Tests tests tests

Like many of you, I spent the last week proctoring the MOY test. Because my classes aren’t blocked and there is a reading and writing test, I spent Monday through Thursday, 9 am until 4:20 pm watching students take this test. Now, I had a boring week that much is for sure. But every time the students came in they had this look of frustration and resignation to the fact that yet again we were measuring their abilities as students.

At our school, and at any school, really, there are an insane amount of acronyms. SCA, EOC, MOY, SCI...FML (I’m sure yall know that last one). I feel like I am constantly behind knowing what all of these stand for. I mention this because I was really struck by how as they walked in to the door and the students in an upbeat tone asked “What are we doing today, Ms.?” and My CT simply responded with “The MOY” they knew what they were faced with for the next hour and a half. Testing has become so ingrained in these students. It’s more a part of their academic lexicon and knowledge than how to have class discussions. They rank themselves as people, as writers, readers, mathematicians based on their STAAR scores and not by the imaginative, amazing effort that I see them make in class.

One of the teachers at my school was feeling frustrated by the way the admin are approaching test review for those students retaking the STAAR test in December. He is telling them to “just do what they did last year.” Last year 82% of our students failed. So, how does it help them to do the same thing again? Alex poignantly mentioned during lunch one day that this is the definition of insanity, doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. This teacher in question is feeling lost, she feels no sense of like mindedness at school and she feels like others look at her like she’s crazy because she disagrees with this way of studying for the test that gave such poor results last year. I’ve told her about Heart of Texas Writing Project and I plan on inviting her to the next seminar but what I’m curious about, beyond finding that kind of community what do we do next?

How do we stand up for our students who are tested so much? I’m at a loss for what we’ve actually taught them this semester. Where do we start? I think politicizing ourselves to benefit our students is important but I don’t know how to start and when I’ve mentioned this to other teachers they seem resigned to the way things are.

I don’t think my desire to change the testing system is a symptom of naivete but more veteran teachers seem to. If I had an idea of how to start changing this insanity I would want to try but just figuring out how is difficult.