High Stakes Testing. Why?

A huge pet peeve of mine is administrators who design programs for their constituents that do not work. A program on campus designed to help underrepresented students get into graduate school is focusing a lot of time and energy on GRE preparation. The rationale is that students have been performing poorly on the GRE in recent years, so focusing on GRE prep will help increase scores. However, this does not work. It has never worked, and it probably will not work in this case.

High stakes testing (e.g., Iowa Test of Basic Skills, ACT, SAT, GRE, LSAT, etc.) has been repeatedly shown to predict nothing about the ability of a student to perform in school or in society. At best, these tests display students’ abilities to multiple guess. Lipman (2002) tells us that extensive focus on these tests in schools is actually correlated positively with lower scores. Belgrave and Allison (2006) note that “These efforts to improve test performance result in an overall narrowing of the educational opportunities available to students in lower-performing schools as schools increase their focus on test performance.” Furthermore, “In contrast, at higher-performing schools, teachers are described as focusing on developing richer curricula and promoting the value and love of learning.”

I personally know talented and brilliant students and people in the work force who want to return to school, but are paralyzed in their educational development, simply because they are scared to death of the GRE! Either they have been out of school for a while and do not think they would be able to succeed, or they took the test at one point and scored very low. Either way, these people are inhibited from reaching their goals because of a multiple choice exam that does not tell much about their capabilities. I think such tests should be done away with. Of course, this would mean that administrators and educational institutions would have to work harder to determine the capabilities of students by reading submitted writings and truly analyzing a student’s academic history and potential. God forbid these academics and administrators actually have to evaluate students’ potential and abilities.

The worst part is that I can present a case to a program that clearly shows how focusing on GRE prep will not only not improve scores, but decrease scores by adding anxiety and narrowing global educational initiatives. I can give recommendations as to how a program can increase scores by increasing student morale and excitement about learning in general. I can give examples of educational institutions that have done away with high stakes testing, and even standard letter grading, which resulted in more well rounded students who achieved more educationally and professionally. Only, since the government has determined, devoid of research, that GRE prep is mandatory for low scoring students, this program will sabotage yet another class of potentially high achieving students by bogging them down with worries over a single test. I just don’t get it.

Some People have Real Problems

Graduate school is truly a metaphor for life. It’s stressful and demanding. How you cope totally depends on the type of person you are.

One of my supervisors told me a story about a young woman she just met with. Apparently, this woman epitomizes the “worst case scenario.” Her dissertation advisor died and she’s still in the last stages of her dissertation process. Furthermore, she’s a novice teacher and her students have given her horrible feedback because she asks questions that are too hard. Her new advisor told her to cater to her students’ needs instead of challenging them to think. Since she can no longer refer to her dissertation advisor for positive references, these students’ criticisms are all that she has. Her credibility is up the creek, she has developed clinical depression, and her skin is pealing uncontrollably.

So yeah, this sucks, but it’s not an anomaly. People’s dissertation advisors and committee members die. People’s lives are challenged and things change. People have unplanned pregnancies and DUIs (not that I’m likening an unplanned child to a DUI, but just go with me here). The bottom line is that some people handle unfortunate events, and some people break down completely.

The goal is to learn how to deal with stressful situations. Nothing’s perfect and crap happens. We all have to learn to adjust and move forward.

Harmony

My personal harmony is all out of wack. I met with my masseuse yesterday who confirmed what I already knew. I stress and worry too much and I don’t stretch. Easy. I have the problem. Now I have to figure out what I’m going to do about it.

One of my masseuse’s suggestions was to spend only an hour studying or working and then leave my desk and my apartment to take a 15 minute walk; an aimless walk. Sure I could do that, but I know myself. Once I get started on something, I want to get it done. I don’t want to stop and take a break because I might forget what I was doing, or worse, I may lose my motivation to continue working. I work in fits and starts. Once the bug bites me, I have to keep going right then and there.

