Sitting at my son’s college baseball game this week, I caught a memory of the days I was his Little League coach here in Peachtree City. Driving back, one thing that popped into my head as the weather weaves between warm and cold, it must be test season!
As a baseball coach after Spring Break, weekday games would take on extra urgency. The focus of some parents was not for their child to get a hit, field the ball, or even get in the game, but rather, to get the game over with so the child can get enough rest for the next day’s state tests, formerly called CRCTs. It was sad when the players were anxious about the tests as well.
While we all appreciate that data must be collected to determine how our children are learning, I have always wondered if, sometimes less is more. Not only would the tests themselves consume days formerly filled with instruction, but there was the preparation for the tests that took other days.
In one elementary school year, it felt like, my son stopped learning math around St. Patrick’s Day. Then there was getting ready for tests season, Spring Break, more preparation, the State tests, then class party season. From our perspective, I would have preferred more time for math instruction as it mattered less to me what the school score was if my son did not have the math tools he needed.
As I have stated before, my family took advantage of SB 10 vouchers in the sixth grade to move our son to a local Christian school. As a private school, it was not subject to the state testing requirements. For two days in April, the children took the ITBS (the “Iowa tests” we parents took way back when) in the morning and then had field day in the afternoon. Then they went back to learning in the classroom.
When I shared that story with someone involved with taking action for public education, their comment was that if we were taking state money, he should be subject to state testing. Maybe we should be more focused on taking action for children’s education.
We have been discussing how to continue our excellent Fayette County Schools performance and I cannot help but wonder how much value is there in so much testing. Teachers in the classroom are in position to evaluate students on a daily basis and then to adjust as necessary. Our teachers have led the way on the success of our excellent Fayette County public schools for a very long time.
Some will correctly note that Fayette cannot just opt out of required state testing. They would be correct. However, if we do not advocate on behalf of our students, nothing changes.
Others will argue that we need testing to not only evaluate students, but teachers as well. We should consider that many schools are now using common tests in common classes. If one teacher’s classes have different results the PLC can gather, figure out why, and adjust.
We already have classroom observations by school administrators, but we can use some of that central office instructional support for more observation while teaching. Instead, I am hearing about county wide benchmark intra-period testing, given once a quarter, to send the central office more data. To be clear, that’s 16 additional assessments (across 4 subject areas) in high school on top of what the teachers are doing and the state tests.
In the fifteen years I have written about our schools, the performance data says our schools are great. In every metric such as graduation rate, SAT/ACT participation rate, scholarship awards, and others, the performance of Fayette’s school children is in the top echelon of Georgia.
However, reasonable people can wonder, how many more children could be successful with more instruction days and less test anxiety? How many more teachers can be more successful with less days lost to additional testing?
As we say in sports, the eyes don’t lie. We can see how well our schools are doing and it should give most pause when someone who has presented so much data on these pages is suggesting we collect less data.
[Neil Sullivan is a finance/accounting executive and CPA. He has lived in Peachtree City over 20 years with his wife Jennifer, a Fayette County History teacher, and son Jackson, a student at Erskine College. He has been active in public school related issues in Fayette County, leading three E-SPLOST initiatives as chairman of Fayette Citizens for Children. He has appeared previously on these pages in letters to the editor.]
It seems to me that the “anxiety” is largely on the bureaucracy that doesn’t want to be held accountable and to the extent that the students feel any it’s because the bureaucracy is pushing on them to try to get parents to resist testing – “see how upset your kids are”. It’s been about 30 years ago, but I don’t remember any anxiety about standardized tests, at least not on the ones that were measuring the performance of the school.
I also don’t buy the idea that “teaching to the test” is really a thing. If you teach students algebra, they should be ready for the test, it doesn’t take long to master filling in the bubbles.
“I am hearing about county wide benchmark intra-period testing, given once a quarter, to send the central office more data. To be clear, that’s 16 additional assessments (across 4 subject areas) in high school on top of what the teachers are doing and the state tests.”
And we wonder why FCBOE spending is being scrutinized. This stuff is EXPENSIVE and arguably unnecessary.
Yes. The benchmark testing is unnecessary and a poor substitute for valuable instructional time. The central office personnel charged with “reviewing” the test data are equally nonessential. Btw, don’t ask to see the data. It is off limits to parents.
Mr. Sullivan – Your essay raised several questions for me.
It is interesting that you present instruction as either for educating the student or for test preparation. It would seem that these two activities are not in conflict. I assume that any educational activity that advances knowledge in a subject area will improve scores on testing in that area. If this is not the case, then the tests are ineffective.
Is there evidence that test anxiety is a significant problem for students? It seems that it may be a more significant problem for their parents. However, I don’t have any data to confirm this. You may have, but the evidence you provide here is anecdotal.
Thank you for your columns addressing the educational activities in our community.
Hi STF!
The test anxiety is harder to quantify but I have seen it in mine and other children. As the adults (parents, teachers, and administrators ) make a bigger deal about them the kids see and feel the pressure. There are some high school teachers who hold weekend reviews for end of course tests. On those, you need to pass to move on.
I see instruction as different then test prep as there is less room to ask questions and fail trying. I agree test prep can be instructional, but it really depends how it is presented. I hear a heavy focus on presenting the ways questions are asked and formats versus discussion of the material.
Sometimes, it comes down to how you learn. My son had an IEP and has a processing disorder which makes math harder. In my case, I have a near photographic memory and a rather unnatural relationship with numbers.
How do we serve, now larger amounts of kids in the classroom equally well?
Take Care