Testing Fever

I spent Thursday planning/preparing to have a sub on Friday. Then I spent Friday at our district office writing a test for my students. That's right. I spent all DAY Friday writing one test, with just 25 questions, for my students. I had been so wrapped up in this tedious process that I hadn't actually realized how ridiculous it was until I talked with one of my students. He works in the office where I was writing the test. He saw me in the morning, then again in the afternoon. He asked how my day went, and I said, "Great! We finished a test."

"A test?" He said. "You spent all day here and wrote ONE test?"

Yeah. Pretty ridiculous when you think about it.

So why had we spent an entire day writing a test instead of actually teaching students? Because we need to have "Short Cycle Assessments" that mimic the state Standards Based Assessment (in edu-speak that is SCAs mimicking the SBA). And why did this test only have 25 questions? Because it takes so DARNED long to meet all the requirements. . .err.. EXPECTATIONS. . . of the test. We have to look at the standards, make sure we use the nouns and verbs used there to create our questions, and then make sure this is actually something that sophomores can understand.

Sophomores who are reading at a 5th or 6th grade level because all their previous teachers are so busy making tests, and then giving the tests that they have no time to actually teach! Heck, we give up two weeks of instruction just to give the SBA. Then we also take four weeks every year to give the SCAs, and now our sophs and juniors take another day to take the PSAT. That means, out of 36 weeks a year, our kids spend 6 weeks testing.

No wonder I can't cover everything I used to.

But all this testing is worth it, because it is helping to make our students College and Career Ready.

Right

Do you remember when finals actually tested all the STUFF you LEARNED in the class? We had to remember the specific material and ideas we had covered in class all term. OK, so I don't think kids need to memorize lists of pointless stuff. But I do know that in college (and probably in career) we are expected to remember what was covered.

My son is a freshman in college in San Francisco. He just finished mid-terms. They were pretty overwhelming for him because he had never really had to study for a test until this year. In high school all his tests were "skills based." That means he did not actually have to remember the things he had learned. So now, he doesn't have any techniques for memorizing or recalling the actual stuff he learned.

So when is this education pendulum going to swing back to normalcy?