When people I meet ask me what my occupation is I say, “I’m a teacher” of course. The next thing they’ll ask is, “Oh, what do you teach?” I respond with “I teach children.” And they proceed with, “No, I meant what do you teach, like which grade(s) or subject(s)?” I reply with, “I teach everything, all academics, social skills, life skills, etc.” “Oh, that’s a lot, I don’t know how you do it.”

Sound familiar?

I know how teachers do it. Teachers do it because they do what they love with passion and purpose. They enjoy seeing the looks on their students’ faces when they have discovered something new and they love spending their days making a difference in the lives of so many students that have the potential to do great things. Great teachers have a passion for teaching the whole child and for teaching what they are passionate about, whether it’s a subject or grade. By far, teaching second grade was my all time favorite grade to teach. Seven and eight-year-old children are a bit more independent than the younger ones, the content is just so much fun to teach, and developing the skills in all academic areas is was what I liked best. I was really in my groove teaching second grade for 10 years, becoming an “expert” in knowing and teaching this age group developmentally, socially, and academically.

But then there was the phone call. The one phone call that every teacher dreads receiving from their administrator over the summer. Yes, the one about you getting moved to another grade level without any choice in the matter. Uh huh, that one! All in all, it turned out just fine. Teaching 3^rd grade was a great experience and I really enjoyed it. Changing grade levels is always a good thing to help you learn and grow as a professional, but I was sad to say goodbye to my grade level teacher friends and to the grade I truly loved.  And my new grade level colleagues made it pretty clear that I was leaving the so-called “land of unicorns, rainbows, and fairies” to the dark hallways and reality of TESTING!! This was not only going to be the first year that I would teach a new grade level, with new content and standards but now I’d have to face the reality of testing!

Getting Real With Testing

 

Okay, so I get why testing is important for collecting data about our students and schools. I get that it could serve as a valuable measure to make positive decisions and changes regarding what needs to be done differently in order to meet the needs of our many students. I get that it’s a reality and it’s not going away. But here’s what I don’t get, why are we not focusing on how testing negatively affects both teachers and students?

How ironic that when I began thinking about and drafting this post did I start reading the book, The Wild Card: 7 Steps to an Educator’s Creative Breakthrough, and only in the beginning pages of the introduction did I come across this:

“We believe student engagement and a love of learning are lacking in so many classrooms because too many teachers don’t truly understand what engagement is or what it looks like. Most of us were taught to focus on standards and assessments. But let’s face it: When teachers focus only on standards and assessments, they burn out quickly. Between 30 and 40 percent leave the professions entirely within the first five years for a variety of reasons. Among those who stick it out, a whopping 62 percent say they spend too much time preparing students for state-mandated tests, while 81 percent say the students themselves spend too much time taking state-or district-mandated tests. We believe teachers become frustrated and burnout out because this focus on standards and assessments doesn’t fulfill them or make them feel effective.” (King & King, 2017)

I experienced this first hand. I became burned out and threw in the towel to teach the “test” early on. In fact, I was so new to the grade that I was barely keeping my head above water teaching the content, never mind me putting forth the time and energy toward teaching the test. As I reflected upon this I began to teach what mattered most—perseverance and stamina. These third graders that were new to the whole testing scene needed to learn to work for long periods of time independently without any help or support (unless stated in their Individualized Education Plan). So I focused on positive self-talk and reminded them to persevere through it and that the results of this test did not dictate who they were as lifelong learners.

Facing The Barriers

When I think about testing I think about the many barriers that kids face testing. Here are some to say the least.

• Language- Testing language in itself is tricky. In my own experience as a test taker, I’ve come across many questions that were written poorly. The language used, the way the question was presented and the length of the question affects how the student interprets and answers it. This is especially difficult for our ESL/ELL students and all students depending on their culture and background knowledge.

• Comprehension- Reading comprehension plays a HUGE role in test-taking. Students who struggle with reading comprehension are already at risk of not doing well on these tests.

• Technology- The day of pencil and paper tests is no more.  When I was a kid, I remember having my two sharpened number 2 pencils ready on testing days to fill in the bubble sheets as neatly as I could, carefully making sure there were no marks outside the bubble. Today testing is on a computer and students need to be proficient in using technology and navigating the test utilizing the tools. Sometimes technology goes wrong and that could be very frustrating.

• Test Environment- I have yet to see testing environments that are equitable and comfortable. One year I was testing in a room with no support- no phone, no tech person, nobody except me, 23 students, and unreliable laptops. Well, what happens when the battery life of the laptops gives out and all computers shut down during testing, and PANIC sets in? And when reaching out to your test coordinator for support and they reply to your cry for help with, “What does it matter, your students are gifted anyway and will do fine.” Receiving a comment like this is completely unacceptable and inequitable.

• Anxiety- Anxiety is real for many students during test-taking. I’ve had students complain that they had headaches, bellyaches, were hungry, and were downright afraid of the results. They didn’t even want to come to school.

• Standardization- Teachers are told to differentiate instruction, but then we give children standardized tests. This makes absolutely zero sense. I like this quote from Diane Ravitch, “Sometimes the most brilliant and intelligent minds do not shine in standardized tests because they do not have standardized minds.”

And not to my surprise was my professional rating tied to that ONE test measure. Yep…that one test!! I’ll never forget it. One student in my class did not reach the score on the test that would give me the “exceed” teacher rating, missed it by a measly 1%, which gave me a “meets” teacher rating.  Now I don’t focus much on ratings overall but when it is tied to one test, it doesn’t seem like a valid measure to rate a teacher’s overall performance. And during my performance review as my administrator presented my ‘meets” rating to me, I responded, “I am an “exceeds” teacher, regardless of what the test data says. I teach children, not tests!” News traveled fast about me taking a stand and I got a few high fives from teachers who are disheartened by colleagues in the same situation with some even receiving an “unsatisfactory” rating because of a single test’s data. What are we doing to teachers and students with such testing nonsense? This surely does not make teachers feel effective or valued.

Here’s an idea! How about we rate teachers on:

*The entire year- look at ALL the test data throughout the year and celebrate progress and growth

*How they engage students

*The smiles on the students’ faces

*The relationships they build with my students and their families

*The time they take from their own family to plan and prepare for lessons

*The money they take out of their own wallet for resources, supplies, lesson materials, and tissues 😉

*Student attendance

 

It’s time we look at the teacher and the students as a whole, not as a number. Who is the data really for anyway? What does it really show that’s more valuable than the mindset of the students and the quality of the teachers? And from my experience, the best teachers don’t always measure up to the data. I’m hoping that one day we’ll test what matters: values, morals, problem-solving, communication, social, and life skills. A school’s positive and nurturing culture and climate can help teach and model these skills.

And when anyone asks me what I teach, I proudly respond with, “I teach children.”

A wise second-grade student of mine once said, “Doing the easy thing isn’t always right and doing the right thing isn’t always easy. Maybe we should start listening to our students. 😉

What are your experiences with testing or with your own experiences as a test taker?

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