Cheating is not an option

The New York Times ran a story recently titled: Pressed to Show Progress, Educators Tamper with Test Scores. The article is about teachers supplying their students with test questions and in some cases, changing the answer sheets, all to raise their students’ scores.

Why would a teacher, a role model for his or her students, take such a drastic action?

The answer is clear:  “test stress.”

Testing in America– and in many countries around the world–is so stressful that teachers “feel their schools’ reputation, their livelihoods, their psychic meaning in life is at stake,” says Robert Schaeffer, of FairTest.

Something is  badly out of balance if teachers are cheating.  Testing should be formative– students should learn from the process– not just about the subject matter, but about themselves.  If they are learning that cheating is an option,  that is unacceptable– not just for the teachers doing it, but for our society that perpetrates such high-stakes, over-the-top stress to cause this to happen.

This should be a wake-up call to President Obama and his Secretary of Education Arne Duncan to  take a good hard look at what testing is really doing to students, teachers and parents.  Before we get even further into this mess with more and more testing,  let’s ask the question: are we really measuring student achievement with all our tests or are we just giving people opportunities to find any means possible to get the highest scores?

Sadly, I believe it’s the latter.

Again, testing should be transformative. Students can learn how to be calm,. confident and focused when they take a test, and these skills will transfer over to any challenge in life.  Cheating does none of that and worse.

Things didn’t work out the way he planned.  Uncharacteristically, his test performance was sub-par. He barely got through.  This was a smart,

well-prepared individual, and it was hard for everyone, the student included, to understand what went wrong.

“Here’s where the 3 legged stool came in,” the teacher said. “The student was certainly confident– he was experienced with the procedure.  That leg was strong. But although he tried to keep a good ‘game face’ and appear like everything was all right, he was quite upset about the family situation. In other words, he wasn’t calm.  But the really wobbly leg was his focus–he was thinking about the people in his family, the lost loved one, and having to catch a plane to get to the funeral. His attention wasn’t on the test.”

The teacher had performed a great service to the student by framing the test experience in this way. He elevated the discussion to a much more meaningful level than just a grade.  The teacher helped the student to look at his own experience in a way that had meaning, and implications well beyond his training. Through the lens of the 3-legged stool the teacher guided the student to understand what’s truly going on. His ability to focus was severely weakened in this particular circumstance.

In the course of our daily lives, in and out of work, we are all faced with challenges big and small. Sometimes these challenges are in the work itself, sometimes they are simply part of life. The 3 legged stool is a secure platform on which we can handle any of these challenges.  Calm, confident and focused.

Ultimately, tests are not just about learning the right “stuff,” they are about continuing to grow and live  to our full potential.

The calm, confident and focused teacher

As the health care debate nears some resolution (at least for the time being), the legislative agenda is already setting its compass to point towards education. A lead article in the New York Times titled “Obama Calls for a Major Change in the Education Law,” the President and his Secretary of Education Arnie Duncan are calling for a re-visioning of No Child Left Behind.

(see referenced article link to ‘Major Change in Education Law’)

One of the key features of the new policy is the focus on teachers and how they teach.

Quoting the article: The administration’s proposals would also rework the law’s teacher-quality provisions by requiring states to develop evaluation procedures to distinguish effective instructors, partly based on whether their students are learning.

I read this to mean: teachers are going to be tested. Big time. I don’t mean…

that they’re going to be sat down with test booklets and scantrons, but their very work itself will be under the microscope and evaluated. The test for teachers is going to focus on two questions: how are teachers going their jobs, and  effective are they?  Certainly, student performance will be an indicator of teacher success, but there will be a great deal more attention to how teachers are instrumental in making that success happen… or not.   This doesn’t have to do only with “teaching to the test,” but the way teachers carry out their jobs.  Do they instill confidence in their students? Do they motivate them staying focused so they can succeed? Do they show them how to be calm and centered in the face of ongoing challenges?

It’s the same three legged stool: calm, confident and focused. It’s the same platform for successful performance, whether you are a teacher, a student, a politician, an opera singer, or a pro athlete.

When a teacher is calm, confident and focused he or she radiates the qualities that every student needs to succeed.

Everyone wants to succeed. Everyone can learn to be calm, confident and focused. Our teachers light that light inside of each of us.

