When I was a young teacher, I did some football and basketball coaching. An old head football coach preached the KISS Principle to us young coaches: KISS stood for “Keep It Simple, Stupid.”

If players didn’t understand a play or technique, they were even encouraged to raise their hands and shout “KISS!” As coaches, we would then do some teaching to simplify things. The system worked very well for middle and high school teams.

I’m not sure anyone ever taught the KISS Principle to the folks at the Michigan Department of Education who have designed the latest state tests, the M-STEPs.

I think they follow a different motto, one that I’ll call the KICK Principle: “Keep It Complicated, Kids!” At least it seems complicated to this simple educator.

They have an elaborate system of access and levels of use that might rival the CIA’s when it comes to who can do what and when to get ready for the tests. For example, kids who take the tests will be issued “tickets” that are only good for one day at a time. There’s a whole way and system on how to do that. The system of “supports” and “accommodations” is detailed and complicated, too. Every week they send a four- to six-page newsletter, “The Spotlight,” and it has something new and different we need to understand how to do before we even start to administer the tests in April. Sometimes they even change things on us from week to week.

We’ve been using another online test system, the Measures of Academic Progress (MAP) from the Northwest Educational Assessment (NWEA) for many years. Many other districts use this same test and none of us go through nearly the amount of complications the state is setting up with the new M-STEPs.

I sent an e-mail to MDE asking for some help, and they directed me to a website that I shared with principals. One principal noted that part of the website connected her to information that was more than a year old and now obsolete for this year’s tests. So, by making things so complicated, it’s like the blind leading the blind at times.

The hard task for us as professionals and parents is to not translate our own sense of frustration and puzzlement we have with the Michigan Department of Education or our legislators in Lansing on to our students. If you encourage your kids to try their very best at whatever they do, even if it’s hard, hats off to you. If you’re giving your kids more keyboard time for actually writing on the computer and not just playing games, way to go. If your students pick up on your sense of confidence in our schools, great job. Kudos to all of you who care about your kids to make sure they don’t take the M-STEP tests and feel frustrated and puzzled. After all, a KISS is always appreciated much more than a KICK.

 

John Jarpe is the superintendent of Brandywine Community Schools. He can be reached at (269) 684- 7150.