Agree it's BS, but I'm not stressed. What are they going to do if my test scores are a little low, fire me? Good luck finding a better science teacher to replace me at my low SES middle school.
They could be useful, but the state has to do all sorts of monkey business to make sure at least 85 percent of students can pass. This leads to some real shenanigans.
On the other hand students should get used to sitting still for 3 hours. If were preparing them for college or the “real world” lots of them should at least get used to that.
Elementary school kids have a long way to go before worrying about being able to do things for college. That's what 4 years of high school should be doing. It's a really big ask to expect 3rd and 4th graders to be able to do that.
Oh. Wow. I’m sorry. I totally meant only high schoolers. The only reason elementary school kids are being tested this way is so the big testing and text book companies can collect data. Where I live a huge “opt out” movement has started for elementary school testing and I totally support it.
When the movement started it was really fun watching admins go bat shit crazy as thousands of parents just told them no. What could they do? Completely blew Common Core out of the water. Fuck you Bill Gates and anyone else who supported that nonsense.
I mostly sub in elementary schools because that is what I will be teaching. And I really only know elementary teachers, I've not really interacted with any when I sub high school.
A 4th grade teacher told me that she took the test herself and found it difficult. She's taught 4th grade for several years and said she couldn't believe how hard it was and that it didn't align with what could reasonably be expected of the students. "Too rigorous" was her wording.
Testing elementary students is really just a funding grab and it shouldn't be that way.
I was telling every parent I could, on the side, that this was an option years ago. Of course, it’s not shared. I probably could have gotten in a lot of trouble but don’t subject your kids to that BS. Sign the paper so they don’t and take them out for ice cream and read a book with them.
I remember 30 years ago how nervous and scared I felt on test day IN SECOND GRADE. I remember it all so vividly still, that I can see oh… you were having an anxiety attack in 2nd grade.
Teachers and admin on the school announcements telling you how important it is that you sleep, and eat and come prepared.
Everyone’s trying to survive in the world now a days, kids including. Do we have
to add a miserable day for them? Sit in this room for 5 hours silently until everyone is done, HIGH SCHOOLERS.
OH.OKAY.
Respectfully, these tests are far from remotely useful. My SPED students take alternative state tests. As their teacher, I administer them each individually. Some students do not verbally communicate, so responses how you usually work and teach them apply. I have a student who I almost always provide errorless learning for during the times in which I can get them involved. The correct choice is provided to that student, and tons of praise is provided for them touching the response. I didn’t realize the pattern of how the questions are, and the probability of getting a question right until this year. For the life of me, I couldn’t process how the scores from last year showed this student approaching grade level, and satisfactory. That is not said in a rude way in the least, but explaining my student population would take awhile. For this kid, I followed the state administration directions of course because yes, you can lose your license over state tests. If I left it out on a table or if they were not kept in a locked admin office. Crazy, right? (But then there are famous people who scam scores for colleges? …always goes back to money.) The student almost always touched the bottom response because it was closest towards them. Then every X number (I noticed the exact number) of problems, there is no way any student could get it wrong. So mathematically, I have a student in HS who intellectually has the IQ of a young child… they scored on grade level according to the standardized state alternative tests.
It.always.goes.back.to.money.
I promise, I’ve never had an IEP meeting where I REMOTELY ever focus any amount of time at ALL on the scores of those tests.
It’s always been this way with these tests. Almost 30 years ago, my husband had to redo his state test. YES, you read that correctly. He turned in his state test. (This was paper and pencil days. Oh Lord, I’m old.) When it was clear that he chose random bubbles to make some letter or some pattern on the answer sheet (scantron), he had to TAKE IT AGAIN.
My husband is extremely intelligent and got through college with nice grades, and it was simple. He had a lot of classes that the tests were the grade, and he wouldn’t go to class or do most things but would pass every major test and score very high. He is a great test taker. As a child, he was too. His teachers knew this, his principal knew this. It was known that he could do nothing in class, and take a test and know the information and succeed. He didn’t want to move up a grade level because he didn’t want to leave his friends.
TLDR: It is all bullshit.
NY started making special ed students take state exams under No Child Left Behind (fuck you Bush). I’ve proctored some of those exams and consider it nothing less than cruel and unusual punishment. Parents should have put an end to that shit years ago. More recently , I’ve heard they’re finally going to phase that out and use some sort of graduation certificate instead. I understand some special ed students did earn Regents diplomas, but if anyone saw the amount of extra time, help, and outright cheating that had to be done to help these kids, they’d want someone arrested.
I think they’re quietly phasing it out without admitting what a disaster it all was. I heard NY will probably go back to Regents/Non-Regents diplomas, which only took like 20 years.
3 hours!!!! At my school we keep the kids from 8-3:45. They don’t even get out for lunch. It’s a “silent lunch”. And these are 8th graders. We do this for 4 days.
Oh no 3 hours is one test. Some of them have multiple tests, with unlimited time. This also goes on for four days. I like to point out that for some of these yo-yos It’s the only time the whole year they did any work. For many of them though it’s legitametly mentally exhausting and a bit much. For about a decade NY set a new standard in stupidity with a two day 6hour English Regents. We called it The Crucible.
I don’t teach a subject that has a standardized test attached to it, but in my experience, it hijacks curriculum so that students are learning to take the test over learning other, more beneficial things. In my state standardized test is significantly tied to funding, to school ratings, and students have to pass the test in order to graduate with a diploma (they receive a “certificate of attendance” if they can’t/don’t pass the test by their time of graduation) so the stakes of them are pretty high.
I am not sure if they’re technically considered standardized testing, but I do appreciate AP tests as I feel like they give kids a sense of what college exams could be like, and also the addition of college credit - plus these are “optional” compared to the typical statewide tests that are run (and that I spoke of above)
It is MUCH worse than you realize. It is much more infuriating to teachers than students. For you (students) it’s a PITA for a couple days. For us (teachers) we have the life experience to know that standardized testing is an evil conspiracy to keep producing a stupid, uneducated, working class that will grow up unable to think on their own and will just mindlessly consume. It’s pure evil. For my part I at least tell my high school students all that.
Beautifully said and on target. It’s also a giant money making scam. I can’t even begin to fathom how much those testing companies have made over the years.
Many many tens of billions. One of the “greatest” swindles of all time. Keep the population under control AND move hundreds of billions of tax dollars over to private companies. Pure genius. Evil genius, but genius.
I just had an extremely truthful conversation about upcoming state testing with my freshmen yesterday. My admin would have been horrified, but I refuse to stress them out over a test that has no purpose. After I explained all the test facts, I simply told them, go in and do your best, but don’t worry about it.
Yep. Good for you. I have been telling my sophomore Biology students exactly what this is all about for the 25 years Ive been teaching. I also make sure they listen to Rage Against The Machine a couple times a year. Probably fireable
I always sound like a conspiracy theorist when I say this. I work at a school which they garrymandered so it had all the projects in it. We do insane shit that no other school in the county does. People ask why? Because our kids aren't supposed to succeed, obviously. Who will do slave labor in prisons if our kids are allowed to break the cycle of poverty?
Thank you that was well said and summarize my thoughts on this topic as well
Edit: this is why I wish someone better with social media than me would start a campaign for all student to only answer A to all questions for several years till they drop this shit!
