Teaching Blindfolded: One Teacher’s Struggle to Meet the Needs of Her Somali Students in the Era of High Stakes Testing and Scripted Curriculum

Abstract

The following case study looks at one teacher’s struggle to meet the needs of her Somali
students’ in the era of high stakes testing and scripted curriculum. It documents the pressure
on teachers and students to improve the average school state mandated test scores and to
ignore the intellectual and vocational resources of the families in the community (Gonzalez et
al., 1995). Consequently, more and more schools are adopting a prescribed curriculum with
scripted lessons to replace inquiry lessons. This study discusses how this curriculum adoption
often forces teacher to ignore students’ needs and cultural background and teach to the test.