Now that I’ve established all the excuses as to why I can’t do what makes sense, I’m going to have to now do what makes sense. I must change the way I work. Just because it works for me now doesn’t mean it’ll work for me in the long run. The constant focus and stress leads to physical problems, so I must stop. I have to take breaks and I have to figure out how to maintain my harmony.

Qualifying Exams

It’s hard trying to determine exactly which direction I want to go into with my qualifying exams. I’m going to be writing an exhaustive paper on a particular area and I want to make sure it’s something I can get a lot of mileage out of. In other words, my prelims are going to feed right into my dissertation and I don’t want to do a lot of editing or, worse, change my dissertation topic from what I’m doing with my prelims. This is probably the biggest challenge. I’ve been reading a lot and I see a lot of places where my research could go. I just don’t want it to be a topic I end up hating.

I know that grad school isn’t the place to try to cure cancer. It’s school: a means to an end. Therefore, I know that I am not committed for the rest of my career to what I’m studying in graduate school. However, I also know that what I study in grad school lays the foundation for the type of research I’ll be doing as a professional psychologist. I also know that though my future may vary, I am still in this thing now and I want to do something I can be interested in, at least for the next couple years.

I’ll just keep reading for now. Maybe the inspiration will come to me in a dream. Maybe it will come in a conversation. Maybe I’ll have to force it. Either way, I need to hurry up and figure it out because I’m not trying to be here forever.

Correlation vs. Causation

Black people often get the short end of the stick. It seems that almost every other minority is given the benefit of the doubt, but Blacks are usually expected to fail, have lower expectations thrust upon them, and are often sabotaged in order to fulfill the prophesy of inferiority. Not to mention that Blacks as a group are viewed under the shadow of those Blacks who engage in the most destructive practices while successful blacks are consistently seen as the exception.

There seems to be this lingering assumption among the public that black folks are stupid, inferior, and recent descendants of apes while white folks are better, smarter, and were created by God, directly from the dust and given dominion over all creatures, great and small, including black folks. Laws have changed, but peoples’ minds have not. Furthermore, after centuries of being told that we are inferior, many black people have incorporated this belief into their own self concepts. As a result they have the same negative expectations of themselves as their own society has of them.

I am black. I am hurt when I walk into a room and people expect me to be the weak link. I do not like to walk into a store and be followed. I do not like to be seen as inferior and expected to change my appearance so that it is consistent with mainstream. People say, “You may not be a problem, but the majority of black people I run into cause problems.” What those people forget is that, among closer examination of history, we find that black people were never the problem. Oppressive Whites and, ultimately, oppressive White social infrastructures took away the rights of people through violence and shifty “laws.” Blacks were forced into neighborhoods, educational systems, jobs, homes, and livelihoods with little funding and protection under law. Ghettos were and are places where poor people will systematically self destruct.

In St. Louis, the schools are segregated. Not by law, of course. That would be too obvious. City schools are nearly 100% black and county schools are nearly 100% white. Here’s why: city schools are poorly funded and have fewer resources than county schools. Furthermore, because of the governmental structure of St. Louis, county tax dollars stay in the county and city tax dollars stay in the city, so wealth is never dissipated from the county into the city. Families from the city, who can afford to do so (mostly white), bus their students to private schools and county schools. Those who cannot afford tuition (mostly black) are stuck in the decaying city schools (The St. Louis Public School District lost accreditation June 15, 2007, by the way. This means students graduating from city high schools who want to go to college may have to take additional years of school before even being considered by a 4-year university. For more info, see this article). So in the end, we have a class of black students who have graduated from high school but can’t go to college, regardless of their abilities. Moreover, it is not their fault. So we look at the information published on the decline in black enrollment at 4-year universities and we point the finger at the students and say: “Those black kids are so lazy. They don’t want to work for anything; want everything handed to them. Why don’t those Blacks ever learn. That’s the problem with black people today.”

This is getting ridiculous. I’m not asking anyone to change their political affiliation. I’m just asking people to think. Stop judging people based on a partial, biased lack of information. No child should have to fight for a future. No family should have to choose between eating and education. Stop looking at black people as “those people.” We are human just like you are. Poverty affects us just like it would affect you. Just because you don’t understand doesn’t mean you’re right. It’s quite the contrary, in fact.

