Tested: One American School Struggles to Make the Grade

How can a book about public schools and mandatary testing be interesting? A valid question, and one I would have asked myself if I wasn't entering the education field. Yet, Linda Perstein's Tested is compelling, interesting, informative, and surprisingly an easy read.

Maybe is shouldn't be surprising though, since Perlstein is an author and a journalist; even though it is non-fiction and it is technically a documentary type of novel, it is not a dry rendering of statistics and facts. Perlstein does a great job of bringing personal stories into her text which makes this book read less as a text book and more as a narrative. It is about how the No Child Left Behind Law is affecting our school system and our students. For those of you not familiar with this law, it was passed in 2001 and basically states that schools are not allowed to "leave any child behind" in the education process. While this sounds noble, it doesn't seem to be having the positive effects in the classroom that it was originally designed to have.

Perlstein explains that NCLB requires that all children achieve proficiency in reading and math; this means all children: children with learning disabilities, children with a native language other than English, children who are living in poverty, etc. Of course, everybody would want these children to get the same education as those children who were lucky enough to be born into middle-class families. We all want an equal education for all students, or at least we all should.

But, what is really going on? Are these students now getting a better education just because they are being formally tested? Perlstein's exploration of a Maryland Elementary School anwers this question with a resounding NO. These children are now being taught how to take statewide mandatory tests. Is that real learning? They are being drilled and regimented into learning how to answer test questions. Hands-on experiements, free reading, creative writing, recess and other important developmental activities are being lost in the drive for "good test scores." Personally, I think these are learning experiences that are too valuable to be swept aside.

Even though the No Child Left Behind Law was supposed to close the achievement gap that exists between minority students and white middle class students, it seems to be having the opposite effect. The students in the upper middle class schools are recieving more interactive teaching lessons, more hands-on learning activities and more development of their own creative processes. These students are being taught how to learn, how to think for themselves, how to expand their own knowledge and how to question their environment.

The students at the lower Socioeconomic schools (which unfortunately are usually populated by mostly minorities) are not recieving this same education. They are being drilled in answering test questions; they are not learning how to evaluate their responses or their thinking processes. They are not learning how to develop into thinkers, and they are not being trained to be able to handle a professional life that requires those skills. The difference in education between these schools can only further widen the achievement gap that exists today.

Tested looks at these experiences and the differences in education that our children are recieving. Linda Perlstein spent a year in Tyler Heights which is made up of children who live in poverty or borderline poverty, and most of the students are African American or Hispanic; several do not know how to speak English. Obviously, these children deserve and need the same education that the "wealthier" kids in the other elementary schools are recieving (maybe even a better education to try and level the "playing field"). No Child Left Behind is not accomplishing that goal. Read Perlstein's Tested for an insider's view into our public elementary schools.

For those of us who are fiction lovers, this non-fiction book is an easy, accessible and informative read. I highly recommend it to anyone interested in our public schools, and to any of us who have school-age children. Happy Reading!