Should legislators be required to spend a week in a public school to understand the FCAT feeding frenzy?

Part I in a series on Florida schools and FCAT

Standardized tests like FCAT challenge students, teachers and parents. How much test prep is enough? How much is too much? The Florida legislature is debating those questions with the proposal known as PCB SLC 08-01. As a parent introduced to FCAT by way of her middle-school student after we moved to Florida, I can honestly say emphasis on the test taught my child nothing. I can also say the test taught me a great deal, namely where our daughter needed extra work. I can finally say the extra work occurred at our kitchen table, with a goal to see our child earn a Bright Futures scholarship, which she did. Had she not passed FCAT, she would not have walked in the graduation ceremony.

Some kids are good at one subject and lousy in another
Our daughter, a basic ace at reading, writing and anything related to words, viewed math in the same way she might view a large pimple on her nose the night before prom. She was determined to get FCAT out of the way at the first opportunity and she succeeded. She had coaching from our older daughter (rocket science math), my husband (percentages and profits) and me (problem solving and data interpretation). How many kids have that kind of assistance? How many parents can make time for that? How many college kids are close enough to home (and willing) to help tutor a younger sibling?

Testing is definitely needed
I believe schools do need a test to determine whether a student has met standards. I do not believe a single test intended as a teaching instrument should be the end all, however. There is a complete lack of common sense at play. Because if your child does need extra work in a subject area, the system is not set up to address that. Our own child did take courses we hoped would help her. She also took any number of required courses that in our opinion were a complete waste of time. But she was close to the middle and most of her classmates were a world away from that point, either at the top end or the bottom. Math was her holy terror. So we used our own brains as well as the Web and print materials to coach her at home. I still have problems understanding the under-utilization of the computer in helping children build skills. Our daughter sat through one math class that did absolutely nothing to inch her towards her goal. Her first year in college, she took a math course online and earned a solid B. The real payoff came because she actually retained what she learned.

Legislators should do front-line duty
I’d like to propose my own bill. I’d ask every member of the state legislature to spend one week in a public school. Funds, accolades and penalty blows are delivered by the strong arm of FCAT. The proposed bill prohibits using appropriated money to teach to the test. Once again you will sabotage teachers. Schools with large groups of active parents will simply raise money to fill this need. Schools with large groups of inactive parents will continue to do little or nothing. Meanwhile, our tendency to establish magnet schools that attract accomplished students will continue to create a vacuum in regular schools. While magnet schools are an excellent option—our own child attended one—it makes no sense to deny the impact on the rest of the schools.

What do we really hope to accomplish?
The objective of education should be to enable the teacher to actually teach the child. Instead, the objective of education today is data sheet analysis, scores for children and schools and ammo for politicians. I don't think there's ever been a time when we leveled so many exercises in futility on teachers.

I attended a unique school in a small Southern town until 5th grade. I then moved on to attend our county schools. My graduating class outscored the rest of the nation’s students by 100 points on the SAT. How did we manage?

Tune in next week.

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