As I wander one of the many testing rooms in the school building “actively monitoring” (watching students test without actually seeing the test) students, I begin to wonder what is going on in their minds. I was lucky enough to have graduated before the “age of testing” began. My first exposure to high-stakes testing was the SAT’s.
Today we test our third graders. They are taking the very first in a long list of state exams that will haunt them throughout their educational careers. Some of them will be fine and pass each of them that comes along, but for some it’s not so easy. These tests are the final straw on top of everything else they are dealing with in their too young lives.
I teach in an urban, title 1 school in Southeastern Virginia that serves some very needy families. We have a grant that allows us to give free breakfast and lunch to every student at the school so that no one goes hungry. This is quite a benefit for some students who depend on those 2 meals as their only guaranteed food for the day. We are less than 5 miles from a large US Army base, so we have students who spend their time worrying about deployed parents. Some live in neighborhoods that are not considered safe areas. One of our students lost an older brother to gun violence just a few weeks ago. Many go home to empty homes because mom and/or dad work multiple jobs to make ends meet. We have homeless students who are bused in from wherever their parents have found shelter. They don’t have the capacity to deal with worrying about state testing also.
I see the looks of stress on their little faces, knowing that for some, these tests are the breaking point for their emotional well-being. It is not surprising that some of them melt down during this month of testing. On other faces it’s the crushing look of defeat because they know that, no matter how hard they try, they don’t have the background knowledge to understand what they are being asked to read and answer questions about, or that they come from a long line of “not math people” and they’re not sure it’s worth trying.
Every year I pray that legislators will finally listen to the research that says that standardized testing isn’t a valid measurement of student potential and that there is no proof that is does anything to improve schools. I look forward to a day that they admit their error and stop this madness! Unfortunately, here I am at the end of my 19th year and I’m proctoring these damn tests yet again.
When will we stop victimizing our children to satisfy a government that doesn’t understand child development? When are we going to stand up to our leaders and demand better for our future?