The school district in Fayetteville Arkansas has decided to stop giving the Iowa Basic Skills Test to it’s students. This test was used to guage the performance of their 3rd through 8th graders. The students will continue to take the state test but will not be forced to take the two additional Iowa tests. Previously the school district had be administering all three tests to their students.
Lester Long, who is the districts director of assessment and accountability, says that eliminating the two Iowa tests gives the students and teachers more time to concentrate on their curriculum rather than standardized tests. Long also thinks that the districts teachers will have a positive response to less testing. He says, “Teachers like quick assessments.”What Long says seems to correspond with what I have heard from most teachers who are involved with standardized tests. Standardized tests get in the way of the flow and rhythm of the classroom. This district seems to be understanding of the needs of not only their teachers but their students.
What does this reduction of testing mean for the teachers and students. It means that they get one to two more weeks of instruction in the classroom. That is valuable time for teachers especially if they are pressed for time. The Arkansas district is not giving up completely on test assessment. Instead of administering the two large Iowa tests to assess their students they will give out two small assessment tests that will only take minutes of classroom time as opposed to days.
This seems like a logical way to go about testing and assessing our students. What I mean is that if we can still accurately assess them with a test that takes less time and money, why not do it? We, as teachers and administrators, should try and be as efficient as possible when we are dealing with the school’s time. Maybe whenever we are thinking about administering standardized tests we should keep the word “efficient” in mind. What is efficient for the student and what is efficient for us as teachers?
1 response so far ↓
1
ideamen
// Nov 28, 2007 at 7:07 pm
I personally like the idea of getting ride of one of those huge tests. I bet the teachers are happy to have 2 more weeks worth of in class instruction versus the teaching of a workbook packet. Those 2 weeks could be used in order to produce stimulating projects, watch media, or fit in some fun little extra lesson plan. There is so much fear revolving around all these standardized tests that it must be a big relief to not have to perform for the state. Yes, it is a way of tracking student progress but if we make an equation out of this, it might be like this:
Less test drilling + more quality lesson plans = Excelent and stimulating time in class with less stress and more fun.
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