EnglishLanguageHearts: April 2019

These are just four comments overheard in the hallways after Monday's and today's state testing:

I just wrote an essay about how stupid TCAP is.
I bubbled in abba cadabba on my answer sheet over and over! Haha
I didn't even read, I just filled in random bubbles to look like I took it.
I filled in some bubbles and drew on my scrap paper. It was good too, but she wouldn't let me keep it.

To be fair, I also heard a few of these:

That was hard.
That was easy.
I think all those answers could have been right.

How can the mastery of standards be assessed when students don't take the test seriously. In turn, how can you assess teacher effectiveness through a test students don't take seriously. I'm not complaining because I get low scores. I'm a teacher who has a record of receiving 5s on state assessments. I know I prepare my students by teaching them to master the 8th grade standards, so they are ready for high school. For the past few years, I've seen a decrease in scores as well as a lack in student effort. There has to be a better way... for all of us. It's not just a lack of effort either. What about the lives these kids live outside of the school?

A student said he was going to fall asleep when we took the test because it was his mom's birthday the night before and the party went on until three in the morning. He had about two hours of sleep. How do you think his scores will look?

I taught a straight A, very gifted student whose mother went missing. Her body was found. Her father was arrested for murder. He was in jail with a case being built against him during state assessment week. How do you think she did?

Do you think the state test was an accurate assessment of these students' learning or my teaching?

Here's a thought; humor me. What if...

The state actually trusted the boards to hire intelligent directors of schools who were dedicated to education within their system, and whose main goal was student success.
The director of schools made sure when hiring principals that they trust them to do the job they were educated (for years) to do, and whose main goal was student success.
The Principals hired only teachers who were highly effective in their planning and teaching, so students felt empowered to be risk takers in their classrooms. Perhaps even go as far as letting them create authentic assessments so each child could show how they mastered the standards in a way that worked best for them. And of course, whose main goal was student success.

I know there isn't an easy answer. I know we're all human, and no one is perfect. But I'm so sad that this is how schools are rated. Who makes these assessments? Could it be big companies who benefit financially from the sales? Are they highly educated teachers?

230 minutes of reading, writing, and bubble sheets in two days is NOT an effective way to assess my students' learning or my effectiveness as a teacher. Look below for how I assess mastery of standards.