The frequent sorting and messaging of the test administrations that is driving the fixed mindset culture.

     How does my fourth grade experience compare with Tom's from the last blog post?  How does yours compare?  Were your formative years in elementary school a narrow path of test prep, followed by test, followed by remediation; repeat?  In an earlier post I mentioned the conveyor belt our students are on today in relation to retention and social promotion.  Forty years ago my classmates and I went from year to year as a group.  Despite the perception that being "flunked" or "held back" was an option, it was not reality.  We all moved on together.  So what was different?
     We had six flexible years to grow into readiness for seventh grade.  Yes, some students routinely seemed to grow at a slower pace, but not in all areas and not all of the time.  We were given time and space to try new things.  We were not expected to march together through a pacing guide toward a standardized test.  I learned to read quickly and moved on to challenging books before many in my class, but their reading skills were nurtured along, too.  Our teachers naturally provided differentiated instruction without the specter of annual standardized tests.  Without recognizing it at the time, we were all working from a growth mindset.  Teachers and students celebrated the steps of the journey.  It never felt like a one speed conveyor belt, though we all were headed in the same general direction toward the same goals.
     Before annual high stakes tests, some would argue that students and teachers dealt with a narrower curriculum versus the widening curriculum of today.  For a moment, let's put aside the cliches and subjective judgement of one or the other.  Instead, let's consider the impact of annual testing, whatever the depth and breadth of the curriculum.  Annual high stakes testing forces a one speed fits all conveyor belt on everyone and sorts students with every test administration.  Everyone is sorted, but everyone moves up a grade level with age, regardless of the academic achievement.  Contrast this with an era when no one was sorted, everyone moved up a grade level with age, and teachers had the time and flexibility to meet the needs of all students across a six year span of time as their brains developed and their social skills matured.
     It is the frequent sorting and messaging of the test administrations that is driving the fixed mindset culture.  Students look around and decide that they are in a smart group or a dumb group generally or specifically by subject.  This sorting and student decision-making begins early with devastating impact.  All students suffer, not just those seeing themselves in the slower groups.  When a student who does well on high stakes tests in early years develops their own fixed mindset he may begin to assume that achievement will be automatic in the future, missing out on skill development and learning.