Ahhhh.. I bet you were all wondering when the day would come when I decided to share my strong personal opinions in regards to any sort of required state standardized testing. Well, it’s today. I welcome any, ALL of your own words of wisdom about this topic as I would love for someone to change my mind, as I (one singular person) am not enough power to change the State’s mind.
Smarter Balance Assessment
My poor heart hurts for the little third graders that have to suffer through the Smarter Balance Assessment. For fun (NOT FUN..) I tried taking a practice test through their online website. I lasted about fifteen minutes before I started to sweat and stress out, and I am twenty one years-old and in going into my fourth year of college. I tried to put myself in a third graders shoe while he/she was taking this assessment, and simply I wanted to cry.
My personal beliefs make it difficult to condone and overlook this cruel punishment. And that is exactly what this is. Cruel punishment. I know that there could be a million different ways to measure what the students knows and how well they may know it. But this method is the more affordable way, therefore the “right way” in the eyes of the administrators of school districts.
I do recognize that I have very strong beliefs about testing and that comes from a long past of experience of suffering from severe testing anxiety. I do not suffer from the common nervous feeling in your stomach before a test, but yet full panic and anxiety attacks that make me go completely brain dead in the event of taking a test.
My SAT experience
I will share about my experience of taking the SAT’s, the so-called college placement test. This test has 
absolutely nothing to do with college placement in my opinion and if I could buy every billboard in the world so that I could write this up on them believe me, I would. Anyways, I studied for months just like my peers before taking the SAT’s. The morning of the exam my body worked itself up so much that it made me physically ill. I walked into the testing center, sat down, the Procter started the timer and that’s when the panic and anxiety attack started.
For the life of me I could not recall any information about what the questions on the test were asking for. Any random day if you were to ask me about a topic that would’ve been on that same exam I absolutely would have been able to provide you with an answer. After the few weeks past, and all my peers were excited to receive their scores, I simply was dreading it. I had a meeting with my guidance counselor after I got my (very, very, very low) scores back. She was providing me information about “different paths” after high school. I then decided to take my future into my own hands. Who is to tell me that I am not meant to go to college because I had a panic attack during the exam therefore leading my scores to reflect that? Luckily, colleges have realized this and now I am going on my fourth year of making the dean’s list and have a GPA of a 3.9. I know that I am not the only who has had that same experience. So why are we developing these traumatic experiences at such a young age?
Pros & Cons?
I do recognize that there are some pros that comes with online testing, such as it is more affordable, it is aligned with the Common Core State Standards (CCSS), as well as accommodations for English Language Learners (soon) and students with disabilities. But the cons just simply outweigh the pros.
The questions are so complex and timely that may cause students to score poorly due to the lack of attention or lack of detail in their answer. I can only hope that by the time that I have children, someone will have come up with a better way to measure what the students knows and how well they may know it.
Moving away from average….
This is a TED talk given by Todd Rose. Rose says, “If we design learning environments for the average, odds are, we’ve designed them for nobody.” In the times where our educational system and state standardize tests are structured and created for the “average” learner….. we are going to fail these students.
Alternative Suggestions!
This is what I pose we as educators do instead!
Let me introduce you to my good friend, Otus (below- from their website, they offer four suggestions to help with this terrible problem we are seeing in schools.) Take a look at what they have to say – let me know what you think!
“While there are many possible options for educators, the following are the 4 effective alternatives to standardized testing:
- Sampling. Rather than test the entire student population every year, sampling tests a statistically representative group of students. While this alternative doesn’t eliminate traditional standardized tests, it lessens the impact on students, teachers, and states. According to an infographic from American University, “Students spend 20-25 hours per year taking standardized tests and states spend 1.7 billion on assessments.” Sampling reduces these numbers.
- Stealth or game-based assessment. According to a report from the MacArthur Foundation, “Stealth assessment refers to Early Childhood Development (ECD)-based assessments that are woven directly and invisibly into the fabric of the gaming environment.” Stealth assessments, integrated into resources like Scholastic and Khan Academy, eliminate the time, cost, and anxiety that accompanies traditional standardized testing.
- Multiple measures. This option encompasses a wide array of alternatives. Rather than rely exclusively on standardized tests, Kamenetz recommends collecting different information from students using things like social and emotional skills surveys, game-based assessments, and performance or portfolio-based assessments. One alternative, The Gallup Student Poll, measures hope, engagement, and well-being. Research shows these are indicators of success, linked to grades, retention, and employment.
- Portfolio-based assessment. Portfolio-based assessments measure student progress based on projects, presentations, reports, and papers collected over time. informED says, “ Portfolios…seek to give a richer, multidimensional picture of students’ capabilities by assembling a body of work.” The New York Performance Standards Consortium uses portfolio-based assessment in place of standardized tests.” (Jordan Walker)
Until next time, Happy blogging!
~Abby
