Mother Nature Always Wins

My juniors were supposed to take the ACT last week but Mother Nature...she said, "No!".   Last Sunday brought sleet, snow & ice to the Commonwealth and successfully canceled school all across Kentucky.

Not one but two more snow days. 

Don't get me wrong.  I love snow days.  I giggle when I see snowflakes fluttering outside my window.  The school cancellation text message (which has replaced the radio and television alerts) prompts me to dance around my house before climbing back into bed.  I hate going out in the cold and would much rather stay in my toasty warm house while it's cold.  I don't mind making up the days when it is warm outside. 

However, I had some mixed feelings about it this time.

I found the state & ACT's decision to schedule the test a week earlier than usual completely asinine.  While we haven't had March snow in several years, Kentucky weather is mercurial at best and it was not a wise choice.  The folks at ACT may not know that but the Kentucky Department of Ed certainly should.   Part of me found it amusing that a higher power thwarted these best laid plans of bureaucrats. 

On the other hand, my juniors have been so stressed about this assessment that I just hated for them to have wait.  Ready or not, I just wanted it to be over for them. 

Some of my colleagues were pleased to have more review time but I just feel that we are test prepping these kids to death.  A feeling that became a certainty after I discussed the situation with my junior group. 

The new date is March 18th and so they'll endure another week of ACT test prep.  I wish I could tell them that it would be all over then.  However, they will then shift to prepping for the U.S. History end of course exam.

I dread breaking that news to them.

School should be about learning--not testing. 

Educate or Test

I have been told at least a dozen times this semester alone--by administrators--that "The Test" should be the primary focus in my classroom.  One went so far as to tell the junior English teachers that their entire course should be structured around the ACT because the juniors take the ACT in March. Surely this isn't what the Kentucky General Assembly had in mind when they decided to make this college entrance exam part of our assessment.

My freshmen are supposed to spend this year preparing for the PLAN test (which they will take in the fall of their sophomore year) and the English II EOC (End of Course) exam.  If they are in Algebra II or Biology, they're also preparing for end of course exams in those classes as well.  And we can't forget about the on-demand writing test taken by all sophomores and juniors.  

Between these tests and practice tests, we lose at least 10 days of instruction--minimum; teachers who give more practice tests in class lose even more.  All of this assessment doesn't include AP (Advanced Placement) testing.

Am I supposed to educate or test?

I recognize that we must have a means to evaluate student learning but these multiple choice tests do not prove understanding. They do not assess higher order thinking.

As one of my 9th graders pointed out today, she can do well on some of these tests just by guessing and applying test strategies. She told me that she doesn't like the written assessments that I make her do.  She cannot fake her way through those.

We are turning out a society of test-takers--not problem solvers.

My students are more than their test scores and my job is to teach them...to think, to create, to analysis, to evaluate and to problem-solve.   My job is to provide knowledge and teach skill, so that my students can be come productive members of society. 

The test is not the most important thing in my classroom; my students are.