Kozol Sees Hypocrisy in Testing Craze

Politicians who advocate tougher standards and high-stakes testing of children without providing equal resources to help all children succeed are practicing "punitive hypocrisy," author Jonathan Kozol said in two separate presentations during the WEAC Convention, October 25-27, 2000, in Madison.

In a keynote address to Convention Thursday, Kozol said he supports high standards and is not opposed to reasonable testing. But, he said, some people have gone to extremes in emphasizing testing, which can harm rather than help education.

Excessive emphasis on testing, he said, will drive creative teachers out of the profession and turn those who remain into "robotic taskmasters."

"We are not drill sergeants in the military," he said of teachers.

Good teaching, he said, involves artistry, rhythm, discipline and grace. Children whose education is limited to preparing for standardized tests – which focus on "amputated chunks of information – could grow up to be as cold, competitive and ruthless as some of the advocates of excessive testing, he said.

Kozol said he is disturbed by the tone of voice of those advocates, who tend to regard schools as businesses and children as products. And they use testing to pit schools, children and races against each other, while displaying severity and lack of compassion, he said.

Kozol, who has spent many years writing about educators and children inside some of the most disadvantaged schools in the nation, urged members to fight hard against private school vouchers, which he said "represent a dagger in the heart of public education."

Kozol outlined the severe inequities faced by many urban school districts, including those in South Bronx, the focus of his latest book, "Ordinary Resurrections." Schools there, he said, spend an average of $8,000 per pupil, compared to $12,000 in middle-class suburbs and $18,000 in wealthy suburbs.

Wisconsin, he said, faces a similar situation, and he chided Governor Thompson for not working to correct the inequities.

"It is a shame," Kozol said, "that your governor, with all the years he has had in office, has failed to put his money where his conscience ought to be."

Kozol told touching stories about the dedication of teachers in the South Bronx and about the "generosity in spirit" of the children there. Yet, he said, in one high school, only 65 of the 1,200 9th graders are likely to graduate.

They need intervention to help them succeed, he said.

Education Issues Breakfast

In an address Friday (October 27, 2000) at the Education Issues Breakfast, Kozol expanded on his comments about standardized testing and private school vouchers.

He said Mississippi spends $4,000 per pupil, compared to $6,000 per pupil in the inner city of Philadelphia, $12,000 in middle-class suburbs of New York and $24,000 in some very wealthy suburbs.

"But all are going to be held to the same standards, and all are going to be forced to take the same standardized exams," he said.

"If we don't give low-income schools the resources they need and then we raise the bar, we know what the consequences will be."

They will fail, he said, fueling the stampede of low-income kids into voucher schools. But only the children of involved parents will go to voucher schools, leaving the most challenging students behind in a school that has been robbed of resources and spirit, he said.

Overemphasis on standardized exams, Kozol said, forces teachers to focus on "very tightly scripted lessons."

"While it's probably useful to teachers who aren't very good, they congeal the soul of wonderful teachers," he said.

In addition, he said, it discourages teachers from treating students as human beings with unique characters, interests, and skills.

"It means all the human things get locked out," he said. "We no longer see our children as people with souls and spirits. We see them as products. And we overlook the secrets to unlocking a child's intellect."

The mania for standardized exams also overlooks the fact that some students are very bright and creative but simply don't do well on tests. Many people who have made enormous contributions to society and have been very successful as adults have a history of doing poorly on tests, he noted. If we lock those children out at a young age, this country will lose a vast amount of future talent, he said.

Excessive testing, he said, takes knowledge and amputates it into little chunks of information. "It denies the wholeness and continuity of knowledge."

Expanding on the voucher issue, Kozol said public education advocates must stop focusing on the details such as private vs. public school test scores and start attacking the basic assumptions behind the voucher movement.

For example, he said, voucher proponents contend they want to use the free market to help poor children get a better education.

"When did the unbridled free market ever serve the poor as well as it does the non-poor? Never." Just look at the low-grade banking, grocery and health care services in inner cities, he said.

The contention by voucher proponents that they want to give poor parents choices is "the classic example of bait and switch on a large scale."

And their denial that private schools in voucher programs are selective is simply false. In the first place, he said, they know special education students won't attend their schools because they don't provide services for them. In addition, the voucher program itself is rigged to self-select children with involved and educated parents.

"Voucher programs are not only stealing money from the public schools," Kozol said, "they are stealing advocacy."

Because vouchers appeal to selfish motives, they "elevate the lowest instincts of humanity over the most beautiful instincts," he said.

"Vouchers have the potential to rip apart the social fabric of this nation," Kozol said.

More about Jonathan Kozol

Posted October 26, 2000; Updated October 27, 2000