ITBS: I Teach Beyond Standardized (testing)

Let's get one thing straight--I am reminded on a daily basis how lucky I am to be at my current school. But this week I'm grateful on another level: it's ITBS testing week.

Our school chooses to use standardized testing for exactly the reason it was created: to measure specific academic skills and to gain information about students and classes for instructional planning.

Trust me, this is an absolute rarity in the education world. In public schools, standardized tests are required as part of the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB). Without going into too much detail, NCLB requires that states carry out annual testing for public education and more importantly, that each classroom, school, and district within each state shows "adequate yearly progress" (AYP) toward a proficiency goal.

In Missouri, proficient means scoring an 80% on a standardized test--equivalent to a B grade. Each year the schools are required to meet a certain "goal" of proficiency. Last year it was 75%. Now, here's the rub:

That's not a 75% average, that's 75% of a class/school/district scoring proficient on a test. 

So 75% of my 24 students last year (18 kiddos) needed to earn a "B" grade on the state test. My class score was combined with the other 3 classes in third grade to determine whether we "met" or "didn't meet" our AYP goal.

I could argue that it's unfair, that our kids were behind one or more grade levels to begin with, or that the testing material was culturally and economically biased, but I'd really like to explore the level of anxiety teachers face about standardized testing:

Everyone, everywhere experiences some level of "on the job anxiety." I think it's just part of being an adult. But these days, many public school teachers fear for their jobs because of the NCLB testing. I remember starting my mandated after-school tutoring for the MAP test (Missouri's standardized test) in October....the test isn't until APRIL! I heard horror stories about teachers fired over the summer after their dismal test scores surfaced. Being the perfectionist that I am, I worried myself sick over the test. I knew that the two weeks in April meant more to keeping my job than the entire rest of the year. And trust me, I'm not the only one. This type of anxiety can make amazing teachers doubt their talents, change their methods of teaching to "fit the testing style," and greatly reduce instructional time for developing skills such as reading fluency and expression, which aren't measured through standardized testing.

That's why I am unbelievably grateful to teach at a place that celebrates real education and learning over a standardized test. Sure, it's a valuable measurement tool we use to gather information about our students. But we care about SO much more here. And truthfully, it shows. Our students are capable of so much more than performing well on a test!