A Central Florida Mom's Life with Twin Girls, a Little Boy, and a Handsome Hubs!

There’s was late breaking news playing across every local channel last night. Preliminary writing test scores are in for the state of Florida and there is a huge decline in passing scores from last year to this year. Literally, a huge decline.

Does that mean this year’s tested students are any less smart than last year’s students? Or that the teacher’s ability to teach writing declined from last year to now? Maybe we decided not to teach writing all together and let the kids just wing it this year.

But whatever the reason behind all of this, I know, those are not the case.

I know my students are not any less smarter than last year’s group of kids. I know my ability to teach writing is just as good, or even better, than my ability to teach it last year. I know that myself and all the other teachers out there work day in and day out to make sure our kids are learning what they need to, what is expected of them.

So what is the problem then?

Perhaps the fact that this year the bar was raised? The tests were given stricter grading guidelines to follow. Students were now not only asked to write either an entire expository essay or narrative story in a mere 45 minutes (have you yourself tried to do that!?) but now make sure all grammar, spelling, and punctuation was spot on as well. Instead of using one person to grade tests, two people were now being used (with the possibility of half scores coming into play).

A passing score is a 4 out of 6, which puts this year percentage of 4th graders passing at 27% compared to last year’s percentage of passing 4th graders being 81%. Which means, if you do the math, a decrease of 54%. And that trend is across the board when you compare the 8th graders and 10th graders who also take the FCAT writing test.

I just don’t see how that can be. How can three different grade levels have an average decline of 48% from one year to the next when I know the teaching and learning taking place has not drastically changed from one year to the next?

I’m not one to talk about politics often, but in this case, on this topic, I will. Maybe, just maybe, the reason for this decline needs to be put on the shoulders of the law makers that sit high & mighty in the capital. Those politicians who put their point of view in where they have no place to be putting it. Those people who haven’t set foot in a classroom since the days when they were the students sitting in the desks learning.

Things in education have changed. The children who sit in those same desks today are completely different from the children who once sat in them 20, 30, 40 years ago.

Do these politicians know what we as teachers face day in & day out. Do they realize that many of my students live in broken homes where one parent is left to raise a family and work long hours to put food on the table. Do they know that some of my students are considered “Families in Transition” meaning they don’t have a place to call home. Do they know that some of my students have parents who think their child’s education is only in the hands of the teachers so in return give no extra help, guidance, or instruction at home when it comes to what their children are learning? Do they realize that some of my students help take care of brothers and sisters, have learned English as a second language, or just don’t value education as highly as they could because they aren’t shown by their parents to value it as well?

Did you know all of that?

Did you know that the bar is raised each year on what these kids are expected to know? Did you know that I have to get the majority of my teaching in before the FCAT tests in April, even if that means we move so quickly from one concept to the next that the kids who aren’t getting will just have to do their best and move on? Did you know that in the state of Florida we are “Racing to the Top” for extra money & funding for our schools but will only be given such things we the state starts to see 100% of our students making learning gains and achieving the goals set in place. I read not too long ago that that would be like asking doctors to save their patients 100% of the time. Is that possible?

I wrote this on Facebook today because this is how I feel. This is how a lot of teachers feel.

What was wrong with the education I got? The education my parents or these politicians got? We have taken the fun out of teaching and learning and have turned the school day into seven & half hours of the kids watching the clock (even at the age of my fourth graders) for when the bell will ring and they can go home. Home to their Xbox’s, iPhones, Facebook, and television shows. We have turned it into tests and data and A schools and F schools.

Yes, this is my soapbox and I’m getting off of it now. Whew, it feels good to let it all out.

P.S. I did speak with my students about what is being said on the news about the scores because one of them came in saying, “Did you see, we bombed the writing test”. I don’t want them to think they “bombed” anything. I want them to know they are smart and we’ve worked hard this year and that they are more than a score on some test. So, in return, I spent my reading group time today playing Scrabble with my students.

Why? Becuase it’s fun & educational and they are just burnt out at this point. Well, and so am I. It turned into quite the game, with the entire class watching at one point for one student to figure out where to put his ‘J’ and ‘A’ in order to get a 20 point lead. Sadly, he never found the spot. Did you know, some kids (at the age of 10) have never played Scrabble before?

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