Standardized tests are a pillar of the American education system. Students are constantly being compared to others within their school district, state, and the country. This week my students took their fourth round of the Achievement Network (ANET) standardized tests. One thing I’m constantly being reminded of is my students’ performance on these exams. In fact, how well they do on their end of year standardized test factors largely into my final evaluation score. Yes… I’m evaluated not only on my effectiveness at delivering lessons and expanding knowledge, but on how well my students can answer questions written for thousands of students.
One thing I struggle with is how much to teach organic reading and math skills, and how much to teach students to tackle multiple-choice questions. Too often, my students can say and write something that shows complete mastery of math and reading skills, but choose the wrong answer on a multiple-choice question that tests these skills. I’ve found myself far too often telling my students, “People get paid big bucks to write these questions. One choice is always the ‘gotcha’ choice.
It’s meant to be very close to the correct answer and to trap you.” We’ve been working for a small portion of the day on how to eliminate incorrect choices in a multiple-choice question, but I feel as though every second I’m spending on this is a second that I could be working on determining the theme of a text, or making an inference about character motivation- overarching skills that all fluent readers need.
I begin thinking about life skills and how, when these students have jobs, there won’t be a multiple-choice test to evaluate their skills. But then I think about my school’s reputation and my evaluation and frankly, standardized test scores make us look good in comparison to others. I guess it’s all about finding the balance between the two.
E. M. Jones
Fifth Grade Teacher
Bancroft Elementary School