“What You Test is What You Get”

Gallagher puts a new spin on the old saying “what you give is what you get” in his book Readicide. He declares that “what you test is what you get,” meaning that the kind of knowledge that we test our students on is the kind of knowledge that our students will possess. This phrase gives light to one of the many discriminatory policies in our country, the No Child Left Behind Act, which has been shaping our education system’s culture since 2002. This policy among many others, such as housing, healthcare, and unemployment disproportionately hurt low income and minority students. No Child Left Behind advances the idea of high stakes, standardized testing as an effective means of assessing and improving students’ education, while economically punishing schools that do not meet the policy’s standards. However, these standardized tests assess lower levels of knowledge, as opposed to critical and creative thinking skills that are actually necessary for our students’ lives long term. Since schools face immense pressure to perform well on tests, then curriculum is created around preparing students for the tests. We are getting students with lower thinking skills because that is what we are teaching them with our curriculum and tests. Schools with low income and minority students generally perform lower than more affluent schools already for many reasons. They are under funded and students face additional obstacles outside of the classroom. Due to their already lack of funding and low performance, the pressure to “teach to the test” is much greater for these low income schools. It is our minority and low-income students who are most negatively impacted by this shallow thinking, test prep curriculum.

Gallagher demonstrates the ineffectiveness of policies focusing on standardized tests and the curriculum that forms from these policies.  Bonus: he also offers teachers solutions through research and his own personal experience as a teacher in low-income communities.  Because we all know that we talk all day about how ineffective something is, but until you have tangible actionable solutions for those challenges, I frankly don’t have time for you.

Gallagher begins with some interesting research to show the shortcomings of the culture that No Child Left Behind policies create:

·      The National Assessment of Educational Progress shows that secondary students are reading significantly below expected levels (pg. 2).

·      Half of the students tested on the ACT College Readiness Benchmark for Reading were ready for college-level reading, and the 2005 scores were the lowest in the decade (pg. 3).

·      By fourth grade, African American students in thirteen states are already three years of learning behind grade level. By eighth grade, reading achievement for African American students remains two or more years behind grade level in thirty-six states. The numbers for Latino students aren’t much better (pg. 14 accompanied by a chart).

·      (In Texas) While students showed a 20 percent increase on state tests, there was a sharp decrease in their college readiness…students in Texas have not improved on the SAT since the early 1990s (pg. 20).

·      Since 2002 when the No Child Left Behind Act went into place (increasing the pressure to perform well on standardized testing), eighth grade reading scores for all students has remained the same AND the achievement gap between poor and non poor students has remained the same (pg. 21-22).

·      Both dropouts and high school graduates are demonstrating significantly worse reading skills than they did ten years ago (pg. 115).

This is just a portion of the research that he cites to show that policies calling for greater standardized testing focus not only do fail to work, but negatively affects students. Gallagher does offer some hope in light of these policies and their damaging effects. He proposes strategies for teachers to change the culture in their own classroom to one that teaches critical, creative thinking skills that are valuable to students lives short and long term. He shows that these strategies actually improve test scores, as well.  I will only focus on two of his classroom strategies that I feel are very applicable to low income communities; although, they are all extremely beneficial to teachers of all curriculum and I encourage you to check them out in more detail in his book.

Widen the knowledge base:

Why it is important-

Students from low-income communities have fewer first hand experiences to build their knowledge base, such as opportunities to travel. Additionally, they have less access to books, news, and Internet to provide them with a second hand knowledge base. Background knowledge is an essential piece of reading comprehension. If students do not know the historical context of a passage, then it does not matter whether or not they can read the words, they will not be able to comprehend the meaning.

Strategies offered by Gallagher-

·      We can give out students that background knowledge by giving them more reading. “Student who have the broadest reading experiences score the highest on standardized tests” and the opposite is true, as well.

·      Teach novels and use shorter reading passages to enrich the concepts being learned in the novels.

·      Increase sustained silent reading, so that students learn to enjoy reading and then will read more outside of school; therefore, increasing their background knowledge.

·      Advocate for your school to have a variety of high interest, multi-topic books on campus.

Teach the Value of the Material:

Why it is important-

Gallagher asserts, “when students read books solely through the lens of test preparation, they miss out on the opportunity to read books through the lens of life preparation”. Life preparation is needed by many of our students in the here and now. Due to discriminatory policies and obstacles specific to low income communities, these students encounter issues that hinder their success in school. For example, students may not have enough to eat at home, they may care for siblings, they may live in unsafe neighborhoods, and they may work to help support their family. In the minds of many students, the knowledge they are obtaining in schools is unrelated to their actual life. If we want students to engage and work, then we must show them that the material they learn in school is in fact applicable to their life now and later on or all of their stresses outside of school will seem in much greater need of their energy and attention.

Strategies offered by Gallagher:

·      Preview a portion of the material or book that shows how it is important to the students’ life.

·      Use articles to show how a concept they are about to learn relates to an issue that affects the student and their community.

·      Have students brainstorm ways they have seen a specific topic/concept in their own lives.

My challenge to all educators is to create tests and curriculum that teach critical, creative thinking skills that prepare our students for all aspects of their life, not just the day of the standardized test. My challenge to everyone is to hold schools to the standard of life prep not test prep. Strengthen this by contacting your administrators, school board members, and political representatives and demand that our country’s policies are just and fair for everyone despite their background. 

For more about Kelly Gallagher and his books go to http://kellygallagher.org/.