Right about the time it was getting to the wire, it was pretty much groan city around school.  The kids had done all the work with the guidance of teachers, and then it was time to get everything on display (one week after TCAP testing, so the pressure was on).  I know I was at school until after 7PM the night before helping to finish hotgluing things to display walls and helping with last minute display problems.  Then, it’s over and big sigh of relief.

To any teacher, such a big to-do is always stressful.  We do projects all year long, but the more rigorous exhibition requires so much extra oomph on the teachers’ parts for setting up the displays after school and attaching all the right paperwork for the judges, making sure reflections match up with projects–it is very much a job that requires burning the midnight oil.  I know I have 30+ hours of extra work to do after school now cataloging the pictures of every student project in the school.

It is a big to-do when you think about it, especially when we do projects all year long, but two days out of the year the project is different.  For exhibition, the student work is judged by outside critics and students are given an opportunity to orally present information and reflective comments.  So, yes, it is a big to-do and of course we teachers sort of moan and groan, but you know…teachers just like to moan and groan, but we always get the job done and we are always secretly very happy to do it because we know it is important for the children.

It seems to me, that as we approached exhibition #2, there was a full on push of self-motivation from students to really do it up.  They were honestly excited because they knew this was a chance to show off their work to someone new.  Teachers, though completely exhausted before the exhibition even started, seemed very proud overall.  I look at it this way–teachers work hard all year doing such extraordinary lessons and projects, that now it is a way to showcase just a small sample.  One piece of work per child twice a year does not show much but it is something.

What is that something?  It is evidence that children can be assessed alternatively than a standardized test.  Let me tell you, there was NO sense of excitement or pride with anyone when it came to TCAP.  Students despise it, teachers freak out about it.  I know that when I was in the regular classroom, I couldn’t even walk around to monitor students testing.  I had to rely on my proctor to do it.  Why?  On the off chance I might check to make sure a student was on the right corresponding numbers or was on the right section of the answer sheet, I might see a wrong answer and sink into the depths of depression knowing I knew the child knew the answer.

With alternative assessment, like creating a product or a performance, the fear of “branding” by the stamp of a number from a standardized test is gone.  The horrible torture for ADHD kids to sit quiet and still and concentrate (haha) for 100 some odd minutes is gone.  What is present is an opportunity for kids to prove that they have a depth of knowledge on a topic or issue, rather than a shallow broad spectrum of facts that they may or may not be able to connect or retain.  Even students who struggle academically can tailor their curricular topics in such a way that they learn more because their project suits them (multiple intelligences, anyone?).

I’m not sure what Memphis City Schools is on to, here.  I’m hoping that Student Exhibition is really a foothold situation.  We’re in the beginning stages of proving that we don’t need no stinkin’ test.  Is it an idealogical hope that we might be building a case for a complete overhaul of the status quo, going to a new restructuring of student assessment that is 100% developmentally appropriate for ALL children and actually, you know, MAKES SENSE?

Recently featured on Edutopia was a school trying to do just that.  Of course, the Supreme Court ruled that the students still had to take “the test,” but not without protest marches from…wait for it…STUDENTS!

Watch the video here, from “Making a Case for Comprehensive Assessment.”

Project-oriented evaluations that include critiques by outside experts are among the innovations at New York City’s Urban Academy.

I’m very interested to see how the concept of the Student Exhibition in Memphis City Schools develops, because it seems to me that we are on a progressive track.  Maybe I’m trying to read too much into it, but there is still the hope that we will do something that is really, really the right direction for a better quality focus and education for our students.  In my humble, but decently-educated opinion, mind you.