Note: Some of the city schools may be regaining accreditation soon, if not already. Black enrollment in 4-year universities is still volatile.

When Department Directors Loan You Books…

I started reading this book the other day, “How to Get a PhD: A Handbook for Students and Their Supervisors.” The director of my program actually loaned me the book a long time ago, when I was still an undergrad (yeah, I’ve had her book for about 4 years, but I plan to give it back). I don’t know why I haven’t started reading it until now. Maybe it was because I was afraid to even start thinking about the process. Maybe I didn’t think the book would be relevant to me because I wasn’t yet in a PhD program. Maybe I was too busy with other things. Either way, I wish I had read it earlier. It’s very helpful and informative. By “helpful and informative,” I don’t just mean that it’s a good reference book, or that I’m getting kickbacks from the editors. I mean the book is really good.

There’s a section in the book about the psychology of a graduate student. I remember when I first started grad school. I thought I was completely incompetent, an imposter, a schmuck, and lucky to have even been accepted into any program, let alone SLU’s PhD psychology program. To my surprise, that segment of the book outlined exactly how I was feeling and informed me that everyone feels that way. Now, if I had known that all new grad students feel stupid 4 years ago, I wouldn’t have experienced the self-doubt to the extent that I did. Maybe I would have, but at least I wouldn’tve felt alone in it.

So here’s a word of advice: when department directors loan you books, READ THEM! They clearly know something that you don’t know and can probably help you.

Get it together people

Stop doing stupid stuff. First of all, if you have a myspace or facebook page with pictures of you binge drinking and getting naked for friends, you will not get a job. I shouldn’t have to elaborate on this. It is the information age. Everyone goes online for everything. Do not be fooled. If you are a candidate for a position at any agency or a potential graduate applicant, the folks in charge are potentially going to Google your name in all variations: first and last, with quotations, middle initials, and aliases to determine what type of person they’re inviting into their team.

Secondly, stop videotaping yourself doing stupid stuff. Videotapes are, by far, the most reliable forms of evidence that exist in the criminal justice system. If you are caught on video exploiting yourself, I can almost guarantee that someone else has a copy. And now, with convenient information portals such as YouTube, your videos can be viewed, in rotation, nationwide.

Third, stop letting your boyfriends/girlfriends take inappropriate pictures of you for their “own person use.” Digital cameras are the norm, which means that those pictures are backed up on other files, and computer ready. As soon as you make your boyfriend/girlfriend angry or the two of you break up, inappropriate pictures are no longer sacred. Here’s a natural fact: you never know the negative potential of a significant other until the breakup. He/she may have said that he/she would never disrespect you, but during breakups, the gloves are off, and all is fair.

Forth, stop stealing from work. You will lose your job. You think it’s ok to use the company credit card for extraneous purchases now, but your supervisors are not stupid. You may think that random thefts from your office are untraceable, but when things come up missing and you were the only one there, 2 and 2 still make 4. Now is not a time to be unemployed. People are losing their jobs left and right and if you lose yours because of something stupid, that’s just stupid.

Due to the intuitive nature of these issues, it would seem that I would not have to dedicate an entire blog to advising people not to do stupid stuff. But from adolescent girls videotaping themselves committing battery, to reputations being destroyed over sex tapes/nude photos, to politicians getting fired over sex scandals, to giant corporations going bankrupt and CEOs committing suicide because they chose to rob the public, there is clear evidence of a need to remind people to stop doing stupid stuff. You will get caught. You will suffer the consequences. Get it together people.

Times are hard

Everyone is feeling the pinch. From people losing their homes and jobs to truckers parking their vehicles because they can’t afford diesel fuel prices, no one has been unscathed by the current economic crisis. Not to mention, the domino effect: fewer truckers delivering produce = higher prices for salad fixings. Families having to downsize = house pets with nowhere to call home.

