The Student-Teacher Relationship, part 1

Hello everyone,

I've been thinking about this for a long time, partly because of Garfield's constant struggle to raise its test scores, and partly because of what I observed at the high school of my own children.

A big problem with test scores is that they don't measure ability in any isolated way. The CSTs measure attitude first and ability second. The CAHSEE is a more accurate measure of ability, but the CAHSEE ceases the measurement as soon as the test-takers pass it. The truth is, when schools try to raise their test scores, they are inhibited by the difficulty of affecting individual attitudes in a school-wide forum.

I am convinced that the single most important thing that affects test scores is the relationship between a student and the student's parents.

The second most important thing is the relationship between the student and the student's teacher.

Third is the relationship between the student and the school community.

The quality of instruction is next.

Test taking skills, or confidence taking tests, would round out the top five.

We have almost no ability to affect the relationship between a student and the parents. Too many factors are out of our control. We may encourage students with good parents (usually unnecessary), and we may support students with poor parents (a limited proposition), but we are not in a position to do much to help the relationship in any way that would appreciably affect the CSTs.

We have an integral effect on the school community, but we are each only one element of a large organism. The best we can do is decide to be a positive force in the school. This is a very nebulous thing, acquired through individual resolve, but most influenced by the administration and the activities that touch the community (like sports and the arts).

We might integrate test taking skills into our instruction, and practice in our classes will give some students confidence in taking tests; even so, they are generally not worth more than the least instructional time. To focus tremendous attention on such trivialities offends me, and I believe it offends most of my colleagues. Further, it undermines any possible validity of the tests.

The things we have complete control over are our relationship with our students, and the quality of our instruction.

We spend much of our time working on improving our instruction. It is worthy of our efforts. It should be a life-long goal. We should never give it up.

However, for the next week or so, I would like to talk about our relationships with our students. (Our quality of instruction will follow naturally, anyway.)

Jeff Combe