TOMMIE SAYLOR: If we are going to establish state mandated tests, let's do it the right way

“When you wage war on the public schools, you’re attacking the mortar that holds the community together.  You’re not a Conservative, you’re a vandal.”

Garrison Keillor

By Tommie Saylor

Kennedy High School Principal

Once again, the State of Michigan does not understand basic educational methodology. It is changing the State Mandated Test.  Or should I more accurately say, has decided to defund the current SAT test, and will no longer have schools give the M-Step test. 

The real issue is that the state has not yet made an announcement as to what will replace the SAT and M-Step.  In the eyes of our legislators, the next testing cycle is a year away, so they feel that they have plenty of time to pick and fund a new standardized test.  In reality, if a new standardized test is not selected soon (by the end of this school year?) then it is almost certain that our students will not do well on whatever test they select. 

That will happen because, without advanced notice, teachers will not be able to adjust their curriculums to accommodate the new test.  If the State of Michigan waits too long to select their latest version of educational assessment, students will suffer and schools will appear to be failing their most basic mission. 

What is truly horrific is that this is not the first time the State of Michigan has traveled this road.  In fact, this is the third consecutive year in which the state has announced a change in its mandated test. If it follows the same pattern established the last two years, it will not announce the new test in time for schools to make the necessary curriculum changes to be successful. 

The State of Michigan has proven once again that they do not understand educational methodology, the process that educators utilize when creating curriculum, assessments and lessons. 

Good educational methodology starts by answering this question: “What do you want the students to know?” Of all the nuances of any specific subject or field of study, before you can teach the material to the students, you need to make a determination as to what you want the students to know and master. 

Once this has been determined, then you must answer this question: “How will we know that the students have learned the material?” Some type of measurement must be created to determine what the students have mastered, and this is often accomplished by what we call a final exam. 

After the exam has been created, then the educator must divide the material to be taught into small “bite size” pieces or units, each with their own assessment (test) that is directly related to the final exam. It measures the student’s level of mastery of the material taught in that specific unit. 

Only after the individual unit assessments have been made, can the instructor begin creating lessons that prepare the students for the unit tests. That process leads and prepares the students for the final exam, which measures if the students learned the material we wanted them to learn. 

In essence, good educational methodology dictates that we create the test before we deliver the lesson, not after the lesson has been taught.

Some people argue that this method is “just teaching to the test.” I agree, because if you’re not teaching to the test then you are just crazy, or more accurately, committing educational malpractice.

The test is an assessment of what you want the students to know.  If you’re not teaching what you want the students to know, then you’re just wasting time in the classroom. And that is time, I may add, that can ill afford to be wasted. 

The State of Michigan does not seem to understand this process. They keep changing the assessment. They keep moving the target, without letting those of us in the classroom know what they want the students to master before the lessons have been taught.

When that process results in poor test scores, they are quick to blame those of us in the classroom for not properly preparing the students to take a test – when we had no idea what was on the test.

This is just another example of why politics should play no part in the educational process, and why non-educators should never be allowed to make such basic educational decisions. 

How and where will you lead them. Making Kennedy the school of choice. Excellence by design.