Thoughts on Testing

State test season is upon us.  Students everywhere are hunkering down and teachers are feeling the tension. Is it just me or does the school become a different place during testing time?  Data is poured over and over as if the answers are all in front of us, if we can only see them.  There is a lot of controversy over standardized testing. I generally subscribe to the sentiments of my alma mater, Teachers College, when it comes to testing.  I can see a place for these types of tests.  They can help a teacher in planning small groups and lesson reteaches.  They can provide information to the students next teacher about some very general levels of readiness.

But what can't a state test do?  A state test cannot accurately measure the learning experiences a teacher provides her students throughout the year.  A multiple choice question can't show the reading levels a struggling student pushed through and those amazing "aha" moments when something finally makes sense.  Most of these tests are not looking for children to be creative or innovative thinkers. They don't care about a child's ability to create art or poetry that speaks from the heart.  More importantly- they don't reflect (in my opinion) the kind of information and learning a person does in real life. I was never once asked to find the main idea of a book in college.  My professors cared not about my multiple choice prowess (or lack of) because they wanted to read my thoughts in an essay.  My contributions at work come from my training and from my heart.

Should there be accountability? Absolutely.  Like any job, a teacher should be held accountable to their work. The hard part is knowing what is appropriate. I teach 30 fourth graders. All of them are different and all of them learn in their own way.  Some of them are fabulous at multiple choice and some of them  are not, but all of them are smart.  How wonderful would it be to know that the people who work close with me (my coach, administrators, leads etc.) would be responsible for evaluating my performance.  Not a test score from a test that was never designed to measure teacher effectiveness.  In grad school I had a person assigned to me. Someone whose professional judgement was trusted by the institution. This person observed me, read my papers and lesson plans and gave me tons of feedback. It was evaluative without feeling judgmental.  It was an easy space to grow in because it felt like everyone was on my side. I'm a well educated professional, I know my students as a class better than anyone else, why am I not trusted to evaluate my students' performance?

Here is my general proposed solution: Teachers AND administrators should be involved in ongoing professional development and evaluation.  This should include formal and informal evaluations, close readings of lesson plans and student work at various levels as well as useful feedback to allow a teacher to grow.  Through this process bad teachers are still weeded out. As far as student evaluation; I see a general rubric that can be applied to a portfolio of student work. This portfolio should be graded three times a year. Once towards the beginning, once in mid year and once at the end of the year (to show individual growth over time as well as showing areas for improvement). The scores should not be a part of teacher evaluation, allowing teachers to grade their students honestly.  Final scores can be submitted to the state and to families to show accountability.  If teachers are to be evaluated on these scores, they should be evaluated on the demonstrated growth of a student throughout the year... not a one shot test.

I could talk on and on about this.  If anyone is interested in hearing more of my thoughts. Shoot me an email!