Assessment: What are we even testing?
The amount of different assessments
that take place in my classroom is something that has become particularly concerning
for me, especially looking forward to solo teaching. Every single Friday we
spend the majority of the day testing students on different skills. They start
with a spelling test in which students spell words with this weeks phonics
focus. Then, they move on to a math fact assessment, testing their fluency and
comprehension. We move on next to a language assessment used to help gauge students
reading abilities. Then in the afternoon we take a unit math test. In addition
these students have 2 CFA’s, which are assessments on two focus standards that
are different than the weeks focus, and are tested on sight words. All of these
assessments take place on Friday, and we pretty much assess the entire day.
I am in First grade. Seeing these
many assessments is something I don’t understand. Having my students sit at
their desk all-day and work on assessments is impossible for them. They get
bored and anxious. They often forget to do problems and by the last test it is
clear they don’t even care. These assessments aren’t assessing anything beyond
focus and stamina. In first grade these students cant handle this much
assessment.
I understand the need for data. Especially
with RTI, data is important, but this is excessive. These students aren’t showing
how much they are learning. They are showing what they can do during a specific
amount of time. My special education students end up taking these assessments
over two days due to accommodations. After talking with my teacher I asked
about these assessments. I had the same concern at my last placement. She
responded the same way they did at my old school. They said it is the district
that is making them complete these many assessments.
The stress on testing and
assessment is something I can’t get past. As educators I know we need data and
assessments to help us measure success, but to give so many assessments that you’re
losing whole instructional days is ridiculous. These students need to learn.
They need as much time as they can in front of a teacher learning what they
need to know in order to be successful.
Why aren’t these teachers looking
at alternative assessments? How do they expect their students to do well when
they NEVER make mastery on any assessment they give? When are they going to
realize they need to make a change and what they are doing isn’t working? Instead
of math fact test give a seat scoot, instead of a language assessment do a
journal entry. Teachers should be exploring alternative ways to get the data
they need.
Assessment is not the end all to
being a teacher. The stress on it, as I am sure we all see, is turning some
great teaches to the dark side. When I walk around the hallways at my school
and hear “well let’s just teach to
the test” my heartbreaks. I guess this post was more of a rant, but this idea
of assessment is something I see Metro stressing. Every Metro room I have been
in the past two years has had assessment Friday and every time I feel terrible
for my students.
I really do believe that the students are not doing well because they do not understand what is being asked of them. For example, as Avery knows, they had to write 5 details about day and night. The majority of the students could not make mastery level on this. I could tell that the students were unclear what a detail was, how to structure their sentences, and overall what to write about. My teacher beforehand did a fun activity where they drew a picture of day and night and compared them while talking to a friend about it. This made the assessment a bit more authentic. However, I could tell by their sentences that they still were unclear what to do and consequently did not pass. Although I agree there should not be this many assessments, I do think that teachers can make these assessments more authentic and meaningful while providing clear instructions. I think this combination would allow them to do better overall.
ReplyDeleteI completely understand your heartbreak over this. It has gotten to the point where even students have the TCAAP on their mind at all times. A teacher asked one of my students the other day why we were learning something and she responded, "uhhh 'cause it's on the TCAAP?" That breaks my heart.
ReplyDeleteData is obviously important and I have seen how much of a predictor it can be, when done correctly. However, I think that time should be added rather than taken away. For example, the school that I worked at last summer did all of their initial testing during the two weeks of summer school in July. That meant that they didn't have to waste the first several weeks of school gathering data. Also, they just did 3 testing days, once a quarter, leading up to the final day of testing for TCAAP. I understand that teachers want predictions for where there students will be at the end of the year. BUT can't they just realize that the prediction isn't what's most important. The teaching is. Even if the teaching is sometimes geared towards the test, that should be the priority when leading up to the test, not additional testing that will only wear the poor students out.
I know that all schools can't add extra time to their school days and school year like the charter that I was describing above, but there definitely has to be a better way!
The amount of summative assessment in schools is extremely high. In my sixth grade language arts classroom, we spend at least one day each week testing. So students are spending a minimum of 1/5 of their educational time in English taking a summative test. These tests are just on the weekly material/vocabulary, not including practice for TCAP or other standardized test preparation they will be focused on closer to the test days.
ReplyDeleteI think that it would be beneficial to focus more on “informal” formative assessments. Teachers can assess the work students are completing in class or in small groups, instead of taking most of their grades from tests. I understand that grading 120 of every assessment you give is a lot of time and effort on assessments that aren’t multiple choice, but students don’t learn a lot from multiple choice tests. If schools focused more on formative assessments, they would be able to tailor their instruction to the students’ needs, which is what they want. However, at least in my school, the administration seems to focus on standardized test scores, and they attempt to tailor instruction to the needs of students based off of their performance on standardized tests. While standardized tests do give some indication of what students still need more work on (for example author’s purpose), I think it would have been more helpful to know that information in the middle of the unit where the students were learning about author’s purpose. Assessment is important for students and teachers to know how students are progressing, but the types of assessments could be changed and still give that information.