My hope in this series of short posts is to call attention to some simple steps that will improve public schools (and, by extension, the life chances of more children). Last week in this space I lobbied for LOOPING, the practice of keeping a teacher with her/his students for two consecutive years.  

Another easy step: PLAY.  Schoolchildren used to enjoy recess, which was recognized as an important part of developing ‘sound minds in healthy bodies.’ (And play’s benefits are extensive and well-documented.) However, the disastrous federal law known as No Child Left Behind (2002, George W. Bush) and the equally bad federal policy known as Race to the Top (2009, Barack Obama) changed public education dramatically. Henceforth, instead of test scores being one means of evaluating individual students, entire schools would be judged (and penalized) according to their students’ overall performance on standardized tests, and test scores alone.  Overnight, this forced public schools to focus their energy on standardized test scores in Math and English Language Arts, because their schools could be closed and their jobs eliminated if the school did not make ‘Adequate Yearly Progress.’  As a direct consequence, most public schools eliminated or severely curtailed recess, free play and Physical Education, instead forcing teachers and students to spend that time getting ready for tests.  “Drill and Kill” replaced the thrill of running around the playground or playing dodgeball in the gym.  Gone too were ‘non-essential’ classes like Art, Music, and Drama, even though their benefits are also well documented, as in this recent New York Times article.  

Another immediate consequence: widespread cheating by some administrators and teachers, under duress and fearful of losing their jobs. They ‘helped’ students get the right answers and also changed answers before sending the tests to be machine-scored.

While what is called ‘test-based accountability’ cannot be made to disappear, recess, free play, and Physical Education (along with Art, Music, Drama, and other extra-curricular courses can be brought back.  And change is in the air.  As the Washington Post reported, “In January, Education Secretary Miguel Cardona acknowledged that the testing regime needs to change, saying in a speech: “We need to recognize once and for all that standardized tests work best when they serve as a flashlight on what works and what needs our attention — not as hammers to drive the outcomes we want in education from the top down.”

The push to reduce testing has one good friend in Congress, former public school principal turned Congressman, Jamaal Bowman of New York. He has introduced the More Teaching Less Testing Act (HR 1741), which would eliminate the current federal requirement for annual testing in Math and English Language Arts in grades 3-8 (and once more in high school) and some testing in science. It would allow sampling, a cost-effective and efficient way to measure progress. 

(If you’re dubious about sampling’s accuracy, then you should ask your doctor to withdraw and test ALL your blood at your annual physical!)

Bowman told the Washington Post that he knows from his own personal experience that “standardized tests don’t provide teachers with any information about their students they don’t already know and that the massive amount of test preparation robs students of quality learning time.

“Test-based accountability” has turned too many public schools into pressure cookers, unhappy places for children and adults alike.  Because I’ve written about this entirely preventable educational disaster  in Addicted to Reform, I won’t go into detail here, but, if you want children to actually enjoy learning, please push your local school boards for more PLAY.