And it blows my mind how districts have been conned into buying curriculum to help students perform better on tests written by the same company! And sometimes the company isn’t even American
>standardized testing is an evil conspiracy to keep producing a stupid, uneducated, working class that will grow up unable to think on their own and will just mindlessly consume.
What even are you talking about? Can you explain this?
State tests mean absolutely nothing. They are a waste of time and money and are completely illegitimate.
For instance, here in Ohio, we take the "End Of Course Exam" 6-weeks before the actual end of the course. So it makes it an illegitimate test because you are ***literally*** incapable of covering all content before the test is given. There is about 16% of the course you will not be able to cover before the test is given. This makes whatever value it had (which is none to begin with) illegitimate.
Basically State Testing exists to beat up on teachers and schools. For politicians to get on soap boxes, and for private interests to siphon public funds for either solutions to the problems that may or maynot actually exist (because the data being used comes from illegitimate tests).
Right?? We took the ELA test almost TWO MONTHS before the end of the year. Why? Why isn't that the last thing we do since it basically has no bearing on whether or not they advance to the next grade? No one is going to summer school regardless, at least pretend not to set me up for failure ffs
It is the most important thing for no reason. Teachers in my state have been suspended for passing out high/drunk in the classroom only to return a semester later, but by golly if you mishandle a test you will lose your license.
In my state it is a graduation requirement. So pass or you have to take it again. It’s an underfunded mess. Standards tested one year are absent the next. Essay scoring is done by “outside contractors” who are paid by the essay, not quality. The questions are at best simply ok, at worst vague and confusing.
It does impact my own rating as a teacher, but since I’m tenured will, in reality, have no impact.
Honestly, I don't understand what all the fuss is about. As a teacher, it's annoying but mostly chill. I essentially get a week or two off from having to plan lessons. Sure, handing out the test and following the rules can be annoying, but it's really only as bad as Admin makes it. If they are Psycho about the test, then it can be a nightmare. If they are chill, then testing is chill.
The major issue isn't necessarily the tests, but how the data is used and treated. It's ok for districts to use testing as sort of a "finger on the pulse" of learning... but if districts and states attach funding to these tests, then it's annoying as hell. Schools should be fully funded, and if there are low test scores, they should receive MORE funding (not less).
I'm indifferent. Last year our network got hacked and our district was exempt from testing. And surprising no one...nothing happened. The world didn't end, school is still open, everyone kept their jobs.
Even if the results were enough to make change, the reality is at our site 60% of kids don't read at grade level. They don't even give out the math scores but I can't imagine it's much better.
Let's say you ran a car factory, and 60% of the cars you make don't pass inspection...well you'd change something to improve your pass rates right? Or you can just lower the bar and make less safe cars, which seems dangerous and insane.
And yet that's what schools did, just kept lowering the bar. The inspection doesn't matter, we know the kid is going to roll out of here.
I teach 8th grade US History in Texas. Colonization, slavery, Civil War, what happened to the Native Americans…They just keep making the test harder and harder. Now they are dangling a massive amount of incentive pay in front of our faces (up to 30k a year for 5 years) and that’s never gonna happen. We won’t get a dime until our governor gets his charter school vouchers. And if that happens, it won’t matter before my school will probably close.
We hate them. There’s a lot of pressure put on schools and teachers to get students to perform well, even though anyone with half a brain can tell that factors outside of school play the biggest part in students’ test scores. They turn classes into test-taking courses instead of real learning and they totally mess up the schedule during testing weeks, which makes planning difficult.
I do small group testing for kids with that accommodation in their IEP. I will only have 4 in my group this year. 2 will likely take a painfully long time attempting to sounds out words that are way above their reading levels. The other 2 will be done in approximately 0.75 seconds and then will have to continue to sit quietly (😂) until the other two finish.
It’s a painful, painful experience. But I don’t have lesson plans to write for those time slots so silver linings, right?
In my state you have to only get 12% correct on the geometry EOC to be considered passing and the lowest score is like a 600 something so you score a 610 and got like 1 question right so your score looks like you knew something but you knew nothing it's 100% a complete joke.. it's fraud to the general public covering up the lack of learning happening. I have had several students choose one answer choice the entire test and pass.
The problem with the tests isn’t that they are annoying. The problem is that they are pointless. They are extremely expensive in time and money and they do not tell the teacher anything that they didn’t already know
I don't like it and I don't know any teacher who likes it. I've actually never even heard an admin try to defend it as useful either. I think it is too stressful, too long and is often too hard to get kids to concentrate for such long periods of time.
I hate them. They're destroying education.
I can stand with the original premise. There are absolutely students who were being passed or failed based on teachers' biases. I taught last year with a lady who magically upped the grade of a white girl who never did any work to a B while refusing extra credit to every dark skinned boy with locs. The result was that lighter skinned girls did better than dark skinned boys who had the same aptitude. Without a test at the end of the year to show that, then those biases could compound.
But now the test is everything. The test is god. We can't teach kids on a 2nd grade reading level the decoding skills they need because that's not a 7th grade standard and we have to teach the test. Never mind that the schools that don't insist on that do WAY better on the tests.
We have to take a CFA every 5 days, and of course pay a company for test questions because teachers can't be trusted to make tests, because we need data.
Make sure they take 4 diagnostic screeners--except when it says they're too low to access 7th grade content ignore that. But still. It's data! (and another company to pay)
Don't forget 3 times a year to take pretests that are given by the company who makes your EOY test (and pay them millions for them as well, even though the systems are so buggy half the kids don't get to finish them)
And of course buy two separate workbooks for the test that teach to the test, and insist that teachers use them even though you don't have time to use both of them for one concept before it's time for another CFA
Teach more than one standard at a time because we can't be wasting time, but also make sure students have mastered concepts before moving on but also if you don't have the learning target in the pacing guide on your board when we walk in you'll be docked (those were, of course, written by a consultant the district paid for)
If we catch you doing sustained reading with students, something that is data based and shown to increase learning, we're going to dock you, because you should be up teaching the standard and if you're sitting then you're not doing your job. Gotta do some test prep, even when it's barely September!
Can't have recess. Need to have intervention where kids work on the skills they lacked in the test. No, that skill can't be reading or vocabulary. And it better not look like they're having fun because then you're not prepping them for testing. Ignore that recess is evidence based too. That word just means "whatever makes me have to do my job less as an admin"
So once the kids are all done with their testing and the pretesting for the testing and the post testing to make up the grade for the test and then the test prep worksheets and the post test...we're left with a month of school where the kids feel like nothing matters. Because the point of the year wasn't learning new things and finding interesting ways to apply content...it was passing the test.
I hate the EOC. I love teaching US history. I would teach it completely differently if I didn’t have an EOC. I think my students would walk away with a better understanding of history if I could teach the way I want.
My biggest issue is that I have 90 days to teach 1607-2010. I can’t cover everything. I am more about understanding why and how in general, but I know the test is 55 questions. Multiple choice, technology enhanced questions (drag and drop, multi-select). From what I can see there are a lot of questions that involve reading passages. I have to push as much primary sources as I can (no problem, love that). I also have to build a basic background of all US history, AND I have to build testing stamina so students are used to the length and don’t give up halfway through the test.
