Race to the Top leaves no teacher untested

In the “Race to the Top” of possible school and educational improvements, no child remains untested, and maybe the same will be said of teachers. Student test scores are to be factored into teacher-principal job evaluations. The AP reports that since only a third of teachers teach subjects which are tested, 'the Department of Education changed the rules to say that teachers and principals must be judged on several different measures of student achievement.' This has made some unions feel much better about the criteria set out on Thursday last week. Teacher and principal effectiveness is the largest single category in deciding which bids should receive a portion of the $4 billion grant funding.

The real winner in this “race” is the test preparation companies and software whose work will be more and more utilized. The work of principals and teachers will just be more tested, not that much improved, and in some cases will decline.

Keeping track of a student's progress over the course of a school year is obviously a good idea; before, during, and after, assessments find out how a child is doing learning the material . It is intended to give a picture of the development of the skills the state (and county, and district) expects each student in that grade to be able to perform by the end of the year.

But for most elementary school grades this means 4 days in a row, of at least two hours per day of standardized testing three times a year.

Students who finish early can move on to other tasks, but unless all students complete their tasks about the same time, various numbers of students are doing 'other' things than receiving instruction from the teacher. Unfortunately, 'benchmark' testing does not coordinate with the curriculum in every district, so that students are testing all morning, then have other standardized tests throughout the day.

Race to the Top may be a win on some future day, for some school districts - in funding, but at what cost to principals, teachers and students who have to push Jan to sit still for another test, even after she is done, because Joan and Johnny are still taking it? How much time is spent in making sure all the students have all the time they need in order to properly fill in the right bubbles, a skill which children are now using class time to be trained to do from Kindergarten on up?

Other methods of assessment need to be recognized a valid for the "Language Arts," such as presentations, projects, speeches, reading aloud or recitation.

For more information: California School win?,  Obama's plan, CA legislature action