your thoughts on standardized testing (class, teachers, writing, skills)

[Savannah_23]

How do you feel about state testing? I am not a teacher presently, but work in classrooms and see what kids go through when they have to to through the state test. It's a lot of pressure and I'm sure pressure for teachers as well. I opt out my daughter every year and wonder if other parents do the same.

[HappyTexan]

It's only gotten worse over the years.

Used to be just 5th and 8th and then 11th and 12th had standardized tests for both state and at the national level (SAT/ACT).

Now it seems to be in every grade starting at 3rd and includes multiple realistic practice tests as well.

[captain_hug99]

Students had 30 days where they had a state mandated test, whether it was PARCC or CMAS. Add Scantron on top of that and there was a massive amount of days where the students had tests. Oh and I work at an elementary school!

[randomparent]

At the high school level, ~75% of students opted out this year. It was a bloodbath.

[tgbwc]

VA reduced the number of tests for this year: Virginia students will take fewer Standards of Learning tests next year - The Washington Post

The article mentions Texas as a state that has had reductions in testing recently.

I don't think it's too bad at the elementary level. My students don't seem to stress out about them, but as teachers I think we do a pretty good job not stressing over them either (at least in my building).

[maf763]

Originally Posted by randomparent

At the high school level, ~75% of students opted out this year. It was a bloodbath.

Great . . . the people are speaking. Pearson and the politicians in its pocket need a good smack.

[NeedSun25]

OP, I commend you for opting out your child.

[Oldhag1]

Writing what I think about standardized testing, as it is currently being done in our public schools, would be against the TOS.

[pobre]

Originally Posted by tgbwc

The article mentions Texas as a state that has had reductions in testing recently.

Texas started with 11 EOC's (End of Course) tests, then pared it down to 5. Most HS students will have all of them passed by 10th or 11th grade.

We still have math and reading every year 3rd-8th grade, writing 4th and 7th, science 5th and 8th, social studies in 8th.

[Ivorytickler]

My thoughts? Poorly executed necessary evil. We need some way to measure student progress but the tests we use are poorly written. They don't really test what a child should have learned in the past year.

Personally, I think we need exit exams for every grade/subject in school and if students don't pass the test they don't pass the grade/subject. We need to stop just pushing kids forward who lack the skills to go on.