As a rule, CommonSense2 will not publish anonymous submissions. We make an exception for the following piece because of its unusual background. The author, a dedicated teacher in Berks County, fears retribution on the job if identified. To convey this teacher’s experience in the age of No Child Left Behind, we present these diary entries with minimal editing, for the most part as we received them.

Jack Romig

March 5, 2007 12:40 p.m. The guidance counselor and secretary are pushing a test-stacked skid on wheels down the hallway. State testing is about to start. Teacher meetings started at the end of February but teachers began getting students ready much earlier. I started introducing prefixes and root words to my xxxxxx grade xxxxx students in September and give a monthly math quiz to my xxxxx grade xxxx students. The school secretaries have been overwhelmed with the paperwork to document student attendance. I wonder how much time and materials are being used to get all absences documented. Due to NCLB standards every child must have a parental signature for every absence and the school is left to send somewhat threatening follow-up notes to every student that does not turn in a signed absence form. Many of my students have received up to 10 notices for ONE absence

Team meetings have been scheduled and memos regarding the test are circulating. Who makes the money for printing and distributing all those test books throughout the state?

March 6, 2007 7:30 a.m. We have a faculty meeting this morning to outline procedures and teaching schedules. Our teaching time will be reduced from 43 minutes to 27 minutes and there will be days when I won t see certain classes. This makes continuity of concepts and real teaching difficult. I am given my 2007 PSSA Handbook for Assessment Coordinators and Administrators, Grades 3-8 and 11 Reading and Mathematics. The title says it all

March 9, 8:45 a.m. Our principal comes in to remind students to get enough sleep and take the test seriously. He looks tense. Daylight Savings starts this Sunday poor timing .He runs off to the next classroom. All of our students have to meet the state standards by 2014.

March 12, 7:20 a.m. Oops I assigned homework to my science classes. All homework, projects, and tests are FORBIDDEN from March 12 thru March 23 due to testing. I change the word homework to assignment. (Homework is graded, assignments are not.)

I report to the 7/8 library at 8:10. This is where I will be monitoring the testing of four xxxx-grade learning support students. After the National Anthem and Pledge of Allegiance, students are given a breakfast of Otis Spunkmeyer Wild Blueberry Muffins (240 calories each and 17 grams of sugar) and a half pint of chocolate milk (25 grams of sugar). That is the sugar equivalent of more than one Hershey bar. I asked my four students what time they went to bed and their answers were: 1 a.m., 11:30 p.m., 10:00 and midnight. The one o clock bedtime was due to a distraught teenager s conference with a friend about the breakup of her relationship. Time to clean up from our snack and take the test.

We are in the library with six other groups of learning support students and six teachers. The lead teacher reads the directions and we realize that we are already confused. The test book and answer book are the same color and are not easily distinguishable. In addition, the test book also has pages for answers. Students are told to show their work for every problem on a third booklet (it is, thankfully, pink). The first five questions CANNOT be done with a computer. We are given stickers to seal this part of the book when these five questions are completed. PSSA enforcers are lurking in the building to make sure the protocol is not breached.

The Math booklet requires each student to put the name of their math teacher on the designated line. (Firing line????? Accountability? Are the math teachers accountable for teaching the skills or their students’ sleeping habits??) George Bush wants the NCLB law changed and one of the changes is to require teachers to be “Highly Qualified Effective Teachers” instead of “Highly Qualified Teachers.” More window dressing? This mandate would apply to all Reading, Math & Science teachers and their “Qualified and Effective” rating would be based in large part on student standardized test scores. Our days of instruction are continually curtailed with assemblies, standardized testing, school photographs, field trips, two hour weather delays. All of these variables, as the students’ bedtimes, are completely out of our control yet we are judged qualified and effective by a number on a test booklet.

About 20 minutes into the test one of my students asks me how do you show your work for a graphing problem. Good question, as it turns out you don t, you write graph on the mandatory “show your work” booklet. Our principal walks through the library looking over everyone s shoulders.

My students finish their tests and I check their booklets and find out that three out of four of them did not complete the last few questions. An easy mistake because questions 23 & 24 are not on the Scantron answer sheet. You need to record these answers in the test book Very confusing. We are dismissed to go to our first period classes at 10:15.

