Walk in a teacher’s shoes, then set policy

Earlier this month our governor decided to scrap the state writing test to save $2.4 million. This is a very small savings in the overall cost of education and a perfect example of the kind of leadership that has dragged down public schools.

It was a performance based test, meaning students were not asked to answer multiple choice questions, but rather had to show they could do something by performing a task demonstrating skills they had developed. In the case of the writing test, that skill was the ability to write a coherent five-paragraph essay. The test was scored by someone who had never met either the student or the teacher. For this reason, the writing test was more expensive to administer.

I retired in 2000, but throughout the 1990s I was a third-grade teacher in a suburban district. The state tests were given students in designated benchmark grades. Third-graders were the only students given the writing test in my school. They were also the only ones the state tested in reading and math. Many teachers thanked their lucky stars they were not teaching third grade.

My initial alarm was soon replaced by pleasure at what my students could do. It took hard work on the part of both students and teachers, but 8-year-olds proved indeed capable of learning these skills. They wrote wonderful essays, and not just the superior students. Every year I had two or three learning-disabled students. The structure essay writing provided helped them to organize their thinking and, for the most part, they were also successful.

They say we need charter schools to encourage new innovations. I think it is also important that we protect our past successful innovations from the ignorance of politicians who have never spent so much as a day in the classroom.

Joan Conneely

Rolling Meadows