*Special thanks to Barbie Jackson for fact-checking!
I waxed hyperbolic in a conversation the other day when I
said I was put on this earth to advocate for vulnerable kids. Hyperbole, yes,
but it comes from
every
cell in my body. I am here to speak for struggling learners. That’s why the
Reading Sufficiency Act which requires third graders to show on-grade reading
to progress to fourth grade has been a windmill I’ve tilted at for years.
Remember the number 36. It will be important later.
It all started my second year of teaching when I taught ‘reading’
to eighth graders…that meant I had the SRA box in my room and I was supposed to
make kids progress through all the colors. I knew there was more to reading
that that, and got my Reading Specialist degree so I’d never feel that
inadequate again. I spent the next thirty-seven years working with struggling
readers in one classroom or another. Remedial, Title I reading lab in an
elementary. Remedial reading in two mid highs, and Reading for Pleasure, where
I made sure struggling readers felt welcome. My goal was always to help
students learn to love reading, to read a lot, because I knew good test scores
would follow. I saw it year after year.
I preface this post with my background to make the point I
know reading instruction, and I know kids, and I will fight for those kids who
are labeled failures.
I fought the current
RSA bill, when the original author Sally Kern and I had
heated
email exchanges. I’ve tried to share my expertise to craft a law that actually
works for kids and supports their learning. I was there when the House
overrode
the Governor’s veto of HB2625, which would allow a team of educators and
parents to actually make appropriate decisions about a third grader’s
placement. The Senate added its vote to override as I was driving home,
celebrating the House victory. I wrote
about the
shameful
responses of our policy makers to that override…
shameful
in their zeal to flunk our kids. I watch
with fear as I know third graders next year must score proficient on their
reading test, or risk retention. The teams of teachers and parents will still
be in place…for now.
I shared
Jason
James’ posts analyzing the tests for our third graders, when we realized
the test is not a reading test, but a reading-ELA test. Questions range from
comprehension and vocabulary, to alphabetizing guide words on dictionary pages,
and the use of almanacs.
I
researched beyond policy makers’ rhetoric that a child who cannot read (I’ll
come back to that) at third grade is destined for a life of misery. I’ve found
forced retention is just as harmful, is more expensive for schools, and leads
to higher levels of high school dropouts.
I’m tired of the rhetoric.
“Third grade is crucial,
because that’s when we stop learning to read and start reading to learn.”
Oh, Puleeze. This one lights my hair on fire. We are always learning to read.
And we are always reading to learn. Every new book gives us new comprehension
challenges. Even as adults…this one is just an excuse to blame kids who are
learning at their own rate…you know, that internal compass that cannot be
changed, no matter how many times you try to cram reading strategies down their
throats. We all learn to read our entire lives. We all read to learn…our entire
lives. If you don’t believe me, try reading a bill from the Oklahoma
Legislature.
“Teachers and parents
put too much emphasis on the tests and that makes kids stressful and nervous.”
WHO put the high stakes on this test? Not the teachers. Not the parents. Who
tried to tie test scores to teacher evaluations? Not the teachers. Not the
parents. Who tied test scores to bogus school A-F grades? Not the teachers. Not
the parents.
“We need to use tests
to hold schools and teachers and students accountable.” You know,
standardized tests were designed to be a snapshot of achievement…one piece of
information. They are good at predicting performance on the next test. They were
NEVER designed to be high stakes…for students, for teachers, for schools, or
for districts. The current testing climate is based on the misuse and abuse of
standardized tests, and the children who take them. Teachers do not run away from accountability.
They can share multiple examples of student learning and growth. They can share
lesson plans and teacher-made assessments. Accountability through standardized
tests is an idea that needs to disappear.
“We all took tests – they
aren’t so bad.” If you are an adult, your experience is not at all
comparable to our kids’ experience. Yes. We took standardized tests. And those
scores were put into our permanent records and promptly forgotten. No one was
flunked on the scores, no teacher was fired, and no school was labeled as a
failing school. We took those tests and then went about the real business of
learning.
“Kids will have to
take high stakes tests in the future. This is no different.” This is very
different. Students will take ACT and SAT tests for entrance to college, or to
earn scholarship funding. Those tests are voluntary. They can be taken multiple
times. There are high-powered test prep courses and books galore. In many
professions there are high stakes tests that must be passed as a gateway to the
profession. Also voluntary. Also chosen. Also supported by test prep materials.
