Center X

If we to listen to children, we will truly understand the impact that high-stakes testing has on teaching and learning. A group of first graders from a school in the LAUSD collectively wrote a letter to the state Department of Education expressing their opinions on taking a standardized exam:

Querido oficina de educación:
Nosotros queremos decirles que nos sentimos muy incumodos y tristes de tomar el examen, es muy difÌcil y muy largo. Yo pienso que no es justo. El examen tenia muchas paginas y ni podiamos ir al baño ni tomar agua hasta que terminabamos. Hay veces que me sentia como si estoy en la carcel.

Dear office of education:
We want to say that in taking this exam, we felt very uncomfortable and sad. It is too difficult and very long. I believe that it is unjust. The exam has too many pages and we couldn’t even go to the bathroom or drink water until we were through. There were times I felt as though I was in prison.

As a faculty advisor for the UCLA’s Teacher Education Program (TEP), I spend time convincing novices and residents that teaching is a worthy profession. I tell them that there is no greater joy than to witness the development of student voice, empowerment, and social action. I talk to my social studies novices about how critical great social studies teachers are in urban, culturally and linguistically diverse settings. I emphasize the importance of becoming a social justice, critical educator. I cannot remain quiet while a norm-referenced standardized exam determineswhether or not a student is passed to third and ninth grade. Finally, as a long-time advocate of bilingual education, I cannot watch yet another assault on the education of immigrant students. And I am not alone.

Giving students a norm-referenced standardized test will always label 50 percent of this nation’s students as “below-average.” These standardized tests do not measure what teachers teach or what students should know and be able to do. Children in Los Angeles have an additional disadvantage; the majority are poor, speak a language other than English and are of color. These tests do not measure the critical thinking, problem solving, or intellect of our children. According to a recent poll by the Los Angeles Times, 54 percent of parents believe that teachers, grades, and evaluations are better indicators of student progress than test scores. Teachers and parents agree test scores are not a true indication of student success; the measure of our children’s ability to read and write is truly exemplified in the above letter written by the first graders. Will this be measured by the SAT-9? I think not.

The State of California and LAUSD have invested time and committed resources and energy into preparing our students to “take the tests,” but little has been spent on ending poverty, creating pre-kindergarten programs, finding resources and supplies for classrooms. The District’s one textbook for every child campaign is shortsighted. The children in LAUSD do not need one textbook each. They need new textbooks for every subject area, literature books for classrooms and libraries, teaching materials to accompany the books, computer technology to accompany the materials, classroom supplies to accompany the technology, and time for teachers to plan. Does it make sense that teachers have an unlimited supply of copies for testing materials, but only 1,000 copies per month for classroom instruction? These are the reasons I joined the Coalition for Educational Justice (CEJ). I may not agree with all the demands, but I believe in a grassroots coalition that will unequivocally challenge educational injustices with a concrete set of proposals. CEJ proposes that LAUSD:

Place an immediate moratorium on high-stake standardized norm-referenced tests and the retention of students based on these tests.
Devote more resources to classrooms by reducing class size, building more environmentally safe schools, developing a teacher peer assistance program, hiring and training more teacher assistants and other staff, fully stocking classrooms with culturally and linguistically relevant educational materials.
Protect existing bilingual programs. In the long-term, CEJ demands the reinstatement of bilingual education districtwide.
Raise student achievement through greater university access and job development partnerships and programs. Immediately, the District should expand programs, such as the Multilingual Teacher Academy Program and the Paraeducator Career Ladder Program.
Build a student-centered, activity-based, teacher and community developed curriculum that uses alternative assessments and brings out intellectual curiosity, critical thinking, cooperation and democratic values.
Shift spending to education: Redirect monies spent on standardized tests, the building of prisons, and corporations to schools.

Though CEJ’s immediate goal is to inform parents and community members of the impact of high-stakes testing through a series of co-sponsored community educational forums on SAT-9 testing, the struggle will not be over after children are given the results of the SAT-9 tests. In the words of Luis Valdez of El Teatro Campesino, “We will consider our jobs done when [all] our people recognize [their] sense of personal dignity and pride in [their] history, [their] culture, and [their] race.” My journey and my struggle are long-term; the road to academic success will be a long and winding road, but I am determined to keep moving on.