The Great Testing Debate
As testing coordinator for the district this is the time of the year when I start to have a lot of extra work thrown at me. Alternate Assessments, Achievement test orders, Bilingual tests, Otela tests, and now Value Added Training. It really does seem overwhelming at times. What are your thoughts about testing and how it now drives so much of what we do? Have you seen it affect your students? How do you as a principal cope and help your students prepare. I know that much of what we do is based on motivation and a positive learning experience. I'd love to hear some opinions.
posted by Gary Kandel | 4:25 PM
4 Comments:
I believe that we must be careful about focusing too much on THE tests. Instead, we need to focus on learning and let the tests take care of themselves. If we have done our job, won't students achieve on tests without weeks of test preps,being paid, stress, and tears?
Agreed. If the standards have been instructed, assessed, and intervention has taken place the kids should be successful. The most important piece is still a great attitude. That winning attitude that should be established starting day one is what motivates kids to be successful all year, not just during testing week. Thanks for the comments.
I read with interest a little experiment that's going on in a district close to here. The article about paying kids for achievement test scores appeared in Monday's Canton Rep. Here's the link, http://www.cantonrep.com/archive/index.php?ID=331630&Category=13
I guess I'm a pure academic and believe learning should be for the sake of learning and not getting paid. I think what we're doing to our kids is a bit out of whack if decent school districts are going to these kinds of measures to increase scores. It was disappointing reading. I have a friend who teaches in the district. I can't wait to hear her thoughts on it.
Let's not get too overwhelmed with the testing or it will further consume us to the point of ineffectiveness!
I saw the same article and was bothered by the fact that a district would actually pay kids for their free education. We've identified that we have a generation lacking in work ethic so instead of helping them learn to make better decisions we've turned to political bribery.
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