Guardians of Grail

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How school testing affects Mather Elementary
Homemade posters cover the walls and papier mché globes hang from every fluorescent light fixture. On this day,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], she even lets her kids have a pizza party and watch "Tuck Everlasting" - a story they had studied in class.
But ask Ms. McCann, and she'll tell you that the picture is deceiving. It used to be that such culminating activities - "the fun stuff that brings it all together" - were relatively commonplace. Now, a day like this is an anomaly.
Her story holds increasing relevance for every schoolchild and parent nationwide. Congress is now poised to require testing for public-school students in Grades 3 through 8 - a key provision of the most sweeping federal education reforms in 40 years. It's a change that,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], as McCann's classroom shows,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], can revamp entire curriculums,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], altering what and how children learn.
While teacher prerogative and creativity,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], enshrined in the 1960s, are likely to persist in classrooms across the US,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], the testing requirement represents a fundamental shift in America's educational course. Hirsch of the University of Virginia in Charlottesville. "In the old system, what was at stake was individual achievement, but that approach has had disastrous effects on equity."
A mixed response
Massachusetts first began its Comprehensive Assessment System exams in math,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], science, and English in 1998. In many suburban districts of Massachusetts, this new direction has been met with derision, as parents and teachers call the tests superficial and ineffective. In urban and rural areas, however, more educators have been open to the idea.
As a result,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], the changes in what is taught can vary hugely - from stolid refusal to "teach to the test" to complete overhauls in the curriculum - and those extremes are nowhere more apparent than in the suburban Wellesley Middle School and Mather Elementary here in Boston.
Even from the outside,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], the schools are a study in contrasts. Set along a quiet side street,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], Wellesley Middle School almost gives the impression of a college campus in miniature, front quad and all. Mather, meanwhile,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], rises from its black asphalt seat in a three-story block of red brick. Sneakers squeak impatiently on linoleum floors, and light fixtures in principal Kim Marshall's office rattle as children play in the gym overhead.
Yet when Mr. Marshall looks at students both here and across the state, he sees the same need: a better,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], more unified curriculum. Massachusetts' standardized test,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], called the MCAS,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], is a step toward that goal, he says,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], and has already helped his students.
"The target that MCAS gave us was much harder than we had before," says Marshall,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], whose circular glasses and wavy hair give his appearance the slightest hint of a trimmer Steve Forbes. "We looked at the test and said,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], 'This is much more than we're getting out of our kids.' "
So the school changed its entire curriculum - from kindergarten through fifth grade - to match MCAS expectations. This might force teachers to give up cherished subjects, Marshall acknowledges,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], but it doesn't have to make instruction a colorless exercise of memorizing dates.
"I draw a distinction between the 'what' and the 'how to,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych],' " he explains. "The 'what' needs to be fixed,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], but the 'how to' is where creativity comes in."
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