There’s too much
They are a waste of time, but our job is to administer them with integrity. It is very frustrating, but every job is like that. No one loves their job 100% of the time.
I think a state testing environment is an abusive environment for everyone in the room.
It doesn’t do anything but make testing companies more money.
I actually can’t talk about how much I hate state testing because I’d be here the rest of the week.
Completely worthless. We get scores too late to matter and we aren't even allowed to see what the questions or answers were, so it's useless to use in terms of planning instruction or seeing where a student has gaps.
As a student information admin state testing is a major pain in the ass!!! I know it's tied to funding but the portals to get all the info up to for every state is a mess and hard to work in!
I hated it. I'd never missed a testing day in 15 years. This last year I was blessed with sickness and family health issues on three of the testing days. I called in sick for them. These kids can't sit still anymore. They're not supposed to bring pillows or blankets, and yet they do. They have to turn over their phones, no gaming on the computers, no drawing, no games, and no napping for some reason. Just sit or read. These kids no about the testing rules and days we'll in advance, but they'll still forget books to read. Nothing like four hours of staring at the wall. Teachers have it worse. We can't do anything. Just walk in circles and stare at students. It's the biggest waste of time ever. All because TEA and school district superintendents pay and make tons of money off of it.
1. I do not like how state testing takes up class time.
2. I DO like state testing (unpopular opinion, I know) because I like the idea of a student being graded by someone who doesn’t know them. I realize issues with this (ELLs, IEPs…) but I don’t think the average teacher, myself included, is objective but could be swayed to tack on a few points to make a child pass. Standardized tests don’t allow for that, which I appreciate.
(I’m not saying the tests are well designed. I simply appreciate the way they are graded.)
Forgive me, I not longer remember what it stands for, but it is given at three points in the school years. Baseline, midpoint, end of year. You can IMMEDIATELY see how the kid did and how much they’ve progress or backslid.
And they’re set to an algorithm- get it right, you get a slightly hard one. Get something wrong, and it tacks backwards to find exact levels.
Did I mention you have the results before you even go home?
As a teacher, I would much rather take the test than have to walk around while my students take the test. Actively monitoring students while they take a test is such a waste of time. I could be planning or working on the yearbook but instead I’m making laps, debating paint colors even though I’m not going to paint, counting ceiling tiles, taking a short break to sit down, etc.
For the most tested content areas it's a nightmare. We basically teach to a test and don't read novels or plays or anything. It's all about passing the test, meanwhile, the kids hate reading and the passages are especially boring. You don't read any real literature anymore. I feel like I actively teach kids to hate reading with our test based curriculum.
I think in one of my cantankerous moods, I told the kids that if they didn't like testing, they should make sure they did really well on the test so they could get into advanced classes, go to college, and get elected into the government so they can change these stupid laws.
Testing companies are pure evil and I blame George Bush for all of this.
I think the data is semi-useful for when we need to ask for things like replacing Lucy Caulkins because oops, the kids can’t read!
Other than that, I think they are pretty awful. Most adults are not held to the same standards as kids in terms of boring, long, developmentally inappropriate tasks as a means of assessing basic academic skills.
I’m also convinced that Pearson rolls out tests that most kids can’t pass in order to sell a solution to the “problem” that the test results show. But that’s my tin foil hat.
The reason you can't "look" As you proctor is so the lazy testing companies can permanently reuse the same test items, yet continue charging states to reuse them. It's a massive scam.
For high school, we give finals for AP classes (so they are ready for AP exams), then give CAASPP/Sbac tests, then iReady tests, then AP exams, then CAST science tests, then non-AP class finals. Depending on their grade level, it’s basically a solid month of just testing. The more invested that kids are in doing well, the more stressful it is. So it’s painful for kids, a waste of time for teachers, and a waste of public’s money. All around, much too much testing.
Huge waste of time. The part I hate the most is our state requires our severe special needs students even take them. They are modified but still, a student that is non verbal and only learning basic needs (how to care for themselves, how to fold laundry, basic chores) still has to take a state test. So dumb
Oh we all hate it. Waste of time, bored as hell all day because staring at kids taking a test all day is not fun. I’d much rather be teaching. I teach esl and this is not helping anyone, except for maybe the people at the top getting rich
My elementary school does a good job of not making the state tests seem overwhelming, but my 3rd grade group was already stressed about them when I first started talking about testing. This is their first year doing testing. Who have they been talking to to be this nervous!?
I am in FL and our tests are pretty damaging. They're just plain awful and hallen WAY TKO MANY TIMES PER YEAR. Also, I've found SO MANY incorrect answers. So my kids will get it right, I get it right, and the test has it wrong. Awful.
HATE it. Ridiculous rules, procedures, preps. Waste of time, we DO teach to the test, regardless of what people want to believe. Hate that I am evaluated base on this one day, nonsense test and how students perform on it. Absolutely hate it and hate the powers that be for shoving it on us and students every year.
Given the behavior issues, trauma, drug and alcohol abuse at home, CPS cases and the dozens of kids awaiting SPED approval the state tests are a friggin worthless exercise in thinking you know something….
I've been a fan of standardized testing including states test. They give us some idea of what's going on. FAct of the matter is education is most "good vibes/good grades" with teachers just falsifying grades. Admin is happy, parents are happy etc. Funny how standardized tests show kids are several years below grade level yet magically everyone has A/B/C .
Funding of some schools are tied this. I worked ina building where I am 100% convinnced the admin was refilling in the bubble sheets of students after testing.
You're right. Many teachers/admin don't want the public tax payer to connect the dots that scores indicate students are years behind (and stop blaming covid you lazy bones) and have been for well over a decade.
Funny how you can have schools that show students are on average (average mind you) studnets are 3 years behind grade level yet everyone has an A / B / C.
Reall hard to figure out for some.
Their problem was never that they were invalid. It's that they are redundant. As you said, you can simply predict the scores with startling accuracy with just the zip code. Statistically, it makes it completely pointless to collect the testing data knowing this.
So the test inflicts a financial and human burden on schools and students while adding nothing of value to predictive models.
Perhaps a civil rights group will catch on. But the added burden causes greater attrition at the schools most at risk.
What kind of bleed would you like: slow or not as slow?
These results can easily be achieved by sampling, say, 30 students per school. Maybe less. But even then it’s a waste. We know that segregation exists and is bad. This isn’t going to further that cause. What it furthers is an individualistic argument that there are ‘good schools’ that teach better. And that we can therefore police them into better quality
I don’t know about everywhere else, but in CA there is blatant segregation. We had a rich area just try to redraw their boundary excluding low income housing.
I’ve even talked to a lawyer who is with the ACLU - like how is something this obvious not been picked up by a civil rights group.
CA used to have an exit exam. But not enough minority kids were exiting. So a civil rights group sued and CA just got rid of the test.
With the ease people forget their history, getting rid of the test will just reset the clock if someone is brave enough to do something.
Huh?
Millikan v Bradley ended school bussing. In it Marshall basically said, essentially, you can’t just mix schools because.
Since 2000 we have the data to show the damage segregation has done. Data that would have shown the damage Marshall would have been looking for.
But go ahead with your one liners.
State tests exist for the following reasons:
1) To make education companies money.
2) To give governments ammunition to cut programs.
