Module 30-Blog Post #1

Discuss one question or confusion you have from reading Module 30.

I’m a little confused about the No Child Left Behind act.

• Is it difficult for teachers to not teach to the test? I know that you shouldn’t but how do you teach a lesson without incorporating what is on the test?

I think that there certain tactics that teachers can take to “beat around the bush” with test questions when holding a review session or something like that for their students. They can review different test taking strategies that will help the students, for example, studying for multiple-choice questions as compared to short answer or essay questions. The two forms of testing require different study habits and teachers wouldn’t be spoiling the test questions by reviewing these aspects of test taking. Also, reviewing topics that might appear on the test is also an approach that doesn’t incorporate test questions/prompts, but prepares the students for the test material.

• What are some of the tensions that arise (for students, teacher, and schools) from high stakes standardized testing? Why do these arise?

Tensions arise because these high stake tests have a significant consequence toward the students, teachers and the schools as a whole. If testing scores aren’t up “to par”, schools usually think about replacing their teaching staff, either by firing and rehiring or dropping the course and teachers all together. This leads to upset teachers because they can obviously lose their job and the school’s reputation is then on the line for the community to hear and talk about. The students also feel tense about this kind of testing because it usually has a large effect on their future (college, scholarships, etc) and therefore may place tension in their home life because of money issues as well.

• What are high stakes tests measuring, exactly? Are they measuring intelligence or something else? How do you know?

High stake tests measure the performance of the teachers and schools more than the students’ individual intelligence. If the outcomes of these tests aren’t what is expected or hoped for, funds are cut and the teachers and schools end up looking like the “failures”. The teachers and schools are being held accountable for their skills when this test is being administered. It is also measuring how much funding or lack of funding a school will receive from year to year depending on the high or low scores that they receive. Since money is tight these days, teachers and schools rely on these tests to increase their bonuses and funding from year to year, which creates much tension as well.

• • If a student fails a standardized test (gets a 50% score), is it because of the test or the student? How do you know?

It is usually not due to the test or the student, but rather a possible negative instructional environment, test preparation, how the test is administered, possible cheating actions, emotional stability or if the student is at risk or not. The environment of the instruction could be negative because the teacher might “teach the test”, which is obviously unfair to other classes that teach the same material but don’t have that upper hand of knowing the test material before the test is administered. Schools with a large number of minority students usually end up scoring a lot lower than other students. Time limits and how the test is administered (computer, by hand, etc) can also affect the outcome of these tests. An obvious factor for increased test scores is cheating. Although we think of students cheating, it is shown that teachers are caught cheating just as much. This counts as reading answers to students or erasing a wrong answer and completing with the right one. Some students also suffer from test anxiety, especially in the older grades because testing becomes harder and their outlook on them becomes more and more negative. Some students struggle with motivation and discipline as compared to other students in their class as well. An obvious struggle with testing and scores are focused on students with disabilities or when English is a students’ second language because it takes them longer to process a prompt and produce an answer to the prompt.