When Test Scores Hurt

This summer I have bitten off more than my fare share of jobs. One job in particular has quickly turned my workload from pretty chill to almost unmanageable: teaching Upward Bound students math. To add a little perspective, Upward Bound is a program run by a government funded agency called TRIO aimed at increasing the enrollment of minorities and first generation college students in college. The students I teach are mostly rising juniors in high school. Oh and let me not forget my favoritest detail (yeah I said favoritest) I am teaching three different courses: Geometry, Algebra II, and Pre-Calculus. And just for the complete picture I'm not a former math teacher, I taught science. If you have ever taught or known a teacher really well you'll understand the following equation: three preps + inexperience in the field = planning Hell.

Now that I got my little venting session out I can share my opinion on testing in math and how in some cases it is leading to our kids getting cheated. While giving assessments to determine the proficiency levels of my students in the first week of teaching upward bound I began to see a troubling commonality across all of the classes. One students were very uncomfortable answering questions not in multiple choice format and two they were even further disheveled by the prospect of not using a calculator.

I'll just say something breifly about the calculator bit. I support students being proficient in the use of calculators, but I know it isn't good for 16-17 year olds to depend on calculators for simple task like multiplying numbers from 1 to 12. Even worse I noticed kids reaching for the calculator to add and subtract small negative numbers. Many of our children's dependence on the calculator is baffling and saddening and I am confident that our country's current testing practices are related to this dependence. Not the only reason but definitely a noteworthy contributor.

Back to my observations of how the students approach math test and questions related to math in general. Again the questions I chose to give the students were non-multiple choice, little did I know I was choosing to incite a mini revolt. Students basically complained that they needed answer choices to complete the math questions on the assessment. Why? Why would you need the right answer to stare you in the face while surrounded by wrong answers to answer a question. Well, the students were using all of the possible answers to work backwards to determine which was the correct solution. Now while I think this is an awesome test taking skill to utilize, it is not exactly what I would call the practice of an individual who has mastered a concept. Even more the way many of the questions are set up if you have a calculator and know the right buttons to push you can get the calculator to do the work for you.

Again for the students who have mastered the skill of working in reverse from possible solutions to find a correct answer using a calculator does show some intellectual growth. Unfortunately this growth is very surface level as it does not deepen the students logical understanding of the mathematical processes that are the proposed (or at least should be) focus of the math curriculum. Students using the calculator have instead constructed a route memory of a set of steps that are not transferable to any other situations. Don't get me wrong route memory is good for somethings(i.e. memorizing time tables), but if that is how you know how to solve a system of equations problem, you lose the value of knowing how to apply those skills. This point is the whole point of this blog, if you have a simplistic surface level understanding of a mathematical concept only to pass a test then what benefit does that understanding serve you in the future?

So why are kids coming away with only a surface level understanding, what are the teachers doing? Well to be honest from what I have seen from teaching this math class and even when I taught science students are lacking key arithmetic skills. This lack of exposure makes it very hard to teach students how to deal with most math concepts like finding the zeros of a quadratic function (points where the graph of a exponential function cross the x axis). Solving quadratic equations requires you to factor and factoring often comes down to understanding the multiples of numbers. So now as a math teacher you have a group of students and more than half are not very comfortable multiplying numbers and you have 2 weeks to dedicate to preparing students for these question types on the test. You have the option of showing them how to enter the equation as it is into a calculator (simply copying what they see) and showing the students what buttons will give them the answer. The students will now know how to get the answer so they are ready for the test and the teacher gets to move on to the next topic. Great right? Well its going to have to be cause so much importance has been placed on test. But the students walk away still not having a clear understanding of an invaluable skill multiplication and really don't know anything about logic of solving quadratic equations. Understanding this logic I would argue is the biggest benefit the students could get from many of the math concepts currently covered.

Surface level understanding becomes the norm as teachers quickly teach students "tricks" to get that all important passing grade. Unfortunately students walk away from the situation with lacking fundamental skills, no experience of understanding a transferable skill, and possibly the worse result little confidence in their math skills.

I would be remissed to say that test are the sole reason why students a year away from a college diploma can't tell me what -4 - 9 is but, how testing is currently done I can say its definitely not helping. Ultimately I would argue to help children is why we started testing children in the first place and unfortunately we are currently missing that mark.