Standardized Testing
Comments(1) | This week is my students first week back from holidays. I had painstakingly prepared literacy rich lesson plans to engage my students in the reading process. After these plans were prepared, we were told we would have a mock MCT2 (Mississippi Curriculum Test) test on Wednesday and Thursday of this week. In addition to this being frustrating for me as a teacher, there are several problems with the test itself.
First, the test format prepared by our district is not at all comparable to the MCT2 test. On top of which, my students are still on vacation mentally and I needed at least a week to bring them (and me) back to reality.
Of course, as a teacher I understand the need for accountability testing, but my district is constantly requiring us to test leaving teachers with the feeling that we are so busy testing that we have no time to teach. Are we alone, or are there other teachers out there who feel the same way?
You are not alone with this. Although I am no longer in the classroom, I am often the one that teachers come to in order to talk to someone about what’s on their minds.
In our schools it seems that professional development, assessment, and data has taken precedence over everything including teaching. There is a great deal of frustration felt by many teachers as they are assessing so much that it leaves them with little time to teach the way they want to.