Leave no child behind, Mexican style

When I first returned to the U.S. I was staying on a friend’s couch outside Fort Worth, and had to do SOMETHING to bring in at least a little cash. I found a temp job within a reasonable walking distance (about 40 minutes) grading the new “No Child Left Behind” state-mandated tests. I had to take a test to get the job, and for some reason was assigned to grade seventh grade math tests from New Mexico.

I’m not sure the tests “proved” anything about New Mexico seventh grade math ability, other than a lot of kids don’t understand the Pythagorean Theorem. Or, maybe they do, but if the answer was in Spanish or Navajo and was given to the English-language graders, I couldn’t even give partial credit. And I did my best to leave no child behind.

I really think the whole point of standardized testing is to sell standardized tests. And test preparation material. And to let contracts to testing services to grade the tests (using underpaid temp labor). It doesn’t seem to have much to do with education. Or with teaching the Pythagorean Theorem.

I’m listening to a Mexico City all-hits radio station over the internet as I type this. There are plenty of ads, paid for by SNTE (the teachers’ union) for a national conference on Enlace, the Mexican version of the “No Child Left Behind” test program. Like our testing program, the critics (myself included, who — like others scoring tests — said our job was to “leave some children behind”) notice that teachers are forced to teach to the test, and to eliminate real educational experiences. And that the tests have nothing to do with learning.

I translated this from an article by Karina Aviles, in this morning’s Jornada.

Olac Fuentes Molinar, the former Undersecretary of Public Education, said yesterday that a careful analysis of the “National Evaluation of Academic Achievement 2007 (“Enlace,” for its Spanish acronym, “ Evaluación Nacional del Logro Académico en Centros Escolares 2007”) — a 125-question test given to sixth grade elementary students, and 138 questions for third year secondary student [equivalent to 9^th graders in the U.S.] “have only a half-dozen questions that require students to think.” Fuentes Molinar said the Secretariat of Public Education should act responsibly by canceling the tests, which “have no validity.”

He explained that the tests reward memorization and following simple instructions, finding “irrelevant and banal” literal information, resolving unrealistic problems, and often conducted in the middle of bake sales.

Interviewed by La Jornada, the educational expert warned that “Enlace” represents a “risk of returning to an arid, regressive education,” and an “obstacle to reform and diversity” within the educational system.

For example, though mastering reading comprehension is a high priority goal for advanced educational systems, the long and “fatuous” test is reduced to a series of fragmentary and elementary tasks such as identifying paragraphs or finding the place where an action occurred in the text.

Math without reasoning

The texts included with the tests are “pretexts for learning exercises which do nothing to achieve an ability to comprehend the sense, to make inferences, anticipate action, compare and contrast, interpret or form an opinion.”

Along with Spanish, “Enlace” was intended to measure mathematics skills. “What’s missing is mathematical reasoning,” Fuentes Molinar said. “There are a lot of operations and applications of formulas, but no thematic hierarchy that indicates that the students can think mathematically.”

As an example, the educator pointed to a question on the sixth grade test which requires students to perform the unlikely test of calculating the volume of a hexagonal cylinder.

The former Sub-secretary for Basic Education noted that results of the test were “even more harmful and highly corrosive” in that they signal to schools, teachers, students and their families that what the authorities expect from them is learning to identify a paragraph or learn a series of formulas – and that this type of information will be tested.

As with other educational specialists and classroom teachers, Fuentes Molinas believes “Enlace” does not give priority to learning, but to test-taking ability, used as a single national standard. The content and form of the tests will determine what is considered “adequate” education and could be converted into an “obligatory under curriculum” in place of the required course of learning.

And, he adds, “I believe uniformity drives educational aspirations downwards.”

For them, the question now is whether to teach to the exam, and take time away from other activities: putting on a play or performing a science experiment. And how do teachers work with students who fall behind, or who have a different learning style?

Seen in this light, Mexico is swimming against the current of the most advanced educational systems, where the key word is “comprehension.” For Fuentes and other teachers, they see the best pedagogical alternative would be to consider “Enlace” irrelevant.

Only six questions imply critical thinking skills

In summation, the educational specialist said that educational authorities don’t need this type of test to know what help the schools need. They need 80 billion pesos to upgrade facilities, as well as better early education teacher and more attention paid to “at risk” students.

Having analyzed 263 questions, of which only six “could” require critical thinking skills, Fuentes insists that the best thing to do would be to get rid of the test which only retards real education.

Leave no Mex Files behind…