The 48th Super Bowl last night was very revealing. I’m a Texan and a southerner so those teams
north and west of here are interesting, but I had no skin in the game. That’s a good thing for me – I would have bet
on the Broncos. And the Broncos had a terrible
game while the Seahawks appeared to do everything right.
That is not what is revealing to me today. I can think of no other arena where I am
likely to find more supporters and proponents of competition than the NFL. In fact, the financial rewards of winning are
pretty incredible. Both the Broncos and
the Seahawks had outstanding, successful seasons. Week in and week out they performed very
well, worked hard, won games, and continued to advance in the playoffs. But it all came down to last night’s Super
Bowl. Or, did it?
Is there any way to think of the Broncos as losers? Is there any way to say they are not better
than every other professional football team save one? What a year!
What a record! And yet, this
morning all the media is talking about is how devastating their loss was. Really?
More interesting is Peyton Manning, the Broncos quarterback
for those of you who could care less, set a record in last night’s game. No other quarterback in the history of the
Super Bowl has ever completed more passes than Manning did last night. Peyton completed 34 passes. Wow. Manning
set a new record for high performance in a single game. Is there any way to think of Manning as a
failure or a low performer?
The interview with Bronco head coach John Fox after the game
blew me away. Here is a coach making multi-millions
coaching a group of professional athletes making multi-millions in a highly
competitive setting, and he said the following:
“To judge Manning or the Broncos for our success this year based on the outcome
of one game is ludicrous.” Really? Ludicrous?
That is my favorite word regarding high stakes testing in public
schools. Here is a coach of the second
best team in all of professional football expressing the same concerns. No one performance or the measure of one
performance merits the total assessment of a full year of work. Period.
I could not agree more.
That is the problem with data collection, especially the high stakes, judgmental
data collection in our current standardized testing culture. Scores on that test may be informative, but
they should not be summative or even judgmental. Manning set a record for high performance,
and lost. The Broncos now understand that one
measure does not determine a full year’s worth of hard work and success. John Fox has just achieved the level of
understanding that every classroom teacher and principal and superintendent in
the country achieved a long time ago.
Well, everyone except Arne Duncan.
The Super Bowl is structured so that only one team
wins. That is too bad given the quality
and records of these two teams. Sadly,
high stakes testing is designed with the same purpose, though hidden. No state really believes all their kids and
all their teachers and all their schools can ever be high performing. Tests are designed to distribute scores, not
verify competence. Should the outcomes
in Texas ever look too good, should too many kids and too many schools look
excellent, our government will change the test so that fewer will be able to pass. The test, that is, not the football. We still devote an incredible amount of
resources to develop winners in football.
One measure, one high stakes measure, should never be the
sole determinant or source of judgment for a year’s worth of work. Never.
If one can argue that in a highly competitive program like the NFL, why
is it so difficult to explain it to parents, schools boards and legislators in
a collaborative program geared to help make every kid a winner like public
schools?
My response? For some, their love of promoting success for
every kid falls dramatically short of their love of football.
We need education fans.
Our own Legion of Boom. (Not the
12th Man. That would be
staffing far below the level we need to be successful with kids.)
Ok, Bob!! This analogy is absolutely genius!! What a great example of the very thing that schools are doing to their students everyday - setting them up for failure!
ReplyDeleteI remember that my younger son was so upset about the TAKS test several years ago - and he often scored 100 % many years. One of his math teachers even said before one test, " well Phil, are you going to score another 100 for us this year?? " For US??!! He has told me that it almost made him want to just fail for once...
A teacher here in Amarillo, Kaydonna Wolfcale has been an item on the news because her principal told her to remove a post criticizing standardized testing. I have posted the article on my facebook. She has even quit her job over it.
I understand testing and we were tested in school, but it didn't seem that the stakes were so high or the pressure so intense! This article is just so perfect and should be submitted to a newspaper opinion or education publication!