Paul Vallas did many great things for our public school system; I’ve seen them firsthand as an upper-grade teacher in the system since 1993. Now that he’s leaving, though, things may get scary.
It seems that all that is wanted is higher test scores. There are companies that sell us books designed to “teach to the test.” These books are nothing more than guides that take the teacher and the student through the exact material the individual test will be covering, step by step.
Is this how you want your kids taught?
I’ve seen, under intense pressure to improve test scores, our system, my school and even, to my own horror, myself moving closer and closer to this teach-to-the-test mentality, at the immeasurable cost of real education. Real education involves studying subjects in depth, not merely touching on them for the sake of the standardized test, and integrating subject areas to deepen kids’ engagement, comprehension and learning.
Both of these approaches have been proven to be far more effective learning methods than teaching to a test. But both also take time, creativity, effort, skill and patience.
Imagine, then, test scores rising under a new school administration, and the general public thinking, “Hey, these guys are doing a good job!” While in the schools, in order to achieve this “improvement,” kids aren’t being taught much of any true value at all–they’re being “test-coached.”
Be careful what you demand of your schools and of your new schools chief, folks (and Mr. Mayor). You may well end up sacrificing your own kids’ education to get it.
