Tinkerbell Strategy for Math

Don’t worry, kids. Just do your best. No pressure at all. Get a good night’s sleep. Eat a healthy breakfast. Believe in yourself with all your heart then you will get a very high score. That’s right, the Tinkerbell “I think I can” strategy is listed in the test prep tips right after “sit next to the smartest kid in the class and copy his or her paper.” Luckily, dictionaries are allowed during tomorrow’s state math exam. I’m just waiting for a student to ask how to write “2” in English. Scrap paper and calculators are not allowed. Bring your thinking caps and a number two pencil. Wait, wait. Don’t tell me. You forgot your pencil. And you forgot how to convert decimals to percents. Not a good day for memory lapse. I’d hate to see you become another statistic.


I doubt you will forget what I’m getting ready to tell you: An inferior test score on your 7th grade math exam sets into motion a sequence of events that will lead you into a less-than desirable high school, a less-than prestigious university, a work world where this early achievement gap translates into less wealth, the same unfair disadvantages for your underachieving mate and more of the same for your less-than privileged offspring. A high score could change your luck. It's a numbers game.

Lately, there has been a lot of “talk” at my school about why “best teaching practices” are not translating into “high student test scores.” We are a “model school” for math and reading, yet most of our students are not meeting the standards. At a recent teacher leader meeting, I gained a little insight into one glaring problem:

THE FORMULA. Schools under pressure to raise student achievement have to make trade-offs and decisions about which students they will invest time and energy.

Standardized tests are scored as follows: level 1(far below standards), level 2 (approaching standards), level 3(meeting standards) and level 4 (above standards). However, a student whose standardized test score moves from 1 to 2, or low 2 to high 2 does NOT help the school’s report card as much as raising a high 2 to 3, or 3 to 4. In the end, the level 1 and 2 kids are not “recruited” or “encouraged” to attend tutoring services and after-school programs like the higher level 2 and 3 students. It does not "pay" to help the kids who need the most support.

And here you have it, just like the middle-class is disappearing in the good ol’ US of A so are all the average students. The push is on to transform Susie-does-pretty-darn-good into Susan-does-super-duper-great. All the while, Rogelio-can’t-read and Mohammed-fails-math stand on the corner outside the school waiting for Susan to get out of her after-school enrichment program.

Maybe I should write a sequel to "Dumb and Dumber" called "Smarter and Smartest" where the characters outdo each other and themselves. This reminds me of Judith Warner's op-ed piece, "Glass Slippers, Old Hat," in Saturday's NY Times about a new trend in the "assortive mating" social science phenomenon that shows "alpha males are... marrying equally high-octane women." Such super-charged couples will likely pop out hybrid overachievers, either that or greater numbers of children with autism and bi-polar disorder, according to hypotheses from researchers at the University of Cambridge.