Teaching to the Test?

Or Maintaining Accountability?

As a mom to two boys, I can tell you right now, I have mixed feelings about standardized testing.

Here in Tennessee, they have the TCAP, or the Tennessee Comprehensive Assessment Program.

And this test is crazy to me! These kids have to stress about the test because, if they don’t pass it, they don’t move onto the next grade.

Why are we putting this type of pressure on 9-year-olds?!

I remember taking standardized tests when I was in school. We had the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test (FCAT), but the test was not part of our grade. It was more testing the school than it was us.

But here? The student could be getting all As in class, but if they don’t pass the test, they get held back.

How is that right?

I feel like that is a failure on the teachers more than on the child. If the student can’t pass the test, they shouldn’t be getting straight As in their classes, right?

Standardized testing has its place…as a metric for learning and as an evaluation for the schools.

But it really shouldn’t be something that is used to truly evaluate a student’s abilities.

Here is what I propose:

The standardized test should remain. Make it almost like a final, if you want, where part of it goes toward your final grade for that quarter.

But the test should be there as an evaluation for the schools.

If the students are doing well and the scores reflect the grades that the students are getting, then they should be putting forth a salary increase for the teachers, since they are obviously doing the right thing for the students.

If the students don’t do well on the test, and the scores do not reflect the grades that the teachers are giving to the students, any money received for the schools should go to additional learning resources for the students, and any considered salary increases should be paused until the schools have remedied the issues that caused the inconsistencies and unsatisfactory performances by the students. The teachers would not get paid more if the students weren’t at the level they should be.

It’s like any other job. If you were consistently underperforming and not getting the results that your job needed, would you be getting a pay increase?

No!

So why should teachers if their students aren’t learning what they need to know?

This will probably not be a popular opinion, but since when do I ever write things that are popular with the masses, right?

What are your thoughts on standardized testing? Should we be using them to decide if children are ready for the next grade? Should we use them as a tool to evaluate the schools? Should we just get rid of them altogether?

Tell me what you think, and then make sure you subscribe to make sure you never miss a new post!