State Tests

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Home : 2001 : July : 10

State Tests
By Helen

I am not a fourth, fifth, or upper grade teacher,
Yes I have been in third grade and had to give state tests, but I have also been in first grade and seen the fear and pressure of the CAT or the ITBS on their little faces.
I am quite aware that many teachers teach the test and that in some cases that is pure survival.
I am in a state that is "a little" better on our little kids but the pressure reaches down more and more. The schools are competing for bonuses, for being labeled 'Schools of Excellence" etc. For AR Recognition..and we are killing our kids!!!!!
I get kids in the

first week of school who can read 60 of the required 100 Basic Sight Words..that kid is right beside the kid who was sent up from kindergarten and cannot even recognize a or I on the list...but in two weeks I am expected to have both of them testing on AR even if it is on "Read to" mode. that is our principal.
Our state, especially the math devision, trying to be more developmentally appropriate and giving us benchmark books to use for running records etc..They also put resources online for our Math..but still our legislature pushes and pushes for scores, score!!!
How can we preach developmentally appropriate instruction on one hand and then demand standard scores on another?/
I have vented I guess..I am frustrated because I know what my little folk need to know, and I know that they need love and reassurance..gentle coaxing..but it is really hard when the administration is standing over our heads with test scores and the teachers above us are really catching flack if they can't do certain things.
I have taught for thirty years...much of what we teach in first grade now, Used to be second and third grade material and much of the science I am teaching now..I personally didn't see until maybe ninth grade. Children are still children!!! Where will it all stop? Yes, many children have computers and watch Tv etc and learn more than kids thirty years ago knew about cartoons and keyboards, but they do not know how to build a "spinning ginny" or make a seesaw. They rarely enjoy the pleasure of snuggling in a parents' lap and hearing Bible stories read aloud to the family or even a comic book. they never get to help read a recipe off the flour bag or help learn to make biscuits with grandma..caue grandma doesn't make biscuits anymore. But these things that I mentioned are hands on experiences that give them the background for reading, math, science, social studies.....Todays preschoolers just learn it from watching..kickboxing, scifi...eating twinkies out of the box.
Sorry I got way out there. Yes we do need to assess our students and we do need a standard assessment, but how we are ever going to have it fair????????I don't know!