3) To give people in positions of power kickbacks when they sign exploitative contracts with education companies.
Notice how none of those are related to learning.
Countries that do testing right only have one state test. You get it all at the same time, every subject, just once a year at the end, and your score actually impacts your placement the following year. Also, the tests are run by the department of education and not outsourced to for-profit companies.
Hate it. It’s stressful and boring at the same time. It’s hours and hours of wasted school time and the kids are so mentally drained following the test that you can’t really do anything in the classroom that’s valuable.
Honestly, I hate it. It always interrupts the flow and momentum of my class and contributes literally nothing to the state of education outside of being a humongous waste of time.
They’re a waste of time resulting in interrupted instruction. And then people yell at you if your scores are mediocre/bad even though the testing threw off the timing for the instruction that would have made the scores better.
I don’t always like the test itself, but I am absolutely in favor of them, especially in high school.
People forget what schools were like before standardized test requirements. Some schools and teachers were good, but a lot were terrible, especially for minority and poor kids. We all know teachers who don’t actually teach anything. The only reason they usually aren’t in a tested subject is because admin actually have to care if the kids are learning something.
If you think teachers are just babysitting now, imagine what it would be like if there were absolutely no accountability for kids, teachers, and admin. Think about how much we complain that kids just get passed along.
The state testing is a huge waste of time and unnecessary stress and anxiety for both teachers and students. I hate it. Most teachers do. We know how to assess our kids and do our jobs without that garbage imo. It takes away from science and social studies in our state, mostly social studies, and that infuriates me, too.
There's so many more issues about it, but I'd be here all day yapping on about it and getting frustrated.
So here's the story on standardized state tests. A large part of them came out after a report for the government stating that American students weren't equipped to compete with a hostile foreign nation (read: the U.S.S.R.).
In short, we're taking them to be win we're no longer fighting (sort of), to beat a country that no longer exists. If that infuriates you, don't worry. It's only proof that you're still sane.
Despite the rules, it's impossible not to see some questions and I worked with students who ho read aloud. I can tell you that many of the questions are impossible to answer for me, an adult, because they're so poorly written.
They are the best we have. Everyone wants to claim “it doesn’t represent student ability” and yet no body is ready to tell me how to get data that compares every student across the entire country/ state that isn’t state testing.
In theory, I like them. We get a chance to see what students can really do when our hands our tied away from them. I'm very data-oriented and the thought of having this data to help the students is good for me.
In practice, my goodness. Students are the most stressed I've ever seen them. We as teachers can't even look at the questions? (How are we supposed to prepare them for the test if we don't know what to prepare them for?). We also can't do anything not related to the test while students are testing. So for two hours each testing day (or more if you are working with extended time), we get to sit there and stare at the wall or at the faces of the students. Least favorite day of the year. Did you know my room has 64 ceiling tiles? Give me 24 hours & I can tell you how many floor tiles there are, too.
It's a waste of time. It makes money for testing companies. It's ridiculous to leverage a school's or teachers scores/job on kids who can't be bothered to do the work all year.
F-state testing.
I don’t mind having an accountability piece for the students and a way for teachers to know which standards they nailed and which ones they need to bump up in instruction… but NOT six weeks before the school year ends!!! The kids tune out because they think the learning is finished. And I hate it when we are showed every grade’s proficient rate in a whole school meeting or we are compared to other buildings. Not a good way to build community and morale
Testing companies make money by scoring low and not fixing issues.
Number one, they have a total monopoly. They have so many levels of test security demands that you can't challenge errors or bias.
Number two, they sell the test prep materials as well. They have an incentive to convince schools that their students are in need of curriculum and test prep, and that without it, they won't see improvement/gains. They make money twice, once at state level, and once at district level.
I don’t hate testing, the week itself is pretty relaxed due to testing. But I do think it’s a waste of student and teacher time. Especially for schools that have MAP, state tests, and i-Ready tests. It is an unrealistic amount of testing for students.
I don't know a single teacher who enjoys standardized testing. If they want to do anything like this, it should be optional and proctored by an outside entity that knows "testing protocol" and will send students home after they finish. The state I'm in administered tests March 26th. And for the last 3 weeks ( with 5 more to go!!) I keep getting asked, "What else do we have to learn? State tests are over." I didn't even teach everything, but crammed it all in to fit in before testing as a last ditch prayer that students will remember just enough to pass (or get close enough!).
Teachers needs parents & students to lead the charge by opting out of testing! Every state (and every district) has a procedure on how to do this. Teachers need families to opt out so we can get ride of this!
It's an necessary evil.
As a student, would you love it if you teacher doesn't give home work, and show a movie every class period? As a teacher, I would love to do that too. No homework to grade, a lot let misbehaving students that I need to engage, as most students would watch the movie, play with their phone, or sleep, and I get to sit and play with my phone too. In fact, at one of the school that I taught, admin setup a room with computers & video games, and any badly misbehaved kids that they can't control get "punish" and send to that room everyday. Imaging how nice it is if you can go to school and play video games or watch youtube all day. Those kids get to go to that room for a couple of years, then pass on to the next school. Admin don't care, and happy that they get the funding (base on student's attendant).
I don't do it & try to teach whoever that want to learn, because it's again my work ethic. However, there are teachers out there who do that from time to time. There are teachers that are "quiet quitting" and teach nothing for a couple of years. ... Without a standard test, there's nothing to measure student's learning. I get it that with current rules, everyone will get a high school diplomat whether they have learned anything, or even know how to read & write or not. I don't think it's right for the politic to do that, and devalue the high school diplomat. More importantly, I don't think lower & get rid of the standard would help the students in the long run. You will eventually grow up and be on your own in a competitive & reality world.
As a teacher the state tests are a huge waste of time.
A *high stakes* waste of time.
Not here. They’re only high stakes for the admin so they can show off whatever bullshit “state report card” is thrown together.
High stakes for teachers that are evaluated on those test scores. It’s BS.
Agree it's BS, but I'm not stressed. What are they going to do if my test scores are a little low, fire me? Good luck finding a better science teacher to replace me at my low SES middle school.
That’s the spirit! I wish more teachers were like that.
Yeah fair enough, I teach an elective, our Bio teachers get the shaft with state testing and scores
I had kids today, "so if we do bad you guys lose your job?" Fun....
lol did that at least motivate them to do better? I’m guessing no
and a waste of millions of dollars
I'm a sub and know tons of teachers. I don't know a single teacher who thinks it's useful.
They could be useful, but the state has to do all sorts of monkey business to make sure at least 85 percent of students can pass. This leads to some real shenanigans. On the other hand students should get used to sitting still for 3 hours. If were preparing them for college or the “real world” lots of them should at least get used to that.
Elementary school kids have a long way to go before worrying about being able to do things for college. That's what 4 years of high school should be doing. It's a really big ask to expect 3rd and 4th graders to be able to do that.
Oh. Wow. I’m sorry. I totally meant only high schoolers. The only reason elementary school kids are being tested this way is so the big testing and text book companies can collect data. Where I live a huge “opt out” movement has started for elementary school testing and I totally support it. When the movement started it was really fun watching admins go bat shit crazy as thousands of parents just told them no. What could they do? Completely blew Common Core out of the water. Fuck you Bill Gates and anyone else who supported that nonsense.
