Evaluation: Fairness, Injustice, Equity

Aracelis Pérez Castro

As a teacher who just completed my undergraduate program in Early Childhood Education a couple of months ago, I know I have a lot to learn; and I am totally open to bring to my life things that can contribute to my professional, personal and emotional life in a positive way. In the Dominican Republic I worked in a bilingual school (English/Spanish) for two years while I was studying, and I have teaching experience in both private and public schools there.

My parents were born in the Dominican Republic and I was born in New York, but have lived in the Dominican Republic since I was very little. I have studied there since preschool and I graduated from a university in Santo Domingo, the capital. I have often come to the United States to visit family and go to museums, and I have been exposed to the way of living in the United States. Recently, however, I have had the opportunity to be in a student-teaching program for ten weeks, in a public school in New England. This was in a wealthy community where most of the population is Caucasian.

I love teaching and knowing that I can contribute to the life of so many wonderful people. Besides being in a classroom, special education is my passion. It is something that I have my heart in, and the reason why I am also a Special Olympics volunteer in the Dominican Republic. I am very sensitive to everything that has to do with special needs and I feel committed to sharing my thoughts. I believe that education is not just about “equality” (having the same for everyone), but about “equity” (giving each one what he or she needs), and maybe because of this I am very concerned about how we evaluate students in the classroom, and what we evaluate.

Definitely, evaluation allows teachers to know our children better. It should be constantly used, looking at it as a process, not just results. Students are the most important part of education. I strongly believe that it is necessary to focus on students by concentrating on what they need to know. If we do this, we will be able to adapt our evaluations to their necessities, at the same time that we enhance their skills.

In a classroom, there is a huge diversity: students that come from different families, countries and/or religions; people that have different beliefs and point of views that we must respect; children that have different ways of learning, etc. Because of this we should help build a respectful environment at school by attending to that diversity. This includes using different resources when we are going to assess our students’ development.

I am a supporter of using multiple sources. If we have “multiple” students with “multiple” ways of learning, we should use “multiple” sources of assessment. The point is using a variety of resources, even though sometimes it might be easier and faster to use the most common one, the one that works for the majority of people or simply the one that has been used for a long time. Written tests can sometimes be too stressful. They can be misused, and teachers might forget the main point of the testing. It should not be the only way of assessment, or the only one to completely trust.

I remember when I was in school how much I disliked having written tests; I definitely felt more comfortable having an oral presentation, or conducting an experiment. In the Dominican Republic, in eighth grade and twelfth grade, we have to take Standardized Tests (“Pruebas Nacionales”) for each one of the four “core subjects”: Language/Literature, Social Studies/History, Science and Math. EVERYONE, in all schools in the country take the SAME tests. At the end of eighth grade, I took this evaluation, given by the state, of all the concepts given in that grade. In twelfth grade I had to take another Standardized Test, also for the four core subjects. This one included all concepts studied from ninth grade to twelfth grade.

I was not a “bad student,” so I passed everything on my first try, but some of my friends were not that successful. In eighth grade, the first test trial is in July. If you fail, you have another opportunity in August, and then a last one. In twelfth grade, you have the first trial in July, August, November, and then a “prueba extraordinaria” (extraordinary test) as a last opportunity. If you fail, you repeat the grade. It means that in eighth grade “Pruebas Nacionales” determine if you go to High School. In twelfth grade “Pruebas Nacionales” determine whether or not you go to the University. The purpose is to measure the achievement of all learning and students completing 8th grade and 12th grade.

Wow! How tense it was for many of my classmates going through this process! And the negative response towards these tests was not only from the students, but some teachers felt that it was just a loss of time. They had to invest more time reviewing many things, making it a tiring job. Some teachers ended up sharing some answers with the students, just to end with it quicker.

In my school, teachers taught and had discussions with us. We investigated and we learned the concepts by reviewing with homework. We even dressed up to make the lesson interesting. Teachers were making sure we learned what we had to learn, repeating whatever was necessary to go over again. As usual, there were some of my classmates that did not have a disposition to learn, and it was harder for them. But with the standardized tests it was something different, there were some concepts that we just had to memorize for the test in a specific way. What if I learned the same thing, but in a way that was more suitable for my way of learning and processing? I don’t know how many times I read the booklets they provided us to review for the tests and try to memorize certain things. Yes! I passed my tests on my first try, but now… ask me if it was a constructive and significant learning experience for me. It wasn’t!

In the United States, I found something similar. Students from third grade to eleventh grade have to take an educational assessment from the state, and these are the same for all. From my point of view, the federal government uses these tests to evaluate the work that teachers are doing by sorting the “good” schools from the “bad” schools, just like in the Dominican Republic they sort the “good” students from the “bad” students.

One of my placements in my U.S. student teaching experience was in second grade, where students are not yet subjected to the state testing. I saw how in second grade most kids loved having “evaluations.” It was a fun part of the day, especially when they had a math test. Each student had a different goal, because they all worked at a different rhythm, and they were all proud of what they achieved little by little. Some knew they needed extra help, or to focus more, but at the end they were all happy with their effort.

This is part of what I call a flexible curriculum. The teacher has objectives and goals with her class, but she knows that not everyone is going at the same speed. She works to help children achieve their goals, and at the same time improve and try to reach higher goals, without limiting them. The main thing should not be rushing through everything just because the teacher must complete this or that, but making sure kids are really learning, and having a balance in focus between the subject matter content and the diversity that you have in your group.

It is true that teachers should plan what they are going to do, and be organized with their work, but teachers should also feel free to have the flexibility of taking more time working on a topic that kids did not really get. On the other hand, if they are in fact taking advantage of the topic, the teacher should be able to expand their curiosity and interest by challenging the students with more questions or comments.

We keep saying that curriculum should be flexible, but when the state has high expectations of you as a teacher to meet THE standards, that little piece of flexibility starts vanishing. And I put an emphasis on THE standards, because it is not just any goal that you are to achieve with your students, but those that someone else is dictating for you. And when this happens there is not enough time for fun projects, or to continue working with one theme that kids seem to enjoy, because you have to simply keep going and complete everything else to get high scores.

This kind of situation brings a lot of pressure on teachers. Somehow time gets shorter making it impossible to do what you really want to do, keeping in mind THE standards. It makes me think: What happens to the joy of learning? The time to explore? Going to centers? Teaching time!

In the other grades where students had to take the state educational assessment in the U.S., I noticed that some kids were taking it easy because they knew they could handle it, but others felt stressed and just wanted it all to be over. It was not fun taking these tests because the school is under pressure, and (without noticing) more is demanded from the teachers, and students feel it. I recently watched a movie, and a quote that caught my attention was “People are people no matter what size they are.” I mention this because kids know what is going on. No matter how young they are, they can actually feel when they are in a tense environment.

Recently, while I was walking in one of the school halls in the U.S, I overheard one of the second graders telling an adult, “My sister is taking the state educational assessment” and the adult replied, “You should be good to your sister in these days Later on, I heard the boy say to a friend, “Oh yeah! My sister has been getting mad for nothing lately.” That shows me that kids and adults are feeling the same thing: these tests are stressful.

I ask myself: Are teachers’ personal goals and standards not enough? I believe every teacher knows the group he or she is working with. I do not think it is fair to expect teachers to keep growing every year having a better score every time, because the group this year is not going to be the same as the next one. What if in the next group I have more ELL students or students with special needs? Am I supposed to keep my scores going up?

While in the U.S., I had the opportunity to visit another school in a different school district. When I arrived at the school, the first thing I saw was a wall where I could read “Welcome” in many different languages. As I walked through the halls, I saw maps with signs that said: “Where we are from” with pins showing a variety of countries in the world. I could also see flags.

The school had an environment that immediately made me think about diversity. When I visited some of the classrooms, what do you think I found? I saw kids from different countries! I could even tell because of the traditional clothes some of them were wearing. A lot of them were ELL students. Many of them were struggling at school, I perceived, because they had to learn how to write and read in a language that was not their first language.. Some of their parents didn’t even know English very well.

I observed in this school how teachers worked hard with these children by showing images, being precise with directions to follow, explaining all that was necessary, pointing at things while they talked, repeating, and doing all sort of things to help their diverse student learn. For me it was a paradise… wow! I was really surprised to see the hard work these teachers were doing. I admire them!

I was even more surprised and could not believe it when someone told me that this school is considered to only “Partially meet the standards.” I said, WHAT?! How can that be possible? And it was all because of the state educational assessment kids have to take. Does it mean that they are not doing good work? The school is not rated well only because the test scores are not high. How can they have high scores with the challenge they are dealing with? This is unrealistic!

I believe that sometimes the way we are evaluating is not fair. It is an injustice for kids that have a hard time focusing, to sit and take a test for several days. It is not fair for teachers either. I do not find any equity if we have the SAME standards for ALL schools, even those that are more “diverse” in their population, meaning that they have more “special” or ELL kids. I know in the state educational assessment they have “accommodations,” but I do not think having the possibility of using a dictionary, an aide, or taking the test in another environment is enough. I think we should go beyond this point and focus on equity. What are we getting from these evaluations? What are we really looking for?

After my big shock visiting this other school district, more questions popped in my head:

How real can the results that are obtained be if we are using only one type of evaluation?
After getting the results, are we using this information wisely? Is the state using the information obtained from the tests to help improve schools, and not just sorting good from bad? Are teachers checking which are the “weak” points of the students, to see if there is something they should improve or something they should pay more attention to? As classroom teachers, are the standards that we have for our class good enough in comparison to what the state expects from the students?
Evaluations are important, but… what should really count are the results or the process? Are we really attending to diversity and being aware of equity?

Maybe sometime I will get the answers to these questions. If I do I’ll make sure to share them. Meanwhile I will make an effort to give the best of myself and try to keep “diversity” and “equity” in mind while I teach and evaluate.

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