Say you set a goal of losing weight. So you start working out and eating healthy and adopt a plan you think will help you reach that goal. After some time, you step on the scale and see that you haven't lost any weight. It doesn't make logical sense to blame the scale, get angry, pick it up and smash it, right? You need to go and readjust your plan.
This analogy was given in connection to using data (specifically summative standardized test data) to improve practices in school.
I want to break the analogy down a bit and look at it more deeply.
One, in order for this to hold up - you have to assume that the tool you are using to monitor progress toward your goal is a tool you have complete faith in. If I want to lose weight, I choose the scale as my tool because I have faith that the scale will give me complete and accurate information. Weight is quantifiable (it's a number)(not like trying to elicit everything a person knows in their brain, which is completely not quanitfiable). I am going to pick a scale I know isn't broken or malfunctioning. I go in with faith in that tool.
Do teachers have faith in their state standardized tests as a tool to tell them how they are doing? How many times have you seen a state test question that simply doesn't make any sense and/or doesn't actually assess what it thinks it does? How many times have you watched kids take a state test in under 5 minutes or fall asleep? How many times have you seen a kid put an incorrect answer only to ask them about it and their explanation holds up (and is actually really genius...)? How many times have you seen a kid answer correctly and probe them (please tell me you do) and find they didn't actually understand it at all...
We don't have good faith in our tool. You gave us a scale that isn't properly calibrated. It isn't showing all the hard work that we did at all. So yeah, we might get a little angry at it.
But let's keep going with this analogy.
If you've ever worked with a personal trainer or participated in a diet program, you've probably heard or used the term "non-scale victory". A non-scale victory is a way to know that you are having success without using the scale. This is a very personal process. You must know your body very well. Non-scale victories might include noticing your clothes fit differently, having more confidence, getting compliments from people, etc.
Most trainers will tell you that non-scale victories are actually BETTER than seeing a number go down on the scale.
How does this relate to our schools?
Well, if we want teachers that teach kids to be good test-takers, than probably not at all.
But what is your true purpose as an educator?
Let's go back to health for a moment.
Let's get deep.
Is the point really to lose weight? Or is the point really to be healthy, feel good, have more confidence and self-esteem; in short, create a lifestyle?
It's an easy answer, isn't it?
So is it our goal to get kids to earn a number? Or is the point for them to be educationally/academically/emotionally healthy, feel good, have confidence, and create a lifestyle as a life-long learner?
I get so tired of feeling like I have to get my 3rd graders to be good-test-readers-only. Being a good reading tester does NOT mean you are a good reader. It means you are a good reading-tester. And I could spend my time giving my kids worksheet after worksheet and helping them get really good at figuring out how to tackle reading test questions, but what have I actually done for them in terms of their adult reading life? Probably killed it....just like lifting weights until you hurt yourself probably kills your love of fitness..
If your goal in fitness is to be healthy and build a lifestyle, then you have to readjust the terms of your goal and therefore readjust the steps you take to get there. You need to rely on more non-scale victories.
We need more non-scale victories in school.
Remember how I said that non-scale fitness victories were very personal and require you to know your body?
Well, non-scale educational victories require you to know your kids.
They require administrators to trust that teachers know their kids. That teachers can see "the clothes fit differently" (or maybe they don't and then we will address it).
When you workout with a mindset of achieving non-scale victories, you do things to get healthy. You are less likely to do something dangerous just to get a "quick fix". You also don't beat yourself up so much when you have an off day, miss a workout, or eat something amazing. Because you know it's a lifestyle you are working toward.
How amazing would it be to have schools with teachers and administrators that looked for non-scale victories. That don't see failing state test scores as an automatic reflection on the poor practices of their teachers. That have teachers that say "look, this kid didn't pass the state test but I know this kid can read....let me give you some evidence." and administrators that believe them.
Because we KNOW not every kid is going to pass a state test.
That doesn't always mean they didn't learn. It doesn't mean the teacher didn't work hard enough. It doesn't always mean ANYTHING.
Sometimes it means the kid needs to show it differently. That they didn't care. That they went to sleep. That they got tired. That they had a bad day.
That they lost fat but built muscle ;)
And I know this is almost a pipe dream in our day and age with the policies in place. That state tests are not going away anytime soon.
Neither is the scale.
And legislators are just simply not going to "take our word for it" when it comes to our kids. I get that, too. I still believe there have to be other and more divergent ways to show kids are learning, but I get it.
What we can do is begin to change our mindset within our school. Begin to worry less about the scores that come in and begin to focus more on non-scale victories. Because believe me, a teacher will tell you when a student is struggling.
They will let you know.
Because it kills them. They don't need a bit of data to convince them, and they shouldn't need it for you either.
Start getting to KNOW your kids. Don't teach them to be great test-readers (or great computers for math, but that's a whole different post for another day). Know your kids SO WELL that when they move a centimeter, you notice it. Don't spend so much time looking at your scores that you don't even know the kids behind them.
Teach them to read critically; to think divergently.
And most of all, PLEASE most of all, do something every day that builds their healthy lifestyle as a reader. There's already so much out there trying to kill it.
Go out and get you some victory.
Happy teaching!
Aubree Hurt
