Nothing ventured, nothing gained

The following is a transcript of a spoken essay available at KJZZ.org.

This is KJZZ’s morning edition, I’m Dennis Lambert. This morning, an East Valley teacher speaks out against two recent decisions to water down AIMS test standards. One was the State Board of Education’s decision to lower passing scores for the AIMS test. The other, the State Legislature’s decision to allow students to use course work on core courses and other factors to supplement their AIMS test scores.

I’m Elizabeth Viator. I’m a teacher at Dobson High School and the Mesa Public School District, and I am your child’s teacher.

After reading about the latest debacle regarding lower passing scores on the AIMS test, I’m reminded of a line from a Tom Petty song, “Don’t Back Down.” I would have begged our legislators not to back down. I would have pleaded with them not to weaken the system by providing an alternative to the AIMS test. Not yet. Not until we took it all the way to the end. Arizona has invested far too much money, time, and effort to see this test, that the state legislators insisted we needed, be watered down. But it’s too late. In an act of political spinelessness, that’s just what the Legislature and State Board of Education did, back down.

Under the old scoring standards some seniors wouldn’t have graduated next spring and received their diplomas. That was the point. The kids who needed extra help might actually have taken it seriously next year. Next year, if they buckled down and worked hard, many could have actually passed; they could have risen to the standard. Now, however, they’ll never know what they could have achieved.

The AIMS test was intended to wake up students, teachers, and parents. It was implemented and touted by legislators as the great cure for education. This had some success. If the state legislators would have found their back bones, we could have seen some real gains in education in the next few years. If the legislators could have stood tall, it would have meant that this state did indeed stand behind its self-made policy. If the legislators could have stood tall, it would have meant that kids and their parents would have had to be more responsible for their own education.

Years ago the State of Arizona said that simply attending class and earning A’s, B’s, and C’s was not good enough and a whole lot of educators agreed. Many of us actually cheered and rallied behind a solid, valid test. Now, however, the alternate path to augmenting low AIMS scores places the pressure solely and wrongfully on the shoulders of teachers. Why was the AIMS test initiated at all? Let me remind you: too many kids earned diplomas but lacked minimal skills. Too many educators found it easier to pass students rather than deal with angry parents and thus succumb to a modern day adult bullying. As a result, they passed students who did not deserve to pass. Many teachers offered extra credit. These extra assignments, anything from bringing in a box of Kleenex to writing a report on the benefits of Benadryl, artificially boosted the student’s grade enough to fah la pass the class, everybody’s happy. But what did the student learn? The lesson learned here is that if the system provides enough loop holes, anyone can pass to the next level–without skill, without accountability. Welcome, to the new loop hole! With this new plan, many teachers will again resort to inflated grades to pass undeserving student so they can augment their AIMS score and keep parents happy. With this new plan, teacher shopping will be more plentiful than shopping for the latest outfit at Abercrombie and Fitch.

Initially I thought the AIMS test was going to be the great equalizer. It would finally show what I’ve known all along: some teachers just don’t teach. My secret hope about the AIMS was that all the inept teachers who offered extra credit would be sued by the parents of those students who did not pass the AIMS test. Pathetic, I know. I also naively thought parents would be more engaged with their kid’s education and students might pay more attention to their own learning. But why should they work hard now? The Legislature and the State Board of Education just made it easier, a whole lot easier for kids to pass.

At a time when we all could have risen to the occasion, the state legislators pulled the rug out and have returned us to a mediocre mire of miserable mush. It won’t be long before I walk away from teaching English and start teaching Yoga.

Elizabeth Viator is an English teacher at Dobson High School in the Mesa Unified School District. You can hear this essay again at KJZZ.org.

I grew up in Singapore where every year from Primary 1 to Pre-U 2 (the equivalent of 1st through 12th grade in the States) a final exam determines whether or not you move on to the next grade. There is a test for every subject, English, Math, Science, and Mother tongue (Chinese, Malay, or Tamil). You don’t past, you don’t move on. No politics, no mollycoddling. Nothing good will come from lowering education standards, especially with the current job climate where the marketplace is competitive and global.