Influencing Instruction
By Dr. Eugene Maier |
Recently, while browsing J. W. A. Young's classic, "The Teaching of Mathematics in the Elementary and Secondary School," published in 1907, I came across the following statement: "[Examinations] as a test of the pupil's attainments by some outside authority and in accordance with some outside standard... may be regarded as necessary evils and their influence upon instruction as bad... In any system in which all or nearly all hinges upon the result of an examination of some outside authority, the examination is a fact, to which the teacher is compelled to bend his teaching, and no amount of theorizing will ever lead him to do otherwise. Fortunately, this extreme form of examination is by no means predominant in the United States."
I wondered what Young, Professor of the Pedagogy of Mathematics Education in the University of Chicago, would write today, when the "extreme form of examination" of which he speaks has indeed become predominant in the United States. Departments of education throughout the land have turned to statewide examinations as a means of assessing student achievement and, if certain political factions have their way, nationwide tests are imminent. Here in Oregon, "content standards" have been established and statewide assessment which aims to measure students' attainment of these standards has been inaugurated at grades 3, 5, 8, and 10. Further, students must meet the grade 10 state performance standards in order to receive a Certificate of Initial Mastery which, if all goes as planned, will be required for high school graduation by 2003.
Political issues may debilitate the whole process. While, on the one hand, the American public will decry a perceived erosion of standards, on the other hand, as long as society maintains that a high school diploma is necessary for every respectable adult endeavor, parents and other interest groups will insist that their daughters and sons graduate, whatever the circumstances. Already, scoring of the tests has been adjusted. After last year's assessment in which only 39% of tenth graders met the state's standard for writing and 31% met the math problem-solving standard, the scoring method has been changed so that under the new method, these percentages would have been 44% and 39%, respectively. The state school superintendent maintained that the new scoring method was not a lowering of standards but "a much more accurate indicator of student achievement" and a state school board member said, in a deft bit of logic, "I definitely don't see this as weakening standards. The same total number is being called for. It's just that how it's computed is different." Despite these protestations, I suspect the hue and cry over the low scores had something to do with it. And, I suspect, adjustments will continue until a societally respectable number of students meet the standards or, what is more likely, other ways than meeting state standards will be devised to certify the successful completion of a high school program.
Meanwhile, one wonders what the influence of all these examinations on instruction will be. Would Young, if alive today, still view it as "bad?" I suspect so. Even though the nature of the tests may have radically changed over the last century -- and one can't fault the state assessment for its effort to emphasize conceptual knowledge, problem-solving proficiencies and communication skills over rote learning -- Young's basic premise still holds: teachers feel compelled to bend their teaching to the test. One would hardly expect otherwise, when their competency as teachers is judged on their students' scores. Most teachers, faced with this situation, won't focus on the quality of their mathematics instruction, they will focus on getting good test scores.
Unfortunately, getting good test scores doesn't depend on good mathematics instruction. Good math