I can, however, think of unworthy attributes of state testing with the first being stress. State induced stress. Stress for kids, parents, teachers, counselors, and administrators. No one is immune to the stress caused by state testing. Not even the kids who aren't testing. The whole school is on test lock-down. A deathly silence takes over every hallway.
Teachers begin living in fear in early February. Did they forget to teach a standard or maybe they didn't spend enough time mastering the standard, or was the standard taught too early in the year and they didn't have time to review it? They cringe when they see students rushing through the questions or absently marking answers.
Teachers begin living in fear in early February. Did they forget to teach a standard or maybe they didn't spend enough time mastering the standard, or was the standard taught too early in the year and they didn't have time to review it? They cringe when they see students rushing through the questions or absently marking answers.
They see that questions do not test what was taught- and not because they didn't spend ample time teaching their curriculum, but rather because it is a trick question. Inwardly, they seethe.
Students, who really care about their scores, nervously read each question and find their mind has gone blank. They panic. What if they make a low score? What if they fail this test? Their teacher will be disappointed and their parents will be embarrassed.
After all, school is important. High test score are important. Succeeding is important. (Who puts this kind of pressure on a kid, anyway?)
Anyone and everyone who is responsible for the validity and security of tests is about to have 21 sleepless nights. For months prior to testing they dream of computers crashing and a shortage of #2 pencils. The tests arrive. They quarantine them behind locked doors and so it begins.
The loss of educational time would be another unworthy attribute. For weeks leading up to testing and the actual time of testing, learning comes to a crashing halt. Students have done just about any and every review possible. They have taken practice test after practice test. Laughter is forbidden. Testing is serious business. No time for any exploration during testing. Every ounce of energy is focused on taking the test.
Anyone and everyone who is responsible for the validity and security of tests is about to have 21 sleepless nights. For months prior to testing they dream of computers crashing and a shortage of #2 pencils. The tests arrive. They quarantine them behind locked doors and so it begins.
The loss of educational time would be another unworthy attribute. For weeks leading up to testing and the actual time of testing, learning comes to a crashing halt. Students have done just about any and every review possible. They have taken practice test after practice test. Laughter is forbidden. Testing is serious business. No time for any exploration during testing. Every ounce of energy is focused on taking the test.
After testing is completed for the day, every one is too tired to care about learning something new or exciting. Brains have exited the building.
After testing is completed, the school year is over. And that is another unworthy attribute. The year isn't really over, but for kids the year is officially over. Days are still required, but no one really wants to be there anymore. The real purpose for being in school has been exposed. The dreams of becoming a lifelong learner are shattered (at least for the moment). Kids think the sole purpose of attending school is to take a test. The test is over, so why do they still need to be in school? Good question.
Why do officials put so much importance on a test? A test that doesn't take into account the number of times that a child has moved during the school year or the number of absences a child may have. No provision is made for the child that stays up late caring for a younger sibling because mom or dad is at work. No leniency is given to the child that is hungry or sick or upset. One test that supposedly is the year-end benchmark of an entire school year. One test that supposedly provides educators with valuable information about their students (which, by the way, is ridiculous- teachers know their kids after the first week- we don't need a test).
Isn't there a better way to measure what our students have learned and what they still need to improve? I would hope so and I would hope that we figure it out soon.
(For more of Kim Frencken's writing, check out her blog, Chocolate For the Teacher.)
5 comments:
I think that every parent in the district should just refuse to let their child(ren) take the test. When there are no scores to turn in to the legislators who think this is how we make schools better, maybe they'll get the clue that their worthless test isn't something we want. Then maybe school will go back to being about the kids and not those stupid tests.
Maybe this is a dumb question, but I sincerely want to know. If the teachers know what students will be tested on, why isn’t that subject matter built into the curriculum? I mean if the standard set out says student should have learned A, B, C in science, and the teacher taught A, B, C in science, what’s the problem? It seems pretty straightforward to me. How is that any different than a person taking a class with the learning objectives given at the start? That essentially tells a person what they will be tested over.
Students take the ACT test....it's not stressful at all. Very calming in my experience. Not! The military requires entrance exams. Once a student has completed high school, there is many more exams to measure a persons knowledge. Everything from CDL, Forklift operator, welding, to Wal-Mart employee training. If a student attends college, there are numerous stressful exams from finals to professional licensure exams in their future.
5:21, Those tests aren't being given to children.
7:20, You would think that it would work that way, but it doesn't. If often seems like the test is set up to make kids look like failures. A true assessment would be very straight forward and just test what is taught.
It seems like the teachers are being tested on their teaching skills and are stressed.
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