It’s Standardized Test Time, So Keep the Tissue Handy

With tears in her eyes, one of my middle school students asked for some tissue.

It didn’t help. Unable to stop the flow of tears, she asked to go to the bathroom to pull herself together.

“Of course,” I said. I had a good idea what this was about. Her issue? Cue the Ice-T song.

Colors! Colors! Colors, colors! Co-co-co colors!

This student had just taken a standardized English Language Arts (ELA) test in my class last Tuesday. The students’ scores populate on my computer within minutes. Staring right back at me and her was the color she earned. She wanted green, which signifies at or above grade level. She would have even settled for blue, approaching grade level. But she had earned yellow, her same color from the previous two times she’d taken it over the past nine months, a color that signifies that a student is “on watch” and may be “at-risk.”

Way to go Renaissance Star 360 creators. Congratulations. Your test once again made one of my students cry.

Thank you.

It would be bad enough if this was the only time we make the kids take standardized tests, exams noted for the fact that the questions are similar/the same for all students and is taken under the same conditions and rules so scores can be compared fairly. But our kids take them multiple times throughout the school year. They take the Star 360, which has 34, multiple-choice questions in ELA, three times – the baseline in September, the midline in the winter and the endline, where school administrations want to see growth, right before summer break.

The kids will also complete the Star 360’s math tests three times a year. Our English Language Learners (ELL) take all of this and the Star 360 Spanish test three times. So that’s nine Star 360s for the ELL’s over the course of 10 months. Who thinks that’s a good idea?

If that’s not enough, our students take the Illinois Assessment of Readiness (IAR) around spring and the REACH performance tasks at the beginning and end of the school year. The REACH is different from the Star 360 in that there’s no multiple choice. All short answer and essay, after reading a lengthy text.

That’s a lot of testing, a lot of pressure on the students. And teachers. And administration. And the network (admin’s bosses). You see, a school’s ranking is predicated on student attendance and standardized test scores. So, in the weeks leading up to the exam, boy, do the principals and assistant principals get uptight. Why? Because they’ve got their bosses’ breathing down their necks, warning them of worst-case scenarios: If the students perform poorly on the exams, jobs could be lost, the school might have to consolidate with another or close altogether.

So now, the pressure’s on my bosses. Naturally, they deflect that onto the teachers, who naturally deflect that onto the students. Everybody’s on edge leading up to the tests, an atmosphere created by the administration.

And it’s particularly bad at Title 1 schools.

Schools are categorized as Title 1 when its students largely come from low-income families. With that distinction comes a few things, most of them not good. At these schools, you’re bound to have behavioral issues with students, fights, truancy, below grade-level output, random transfers to the school, random transfers out.

I’ve taught in America since 2010 and only one year was it not at a Title 1 school. I understand the expectations of teachers there; we’re expected to perform miracles. Ain’t happening.

I would say, on average, that only 25-30% of the students in my classes end up being at or above grade level by the end of the school year, according to the Star 360.

I must be a bad teacher.

But wait. Before returning to my current school, I was at a magnet school – not Title 1 – where the students came from nuclear families, were self-starters and extremely bright. They end up going to selective enrollment high schools, which are among the best in the country. Well, guess what? About 75% of the kids I taught performed at or above grade level, according to the Star 360.

I must be a good teacher.

As I wrote in my new book, “This is why most teachers don’t want to teach at Title 1 schools, because they know what comes with it. Disrespect, parent apathy and an over-reliance on high-stakes standardized test scores that largely predicts a teacher’s assessment.”

If you want to get a rise out of CPS teachers, ask their opinion on tenure, standardized tests and formal observations. All three are connected. I addressed this conundrum in chapter 11 of my book:

“In determining who gets tenure, CPS factors in how well teachers’ students improve on standardized tests over the course of a year and how well teachers score on two formal observations. From these two factors, a score is tallied and it will determine if a teacher becomes tenured. This is stupid for at least a couple of reasons. How much a student improves or regresses on the REACH assessment from the start of the school year to the end impacts how highly a teacher is rated. The assessment is short answer and essay. Guess who grades the students’ work? Their teacher.

Wouldn’t this encourage even the most honest among us to purposely record low scores on the baseline test and higher on the endline, no matter how well the students actually did? I didn’t even have to read the assessments if I didn’t want to, because not once did any CPS teacher watchdog, if there is such a thing, ask for the work that I graded. I was advised by a former assistant principal of mine to give the test to my lowest achieving class. The thinking being that they’d score so low on the first test that they’d have no other way to go but up.

This is disingenuous. This is the Chicago Way.”

I’m not saying standardized tests should be eliminated. But they shouldn’t be the end all that they are. I know some kids who can tell you exactly what a book is about, its plot sequence, can tell you what all the various literary devices are, read strongly, have thoughtful, lucid opinions – and bomb on a test. I see it every year. So, in these cases, the test is not a good indication if a kid is learning. But it is for some. Generally, the scores I see from my students are pretty much what I expected.

Plus, the test-makers break down so much data that you know precisely what a kid needs to work on moving forward. Make no mistake, standardized tests are a necessary evil.

But do they need to take so many?

The next Star 360 at my school will be in January. With so much at stake, I’ll make sure the classroom is stocked with a box of tissue.

For the kids and me.