Observations and Questions about State Testing

It is that time of year again, noses are runny, eyes are itchy, the temperatures are climbing and all good Missouri Middle School Students are sitting down in their classrooms to take the State Exam, the MAP test. It is the time of year all teachers and students work hard all year for….wait what??  We work hard all year for a test?? Seriously?  Everything that I do all year long comes down to a test that my students take over a couple of days? Everything that the students learn is shown in one pencil and paper test?  (clarification: I teach social studies, not a tested area in the state of Missouri, but my curriculum and targets back up and support ELA.)

During this testing season I have made some observations and as a non-tested area teacher I have time during these past weeks to talk to my students and discuss their feeling about the test. The discussions and observations did not lead to answers but more questions I have about testing.

1) Testing in the Spring-Spring is a time of seasonal allergies. Most of the students cannot sit for more than 20 minutes without blowing their nose or coughing (nor can I).  Each one of my pods has a box of tissues and hand sanitizer.  The temperature is finally going up-After being stuck inside living in PolorVortex STL my students are excited.  The last place they want to be is in the classroom.  If you have ever taught middle school in the spring you will understand, the focus is out the window, literally.  My windows are open and the students are focused on what is happening out there.  As a 7th grade teacher I have noticed a trend...in the Spring of 7th grade, 7th grade girls discover boys no longer have cooties and 7th grade boys learn that girls do exist! Love is in the air!  Looking at the calendar, an argument can be made against any date.  My friend (a teacher I highly respect) Todd Bloch (@blocht574, +Todd Bloch)  stated that his state tests in the fall...Fall?  Kids forget everything  from the year before over the summer.  My amazing and wonderful friend, Lisa Glenn (@educatorlisa, +Lisa Glenn), pointed out that just before winter break the students are starting to drag and looking forward to that break.  UGH! When is the best time to give the state tests?

2) The students’ attitude about the test- I have learned that there are 3 levels of students’ attitudes . First is the group that does not care, think it is a joke and just doesn’t try. From this first group of students students you hear “I am going to answer all A’s on the multiple choice, and all writing essays write about how my teacher sucks.”  I think wow, that actually takes great effort.  The students are not stressed about the test, it has been a routine in school and try their best make up the second group.  Finally the third group, the students that are stressed out, freaked out and worried about how they will do on the test.  Luckily in our school I see more in the second group.  When I sit down with the third group, the ones that are freaked out, I have discovered something.  These are the students that their teacher has been talking MAP test all year long.  Each assignment has a mention on the MAP test, each assessment has a mention of the MAP test, and when a student does the assignment/assessment it is  compared to how they will do on the…...yup, MAP test. These students have been trained by their teacher all year that everything rides on this test and it is making them nervous little wreaks. The question is how to get our students to become member of group two?

3) My fellow teachers attitudes about the test and the scores-Some of my fellow teachers are beyond stressed about the test.  As I discuss with the students about what they have been doing the past weeks in class I hear from the students on how they have been reviewing for the MAP test.  Looking and listening closely I think “this is not review, this is cramming.”  There is a big difference between reviewing and cramming.  Some of the information on the “review”  the teachers are actually teaching for the first time. In this short about of time the students are not going to learn the information and understand. This can not lead to high test scores.  Isn’t the test supposed to assess what the students have learned all year, not the two weeks before the test?  Probably the most discouraging thing I heard during the preparation for the test was about students moving in and out of our school.  There were a few students that are getting ready to move right before testing began and the comment was “Those are really good test scores we are losing.”  It took me a few moments to process this statement.  The students were being talked about in terms of their test scores not their actual qualities and characters.  A similar comment was made about new students “I don’t want their test scores.” Wow, really?  Has standardized testing taken the human qualities from students and replaced them with numbers?

4) Don’t mess with the students’ schedule, they need their routines. For many years I was assigned a group of students to administer the MAP test to (most years I recieved a group of students that my fellow teaches did not want).  My group of students did not receive any instruction from me on the content being tested and sometimes I did not even have the students in class.  The testing happen in the morning and the rest of the day's schedule was changed.  I remember students being so worried about the schedule they were not focused on the test.  No matter how much are students love to be surprised and love to go with the flow, middle level students need routine, the function better with routine.  In my current school the teacher who instructs the students on the content area gives the test for the content area and the test is given during the time the student would normally have the class. This works so well it almost seems obvious.  The students are in the environment in which they learned the information.  Even though the poster may not be on the wall, the spot where the poster was could trigger a thought.  Even looking at the teacher could trigger…”Hey I remember Ms. Navo saying…..” This schedule creates very little disruption in the students’ daily routine.  The students still get their encore (band, art, PE, health, F.A.C.) and lunch is still at the same time. It is less stress, less confusion and the students can see that daily focus should be on learning.  How can we maintain a sense of routine while giving the state tests?

5) Different states, Different Assessments, Different Ways- During a #mschat one evening I made a comment about the difference between cramming and reviewing which sparked a side conversation with a teacher from another state.  In her state the test results are linked directly to her teacher evaluation and the test results are also 15% of the students’ grades. I was in shock, that is not the way it works here in Missouri.  I followed up the statement with “What about teachers (like myself) in a nontested area?”  She said their teacher evaluations are linked to test results of partner teacher.  For example-I am the social studies teacher on a 7th grade team with 2 ELA teachers, my evaluation will be linked to the test results of my students who have those 2 ELA teachers.  My brain was spinning.  I was in shocked.  So now I am curious...What how does your state/province do?  How is testing handled in your state and how are the results used?

6) Finally…. I have observed a lot while I take a back seat to all the testing hype.  These observations have lead to more questions that actual answers.  The focus of the classroom should be on learning.  Can a standardize test really measure how much a student has learned?  We talk about growth in our students, is the test designed to measure that growth?  Are the students “ready” to learn the standards that we are trying to teach them? I was reading Juile Adam’s (@adamsteaching) book Game Changers, and she points out (Game Changer #1) that adolescents do not fully process cause and effect.  So why is one of the tested standards for 7th grade in Missouri cause and effect?  If states/provinces/school district move to including the results on the teachers’ evaluations, how can this be done fairly to teachers in a non-tested area?  What are the results actually used for? I know that when the results come back to our district each year it does not change the way I teach in my classroom, sorry, TRUTH. The formative assessments, discussion with the students, research based techniques and my STUDENTS change the way I teach year to year and day to day.