Presumed Guilty

That time of year: training for administering state-mandated tests. It’s always accompanied by the insinuation: the whole world knows you’re guilty of wanting to cheat. But don’t do it.

The Player(s)

I’d sat for this very training more than 15 times. [the presenter] was a long-time employee of the school district, just as I was. [the presenter] had given the training at least the 15 times I’d seen it, although that’s not hard when the state education department requires the same training twice a year.

The Setup

We had entered the last quarter of the school year. Everyone who has even a cursory experience with public education knows that at least half of the final quarter of the school year is occupied with standardized, state required tests.

The Sequence

It always began the same. “State testing is vital. You must impress upon the students how important it is for them to do their best so we get an accurate picture of what they know and, what they don’t. You must take away from valuable instruction time to teach them how to answer the questions, what to do in each of these likely scenarios. And don’t forget to take a week to go over released test items to help them learn how to navigate the kind of questions they’ll be asked.” I could have given the training in my sleep…

The Denouement

None of that stuff was necessarily bad. Then [the presenter], as the training progressed, began giving me the eye. [the presenter] was smiling a little. It wasn’t meanness, just an understanding of what was going through my mind during the current portion of the training.

The gist: “We at the state education department know you are a despicable person with few or no redeeming qualities and have such a dearth of morals that you’re willing to do anything to ensure your students succeed on this test. In simple terms, we at the state education department know you’re guilty of wanting to cheat on this year’s state mandated standardized test. Don’t do it. And, if you do, here are the consequences…”

The Moral

It’s hard for a teacher to motivate students to perform well on mandated assessments when the state education department acts like they’re the enemy.