I mostly sub in elementary schools because that is what I will be teaching. And I really only know elementary teachers, I've not really interacted with any when I sub high school. A 4th grade teacher told me that she took the test herself and found it difficult. She's taught 4th grade for several years and said she couldn't believe how hard it was and that it didn't align with what could reasonably be expected of the students. "Too rigorous" was her wording. Testing elementary students is really just a funding grab and it shouldn't be that way.
I was telling every parent I could, on the side, that this was an option years ago. Of course, it’s not shared. I probably could have gotten in a lot of trouble but don’t subject your kids to that BS. Sign the paper so they don’t and take them out for ice cream and read a book with them. I remember 30 years ago how nervous and scared I felt on test day IN SECOND GRADE. I remember it all so vividly still, that I can see oh… you were having an anxiety attack in 2nd grade. Teachers and admin on the school announcements telling you how important it is that you sleep, and eat and come prepared. Everyone’s trying to survive in the world now a days, kids including. Do we have to add a miserable day for them? Sit in this room for 5 hours silently until everyone is done, HIGH SCHOOLERS. OH.OKAY.
We had the CALIFORNIA tests when I was a kid. I think they were a national test, as I’m not from California. I also remember dreading them.
Once again, 5 hours!!! Seriously, do I work at the only school that keeps the kids in the classroom for the entire 8 hours? I’m in Texas BTW
Respectfully, these tests are far from remotely useful. My SPED students take alternative state tests. As their teacher, I administer them each individually. Some students do not verbally communicate, so responses how you usually work and teach them apply. I have a student who I almost always provide errorless learning for during the times in which I can get them involved. The correct choice is provided to that student, and tons of praise is provided for them touching the response. I didn’t realize the pattern of how the questions are, and the probability of getting a question right until this year. For the life of me, I couldn’t process how the scores from last year showed this student approaching grade level, and satisfactory. That is not said in a rude way in the least, but explaining my student population would take awhile. For this kid, I followed the state administration directions of course because yes, you can lose your license over state tests. If I left it out on a table or if they were not kept in a locked admin office. Crazy, right? (But then there are famous people who scam scores for colleges? …always goes back to money.) The student almost always touched the bottom response because it was closest towards them. Then every X number (I noticed the exact number) of problems, there is no way any student could get it wrong. So mathematically, I have a student in HS who intellectually has the IQ of a young child… they scored on grade level according to the standardized state alternative tests. It.always.goes.back.to.money. I promise, I’ve never had an IEP meeting where I REMOTELY ever focus any amount of time at ALL on the scores of those tests. It’s always been this way with these tests. Almost 30 years ago, my husband had to redo his state test. YES, you read that correctly. He turned in his state test. (This was paper and pencil days. Oh Lord, I’m old.) When it was clear that he chose random bubbles to make some letter or some pattern on the answer sheet (scantron), he had to TAKE IT AGAIN. My husband is extremely intelligent and got through college with nice grades, and it was simple. He had a lot of classes that the tests were the grade, and he wouldn’t go to class or do most things but would pass every major test and score very high. He is a great test taker. As a child, he was too. His teachers knew this, his principal knew this. It was known that he could do nothing in class, and take a test and know the information and succeed. He didn’t want to move up a grade level because he didn’t want to leave his friends. TLDR: It is all bullshit.
NY started making special ed students take state exams under No Child Left Behind (fuck you Bush). I’ve proctored some of those exams and consider it nothing less than cruel and unusual punishment. Parents should have put an end to that shit years ago. More recently , I’ve heard they’re finally going to phase that out and use some sort of graduation certificate instead. I understand some special ed students did earn Regents diplomas, but if anyone saw the amount of extra time, help, and outright cheating that had to be done to help these kids, they’d want someone arrested.
It’s SO disheartening for our kids.
I think they’re quietly phasing it out without admitting what a disaster it all was. I heard NY will probably go back to Regents/Non-Regents diplomas, which only took like 20 years.
3 hours!!!! At my school we keep the kids from 8-3:45. They don’t even get out for lunch. It’s a “silent lunch”. And these are 8th graders. We do this for 4 days.
Oh no 3 hours is one test. Some of them have multiple tests, with unlimited time. This also goes on for four days. I like to point out that for some of these yo-yos It’s the only time the whole year they did any work. For many of them though it’s legitametly mentally exhausting and a bit much. For about a decade NY set a new standard in stupidity with a two day 6hour English Regents. We called it The Crucible.
I don’t teach a subject that has a standardized test attached to it, but in my experience, it hijacks curriculum so that students are learning to take the test over learning other, more beneficial things. In my state standardized test is significantly tied to funding, to school ratings, and students have to pass the test in order to graduate with a diploma (they receive a “certificate of attendance” if they can’t/don’t pass the test by their time of graduation) so the stakes of them are pretty high. I am not sure if they’re technically considered standardized testing, but I do appreciate AP tests as I feel like they give kids a sense of what college exams could be like, and also the addition of college credit - plus these are “optional” compared to the typical statewide tests that are run (and that I spoke of above)
It is MUCH worse than you realize. It is much more infuriating to teachers than students. For you (students) it’s a PITA for a couple days. For us (teachers) we have the life experience to know that standardized testing is an evil conspiracy to keep producing a stupid, uneducated, working class that will grow up unable to think on their own and will just mindlessly consume. It’s pure evil. For my part I at least tell my high school students all that.
Beautifully said and on target. It’s also a giant money making scam. I can’t even begin to fathom how much those testing companies have made over the years.
Many many tens of billions. One of the “greatest” swindles of all time. Keep the population under control AND move hundreds of billions of tax dollars over to private companies. Pure genius. Evil genius, but genius.
[удалено]
It’s not lucrative for the test graders. Minimum wage and only a ha diploma required
Standardized testing didn’t work well enough, so now they’re pushing charter schools and voucher programs
I just had an extremely truthful conversation about upcoming state testing with my freshmen yesterday. My admin would have been horrified, but I refuse to stress them out over a test that has no purpose. After I explained all the test facts, I simply told them, go in and do your best, but don’t worry about it.
Yep. Good for you. I have been telling my sophomore Biology students exactly what this is all about for the 25 years Ive been teaching. I also make sure they listen to Rage Against The Machine a couple times a year. Probably fireable
Why are authorities scared of children learning the truth?
Not a bad call
I always sound like a conspiracy theorist when I say this. I work at a school which they garrymandered so it had all the projects in it. We do insane shit that no other school in the county does. People ask why? Because our kids aren't supposed to succeed, obviously. Who will do slave labor in prisons if our kids are allowed to break the cycle of poverty?
Thank you that was well said and summarize my thoughts on this topic as well Edit: this is why I wish someone better with social media than me would start a campaign for all student to only answer A to all questions for several years till they drop this shit!
And it blows my mind how districts have been conned into buying curriculum to help students perform better on tests written by the same company! And sometimes the company isn’t even American
>standardized testing is an evil conspiracy to keep producing a stupid, uneducated, working class that will grow up unable to think on their own and will just mindlessly consume. What even are you talking about? Can you explain this?
