I'd never heard the term "schoolishness" but I love it. I always referenced Denise Pope's "doing school" to refer to the same idea, but I'll have to pick this one up. Thanks for fighting the good fight here by sharing what standardized tests really feel like for both students and teachers.
Ugh. You know how I feel about all this standardized testing. I hope that after your students finish those tests and you complete your scutwork, you grant yourself some juicy, satisfying, authentic learning time with them!
I remember when testing first began, and I thought, “This will never last. It’s insane.” We all asked, “Whose idea was this anyway? Not an educator’s!” But the testing continued. We were told that test results should guide our instruction, yet the results did not come until the following October.
We tell our students that one test on one day does not define them or determine whether they are smarter or less smart than their classmates. Still, deep down, we know we anxiously await the results too, because we think they may reflect our teaching.
The whole practice feels flawed, yet I do believe learning needs to be measured in some way. I just do not have a better solution. I would love to hear ideas.
No time limit?! Does that mean students can be testing for hours without finishing? Is there a cutoff amount of time? 4 standardized tests in 4 days for 3rd graders is way too much!
Adrian, thank you for another great post, and for introducing me to the term "scutwork"!
An interesting connection to what I write about: in my research on teacher burnout, Maslach and Leiter found that people were more likely to burn out when their jobs included a lot of scutwork, and less likely to burn out when their jobs mostly consisted of the more complex and challenging work that their training had prepared them for. Here is the quote I copied into my notes from their book, "The Burnout Challenge:"
"In medicine, for example, physicians have invested heavily to gain their expertise and are most happy working extra hours if they are “working at the top of their license”-- that is, performing the highest-level services that they are qualified to render. Administrative busy work– like populating electronic medical records– is bottom of the license work. Tasks like these, and the equivalents in other jobs– like generating reports that no one reads and completing online training modules unrelated to one’s work– fall into the category of “illegitimate tasks” that people resent doing.”
I hope you can jump into a unit that feels extra meaningful after this stretch of schoolishness.
He says that we have confused workload with burnout. To your point, overwhelming amounts of scutwork make any job unsatisfying, leaving people feeling demoralized and eventually, burned out.
I, too, hope that teaching poetry this spring will help revitalize my engagement after two weeks of schoolishness. Thanks for commenting!
I'd never heard the term "schoolishness" but I love it. I always referenced Denise Pope's "doing school" to refer to the same idea, but I'll have to pick this one up. Thanks for fighting the good fight here by sharing what standardized tests really feel like for both students and teachers.
Ugh. You know how I feel about all this standardized testing. I hope that after your students finish those tests and you complete your scutwork, you grant yourself some juicy, satisfying, authentic learning time with them!
I remember when testing first began, and I thought, “This will never last. It’s insane.” We all asked, “Whose idea was this anyway? Not an educator’s!” But the testing continued. We were told that test results should guide our instruction, yet the results did not come until the following October.
We tell our students that one test on one day does not define them or determine whether they are smarter or less smart than their classmates. Still, deep down, we know we anxiously await the results too, because we think they may reflect our teaching.
The whole practice feels flawed, yet I do believe learning needs to be measured in some way. I just do not have a better solution. I would love to hear ideas.
These weeks are torture all around… I give a total of four tests in third grade, over four days, and students have no time limit.
No time limit?! Does that mean students can be testing for hours without finishing? Is there a cutoff amount of time? 4 standardized tests in 4 days for 3rd graders is way too much!
We do cut them off, but they are given time later to finish.
Not every school does it like mine; my husband at another site spreads it out over a couple of weeks.
Adrian, thank you for another great post, and for introducing me to the term "scutwork"!
An interesting connection to what I write about: in my research on teacher burnout, Maslach and Leiter found that people were more likely to burn out when their jobs included a lot of scutwork, and less likely to burn out when their jobs mostly consisted of the more complex and challenging work that their training had prepared them for. Here is the quote I copied into my notes from their book, "The Burnout Challenge:"
"In medicine, for example, physicians have invested heavily to gain their expertise and are most happy working extra hours if they are “working at the top of their license”-- that is, performing the highest-level services that they are qualified to render. Administrative busy work– like populating electronic medical records– is bottom of the license work. Tasks like these, and the equivalents in other jobs– like generating reports that no one reads and completing online training modules unrelated to one’s work– fall into the category of “illegitimate tasks” that people resent doing.”
I hope you can jump into a unit that feels extra meaningful after this stretch of schoolishness.
I just listened to Simon Sinek say the same thing that you mention in relation to medicine.
https://www.tiktok.com/@simonsinek/video/7624485486597393677?is_from_webapp=1&sender_device=pc
He says that we have confused workload with burnout. To your point, overwhelming amounts of scutwork make any job unsatisfying, leaving people feeling demoralized and eventually, burned out.
I, too, hope that teaching poetry this spring will help revitalize my engagement after two weeks of schoolishness. Thanks for commenting!