Educators Sound Off Against State’s ‘Gateway Tests’

BY MATTHEW WINTER
SALISBURY POST

KANNAPOLIS – Educators from throughout the Piedmont – and one mad ‘‘mama’’ from south Rowan – spent Thursday night blasting end-of-the-year tests proposed by the state to stop ‘‘social promotion.’’

The state-sponsored public hearing at A.L. Brown High School, the last of eight regional meetings on the proposed student promotion standards, drew teachers and parents from as far away as Winston-Salem. School board members from Kannapolis and Rowan and Cabarrus counties showed up, as well as state Rep. Richard Moore, himself a Kannapolis teacher. ine educators signed up to speak at the meeting as Phil Kirk, chairman of the state Board of Education, and other state officials listened. State officials did not respond to comments.

One by one Thursday night, educators stood at a podium in the school’s cafeteria and criticized the state’s proposal.

Although most agreed that North Carolina needs some sort of standards, they worried that promotion tests for third-, fifth-, eighth- and 12th-graders would force thousands of students to repeat a grade when they could go on with extra attention. Others angrily pointed out the extra work, extra money and extra time the tests would take.

In 1997, the Legislature mandated statewide promotion standards, and the draft discussed Thursday night is the state board’s sixth.

Kirk hinted Thursday that the state board may consider more drafts before endorsing a plan.

‘‘We’re not just going through the motions with this,’’ he said.

The state proposes four ‘‘gateways’’ for students to pass through, in the third, fifth, eighth and 12th grades. In the three earliest grades, students would be required to pass a standardized test at the end of the year before moving on to the next grade.

High school seniors also would have to pass an exit exam, and the state is considering other graduation requirements, such as a senior project and resume portfolio.

The state board plans to vote on the sixth draft in April, Kirk said.

Many at the meeting Thursday seemed to dread that vote.

Elijah ‘‘Pete’’ Peterson – a Livingstone graduate, retired Richmond County principal and member of the N.C. Black Leadership Caucus – warned that if the state adopts these student promotion standards, ‘‘African-American students will bear the lion’s share of the educational failures in this state.’’

Rebecca Corriher-Daugherty, mother to a South Rowan 10th-grader, was less delicate.

‘‘I know what’s wrong up there in Raleigh,’’ she said. ‘‘You don’t have anyone up there with common sense representing the people ... poor, working people.’’

Corriher-Daugherty warned state officials to check with national civil rights organizations for possible legal repercussions of the proposed promotion standards. She is currently challenging Rowan County’s new 2.0 graduation requirement through the U.S. Office of Civil Rights.

Phyllis Zellmer, principal of Crown Point Elementary School in Matthews, argued that holding kids back doesn’t help their education, especially if their teachers don’t do anything different the second time around.

Zellmer suggested end-of-the-year tests that measure each child’s progress by their potential. She didn’t say how you would test a student’s potential.

Forrest McFeeters, a fifth-grade teacher at an ‘‘at-risk and low-performing’’ school in Winston-Salem, got one of the meeting’s best receptions.

McFeeters told the crowd about one of his students who wanted to know why her class was spending so much time on math and English when she wanted to study science, as she ‘‘had an undying devotion to be an astronaut.’’

‘‘This situation disturbed me and weighed heavily on my mind,’’ McFeeters said. ‘‘I pondered the fact that sacrificing the subjects that intrigued her to focus solely on those skills that will be used on the end-of-the-grade test was criminal.

‘‘Let me make this clear,’’ he continued later. ‘‘I do not condemn testing. I condemn a system of testing that focuses on only one aspect of a child’s intellect and then uses that assessment to determine whether or not that child is competent enough to perform on the next grade level.’’

Sally McQuinn, another Winston-Salem fifth-grade teacher, echoed McFeeter’s fears of turning his students into ‘‘test-taking drones,’’ especially if the tests prove disappointing. One of her classes served as a test group for such exams, and McQuinn had to cancel music classes to prepare for the tests. Nevertheless, three-fourths of her class failed the test, she said.

Connie Hawkins, director of the Exceptional Children’s Assistance Center in Davidson, said state officials should ensure funding for the extra effort it will take to implement the tests.

Hawkins also advised the state to follow the lead of local school boards and adopt an alternate diploma for students who are ‘‘not college-bound,’’ whether these students are disabled or not.

Although every educator who took the floor Thursday night delivered three minutes of criticism for the new testing requirements, one audience member offered a different perspective.

Guarding the assembly after a regular 12 hours on patrol, Kannapolis police officer C.A. Sechler stood silent in the back of the room throughout the two-hour meeting. As the crowds thinned out afterward, Sechler explained that although his own children are out of school and his grandchildren haven’t started, he ‘‘kind of feel(s) for the teachers after listening to them.’’

But Sechler wasn’t convinced, except that ‘‘even a happy medium wouldn’t make everybody happy.’’ Students who honestly try but continue to falter should go on to the next grade, with extra help, he said. But those who are lazy or careless – schools shouldn’t hesitate to hold them back.

‘‘One year I didn’t want to study,’’ he confided. ‘‘I was being really block-headed.

‘‘They didn’t pass me.’’