Justifying the Educational Ends.

If you have lived in Park Ridge - Niles School District 64 for any length of time, you may remember hearing about the district's philosophy of "educating the whole child" and how the district "refuses to worship test scores alone ", despite the fact that most parents expect that the part of the child located between the child's ears is what gets "educated".

The District has spent the last 5+ years drafting what its administrators call their "educational ends.pdf" statement, through which they insist that "teaching to the test" is not their only, or even primary, objective. Parents have been told that "measures and assessments" are being implemented so that "the whole story" of students' development and learning can be understood. Those measures and assessments, according to the article linked above, consist largely of teacher "observations, written evaluations, and demonstrations."

What the hell have the district's teachers and administrators been discussing with parents during conferences all these many years if not their "observations and written evaluations"? As for "demonstrations", we're betting that is not meant to consist of teachers pounding the pavement in front of the schools carrying signs - unless they're on strike for more money and even better benefits.

It is also clear from the aforementioned article that the district has no intention of holding teachers accountable for any lack of achievement by the students in reaching the district's "educational ends," despite the district's insistence that teachers "teach to the educational ends" - which should not to be confused with "teaching to the test", because if you teach to the educational ends (which are not tested) but you insist that you don't teach to the test (which is tested), then you can ultimately tell parents and the rest of Park Ridge that Test Scores are 'Stable'; and everybody can be happy about that, especially real estate agents.

The director of assessments and technology for the district, Larry Sorensen, did note: "The area of concern is in writing scores for students in grade five...Only 65% of the fifth grade students scored in the 'meets or exceeds' category and 31% scored in the 'below standards' category... At the state level, only 50% of all students met or exceeded state standards this year."

The article also includes the following: "In a special note to the district regarding writing, the assessment department of the state board of education said, "The fact that the last time writing was tested was 2004 could point to the problem of lower scores. Current fifth graders have never taken a state writing test. Common sense tells us that writing instruction was not completely abandoned in our schools beginning in 2004, logic also tells us that writing instruction has not received the same attention as the AYP (Adequate Yearly Progress) subjects reading and math. Another factor could be that fifth graders wrote only one composition, so there was one attempt at a score. In the past, they wrote two compositions."

That sort of sounds like "the test" may "measure and assess" what is being taught, doesn't it?

In response to the lackluster performance of District 64 fifth graders on the writing portion of the ISAT, Sorensen said: "Writing is a curricular area now being reviewed in the district, and will be a focus for improvement moving forward." We are assuming the "review" of the "curricular area" of writing is being done so that student performance will "improve moving forward", as reflected on the test.

That sort of sounds like "teaching to the test", doesn't it?

But just remember folks, the district doesn't "teach to the test" because they are concerned with "educating the whole child" and they "refuse to worship test scores alone." So don't even think about criticizing the district for any lack of performance by students on any portion of standardized tests. And when the teacher's union demands still higher salaries and benefits, don't even think about demanding to know how those higher salaries and benefits have been earned, as may be reflected through student achievement on either standardized tests or the district's own "educational ends."

We hope that's all clear.