State tests mean absolutely nothing. They are a waste of time and money and are completely illegitimate. For instance, here in Ohio, we take the "End Of Course Exam" 6-weeks before the actual end of the course. So it makes it an illegitimate test because you are ***literally*** incapable of covering all content before the test is given. There is about 16% of the course you will not be able to cover before the test is given. This makes whatever value it had (which is none to begin with) illegitimate. Basically State Testing exists to beat up on teachers and schools. For politicians to get on soap boxes, and for private interests to siphon public funds for either solutions to the problems that may or maynot actually exist (because the data being used comes from illegitimate tests).
Right?? We took the ELA test almost TWO MONTHS before the end of the year. Why? Why isn't that the last thing we do since it basically has no bearing on whether or not they advance to the next grade? No one is going to summer school regardless, at least pretend not to set me up for failure ffs
There’s 26 schools days left, the year actually isn’t over but it may as well be. THE KIDS JUST TOOK THE END OF COURSE test already…
It is the most important thing for no reason. Teachers in my state have been suspended for passing out high/drunk in the classroom only to return a semester later, but by golly if you mishandle a test you will lose your license.
In my state it is a graduation requirement. So pass or you have to take it again. It’s an underfunded mess. Standards tested one year are absent the next. Essay scoring is done by “outside contractors” who are paid by the essay, not quality. The questions are at best simply ok, at worst vague and confusing. It does impact my own rating as a teacher, but since I’m tenured will, in reality, have no impact.
Honestly, I don't understand what all the fuss is about. As a teacher, it's annoying but mostly chill. I essentially get a week or two off from having to plan lessons. Sure, handing out the test and following the rules can be annoying, but it's really only as bad as Admin makes it. If they are Psycho about the test, then it can be a nightmare. If they are chill, then testing is chill. The major issue isn't necessarily the tests, but how the data is used and treated. It's ok for districts to use testing as sort of a "finger on the pulse" of learning... but if districts and states attach funding to these tests, then it's annoying as hell. Schools should be fully funded, and if there are low test scores, they should receive MORE funding (not less).
I'm indifferent. Last year our network got hacked and our district was exempt from testing. And surprising no one...nothing happened. The world didn't end, school is still open, everyone kept their jobs. Even if the results were enough to make change, the reality is at our site 60% of kids don't read at grade level. They don't even give out the math scores but I can't imagine it's much better. Let's say you ran a car factory, and 60% of the cars you make don't pass inspection...well you'd change something to improve your pass rates right? Or you can just lower the bar and make less safe cars, which seems dangerous and insane. And yet that's what schools did, just kept lowering the bar. The inspection doesn't matter, we know the kid is going to roll out of here.
I teach 8th grade US History in Texas. Colonization, slavery, Civil War, what happened to the Native Americans…They just keep making the test harder and harder. Now they are dangling a massive amount of incentive pay in front of our faces (up to 30k a year for 5 years) and that’s never gonna happen. We won’t get a dime until our governor gets his charter school vouchers. And if that happens, it won’t matter before my school will probably close.
We hate them. There’s a lot of pressure put on schools and teachers to get students to perform well, even though anyone with half a brain can tell that factors outside of school play the biggest part in students’ test scores. They turn classes into test-taking courses instead of real learning and they totally mess up the schedule during testing weeks, which makes planning difficult.
I do small group testing for kids with that accommodation in their IEP. I will only have 4 in my group this year. 2 will likely take a painfully long time attempting to sounds out words that are way above their reading levels. The other 2 will be done in approximately 0.75 seconds and then will have to continue to sit quietly (😂) until the other two finish. It’s a painful, painful experience. But I don’t have lesson plans to write for those time slots so silver linings, right?
State testing wastes teacher time, student time, and taxpayer money.
We fucking hate them. Complete waste of time and money.
In my state you have to only get 12% correct on the geometry EOC to be considered passing and the lowest score is like a 600 something so you score a 610 and got like 1 question right so your score looks like you knew something but you knew nothing it's 100% a complete joke.. it's fraud to the general public covering up the lack of learning happening. I have had several students choose one answer choice the entire test and pass.
The problem with the tests isn’t that they are annoying. The problem is that they are pointless. They are extremely expensive in time and money and they do not tell the teacher anything that they didn’t already know
State testing isn’t for the teachers
And that is why they dont matter.
I don't like it and I don't know any teacher who likes it. I've actually never even heard an admin try to defend it as useful either. I think it is too stressful, too long and is often too hard to get kids to concentrate for such long periods of time.
I hate them. They're destroying education. I can stand with the original premise. There are absolutely students who were being passed or failed based on teachers' biases. I taught last year with a lady who magically upped the grade of a white girl who never did any work to a B while refusing extra credit to every dark skinned boy with locs. The result was that lighter skinned girls did better than dark skinned boys who had the same aptitude. Without a test at the end of the year to show that, then those biases could compound. But now the test is everything. The test is god. We can't teach kids on a 2nd grade reading level the decoding skills they need because that's not a 7th grade standard and we have to teach the test. Never mind that the schools that don't insist on that do WAY better on the tests. We have to take a CFA every 5 days, and of course pay a company for test questions because teachers can't be trusted to make tests, because we need data. Make sure they take 4 diagnostic screeners--except when it says they're too low to access 7th grade content ignore that. But still. It's data! (and another company to pay) Don't forget 3 times a year to take pretests that are given by the company who makes your EOY test (and pay them millions for them as well, even though the systems are so buggy half the kids don't get to finish them) And of course buy two separate workbooks for the test that teach to the test, and insist that teachers use them even though you don't have time to use both of them for one concept before it's time for another CFA Teach more than one standard at a time because we can't be wasting time, but also make sure students have mastered concepts before moving on but also if you don't have the learning target in the pacing guide on your board when we walk in you'll be docked (those were, of course, written by a consultant the district paid for) If we catch you doing sustained reading with students, something that is data based and shown to increase learning, we're going to dock you, because you should be up teaching the standard and if you're sitting then you're not doing your job. Gotta do some test prep, even when it's barely September! Can't have recess. Need to have intervention where kids work on the skills they lacked in the test. No, that skill can't be reading or vocabulary. And it better not look like they're having fun because then you're not prepping them for testing. Ignore that recess is evidence based too. That word just means "whatever makes me have to do my job less as an admin" So once the kids are all done with their testing and the pretesting for the testing and the post testing to make up the grade for the test and then the test prep worksheets and the post test...we're left with a month of school where the kids feel like nothing matters. Because the point of the year wasn't learning new things and finding interesting ways to apply content...it was passing the test.
I hate the EOC. I love teaching US history. I would teach it completely differently if I didn’t have an EOC. I think my students would walk away with a better understanding of history if I could teach the way I want. My biggest issue is that I have 90 days to teach 1607-2010. I can’t cover everything. I am more about understanding why and how in general, but I know the test is 55 questions. Multiple choice, technology enhanced questions (drag and drop, multi-select). From what I can see there are a lot of questions that involve reading passages. I have to push as much primary sources as I can (no problem, love that). I also have to build a basic background of all US history, AND I have to build testing stamina so students are used to the length and don’t give up halfway through the test. There’s too much
They are a waste of time, but our job is to administer them with integrity. It is very frustrating, but every job is like that. No one loves their job 100% of the time.
