Mending School
When do complaints about ‘too much’ standardized bubble testing become strong enough to bring about change? Now that some students are spending more than 10% of their school ‘instructional’ time on test-prep and testing, have we reached the tipping point? Now that some students are reported to be taking 20 different bubble tests during a school year, are we there? With some students taking bubble tests in art, music and physical education, have we gone over the cliff?
Our kids are already the most tested in the world, and now the Common Core tests are on the doorstep. Is anyone in power demanding that schools swap out tests–eliminate one for every one they add? Or eliminate two when adding one? Or sampling a la NAEP? Those voices are out there, but they are hard-to-hear and hardly heard.
Robert Frost is one of my favorite poets, and his “Mending Wall” inspired this effort, which I call “Mending School.”
Something there is that doesn’t love more bubble tests
And students bubbling and learning how to bubble
When they might be making robots or reading Frost.
They take test upon test in arid classrooms,
Mixing memory and guesswork, stirring
Dull anger and gnawing fear of failure.
The work of test-makers is another thing:
Teachers come after them and make repair
Where they have ground down creativity.
I let my neighbor know beyond the hill,
And on a day we meet to walk and talkMending School | Taking Note:
And students bubbling and learning how to bubble
When they might be making robots or reading Frost.
They take test upon test in arid classrooms,
Mixing memory and guesswork, stirring
Dull anger and gnawing fear of failure.
The work of test-makers is another thing:
Teachers come after them and make repair
Where they have ground down creativity.
I let my neighbor know beyond the hill,
And on a day we meet to walk and talkMending School | Taking Note: