Exemplary

In Texas public schools we have the TAKS test.  For teachers, it’s the equivalent of a mandatory, educational prostate exam given by a doctor with a frozen finger.  Students, schools, districts and even communities are rated based on these scores.  

The TAKS test has four scores.  The highest is Exemplary, then Recognized, Acceptable, and finally Low Performing.  For the schools, this is a pass/fail test and each school is ranked based on how many of its students pass or fail. 

We got the preliminary scores back from the state and it looks like my school, Moss Haven, is Exemplary for the second year in a row.  

It’s funny, but I have mixed emotions and I’m not sure how to feel.  On the one hand, I’m feeling pretty good.  My students take Reading, Math and Writing tests and all of my students passed all three tests.  

However, there is a part of me that despises these tests.  This is the same part of me that screams, “Traitor!” at the top of its lungs every time I look in the mirror.   For you see this part believes I’ve turned my back on true education and sided with the “Let’s teach them how to take tests,” faction of the education war.  

I hear the rationalizations everyday…”We’re not teaching them to take tests, we’re teaching them educational life-skills.  Life-skills they will hone throughout their public school experience and then use to be successful either in college or out in the workforce.”

I want to believe it…

I try to believe it… 

I think some days I do believe it…

But then I go to school and I see the faces of my third and fourth grade students.  These are faces whose biggest worries should be about things like Barbie, GI-Joe, ballet, and little league.  Not whether or not they are going to pass some huge, scary test.  

Yes, my school is Exemplary for the second year in a row. 

And I’m very proud,

I guess…