9. Resist Immunity to Standardized Tests...

  

The College Board has invented yet another standardized test. It is the younger sibling of the SAT - a so-called "low stakes" assessment for 8th graders that will spit out a number. In turn, this number will inform parents and teachers whether or not students are "on track" with the skills necessary to graduate high school and competitively enter college (i.e. Is your student on track to produce an appropriate number which, in turn, will qualify him or her for higher education?). (Read the entire article from the NYTimes here) Don't get me wrong - I think diagnostic/benchmark testing is incredibly useful for strategic lesson planning and for informing necessary remediation.  But, what happens when teachers don't know how or just don't use these tests to better their instruction?  What happens when the medicine we're administering isn't being swallowed or followed up by a professional?

I'm starting to think the administering of standardized tests is becoming a lot like the administering of antibiotics.  A lot of antibiotics.  All the time.  What happens when a child continuously takes Penicillin for ear infections and the infection is never quite killed?  The infection starts to grow stronger and the body become resistant to the medicine.  What happens when a child week after week fills in bubbles with his number 2 pencil on his Scantron sheet?  What happens when we prescribe standardized tests to heal our broken school system (please see No Child Left Behind)?  Our students start to resist them, resent them and become immune to them.  So, when a sixth grader takes a standardized test weekly rather than yearly (because her school is in decline and forced to show adequate yearly progress), she freezes and/or becomes conditioned to the sheet of bubbles and her number 2 pencil.  And, when "high stakes" tests finally arrive (see Louisiana's 4th/8th grade LEAP exam that prevents students from promotion to the next grade and the SAT, ACT and all other high school exit exams...) she fills in bubbles and puts her head down because that's how she's learned to handle this medicine that is tiring her and not healing her.

I have a question.  And, I'm proposing that those interested in answering this question respond directly here...

HOW DO/HAVE YOUR STUDENTS PHYSICALLY RESPONDED TO STANDARDIZED TESTS?