Test Scores and Reality

There was an article in the Sunday Star about the quality and success of various charter schools in the city. I skimmed through it, but started paying attention when the writer began making comparisons - via test scores, of course - to different IPS schools. IPS in general looked worse than even the unsuccessful charter schools. But this type of comparison makes me really angry. First of all, why are the results of one yearly standardized test deemed the primary method of evaluating education? Isn't education supposed to be much more than merely teaching to a test? Unfortunately, that is what it has become. What it fails to provide anymore is teaching kids to develop higher level thinking skills and to develop a love for learning. But, more importantly, my frustration stems from the comparison itself. Charter schools don't have to take everybody; they can choose their students. IPS cannot. Just this past year I received a call from a charter school principal about a student they were letting go who was returning to Harshman because it was her boundary school. This student's mother was causing "difficulties," the school had already been in touch with CPS concerning this student, and her academic performance was very poor as well. Of course, we enrolled her; we have to. As it turns out, she failed 7th grade with us, and more than likely failed the ISTEP as well. This is just one example - there are countless others who come back from charter or township schools during the year. And, what comparison charts also fail to mention, is the type of kids who make up our student population. First of all, the percentage of Special Education students is disproportionately high. Secondly, most of our children come from difficult family situations and certainly depressed economic ones. One student I talked with this past year indicated during our conversation that they were out of food and it would be a few more days until mom got the next food stamps. She was eating at grandma's. Add things like this to the proportion of single parent (mostly moms) families, and the level of stress and distress in their lives, like a cousin getting gunned down on the street. These children live lives we middle class people can't even imagine. In Maslow's hierarchy of needs, education come along way after safety and getting enough to eat. Yet our kids scores are compared to others as if it is a level playing field. It's infuriating.