The Challenge of Standardized Test
Preparation
and the Minority Serving Institutions
Wednesday, Nov 5, 2008
A discussion this morning
helped me understand the world view of a successful professor of
mathematics at the small college. The professor is a quiet man,
with
kind eyes and a non threatening demur. We meet outside the
classroom building in the morning air. We both had a little extra
time and I was pleased to hear his voice for the first time.
I asked the professor if he had been reading my
many, admittedly too many, short essays. He said, "not really".
I had been writing about the nature of the
lifting pedagogy.
I was also writing about the challenges faced by all colleges in
preparing students for the mathematics part of the CAAP exit
exams. I reflected on where I was in my
efforts to understand reform in education. I
have been a visiting professor visiting for one year. As
an idealist, much of what I was theorizing about was not
correct. I knew this. My methods were failing to achieve so
much, and attendance seemed to be a key issue. How to get the
students to attend, and if attending how to get them engaged. I
asked him about how he managed to
find success
here.
His eyes came alive with understanding and awareness. Like a
scholar of sociology, he began a long and well formed description of
the nature of the challenge that the college has faced and how he and
others had created an environment in which our students have the time
to mature into adults. It was clear to me that this challenge is
positively addressed. This is in spite of the initial complexity
in how students had been prepared and conditions under which they lived
day to day lives. As I listened, in the coolness of this election
day in November 2008, I saw the other side of a paradigm that I
had not been able to fully understand, as yet.
The professor's well formed description flowed
clearly as elegant as any lecture I had given this year. The
complex
environment and context was treated methodological, and established a
justification and sense of comprehension.
The students "here" could not be challenged beyond a certain point, or
else they would not attend class. If under challenged, they would
learn how to make the passing grade without attending class. What
was
required, for these students, was a simplification of the material, a
kindness in class, and a firmness that a minimal understanding was
required, even if a simple one. Students were allowed to pretend
as if
they understood the curriculum, if only the very simplest part were
understood. The faculty cooperated in this pretension. The
students stayed in college and after a few years the brilliance of
young
minds, allowed the time to bloom, began to shine. They looked
back and
picked up what was not learned and reached deep to find a means to pass
the exit exams and graduate within four years. Natural and
powerful intelligence finds a fertile ground from which to build a
stable
and productive life.
Yes, the textbook was not the right one for these students, the
professor
said. This textbook was, thought, necessary to maintain the
appearance from
the
outside that the courses were the same level of instruction given at
"other"
colleges. A failure to give
these students time to mature was the same as placing them in the path
of harm. Moreover, as these students matured into juniors and
seniors
they developed an awareness and appreciation about how to be ready for
a productive life.
The college president had nurtured this system for over twenty years
and the success was well understood. This is a good system.
It has a specific purpose.
The future is hopeful.
An essential cultural challenge is met but one remains. The
college ranks in the lower 3% of all colleges on the sophomore CAAP
proficiency standardized test. This
second challenge is the one that I thought my work addressed. I
say, "I thought" because of the difficulty that I have encountered in a
life time of trying to figure out why "systems are evolved" in our
wonderful society that are dysfunctional and contrary to what one might
expect.
The next note (22) will address this issue from a very abstract point
of view. --> *<*>.