Somewhere Under the Rainbow

I realized sometime on Friday, as my actual position became more clear to me: I work for the man.

And not the good kind, not the life-affirming man. I work for the man I've never understood nor liked much.

Here's how this happened:

The school district in which I now make my meager living has to maintain a bunch of stuff in order to be accredited. This includes having a certain number of seniors making a certain level of scores on the ACT. Our current goal is getting as many people as possible to score over a 21.

Now I don't think I have to tell you how I feel about standardized tests; they are great for college, as long as they are part of an overall picture, but testing the hell out of our kids isn't going to make them smarter, or even see how much they know. It's going to see how well they take standardized tests. Once again, a fine skill for measuring college aptitude (I.. guess?) but not, I think, for judging a school's merits.

So what's happening is, this district needs to pull it up, so they've called in the experts. Kaplan really does have some sweet techniques that will make test-taking a lot easier for these students. But, they are seniors. And it's March. It's too late to be applying to school, so unless they are taking the year off, they have already either gotten into the school they want to go to, or they have decided not to go-- a higher score can help them personally because they can get more money from some schools, but mostly this is something that will help the school record and boost toward accreditation. They are now being pulled out of this or that class every couple of days so I can teach them how to better take the test.

And sure, they'll be kicking the crap out of the test, if they pay attention and put in a little effort. But they're missing real class for this, because somewhere high up there was a mandate that these kids within a certain scoring range go through a certain number of tutoring hours and retake the test. I feel bad for them, even as I am trying to motivate them to listen to me and do what I say.

I want to believe that I am helping someone by giving them the tools to improve their lives. I want schools to be rich and full of resources, and clamoring with kids who want to make the most of all of it.

It's about time for me to go back to Fantasy Land (GHP), eh?