I am amazed every spring at how tirelessly our administrators and our testing coordinator and our teachers (including me) convey to students to urgency with which we will be giving them the California Standards Tests.
These are high school students and so they know their scores don't affect them -- which, for teenagers, is a pretty good reason not to care.
I have, over the years, developed some arguments for why they should do their darndest to ace those tests:
-- I tell them, "Don't let those tests punk you!" To which, I suspect, they are thinking that I am, by saying that, trying to punk them. Or they are thinking that the test cannot punk them if they don't try.
-- I tell them to take pride in whatever they do, including any test anyone gives them for any reason. Some students buy that but I think more of them take pride in the oppositional posture they are able to express by not doing their best on these sometimes mind-numbing instruments.
-- I tell them that colleges look at our collective scores to see how good our school is and so when they apply for college it will help them if they've all done their best on these tests. I don't even know if there is any validity whatsoever to that statement, but one thing about high stakes testing is that it doesn't really promote honesty.
-- And if none of those reasons seem to be convincing my students then I just beg them:
"Please do your best," I say. "Please don't make me look bad."
That one is their favorite -- and why shouldn't it be? It empowers them as do few aspects of their education.
"I've worked really hard to teach you well; the least you can do is work hard to show the state what you've learned." And if they agree with my premise then they usually promise to hold up their end of things. I am at their mercy -- and in that regard standardized testing, at least at the high school level, turns the tables on educators; we want students to make us look good and therefore ought to think about all the ways that we alienate and dehumanized those students -- all the times we made a big group of them suffer for the actions of a few, all the times we've treated a child like a number or put a rule before the needs of a student.
Our test data measure the alienation and dehumanization quotient as much as anything else -- and we are sleepwalking if we don't realize it.
A colleague of mine who works as a home and hospital school teacher for those sick and disabled children who cannot make it to school, told me he is required to test all of his students, regardless of the severity of their illness or injury. In most cases, disabled students are given testing accommodations according to their individualized educational plans (IEPs) but he teaches one boy who was, just weeks ago, paralyzed in a car accident. With no IEP to indicate any accommodations, the teacher is required, by law, to place the CST answer sheet and testing booklets and a No. 2 pencil in front of the poor child and wait there. Since these tests have no time limits the teacher is supposed to carry on this cruel farce until the boy has a miraculous recovery and is able to hold and guide a pencil or until his IEP is written or until the boy's parents toss the teacher and the tests into the street or until the absurdity of these billion dollar testing requirements are mercifully rescinded.
Until then, here is what standardized testing looks like in person: a room full of students multiple-choosing with their No. 2s, some of them hard at work, others making a pattern out of the bubbles on their answer sheets, and still others with their heads down, either because they've finished quickly or because they've figured out how to make high stakes testing serve their low stakes ambitions. With no time limits on any of these tests, schools give a fixed time to finish each part but then must provide extra time for those who need it. So by purposely not finishing, students can avoid all their classes that day without worrying about a truant officer. Just complete some of the test, then take a nap and wait to be herded into the extra-time room where they can continue their nap and eventually finish the pattern on their answer sheet sometime toward the end of the school day.
No child left behind.
Race to the top.
Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz...
Follow Larry Strauss on Twitter: www.twitter.com/larrystrauss
A look at what is going on with testing in the usa
You can and should say I prefer not to take your tests
And don't buy into these lawsuits filed by parents and students with Eli Broad abd Bill Gates acting as advisors. It's a scam to impose these tests on our schools. Why? Testing companies are a booming busuness. They slap together some cheap paper packets and bubble sheets , viola! they're bilking tax payers for billions. They are interested in the potential of scripted lessons , as are privatizers, who presently use tests to fire teachers. By way of conformity and soul crushing standards, the deregulated plan to regulate our children and usurp the teaching profession for profit. Without academic freedom, public education will shrivel up and die. Without public education , Democracy will not be far behind.
These students are in a crucial stage of development emotionally & intellectually . Frankly our testing obsession conspires against them because it denies thier need for creativity & critical thnking. All kids need to be engaged & it is Not asking too much to maje content relevent. Ee expect them to write essays that way, right?
Wethrow students from the chaos of middle school where they've spent the last 3 years learning grades mean nothing as they are socially promoted no matter what.
They enter high school unaware we've changed the rules. Again. With counselours carrying hundreds of students & being used on campus 4 supervision, discipline &ADA, there simply aren't enough hours in a school day to reach kidsindividually, which is necessary because all students have unique needs & dreams. Instesd, we test them, telling them in various ways that they are not good enough. Who can blame them for giving up, acting out or dropping out? To make matters worse, these poorly written tests, which cost lausd $16 million and counting have no buy in. Students are not stupid. On the contrary.
Of course, the administrators at his school were not too pleased with our decision.
My son's principals hate me too. Same reason.
But overall, after going through this testing madness the last few weeks, I totally agree with everything that is said in this article. Testing is boring!! especially multiple choice tests (which BTW is the lowest form of questioning that you can give a student, which makes me wonder if state coordinators really have education degrees)
What, paranoid? Well, maybe a little. But being paranoid doesn't mean that they're NOT out to get you.
My own school used to have 3 art teachers whose students won prizes, awards, and scholarships by the fistful. Now, since art isn't tested, we have only one art teacher; and he must spend 3 periods a day monitoring peer tutoring sessions to "assist" a consultant who is paid more per day that this gifted man makes in a month.