We have heard so much about the new climate of high-stakes testing. We’ve heard so much about the curriculum alignment needed to ensure that we are measuring what we are teaching. We knew it was on the horizon, and now it is here. Is it business as usual?
From what I see out there across the country, I don’t think so.
Take Texas. I know many of you would prefer not to take Texas…including Texans. Third graders this year (not next year, this year) will face what I call a “GO/NO-GO” test.
That’s right, if you don’t pass the 3rd grade TAKS* test, you don’t enter the fourth grade.
When I announce this in states outside Texas, the gasps are audible. Then, when I ask the audience to consider what it would be like teaching fourth grade next year, they clap furiously. No, it is not business as usual.
As in Texas, California has taken strong, expensive steps to strengthen their early literacy program. The state has prepared to stop the cycles of early school failure by mandating — no, legislating that all early literacy teachers receive professional development on phonemic awareness and phonics instruction. Thereby allowing for early identification of those attributes, or the lack thereof, which contribute to early reading vulnerability.
In both of these very large states, as well as in Florida, an enormous number of young children, many living in poverty and many speaking more than one language, are receiving some of the critical support that they need. As these youngsters move closer to the gate-keeping early assessments, they are far more prepared. These children, and the educators who share their fate, have arrived.
The implications of this are enormous. Allow me give you the good news first: We have a large number of students in the pipeline prepared for the rigor of differing content area text structures and specific vocabulary, the backbone of real learning. Now the challenge: Middle school and high school teachers, faced with challenging assessments for their youngsters, have found themselves in the reading remediation business big time for the next five, or six years. After that, youngsters (or at least the almost 40% that currently read more than two grade levels below their own) should arrive to content area classes prepared to read grade level, content area materials. What a concept!
* Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills
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