March 13, 2007 8:10 a.m. We seem to be getting into the test routine. Teachers and students meet in the library. Today I brought a bag of work to do because there is very little for us proctors to do while the students are testing. The students are given Nestle’s Juicy Juice “Punch” to drink (22 grams of sugar in a 6.75 fluid oz. container. Very clever marketing here. Even though it is called Juicy Juice and says it contains 100% juice the sugar content mandates that it be labeled a punch.) Breakfast is topped off with a Quaker Chewy Chocolate Chip Granola Bar (7 grams of sugar, 100 calories in a 24 gram bar).

Today s test is Reading. The students are given two short stories and are asked to answer questions and write a paragraph about the story. This part of the test seemed more stressful for the students. Our principal looked tense. There was an all building announcement, “This is a reminder that this is not a timed test but having said that, the testing period will be extended 15 minutes.” Oops I just lost my first period xxxx class. I have 5 minutes to explain how an Automated External Defibrillator works Maybe not

March 14, 2007 8:20 a.m. We re in a groove. National Anthem, the Pledge, and breakfast. Today s breakfast was the Otis Spunkmeyer Wild Blueberry Muffin and Chocolate Milk. The testing is on Math again. I just realized that today s teaching schedule cuts out my Science class. The shortened periods of instruction make it difficult to plan a “real” lesson. Most teachers are showing movies. I should be having a “perch dissection” lab this week in science but I will have to hold off until testing is over and we go back to normal 43 minute class periods.

March 15, 2007 , 8:15 a.m. Anthem, Pledge, Breakfast (Granola Bars and Juicy Juice “Punch”). I asked the kids when they went to bed last night. Their responses were: 9 p.m., 1 a.m., 11 p.m., and 10:30. Reading today. We cannot explain a word to a student or even help them pronounce it. The only thing we are allowed to do is listen to them if they want to read it aloud to us. None of my students opt for this. (Why would they want to?) I spend my two hours reading Newsweek, beading, and trying to stay awake. As I take a bathroom break and walk down the hallways I realize that the school is in a kind of “lockdown” mode. Two hours of intense work and playtime for the rest of the day Oops, revised schedule omits my period 8 and 9 for today. I had scheduled a review for tomorrows’ test for them. I guess I will have to give them an open book test since I will not see them again for six days. Open book test what a deal Is that even testing?

2:55 p.m. Announcement from the assistant principal. “Since this has been a hard week testing and you (students) have done such a great job we are declaring tomorrow (Friday) crazy hat day.”

March 16, 2007 Same old, same old .Muffins and Milk. Only one student has a crazy hat. The bedtimes of my group are; 10:30, 8:00 p.m., 10:30 p.m., and 11 p.m. Early night. Math test today

10:03 a.m. I just ran into the principal who informs me that due to the bad weather, sleet and rain, we will be dismissing early. I will teach my first and second period xxxxxx class and one 6th grade xxxxxx class. Will I ever be able to get my classes on track again?

March 19, 2007 We have a two hour delay this morning. It is a Day 1 in our six day cycle and I will be starting a new cycle of classes. One hundred and twenty students that meet on Day 1, 2 & 3 to be exact .

We start the day with a faculty meeting to determine the best (least disruptive) schedule for the day. As it turns out I only teach three 27 minute classes today. We spend the whole afternoon completing the reading part of the test. My students ask me if I want to know when they went to bed .their bedtimes were 9:00, 11:00, 1:00 a.m., and 5:00 a.m. The 5:00 a.m. bedtime or lack thereof was due to his inability to sleep so he played video games all night. I finished beading the bracelet I was working on, read a book cover to cover. Another teacher typed up a guest list for her parents’ 50th wedding anniversary with her test time. It has been six school days since we really taught. This is not what we want to do, it is what we are mandated to do. Our teaching schedules are messed up, students will have a load of work dumped on them this week, our administrators will bite their nails until they see the results, and the taxpayers and students have been short shifted again. No Child Left Behind, although mandated by our visionary legislators, is underfunded by $9 billion!!!