Student Testing

As a teacher I am not opposed to testing students to measure academic progress and to keep teachers accountable. These are both legitimate issues in public schools. However, students nowadays are being TESTED TO DEATH! There is testing in September to establish a baseline (starting point) score. There is state testing in late February and early March. There is more district testing in late March and early April. Finally there is End of Year state testing in late April and early May. In other words, education today is nothing more than testing and preparation for it. There is very little actual teaching (as opposed to "teaching to the test") that goes on any more. Testing definitely has its place in education, but our current system is overkill. Something MUST be done to lessen the amount of testing we are throwing at these children.

In addition, teachers are required to teach to the individual learning styles of learners. In teacher-speak it's called differentiated instruction. This means lessons need to be designed to accommodate visual learners, auditory learners, tactile-kinesthetic learners, students with learning disabilities, students with behavior difficulties, hearing impaired students and everything else in between. With that being said, keep in mind the tests we are administering are STANDARDIZED. Please explain how we must differentiate instruction, but all students are tested the same. Shouldn't the tests be differentiated as well? How would you feel if you were a visual learner and all of your school lessons were presented in a visual manner (your strength). Then when the test rolled around the test was presented in audio form. Would you feel blindsided or cheated? Imagine how these young students must feel. They are given a support system in class throughout the year, but then they are all expected to take the same test in the same way.

Does that make sense to you? No? Me either.