Cool your jets. I’m not talking about Certification tests or the like. I’ll leave that idea to ponder on later. I’m talking about at an earlier level: elementary school. (Warning: Rant Coming.)
In the US, elementary, middle/junior-high, and high schools generally administer tests throughout the year “to understand their students’ needs and to personalize their teaching methods”. What they often don’t say is that they use it to place kids in advance classes. What’s that you say? That makes complete sense? While it may seem like it on a surface level, I encourage you to think about it a little deeper. Because it’s a circular loop that grants some kids benefits that result in more opportunities later in life, even though their initial ability was no greater.
Think about it. Most of the time you aren’t even told when these tests are coming. Maybe your kid didn’t get enough sleep one night, has an illness coming on, just got in a fight with their BFF, or whatever. BOOM! They take a test. A test that determines if they are able to get into some extended learning program or not. A line is drawn in the sand and those who meet that number or higher get the option to have advance learning taught to them.
The score that is often used is based on a percentile, sometimes from a previous year. Does the child’s score fall into the 95th percentile? So the next time the kids are tested, the kids that have had higher learning taught to them in class, are way more likely to be in that top percentile. Knowledge is cumulative, and there is a direct correlation to kids that are receiving this benefit to having a higher score during the next testing period.
Let’s give an example: Maybe your third grader isn’t taught fractions yet (I have no idea when fractions are taught, so maybe this isn’t an exactly accurate example.) But one day, Joe looks at his older siblings book and learns something about fractions. Ok – good job Joe and good job Joe’s sibling for not cleaning up. Joe’s able to answer that question on the achievement/growth test. (Incidentally, at this level the difference of 1-2 questions can really affect where you fall in the percentile depending on the question.) Joe’s put into the extended learning program (ELP).
But maybe Sally is an only child or may she had a bad day. She doesn’t get the fraction question, and thus is 5 points lower than Joe. She doesn’t get ELP. Her ability may be exactly the same as Joe’s, but she will not get the extra math that Joe is receiving by being in ELP. A few months go by, and now Joe has learned a ton more in ELP (as well as the other children there) and they all are in a higher percentile (because they’ve formally learned more) than children not given that opportunity. By middle school, they are put in more advanced math classes and thus the cycle continues.
Let’s further complicate this by adding gender. As a mom of twins, I can tell you the social structure of girls is WAAAAAYYYY different than boys. And maybe not all girls follow it, but geez louise, some of the stories I could tell you starting over 25 years ago are startling. Girl culture can be super complicated and intense. I mean seriously – 2nd graders in full blown psychological warfare against each other for MONTHS.
I once had a 7 year old girl call another 7 year old girl from MY HOUSE, unbeknownst to me, to tell her not to come to my son’s birthday party. She told the other girl that my son didn’t want her there. My son had no idea that the call even occurred. WHY did said caller do it? Because she had a crush on my son. That was not a fun conversation to have with the callee’s mom BTW.
All this to say, I’m willing to bet that the stress that comes with the complicated lives of young girls, may also, occasionally, result in just an ever so slightly lower score on the one test that changes everything when all other things are equal. And I haven’t gone down the rabbit hole yet, but I’ll bet there are other things besides stress with girls that can have an adverse affect. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg. The same concept could apply to many kids: neurodiverse, POC, stressful conditions at home, etc.. An entire group of kids, with the complete capability to be able to learn the higher level math, are not given the opportunity.
What’s that you say? Teach it to them yourself? Yep – great idea and we do it that in our family, but not every family has that option. Single parents, lower educated, overworked, sick, caregivers, etc.. all may have limitations on being able to do additional at-home education. Even free options for students like Khan Academy (which I love BTW), may not even be available or known to many parents.
I don’t know the answer, but as someone who is personally having to deal with an unresponsive school system about a highly advanced young lady that is fully capable and willing, I’m mad. I’m mad that the boy in the family is being given the chances from the school, while the girl is not. And with everything being the same for both kids learning at home, he’s been advancing more because he gets to have extra time at school with more advanced topics. All because of a few points on 1 test many years ago.
Have I made you mad? Good. Now what are we going to do about it? For all those kids missing out.
Data Work Mom 