“You can press the accelerator as hard as you want, but at some point your car’s not going to go any faster. If you’re in a Ferrari you’re set, but if you’re driving a KIA you’ve got a long way to go… Either way, if you always drive at your top speed, pretty soon you’re going to blow your engine!”
We were looking at the 2011-2012 Math TEKS (Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills) for grades K-6. The TEKS tell us are what the state has decided we must be teaching. It also lets us know what will be on the state’s new STAAR standardized test.
When I was in college studying to become a teacher the catchphrase “Developmentally Appropriate” was being tossed around like hash at the local diner. Every lesson we planned and every activity put together had to take into consideration not only where the students are educationally, but also what they are developmentally ready understand.
However, the more we looked at the TEKS we saw an all too familiar and disturbing trend. Math skills that only two or three years ago were on fifth grade level, were now popping up at the fourth grade level. And things from the fourth grade TEKS are now in the third grade TEKS, and so on and so forth.
The real trouble is we have fat cats in Austin who have never met a child who wasn’t from a well to do, nurturing home. So they can’t understand why EVERY child can’t just get the help he or she needs. When you live in a home where your mother and father value education, and have the time and ability to help you understand your homework, then you are in luck… you’re also in the minority.
The state, in its infinite wisdom, has decided that the way to fix its national educational rankings is to demand that elementary school students be instructed at developmentally inappropriate levels. Each year the “rigor” of the required educational materials increases, and the same students fall farther and farther behind. I’m sorry, but when you’re teaching pre-algebra to third and fourth graders there is something wrong.
So, when does it end?
Do we start having all kindergarteners take the PSAT? Maybe we can require preschoolers to pass a Play-do calculus exam. Or wouldn’t it be better if we introduced improper fractions to a child in the uterus?
If this were an Indy 500 race, every student would be in pretty much the same well tuned, ready to race vehicle. But Texas’ students are looking more like a bunch of cars at the local drag strip. Some of them are ready to race, but most are in desperate need of a pit stop.