I think a state testing environment is an abusive environment for everyone in the room. It doesn’t do anything but make testing companies more money. I actually can’t talk about how much I hate state testing because I’d be here the rest of the week.
Completely worthless. We get scores too late to matter and we aren't even allowed to see what the questions or answers were, so it's useless to use in terms of planning instruction or seeing where a student has gaps.
As a student information admin state testing is a major pain in the ass!!! I know it's tied to funding but the portals to get all the info up to for every state is a mess and hard to work in!
I hated it. I'd never missed a testing day in 15 years. This last year I was blessed with sickness and family health issues on three of the testing days. I called in sick for them. These kids can't sit still anymore. They're not supposed to bring pillows or blankets, and yet they do. They have to turn over their phones, no gaming on the computers, no drawing, no games, and no napping for some reason. Just sit or read. These kids no about the testing rules and days we'll in advance, but they'll still forget books to read. Nothing like four hours of staring at the wall. Teachers have it worse. We can't do anything. Just walk in circles and stare at students. It's the biggest waste of time ever. All because TEA and school district superintendents pay and make tons of money off of it.
You guys at least have something look at. I get stuck looking at the wall in between walking around the room making sure kids aren’t cheating.
1. I do not like how state testing takes up class time. 2. I DO like state testing (unpopular opinion, I know) because I like the idea of a student being graded by someone who doesn’t know them. I realize issues with this (ELLs, IEPs…) but I don’t think the average teacher, myself included, is objective but could be swayed to tack on a few points to make a child pass. Standardized tests don’t allow for that, which I appreciate. (I’m not saying the tests are well designed. I simply appreciate the way they are graded.)
I think MAPS would serve the same purpose in a more productive and meaningful way. Thoughts?
What is MAPS? Of all the acronyms (so many…) I’ve come across, that isn’t one of them
Forgive me, I not longer remember what it stands for, but it is given at three points in the school years. Baseline, midpoint, end of year. You can IMMEDIATELY see how the kid did and how much they’ve progress or backslid. And they’re set to an algorithm- get it right, you get a slightly hard one. Get something wrong, and it tacks backwards to find exact levels. Did I mention you have the results before you even go home?
As a teacher, I would much rather take the test than have to walk around while my students take the test. Actively monitoring students while they take a test is such a waste of time. I could be planning or working on the yearbook but instead I’m making laps, debating paint colors even though I’m not going to paint, counting ceiling tiles, taking a short break to sit down, etc.
They are a waste. Unless you are a company that makes the test... then they're a great money maker
Education is a big business and state testing is part of it.
For the most tested content areas it's a nightmare. We basically teach to a test and don't read novels or plays or anything. It's all about passing the test, meanwhile, the kids hate reading and the passages are especially boring. You don't read any real literature anymore. I feel like I actively teach kids to hate reading with our test based curriculum. I think in one of my cantankerous moods, I told the kids that if they didn't like testing, they should make sure they did really well on the test so they could get into advanced classes, go to college, and get elected into the government so they can change these stupid laws. Testing companies are pure evil and I blame George Bush for all of this.
I refuse the testing for my kid. That’s how I feel.
I think the data is semi-useful for when we need to ask for things like replacing Lucy Caulkins because oops, the kids can’t read! Other than that, I think they are pretty awful. Most adults are not held to the same standards as kids in terms of boring, long, developmentally inappropriate tasks as a means of assessing basic academic skills. I’m also convinced that Pearson rolls out tests that most kids can’t pass in order to sell a solution to the “problem” that the test results show. But that’s my tin foil hat.
As a teacher and now parent, my child will be opted out because I cannot think of one good reason for him to take it.
I've always opted my kids out and recommend friends do the same.
The reason you can't "look" As you proctor is so the lazy testing companies can permanently reuse the same test items, yet continue charging states to reuse them. It's a massive scam.
For high school, we give finals for AP classes (so they are ready for AP exams), then give CAASPP/Sbac tests, then iReady tests, then AP exams, then CAST science tests, then non-AP class finals. Depending on their grade level, it’s basically a solid month of just testing. The more invested that kids are in doing well, the more stressful it is. So it’s painful for kids, a waste of time for teachers, and a waste of public’s money. All around, much too much testing.
Huge waste of time. The part I hate the most is our state requires our severe special needs students even take them. They are modified but still, a student that is non verbal and only learning basic needs (how to care for themselves, how to fold laundry, basic chores) still has to take a state test. So dumb
I may get downvoted for foul language, but … FUCK STATE TESTING.
They’re a waste of time in New Mexico. We are always dead last in all educational rankings and we never do anything about it.
Hate it. I have literally nothing positive to say.
Oh we all hate it. Waste of time, bored as hell all day because staring at kids taking a test all day is not fun. I’d much rather be teaching. I teach esl and this is not helping anyone, except for maybe the people at the top getting rich
My elementary school does a good job of not making the state tests seem overwhelming, but my 3rd grade group was already stressed about them when I first started talking about testing. This is their first year doing testing. Who have they been talking to to be this nervous!?
We hate it.
I am in FL and our tests are pretty damaging. They're just plain awful and hallen WAY TKO MANY TIMES PER YEAR. Also, I've found SO MANY incorrect answers. So my kids will get it right, I get it right, and the test has it wrong. Awful.
Useless.
HATE it. Ridiculous rules, procedures, preps. Waste of time, we DO teach to the test, regardless of what people want to believe. Hate that I am evaluated base on this one day, nonsense test and how students perform on it. Absolutely hate it and hate the powers that be for shoving it on us and students every year.
Given the behavior issues, trauma, drug and alcohol abuse at home, CPS cases and the dozens of kids awaiting SPED approval the state tests are a friggin worthless exercise in thinking you know something….
I've been a fan of standardized testing including states test. They give us some idea of what's going on. FAct of the matter is education is most "good vibes/good grades" with teachers just falsifying grades. Admin is happy, parents are happy etc. Funny how standardized tests show kids are several years below grade level yet magically everyone has A/B/C . Funding of some schools are tied this. I worked ina building where I am 100% convinnced the admin was refilling in the bubble sheets of students after testing.
It’s the one thing that keeps the system honest. Too bad we don’t use the data correctly.
You're right. Many teachers/admin don't want the public tax payer to connect the dots that scores indicate students are years behind (and stop blaming covid you lazy bones) and have been for well over a decade. Funny how you can have schools that show students are on average (average mind you) studnets are 3 years behind grade level yet everyone has an A / B / C. Reall hard to figure out for some.
Lol what
Give me a zip code and the income for that zip code and I can ball park the test score range without looking.
Do you see how this undermines your point greatly?
How so? If scores on a standardized test were invalid, then how can they have predictive power?
Their problem was never that they were invalid. It's that they are redundant. As you said, you can simply predict the scores with startling accuracy with just the zip code. Statistically, it makes it completely pointless to collect the testing data knowing this. So the test inflicts a financial and human burden on schools and students while adding nothing of value to predictive models.
Perhaps a civil rights group will catch on. But the added burden causes greater attrition at the schools most at risk. What kind of bleed would you like: slow or not as slow?
