How ‘data walls’ in classrooms can humiliate young kids
The Washington Post has long been one of my favorite sites to visit for information about education in the United States. While this article isn't specifically about Texas, it is about a trend that affects all teachers and students.
Governments, led by software and textbook companies, have been pushing for accountability. They determine accountability with standardized tests. These standardized tests determine government funding for school districts and determines which districts will get the gold star of achievement and which districts will get the embarrassing "academically unacceptable" tag.
The standardized tests put school districts into a frenzy to make their students and teachers perform at the government approved standard. One way that the districts prepare themselves for tests is by collecting data. If a district can collect enough data (using expensive software made by the companies that pushed for standardized tests and curriculum) then the district hopes to know where it's weaknesses are before the big test day.
Data is important for teachers but it is important that data frenzied school districts don't make teachers lose sight of the human beings in their classrooms. Data can make teachers see students like they have "STAAR test failure" tattooed on their forehead. And who can blame the teachers for seeing that? The school administrators see that same thing tattooed on the teachers' foreheads. The school district leadership sees that same tattoo on the school administrators' foreheads. The Texas Education Agency put those stamps on everybody's forehead.
If you have the time, check out the STAAR statewide summary reports for 2012-2013. (I clicked on the 8th grade link because I taught 8th graders for the 2012-2013 school year). When you look at the summary report you can see that 344,283 8th graders were tested. That is 344,283 individual human beings with hopes and fears. Students who were grounded for not doing their chores, students without parents, homeless students, students who lost a family member, students who contemplate suicide, or students who were planning birthday parties or quinceaneras. The data sheet eliminates the humanity from teaching and turns students into numbers that can be manipulated in every way imaginable by the Texas Education Agency.