These are definitely hard times that we’ll be reflecting on later to our children and grandchildren. However, there is no need to give up hope and allow the economy to sweep us away. Now, more than ever, is a time to start planning for the future (if you haven’t started yet) and making better decisions in life.

As a grad student, I don’t have to worry about losing my job…I don’t have one. I don’t have to worry about losing my house…I don’t have one of those either. I don’t have to worry about where my kids are going to sleep or what they’re going to eat for dinner tonight…thank God. My only real responsibility right now is myself.  With my somewhat fancy free lifestyle, I’m not in as much of a bind some of my friends and family members are. Furthermore, because I’ve always made it a point to live not only within, but below my means, no financial surprises will send me to the poor house right away. Still, I am not careless. After sitting down with myself and considering the current climate, I’ve compiled a list of wise choices that can help safeguard me against poverty during a recession.

1. Buy local. Imported goods bring higher prices. Shopping for my groceries at the local farmers’ market will save a lot of money and support the farmers. I may have to change my menu a bit (no veggie burgers for a while), but I’ll have plenty spinach and strawberries to go around.
2. Maintain your living expenses. I rent. During times of economic woe, the renting market will offset the housing market. Renters may try to increase rent up to 30% a year because they can, but if you talk to your building manager or owner, they’ll usually be willing to work with you. If you’ve been a good tenant (i.e., paid your rent on time and didn’t wreak havoc in the apartment), a manager won’t want to lose you, and so may not raise your rent. Furthermore, from a managerial standpoint, it can take up to 6 months to rent a vacant apartment after a tenant has moved. Gaining an extra $200 a year by increasing the rent would not be worth losing up to $4,000 by having a vacant apartment.
3. Walk/bike more. I have a friend who drives everywhere. Now that gas is up to $3.47 in the city, he’s been finding ways to run his errands on foot. Overall, this makes him more efficient. Instead of running all over town every day to pick up a few items, he plans to go out and get everything in 1 or two days. He’s also discovered that Shop n’ Save is a lot closer to his house than he previously thought. Not to mention, walking outside eliminates the need to purchase a gym membership. See, money savings all over the place!
4. Cook at home. Eating out = $$$. Eating in = ☺, and it’s usually healthier.
5. Relax. The economy, the market, and life in general will always ebb and flow. It’s important to stay in control of your circumstances instead of allowing your circumstances to control you. Yet, keep in mind that this, like all other things, will come to an end. In the meantime, try to enjoy it.

Lowered expectations

I’ve been slacking a bit lately. Not having any classes to take has slowed me down a lot. I used to have at least 5 articles to read a day, go to 3 class meetings a week, and work endlessly on at least 3 projects at a time. Nowadays, all I have to do is study for my prelims and perhaps publish, yet, I’m not getting too much done.

Now is the time that I really have to be self motivated. I have to make the decision that I don’t want to spend the next 5 years of my life in graduate school. If I want to get out of here in 2 more years, I’m going to have to crank up the energy level and work load. The idea is to pretend that I’m in a class and do as much work as I would if I were in class even though I’m not in class. It’s hard because I can always find something else to do.

Ok. I’m resolving to myself now to be a more diligent student. I am going to make moves in my life so that I can get things done now instead of putting them off. I’m going to create my own deadlines and then meet those deadlines. Since I’m only accountable to myself, I’m going to have to hold myself at a higher standard than I’ve been holding myself. I’m raising my expectations and getting this thing done.

The aftermath

Spring break is over, but I’m not mad. People ask me how my break was and whether or not I did something wild and crazy. Not this year. I did absolutely nothing. No traveling, no intense partying, no homework. Nothing. It was probably one of the best spring breaks I’ve had thus far.

We work really hard to earn our livelihood, while constantly hoping for a break. We’re always tired and always running, waiting to steal time away to just relax. However, when we are given vacation time, we spend it doing everything but relaxing. I enjoyed using my vacation time to walk in the sun, spend time with friends, read non-academic literature, and just veg out. I think this is the beginning of a new trend for me.