Anchors Aweigh

Well, the news that the Michigan Department of Education was awarding its testing contract to the College Board and the SAT took everyone by surprise. Many reactions were quite visceral, and I found myself trying to explain it to someone who was taking a balcony view of what might be best for kids.

Once upon a time, students taking the ACT in high school was voluntary. Only those students who were college-bound to schools that required the ACT tended to take it. After the introduction of the Michigan Merit Curriculum, the ACT became mandatory for all juniors. In that first year, our high schools, like others around the state, saw their average ACT score dip by a significant amount. ELA teachers, among others, took up the challenge to revisit how they supported readers and writers. No one wanted to be teaching simply to a test, but to the extent that the test was now serving two separate purposes (individually by students to apply to college and by the state to "score" high schools), it was important for all students to be prepared to perform at their best. After many years of hard work, our district average on the ACT finally met and exceeded the average we had before mandatory testing. More importantly, it meant that more of our kids had improved their reading and writing skills.

Having worked so diligently with and for kids, and feeling successful, it is no wonder that teachers (and administrators) felt punched in the gut last week. It does not mean that the SAT is a "bad" test, or that the skills we have been cultivating in our students are wasted. In fact, I know I don't know enough about the revamped SAT to make an objective evaluation of whether it is in the best interests of our kids. All I am trying to do is explain why the news hurt.

For me, some wisdom from Peter Senge helps. In Breaking the Code of Change, he writes about people and groups being anchored in established thinking (2000). It causes me to look at the "heaviness" of my "anchor," or in other words, is the "weight of [my] established thinking...too great to overcome?" (Senge, p. 69). Even when presented with logic and clarity for meaningful change, it is extraordinarily difficult to let go of our core, entrenched strategy because we are personally invested in the success of the strategy. Ironically, the very attributes that made us successful in that strategy may now be holding us back; our commitment to the strategy has positioned us to reflect the commitment.The new proposal, which seems radical to many, creates tremendous emotional and cognitive processing demands, and might exceed our capacity to honestly reflect upon it, even if we have more information and time to process (Senge).

The phrase "anchors aweigh" comes from the U.S. Navy, and it is used to signify that the ship's hoisted anchor has just cleared the sea bottom. In other words, the voyage is underway. I know that I have to re-establish my thinking, but it will be difficult. So, how might we learn together to hoist this testing anchor, even if just a little, to begin the voyage of sailing toward the SAT?

-- J. Walton