SOS March

I wish I could have been there are the SOS march. I wish I could have seen Matt Damon speak. I wish I could have been a fly on the wall to hear Arne Duncan's response. And, I'm proud of all the hard work teachers around the nation have done to be part of the conversation on education reform.

With all that being said, real ed reform shouldn't be just a reaction to standardized testing. We have had standardized testing for the 18 years I have been teaching. The reaction is about how standardized testing is used. Testing, all testing, any testing, any kind of assessment, should be used to shape instruction. It is OF COURSE teacher feedback and good teachers use that data to shape their classroom instruction. Every year, I have reviewed strand data from standardized tests to determine what skills my students lacked and then targeted instruction to those skills. BUT...and this is a BIG BUT

BUT, I don't JUST use standardized tests. I use my ears and listen to what my students say, I use my eyes and read what my students write, I use my heart and feel when students are frustrated with their learning. Standards are not bad things, they shape instruction. The problem is that standards are limited about what they can tell us.

Even in the suburbs, I have students who come to class hungry, not knowing where they'll sleep that night, or worried about being pregnant, abused, loved, etc. They're not concerned about the standards. And you know what, sometimes I'm not either. I'm concerned with making sure they have a place to sleep that night, something to eat that morning, and someone to talk to about their fears. That's because I'm a teacher.

There may have only been 5,000 teachers in DC last month, but there were thousands across other states with the same message. It's not all about standardized testing, it's not all about the funding, it's not all about teacher accountability. It's about the kid who needs a granola bar at 7:30 to make it to lunch. It's about the kid who sleeps on a friends couch and comes to school wearing the same close the next morning. It's about them and what we do for them. Let's try to do right by them, ok?

http://www.cnn.com/2011/US/08/05/sos.march.teachers/index.html?iref=allsearch