The Workbook as textbook for basic skills course

Recently I learned that Mendocino College is offering a course titled Test Anxiety and Test Taking Skills.  The course description reads:  “The mental, emotional, and physical aspects of test anxiety. General life stressors, school related stressors and techniques for eliminating or reducing anxiety. Studying for a test and test-taking strategies will be emphasized.”

A course with this title and purpose was so intriguing to me that….

I contacted the instructor, Debra Tannenbaum, and she and I had a most lively conversation. Turns out that this course is under the “basic skills” initiative: to give students the foundational tools they need to succeed.  Ms. Tannenbaum, a licensed Marriage and Family Therapist, inherited the course and the text from a former instructor. She discovered the text was out-of-print. A self-described “internet person,” Ms Tannenbaum went web-hunting and was led to my book, which she ordered. She liked what she read and it became the text for the class!  I’ve written to the class to send me their questions and stories about test taking and test anxiety.  I am very honored by Ms. Tannenbaum’s choice. And I am very happy that colleges are providing the real skills that students need to succeed– not only on tests but in life.

Alan Sitomer: one passionate teacher

I have been reading, with great interest, the postings of a California teacher, Alan Lawrence Sitomer.  His committed work and passionate voice first came to my attention last week with a blog post titled, “Raise your test scores, that’s all they want.”

I highly recommend that every teacher start tuning in to Mr. Sitomer’s blog. They will find mirrored there the many questions, frustrations, joys, challenges, and tests that every thinking, heart-centered teacher has.

In stepping up to the inevitability of standardized tests and the unfortunate (many would say unfair) importance placed on them in our society, Mr. Sitomer, states, “and so, like every other teacher in my school, I have to play they way they want me to play or else they will remove me from my position and bring in other teachers to do as they wish.” Accepting that sad-but-too-true reality, he goes on to state, with firy determination that he is going to “crack” the test. “Standardized tests by their very nature are ‘crackable’ and if you put me in front of the guillotine, well… I have a job I’d like to keep.”

One of the vital, most affirming aspects of Mr. Sitomer’s  commitment is that he is stepping up to the plate and tackling a real challenge of his job. Just like the kids don’t like to take those tests, teachers don’t like spending valuable time and energy (theirs and their students) in hours and hours of test prep. Yet they are part of our reality and we have to deal with them.

“Deal with them” can mean a few things– familiarizing students with test content, test questions and strategies for answering. All important, certainly in the test prep process.  The part that is missing– and that I, just as passionately ask that every teacher, principal, and school superintendent — is that there are foundational skills for approaching tests.  And these skills are not about test content, but about the person taking (or teaching about) the test. They are the skills for being calm, confident and focused.  The same skills that we need when we face life’s tests.  I don’t know about you– but I’m facing tests on a daily basis, and I’ve had my Ph.D for 30 years!

Let’s face it– as Mr. Sitomer is so bravely doing– life is filled with many things we don’t like to do but we have to do. We don’t choose many of the tests we have in life, but we can choose how we approach them.

I applaud Alan Sitomer– no wonder he was the 2007 California Teacher of the Year.  How fortunate his students are, as are we, his fellow teachers.

Stay tuned to:   http://www.alanlawrencesitomer.com/category/blog/

PTO Emery is a bright light in East Bay

On Monday night I had the honor of being the featured speaker at the Emeryville Unified School district’s parent teacher’s association meeting. After a delicious holiday dinner we all moved into the library of Emery Secondary School and PTO President Brynnda Collins introduced me. The school district generously provided each parent at the meeting with a copy of my book. I gave a talk on the book and particularly chapter 5, “How to Calm Down.”  I think the material in this chapter is particularly helpful for parents when their kids are stressed out about tests.

It was a great group. We had so much fun as I led them through the calming tools.

When the talk was over we had a lively Q&A. One parent enthusiastically endorsed everything I had talked about, commenting that “these tools are good for young children too,” citing a school project where K-5 students were taught techniques for breathing, yoga and being quieter and their test scores substantially upped.  I was delighted to hear this. She said with conviction, “I really believe kids should learn this when they are young.”

