I'd love to, But Test Scores

Last week, I went to a conference with about 200 attendees, all of whom are really, really great teachers.  Award winning teachers!  Throughout the event, we heard presentations from other top-notch educators filled with great ideas for ways to make learning wonderful, meaningful, and interesting.  And as presentations always do, there was time at the end of each for questions and comments from us, the audience, and as audiences of teachers always do, some version of the same comment or question was raised every… single… time:

“I’d love to do that thing you just presented, but I can’t because test scores.”

Ever since the testing boom began in the early 2000’s, we’ve become convinced that:

1. Nobody cares about anything but test scores
2. There’s a certain kind of teaching that has to be done when people care about test scores
3. That kind of teaching has to be boring
4. That kind of teaching actually improves test scores
5. If I don’t do that kind of teaching, I’ll get fired​

Somehow, as teachers, we've bought into these five ideas so much that, whenever we have a great idea or learn something new, we capitulate to those five points above.  "Man, I'd love to [insert fun, interesting, engaging learning experience], but I can't because test scores."

Personally, I don’t think any of the five points of the test-score improvement plan above are true.  Not a single one.  But a lot of folks have bought into it.  It has an insidious, convincing way about it, I’ll admit.

But I have an insidious, convincing way about me, too.  So let me take my shot here.  Let me give you five reasons that test scores should not hold you back from the fun, engaging, and interesting stuff you dream of doing with your students.​

"I don't see any good test scores in there.  Are you sure we're allowed to be doing this?"

1. Teaching in a way that supposedly improves test scores doesn’t improve test scores

Let me just come out and say it - the kind of teaching being done in the name of test scores isn’t helping test scores.  In the grand scheme of things, students’ test scores have gone nowhere since we started obsessing over them in the early 2000’s.  If you want to look at the big, national level, here it is:

Nowhere.

If you look at your own school, or district, or state, or even classroom, it’s probably the same story.  No discernable movement.  There are isolated cases where scores have gone way up or way down, but those cases are very rare.   In the grand scheme of things, the data is pretty clear: obsessing over test scores doesn't improve test scores.

This boring teaching for which we’re canceling all the interesting stuff in the name of test scores isn’t fulfilling its promise.  It’s not!  And if we do it again next year, it isn’t going to improve them next year either.  We know how this plays out.

2. Fun, interesting, and engaging stuff actually DOES improve test scores, and it opens the doors to the big improvements we dream of

The dirty secret about all the fun, engaging, and interesting stuff we aren’t doing in the name of test scores is that those things actually do improve test scores.  Back when I re-started teaching in 2015, I really wanted to prove this.  So I kept track very, very carefully.  In the program I was starting, 60% of students were meeting a key test score metric before I started.  75% met it in my first year, and that metric rose to 90% by my fifth year as I got better and better at doing more of - and just the right versions of - the stuff we’re talking about.  I did it pervasively.  

"Don't tell anybody, but I think this activity might be improving my test scores.  Maybe even a lot."

Not only does it work - it works big time.  Most test-score-improvement-based teaching aims to raise test scores by the smallest of margins (*yawn*).  Transformative teaching opens the door for the massive improvements that we desperately need.

3. Fun, interesting, and engaging stuff energizes the kids, and it energizes you

Part of the reason getting over the “I’d love to, but test scores” mentality works is that it energizes kids and it energizes you.  When people are energized, their brains work better, they work harder without feeling like it, and they make more cognitive connections and breakthroughs.  When kids are engaged in what they’re doing - even if it is just for part of the day - their brains switch into an active mode that makes them learn more effortlessly.  When teachers are engaged in what they’re doing, their brains switch into a mode that makes them more attentive, creative, and responsive.

In short, having more fun and being more engaged makes everyone smarter.  Literally.  It feels better, and it works better.

4. There's a fancy way to make sure fun, interesting, and engaging stuff happens more often AND works reliably

It took me a while, but once I committed to making sure the fun, engaging, and interesting stuff was front and center in my planning and teaching, I found a method for basically ensuring that it works.  The typical way we make time for fun, interesting, and engaging stuff in a content unit works like this:

1. Direct teach all of the content in the unit
2. Test/assess
3. If there is any time left, do fun/engaging/interesting stuff as a capstone, follow-up, or enrichment activity

There are two things that drove me crazy about that planning model when I did it.  First, it made it seem like the fun, interesting, and engaging stuff was something you couldn’t learn from - it was something you got to do after you already learned.  Second, I never ended up with any time left for it.  The fun, engaging, interesting stuff was icing, not cake, and we almost always had to eat the cake without icing.

So I found a better way.  Here’s the trick - you do the fun stuff first.  You plan like this:

1. Do the fun/engaging/interesting stuff
   
2. Assess - see what the kids learned through the fun stuff and what they didn’t
   
3. Direct teach the stuff they didn’t
   

Kids learn through the fun stuff.  Often better than through direct teaching.  Sure, they won’t learn every little detail, but that’s ok!  You can always teach that at the end, and you can spare yourself the trouble of direct teaching the content they learned anyways through the fun stuff.

"Are you SURE it's ok to be doing something this fun before the end of the unit?"

5. You won't get fired

The great enemy of doing the fun, engaging, and interesting stuff is the notion that we’ll get in trouble with our administrators and end up losing our jobs, right?  “They expect me to teach in a boring, test-centric way, and if I don’t, I’ll get fired.”
​
Allow me to assuage you of this sentiment, too.  There are two things to know.

First, and positively, doing fun, interesting, and engaging stuff wins over kids.  Winning over kids wins over parents.  Winning over parents wins over administrators.  Winning over administrators keeps you out of trouble.  Not only will you not be fired, you’ll be in ideal-employee territory.

Not to mention that winning over kids improves test scores, like I said earlier.

"Is that an administrator watching?  Better not act like I'm having too much fun..."

Second, you have my assurance that there are thousands of teachers out there who are not getting fired despite doing a much worse job and getting much worse test scores than you.  The fun, interesting, innovative, and engaging activities you test out this year will be nowhere near your administration’s negative radar.  ​
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In fact, they’ll probably start bringing in other teachers to watch.

And your community will notice.

And you’ll feel energized.

And in turn, you’re kids will feel energized.

And those test scores that scared you away from all this in the first place will improve

And improve

And improve some more as you get better at it.

Make this your year.  The year you try all the cool stuff you read about and see at conferences over the summer.  The year you do that PBL or STEM project you’ve always wanted to do.  The year you put that stuff on your teaching calendar BEFORE anything else.  The year you promise to never again say,

“I’d love to, but test scores.”

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