A-F Report Card (CRAIG HOCKENBERRY)
I write this as a concerned career educator.
As
one who has taught and served as an assistant principal, principal and now
superintendent and one who worked in urban, rural, and suburban school settings
for the past 25 years, I continue to be stunned. Our use of the wrongheaded A-F
report card system to “grade” Ohio Public Schools is baffling.
We
are killing true education for the sake of a high stakes testing culture. The creative and individual gifts teachers
bring to their classrooms are being stunted. The vast majority of parents do
not understand the complexities figured into the equations of these school
report cards and the majority of our taxpaying public does not either.
I
have set high standards for academics in each junction of my career. I still
get excited about innovation, excellence, and doing the right things for kids
and families as we prepare them for college, the military, and their careers. However,
we have gone overboard with testing, and it is killing our profession. (Craig
Hockenbery Three Rivers)
I
should be able to tell anyone who asks how many different mandated tests we
administer in our schools, but I can’t. The number has changed every year in
every leadership role I’ve held and in every district I’ve worked.
Education
will always be an imperfect endeavor, as we perpetually attempt to find the best
ways to teach what our students need to thrive in today’s world. However, it
should be obvious that this extensive testing has not contributed to that goal;
it sucks the life out of teachers, staff, and administrators and, more
importantly, our students.
The
A-F report card presents a convoluted, confusing message about the details of
what actually happens in our schools each day. It cheapens the stellar work our
teachers and principals are doing. I have the privilege of watching some of the
most engaging teachers in the State deliver some of the most rigorous lessons
to students whose attention they manage to successfully captured. Unfortunately,
I observe these teachers, knowing full-well these students—ultimately—had
better get ready for the next, upcoming test, and that the teacher had soon
better put away the creative and authentic lesson plan.
Why?
Because
there are various lists, dates, equations, and trivial factoids that need to be
remembered for a single day—Test Day.
I
am not promoting an entire pivot from all testing. There need to be ways in
which academic growth and knowledge are measured. I have no problem with tests
being a piece of the measuring
equation; however, it must be that—a piece.
CRAIG HOCKENBERRY
We
have created a culture of students who are overwhelmed with high stakes
testing. The entire month of April and May are consumed with altered class
schedules, small group testing, canceled specials, and there are signs on
virtually every classroom door:
“QUIET:
TESTING.”
Anxiety
rates and mental health issues are climbing. Suicide rates are reaching
all-time highs for junior high and high school-aged students. Saying that
testing is the cause of this particular tragedy would be both wrong and
irresponsible, but I will ask this:
Should schools—to the degree that we are capable—be seeking ways to
lessen stress, or should we continue adding to the unnecessary stress of our
students?
The
sheer volume of testing creates unnecessary stress for both students and
teachers.
The
A-F report card system is a bad one. It creates a punitive culture, one that
has some of our most talented teachers leaving the profession. Like any line of
work we need to be held to high standards, but it’s time we get it right.
Getting
rid of the A-F system is an excellent starting point.
Craig
D. Hockenberry
Former
Superintendent Three Rivers Local Schools
CRAIG HOCKENBERRY CINCINNATI
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