VPerspective
There’s never enough time
Mar 1, 2007 12:03 PM
Vice President Michelle Bodden discusses the flood of paperwork with 5th-grade teacher Jordana Fisher at a visit to PS 82 in Queens in February.
Tick tock. Each day has only 24 hours, and each school day has far less. Yet more and more is demanded of you and your students — more assessment, more test prep, more writing samples, more, More, MORE! And we struggle to get it all done, so that there is evidence of student learning.
The school system is entirely focused on data and evidence, all of which take time to produce. And certainly data is important; we should know how students are doing, where their strengths are and where they need support, so that we can guide their growth. In the process, though, we seem to be losing the time for real student learning, and real teaching, especially about the things that enrich our lives.
Where is the time for taking a class on a trip to explore a museum and perhaps even make art in the style of Keith Haring or Vincent Van Gogh? Where is the time for walking through the neighborhood to talk to local merchants as part of a study on commerce in New York City? Where is the time for actually doing science experiments instead of only reading about them?
A few years ago, I wrote a column that asked what happened to the crayons in early childhood. Back then, there was such an intense focus on literacy and math skills even in pre-K that time for art exploration, blocks and center activities was being eaten up by “academics,” meaning sitting down and writing. Things have only gotten worse since. I have been in schools where 1st- and 2nd-graders are given test prep even though there are no tests!
The quest for data quantity has overshadowed the importance of data quality. That is, making a teacher assess the same child on the same skill over and over does not increase the skill — teaching increases the skill. As more and more time is demanded for assessment, less and less is available for teaching, and what good is that? Quality data is derived from assessing once, getting the results, targeting instruction based on the results and then reassessing. Quality data presumes that teaching happens between assessments. If used properly, it can make teaching and learning more effective, but it will never be a substitute. There must be time to teach.
All this assessment and testing has also increased the paperwork burdens on teachers and further cut into instructional time.
You will soon receive a survey asking you how your time is used in school, and even though it is a bit more paper, I hope you will take the time to fill it out. The information we get from this survey will be critical in making the case for how time should be used in school rather than the way things are now. We must fight to give students the broad scope of learning experiences and high-quality education they deserve, and that means having the time for projects, social studies, science and crayons.
