I agree that we need to measure academic progress. I agree that this measurement needs to be standardized. I even agree that students should be tested in order to accomplish these purposes. What I am questioning is the amount of testing. My students take the NWEA three times a year (a test that even I think is a good one and worth the time it takes to administer), WIDA at least once and sometimes twice, the M-Step (the new MEAP), and the NAEP. In the past I've also had to administer a pre-SAT or other college readiness test, career assessments, and a host of pilot tests in preparation for new versions of existing tests. Is it really necessary for my students to take four different standardized tests each year to measure academic progress? Would it be unreasonable to choose one test? The time saved could be rededicated to teaching new content and reinforcing past concepts. Personally, I think increasing time spent on instruction would do much more to increase academic growth and close the achievement gap than testing and retesting.
I generally avoid getting "political" or complaining about the system, but yesterday was a teacher's workday for the end of the semester, and I spent most of it preparing materials and schedules for my students to take not one, not two, but three standardized tests in the month of February. This was very annoying to me because I've already lost four weeks of my year to standardized tests, am going to loose three more in February, and another five in the spring. That's a total of twelve weeks of education lost to testing; considering there are only about 36 weeks of school a year, that's a third of the year spent on testing! On top of educational time lost is the stress in puts on the kids, and in February they are taking these three tests simultaneously!
I agree that we need to measure academic progress. I agree that this measurement needs to be standardized. I even agree that students should be tested in order to accomplish these purposes. What I am questioning is the amount of testing. My students take the NWEA three times a year (a test that even I think is a good one and worth the time it takes to administer), WIDA at least once and sometimes twice, the M-Step (the new MEAP), and the NAEP. In the past I've also had to administer a pre-SAT or other college readiness test, career assessments, and a host of pilot tests in preparation for new versions of existing tests. Is it really necessary for my students to take four different standardized tests each year to measure academic progress? Would it be unreasonable to choose one test? The time saved could be rededicated to teaching new content and reinforcing past concepts. Personally, I think increasing time spent on instruction would do much more to increase academic growth and close the achievement gap than testing and retesting.
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May 2018
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