Sunday, September 27, 2009

"O say can you read..."




Tests, tests, tests.... Do we put too much pressure on our kids to do well in government testing? We have the ITBS, the ITEDS, the ACT and the SAT, the PLAN test, and the PSAT.... we pack these tests into a very short period of time- more than most can handle. Of course they do handle it, many of them very well actually.


In this month of October alone there is the ITEDs-Oct. 6-9 ~ the high school general testing where the government views the Junior year scores. Also for juniors is the PSAT- Oct. 17~ makes them applicants for National Merit Scholars, and finally the ACT- Oct. 24 ~ which allows them into colleges. All these tests are packed in for studying and testing. After a while your eyes are permanently seeing bubble-sheets!


National testing is important for some reasons. It does give a good picture of how are students are doing, but there are definitely more accurate ways of telling.

National tests are so time consuming and boring. Did you know that when your body feels like it is put in an emergency or a stressful situation, it shuts down? It releases adrenaline to give you energy, but it turns off everything else that is taking up extra energy. For example- your digestive system. When you are taking a test that you are unsure of or aren't prepared for (stressed) your body stops digesting food, among other things. Your body needs to be focused and unstressed- we should definitely be looking for alternatives.

I guess I'm just trying to say we shouldn't put so much emphasis on tests that don't give us the best picture of our students abilities. Other options may be a teacher writing up grade and behavior analysis types of papers, using the people around theses students everyday, who know the students, to give them the best picture of their abilities.

Looking from the practical side though, I understand testing is the cheapest and easiest way. It's also the most fair and unfair way to learn about the students. Its fair in the way that every student gets the same test and they get compared to people who took the same test. Its unfair in the way that it is not matched for each individual person.\

With such a capable nation it seems like we could come up with better ideas.

~K.C.

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