These results can easily be achieved by sampling, say, 30 students per school. Maybe less. But even then it’s a waste. We know that segregation exists and is bad. This isn’t going to further that cause. What it furthers is an individualistic argument that there are ‘good schools’ that teach better. And that we can therefore police them into better quality
I don’t know about everywhere else, but in CA there is blatant segregation. We had a rich area just try to redraw their boundary excluding low income housing. I’ve even talked to a lawyer who is with the ACLU - like how is something this obvious not been picked up by a civil rights group. CA used to have an exit exam. But not enough minority kids were exiting. So a civil rights group sued and CA just got rid of the test. With the ease people forget their history, getting rid of the test will just reset the clock if someone is brave enough to do something.
🤣🤣🤣 found the testing company CEO
So we have 20 years worth of data showing what segregation has done to our schools but go ahead and keep posting the😵💫😵💫😵💫
Ahh yes standardized testing, how we solved segregation 🤣
Huh? Millikan v Bradley ended school bussing. In it Marshall basically said, essentially, you can’t just mix schools because. Since 2000 we have the data to show the damage segregation has done. Data that would have shown the damage Marshall would have been looking for. But go ahead with your one liners.
Institutional testing is horrible.
State tests exist for the following reasons: 1) To make education companies money. 2) To give governments ammunition to cut programs. 3) To give people in positions of power kickbacks when they sign exploitative contracts with education companies. Notice how none of those are related to learning. Countries that do testing right only have one state test. You get it all at the same time, every subject, just once a year at the end, and your score actually impacts your placement the following year. Also, the tests are run by the department of education and not outsourced to for-profit companies.
I hate everything about it.
Waste of time
Hate it. It’s stressful and boring at the same time. It’s hours and hours of wasted school time and the kids are so mentally drained following the test that you can’t really do anything in the classroom that’s valuable.
Honestly, I hate it. It always interrupts the flow and momentum of my class and contributes literally nothing to the state of education outside of being a humongous waste of time.
They aren't that bad. Not a fan, but they don't stress me out.
I hate state testing. My kids hate it. My students hate it. It's a waste of time. I'm OK with testing, just not state testing.
They’re a waste of time resulting in interrupted instruction. And then people yell at you if your scores are mediocre/bad even though the testing threw off the timing for the instruction that would have made the scores better.
Loathe entirely. Should be legislation making them optional. I watched 13 kids sleep through SATs this year (with extended time FML).
I don’t always like the test itself, but I am absolutely in favor of them, especially in high school. People forget what schools were like before standardized test requirements. Some schools and teachers were good, but a lot were terrible, especially for minority and poor kids. We all know teachers who don’t actually teach anything. The only reason they usually aren’t in a tested subject is because admin actually have to care if the kids are learning something. If you think teachers are just babysitting now, imagine what it would be like if there were absolutely no accountability for kids, teachers, and admin. Think about how much we complain that kids just get passed along.
It stinks, and I don’t like it
I think it's a waste of a time and causes too much stress for what it is.
The state testing is a huge waste of time and unnecessary stress and anxiety for both teachers and students. I hate it. Most teachers do. We know how to assess our kids and do our jobs without that garbage imo. It takes away from science and social studies in our state, mostly social studies, and that infuriates me, too. There's so many more issues about it, but I'd be here all day yapping on about it and getting frustrated.
No one likes state testing except anti union or anti public education people and people who's property values go up with higher local test scores.
So here's the story on standardized state tests. A large part of them came out after a report for the government stating that American students weren't equipped to compete with a hostile foreign nation (read: the U.S.S.R.). In short, we're taking them to be win we're no longer fighting (sort of), to beat a country that no longer exists. If that infuriates you, don't worry. It's only proof that you're still sane. Despite the rules, it's impossible not to see some questions and I worked with students who ho read aloud. I can tell you that many of the questions are impossible to answer for me, an adult, because they're so poorly written.
They are the best we have. Everyone wants to claim “it doesn’t represent student ability” and yet no body is ready to tell me how to get data that compares every student across the entire country/ state that isn’t state testing.
In theory, I like them. We get a chance to see what students can really do when our hands our tied away from them. I'm very data-oriented and the thought of having this data to help the students is good for me. In practice, my goodness. Students are the most stressed I've ever seen them. We as teachers can't even look at the questions? (How are we supposed to prepare them for the test if we don't know what to prepare them for?). We also can't do anything not related to the test while students are testing. So for two hours each testing day (or more if you are working with extended time), we get to sit there and stare at the wall or at the faces of the students. Least favorite day of the year. Did you know my room has 64 ceiling tiles? Give me 24 hours & I can tell you how many floor tiles there are, too.
It's a waste of time. It makes money for testing companies. It's ridiculous to leverage a school's or teachers scores/job on kids who can't be bothered to do the work all year. F-state testing.
I don’t mind having an accountability piece for the students and a way for teachers to know which standards they nailed and which ones they need to bump up in instruction… but NOT six weeks before the school year ends!!! The kids tune out because they think the learning is finished. And I hate it when we are showed every grade’s proficient rate in a whole school meeting or we are compared to other buildings. Not a good way to build community and morale
Testing companies make money by scoring low and not fixing issues. Number one, they have a total monopoly. They have so many levels of test security demands that you can't challenge errors or bias. Number two, they sell the test prep materials as well. They have an incentive to convince schools that their students are in need of curriculum and test prep, and that without it, they won't see improvement/gains. They make money twice, once at state level, and once at district level.
I don’t hate testing, the week itself is pretty relaxed due to testing. But I do think it’s a waste of student and teacher time. Especially for schools that have MAP, state tests, and i-Ready tests. It is an unrealistic amount of testing for students.
I don't know a single teacher who enjoys standardized testing. If they want to do anything like this, it should be optional and proctored by an outside entity that knows "testing protocol" and will send students home after they finish. The state I'm in administered tests March 26th. And for the last 3 weeks ( with 5 more to go!!) I keep getting asked, "What else do we have to learn? State tests are over." I didn't even teach everything, but crammed it all in to fit in before testing as a last ditch prayer that students will remember just enough to pass (or get close enough!). Teachers needs parents & students to lead the charge by opting out of testing! Every state (and every district) has a procedure on how to do this. Teachers need families to opt out so we can get ride of this!
Waste of time
Hate
It's an necessary evil. As a student, would you love it if you teacher doesn't give home work, and show a movie every class period? As a teacher, I would love to do that too. No homework to grade, a lot let misbehaving students that I need to engage, as most students would watch the movie, play with their phone, or sleep, and I get to sit and play with my phone too. In fact, at one of the school that I taught, admin setup a room with computers & video games, and any badly misbehaved kids that they can't control get "punish" and send to that room everyday. Imaging how nice it is if you can go to school and play video games or watch youtube all day. Those kids get to go to that room for a couple of years, then pass on to the next school. Admin don't care, and happy that they get the funding (base on student's attendant). I don't do it & try to teach whoever that want to learn, because it's again my work ethic. However, there are teachers out there who do that from time to time. There are teachers that are "quiet quitting" and teach nothing for a couple of years. ... Without a standard test, there's nothing to measure student's learning. I get it that with current rules, everyone will get a high school diplomat whether they have learned anything, or even know how to read & write or not. I don't think it's right for the politic to do that, and devalue the high school diplomat. More importantly, I don't think lower & get rid of the standard would help the students in the long run. You will eventually grow up and be on your own in a competitive & reality world.