Tip #6 for teachers working in academically-disadvantaged districts: Write down the fun parts of your school experience. What did you like most? What kept you after school? Start advocating for those activities during meetings and in committee work.

Take the lead if you can find the time. Maybe you will have to be the one to organize the trip to the Museum of Science and Industry. Maybe you will have to start the Latin Dance Club. Other schools’ debate coaches can help you learn to coach debate. But however you can do it, fight to get fun into your school.

We have to deemphasize testing.

My last year, I gave PARCC^TM tests, ACCESS^TM tests, AIMSWEB^TM tests, MAP^TM tests, mandatory East Coast unit tests, and weekly obligatory quizzes, not to mention extra tests and quizzes needed to raise grades since the administration had decided that 100% of grades should be based on assessments.

All these assessments were administered throughout the school year to give the state, district leaders, school administrators and teachers feedback on how students were progressing toward meeting academic expectations. With these lost days of testing, my school was able to provide quick information to the state showing that students were making academic progress. But I spent over one-fifth of my classroom hours testing that year, a ridiculous loss of instructional time by any measure. My students also had an extremely rough year. I may have created a few future drop-outs. I hope not, but the kids at the bottom of the testing pool were having little fun that year.

Ever-increasing testing ironically hits our lowest-scoring kids the hardest. Academically successful districts don’t have to give extra tests to show higher scores. Those districts don’t have to present new data regularly to the state. Their administrators do not need to travel from classroom to classroom asking students to please, please take upcoming state tests seriously. Those administrators can do the traditional job of a school administrator instead. They can work on school spirit rather than school scores. They can expand the breadth of academic offerings within their districts, rather than telling electives’ teachers to focus instruction around math and English for annual state test. They can visit clubs to listen to speakers and watch dances.

They can focus on kids instead of numbers.

In schools where administrators are chasing higher digits, though, the hallways can become grim. Are your administrators are too busy to worry about spirit? If so, Tip #6 says step into the gap. Be the life of the party. Plan the dance with your colleagues. Get the crepe paper up there.

Eduhonesty: School dances have kept more would-be drop-outs in school than mandatory extra math practice ever will.