The more we can use school time– from the earliest grades–to give our students effective life skills– like how to deal with testing and other stressful situations in a calmer way, the more we are building healthy, contributing members of our community.  I am hopeful that every one of the parents at the PTO meeting will follow up with their questions and observations on how the book helps them and their child.  I am greatly appreciative of their passion in making the testing process more humane and growth-producing instead of stressing everybody out, parents, teachers and kids included.  Bravissimo Emery parents!

Nieves Stiker, an educator involved in GED test prep classes in Pennsylvania said. “Some people come to us and feel very adequate within a couple of weeks while others, no matter how hard they study, it’s harder. Sometimes, it takes more than one try.”

In my performance model – the three-legged stool — focus is a critical leg. Without it you cannot achieve any measure of success. In other words, you will not get anywhere in life.

In regard to testing, focus is a noun  and a verb. There is a goal of scoring well on the test, and there is work toward that goal.

Being focused is, ultimately and intimately, linked to a powerful source in you-your spirit. Think of your spirit as your power generator. It produces the energy that sparks every one of your achievements.

I hope GED test takers read Chapter Six: How to Stay Focused.

Here’s a pointer. While the goal of doing well in GED seems large and overwhelming to many, remember this: any goal can be broken down into small, manageable chunks. These are action steps. Action steps break up the process of achieving a goal into do-able increments. I use the simple SMART formula to make action steps work.

Specific. Your goal is precise and well defined.

Measurable. You can gauge whether you’ve reached it or not.

Adjustable. You can adapt or modify it if you need to.

Realistic. Your goals are attainable given your available time, energy and resources.

Time-based. Whatever goal you set is linked to the clock or calendar.

Whether you are a GED test-taker or teacher, I’d like to hear from you.

You might be interested in the article about the GED test-takers.

I’m on my way to New Orleans to speak at a conference for the Coalition for Essential Schools Conference, a group of progressive educators across the country. My talk is  MAKING TESTING EMPOWERING.  I speak on Friday. Keep you posted.  In the meanwhile, GED’ers– keep empowering yourselves!

http://www.wboc.com/Global/story.asp?S=11415560

Despite low test scores, some schools in Maryland have taken a different approach to making sure students learn. The teacher are making the difference. Through their tireless hard work they try a range of approaches, including games, and– noteworthy to me, “When students make a mistake their teaches tell them not to be embarrassed and work it through with either a partner or teacher.

I’ve written chapter in my book specifically for teachers. They need support for their great service. Teaching is arguably one of the most challenging professions in the world. It demands on-going attention to an ever-changing flux of variables – from an individual student’s cognitive and emotional growth to dynamic group factors, from highly charged cultural and political issues to rapid advances in technology and information processing. Keeping a finger on the pulse of all this is a full-time, virtually non-stop, excruciatingly difficult job, and yet that’s what teachers are expected to do. The dedicated teacher has to be wide-awake and ready to meet the challenges of an ever-evolving system.

I started writing this book for students. It is meant to equip students – high school, college, graduate – with the nine tools for being calm, confident and focused on any test – the qualities necessary for success in performance situations. Teachers started using the model too and reporting excellent results. Teachers who are calm, confident and focused are less stressed and more successful in their role in the classroom. They are also more exemplary as role models for their students.

By the way, I am giving a workshop 4-5 pm today at UCSF Mission Bay Campus. Free. Open to public. Both students and teachers are welcome. Come say hello and bring your questions. See post directly below (Nov 2) for details.

If you are stressed out over tests, you have come to the right place. If you want higher test scores, you will find the path here. If you’re a student, a teacher, a school administrator or an educational policy maker, and want to improve test results, read on. THE WORKBOOK FOR TEST SUCCESS: How to Be Calm, Confident and Focused on Any Test is for you.

[See post to watch QuickTime movie]

We are thrilled to be online and sharing the THE WORKBOOK FOR TEST SUCCESS. Advance copies of the book are already selling quickly! Generous, thoughtful sponsors are providing copies, free, to University of the Pacific in San Francisco; the Young Musicians Program at Cal Berkeley; and to Etgar, a summer traveling  program for teens. Corporate and philanthropic sponsors are  gifting the book to schools, parent teacher associations and to youth development groups. Two wonderful teen summer interns are employed (under the stimulus package!) to work on the book launch. Great things to come! And please be patient with us.  With all the interest in the book we want to get this blog/website up and running.

Stay tuned!