Also may be taken over and over. Our third graders get one shot. One day in
April.
“If kids can’t read,
they shouldn’t move on.” In my career I met exactly two students I considered
non-readers. One, a fourth grader, came to us in early March…we were his 4th
school of the year. When asked to read ‘cat’ he laboriously mouthed, “Cuh-AAh-Tee.”
Words held no meaning to him on the page. We set him up with recorded books
about cars and he listened, read, and learned to read his first book. I
remember how excited he was to read his book to our principal. Just as we hit
our stride, though, he was gone…on to his fifth school of his fourth grade
year. At Norman North, I had a freshman in my Reading for Pleasure class who’d
been homeschooled by his very-ill grandmother. She was not equipped to teach
and control him, so he steadfastly refused to learn. He came to us with
pre-primer skills. And we started working…working…working…Just as he was
beginning to show progress, he too, disappeared from school and we never saw
him again.
Every third grader taking the test this month IS A READER.
Make no mistake every child is a reader. Now, are they all reading ‘above
average?’ Of course not. Are they all the same height? Do they wear the same
sized shoe? Can they run equally fast? Only a non-educator could expect every
kid in third grade to read at level. Educators know kids begin at their own
starting place and make progress…not steady progress, but they make progress.
My third graders years ago remarked on how well I read…I had
not thought about how intimidating it must be for a child to hear a proficient
reader. I told them we all started learning to read when we were six years old…they
were not eight and nine. I was forty.
Who should be a better reader?
I also asked them about how they learned to ride their bikes…how
did they get better and better? By taking the bike apart on the lawn? By taking
a test identifying all the parts? By watching others? They got better and
better by riding…by getting on, falling off, wobbling down the street. By
picking themselves up and trying again. This is the only way our kids progress
with reading…by reading. Not taking tests and benchmarks. Not by pronouncing
nonsense syllables, by reading unrelated words quickly. We must give them books
they will love and we must support them as they read.
“Retention will give
kids the gift of time.” I had a student in my elementary class…he struggled
as a second grader, as a third grader, as a fourth grader. But we had supports
in place for him. We cheered his small victories and his large victories. We
didn’t flunk him. We individualized for him and supplemented for him. Yes, he struggled, but he never gave
up, and he never doubted himself, and he never saw himself as a failure. Today,
that young man is a teacher…a National Board Certified Teacher. A teacher who
looks out on his classes and recognized himself in his students’ faces and is
the teacher they need. Would he have gone on to be a college graduate and a teacher if we'd've flunked him as a nine-year-old? We gave him the
gift of time…
“Kids won’t even understand that they’re repeating a grade.
It won’t hurt their emotional well-being.” A friend recently told me about her morning
ritual with her children, one of whom is a third grader…they pray on their way
to school each day, to set the tone for a good day. Her third grader prays
every day to pass the test.
I have a friend who is a child therapist. She tells me more
and more of her patients are talking about the anxiety they feel about the test…and
how that test will decide their futures. This is not pressure others are
placing on kids…this is pressure they’re trying their best to survive.
Last month
my
third-grade Grand, sitting in the back seat of my car, said in a tiny
voice, “I hope I get to go to fourth grade next year.” She never looked up,
hands in her lap, face down, hidden by the curtain of her shiny brown hair. Her
sisters, middle school and high school, laughed and said, “Of course you’re
going to fourth grade next year.” I couldn’t stop them. It’s not guaranteed.
She DOES struggle…she IS a reader, but she struggles to perform on these tests.
I looked at all three and was so sad at the changes in our schools since the
older girls were in elementary. It IS different now.
This year’s third grade reading/ELA test will have 50
questions. But only 36 are identified as reading comprehension or vocabulary.
So, third graders’ placement for next year will rest on their performance on 36
questions mingled with the other literary analysis and reference questions on
one test. One day in April.
Thirty six questions.
For those kids who have yet to prove proficiency on the other
measures schools can use…for those kids whose last chance is THE TEST…I say, ‘best
of luck, little one, on those 36 reading questions. Do well. Or stay in third
grade. Thirty-six questions will decide their future. Not the progress, albeit
slower progress, they’ve made. Not the small victories. Not your love of
reading or your love of learning.”
Thirty-six questions.
