education policy has not adequately addressed the needs of low-achieving students." To which those of us who've been watching from the sidelines can only add, "Amen."
Between 1992 and 2001, federal education policy has been tightly focused on higher standards and high-stakes testing. Kappan readers know too well the unintended consequences of high-stakes testing: a constricted curriculum and higher dropout and retention rates, especially for poor and minority students. I'd like to think that Secretary Paige now sees that the test-them-till-they-drop approach has been a failure. But I'm too much of a realist to fall into that trap. After all, the secretary's boss believes that we won't be able to tell whether or not children are learning unless we test them even more frequently than most states now do.
In the midst of all the silliness over accountability, it's easy to forget that the key to good education is good teaching. And there are hundreds of thousands of good teachers out there. Let me focus on just one of them, the woman who has my number-two grandson in fifth grade this year. In a recent assessment of one of his writing assignments, that teacher chided my grandson for not writing in the present tense (a part of the assignment that had been discussed repeatedly in class), for not focusing his essay on a brief interlude in time (also discussed repeatedly in class), for poor punctuation ("major league run-on sentences"), and for the essay's conclusion ("You shouldn't have to write 'The End' because the reader should know it"). But she simultaneously applauded him for his opening sentences, his descriptive language, and his spelling prowess.
What caught my attention, though, were the comments the teacher had written on the back of the evaluation form:
With some work and effort, this can be an effective piece. Cut out all the extraneous parts -- focus on one activity. I suggest the fishing. You already have excellent details and language in that part. Tell me more. How did you feel when you finally pulled the fish out? How did you finally get it out? What sounds could you hear? I want to know it all. Every last detail until you cooked that fish.
You have an excellent command of the language -- vivid vocabulary, good imagery. I'm sad that you choose to just get by with your writing. I've watched you all year do the bare minimum and be satisfied. Well, I'm not! With a little effort you could be producing pieces to be proud of.
I am requiring that you continue working on this piece. I will conference with you and explain again what you need to do. I expect you to stay in at recess and to work on your piece at home also. I will let you know when your "new and improved" piece must be resubmitted to me.
With love,
Mrs. Aguilar
And they say that teachers need state-imposed standards? Not Mrs. Aguilar! She has made it clear to my grandson that sloughing off will not suffice (though she has been careful not to demolish him in the process). She knows my grandson well, and she pushes him to do his best writing on a topic that holds high interest for him. But she does not focus on the formulaic five-paragraph essay designed to guarantee him an acceptable score on the statewide test. She is not test-prepping him; she is educating him.
Thanks, Sharon Aguilar of Pond Springs Elementary School in
Austin, Texas. In my mind, you represent the vast pool of teachers
-- in all subjects and at all grade levels -- who treat their
students with respect and care and who maintain high academic
standards that have nothing to do with standardized test scores
and everything to do with genuine learning gains. My grandson
likes you now, but he will revere you when he
is old enough to understand your contribution to his future success
-- in writing and in life. -- PBG
