Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums General Discussion State testing--how much prep?

This is the first year of state standardized testing for us, although I saw it last year in a different school district. I thought that district was ridiculous in that the kids were prepped for probably 8 weeks ahead of time. Practice test after practice test. Going through the practice tests with explanations of every answer. Then they had 1-2 assemblies/ pep rallies with one of them involving staff dressed up in goofy clothes. I thought maybe it was just that district and ours wouldn't be like that. But DD has been prepping for at least a month. For the last two weeks she hasn't had math homework and doesn't appear to be covering any new concepts (which would still be too easy even if she did but better than reviewing the same stuff over and over). The teacher has them write in their planner "Practice for test" but never says what in particular they are supposed to be practicing. There are a good number of kids in that class who would pass the test without any prep at all, yet they are forced to suffer through these sessions. DD wants to do her enrichmenet packet for math (which kids in the "gifted cluster" are supposed to be doing on their own a few times a week), but the teacher won't let them, saying the "prep" is important and there is no time. I'm getting extremely annoyed and would never do this, but am so tempted to tell DD to guess randomly on the test and get it done in 5 minutes just as a form of revolt, since everyone is always complaining about her being so slow. It would be pointless to "opt out" (assuming that's even allowed here) because she would still have to suffer through all the prep for weeks on end. I'm just curious how many other people have encountered this and if you tried to do anything about it.

Just wanted to add that DD's teacher emailed me that DD is "spaced out" in the mornings during math and I wrote back and said maybe she'd see less of that if DD was given math that is the correct level, and that DD hates the math they do in class and says it is very boring. I said it more tactfully than that, but that was the basic gist of it. She never replied.

That is way more prep than we experienced. The prep had to do with multiple choice questions (which are much different than their other math test problems) and fully reading the questions, how to fill in the bubble sheet, "trick" questions, etc. I had the feeling that it was a few minutes each day for a couple weeks before the test.

We had the same experience as blackcat. Weeks and weeks of teaching to the test. Repetitive essays of the formulaic kind that would be on the test. The combination of boredom and anxiety was excruciating.

We are experiencing the same thing. DS7 has been doing review for a month as well. I've started tossing the review worksheets in the trash. DS gets them for homework because they are done during his GT class. It's ridiculous. If those sheets were review anywhere near his level, I'd do them but they aren't even close. Not sure the point of the MAP test if they aren't going to use the scores...sorry, this stuff makes me crazy.

The teacher launched into a speech about all the "rules" and about how she can go to jail if they don't follow the rules. (Huh???? Teachers keep their jobs here even if they falsify IEP documents, apparently). DD said she was scared about the test and all the rules. One kid was worried that kids would be sent to jail too. It's just all too much.

I think this is why the district now refuses to subject accelerate (or even differentiate in the classroom with anything more than "enrichment" of concepts being learned). They are worried the accelerated kids will forget the concepts that are on the test for their grade level, or that there will be "gaps" and they show up on the test.

My sympathies, blackcat. DD8 was subjected to state testing this year, too (in addition to taking MAP testing 3x this year and many, many, other assessments, sigh). Before the test, everyone in the grade got the same math homework packets for a few weeks. DD thought they were ridiculously easy and didn't want to complete them...cue the dramatic whining and flopping on the floor (DD could win an academy award). DD's math was differentiated/harder all year and she found the state test "homework" painful, to put it mildly (me, too - I had to listen to all of the complaining).

Most annoying to me what the amount of "differentiated" class time lost - they cancelled those classes while preparing for and taking the tests - argh! That is DD's best chance for learning something at school!

I was honest with DD. I told her these tests probably wouldn't help her personally one bit, but that they could help her teachers/school (and she LOVES her teachers). So I shrugged and said "see if you can get them all right." Still, a huge exercise in futility for her.

With studies about summer loss due to lack of learning over the summer, you'd think they are completely undermining themselves with the prep. Because now instead of June to August, you may get March to August with no actual instruction. Guaranteeing loss for the large majority of kids not to mention loss of actual instruction time.

In my son's school they've so emphasized third grade testing as high stakes that kids are anxious. My son's worried he'll have to go to summer school (but he'd love to fill his summer with academic camps?) They are asking parents to walk kids in for the first day of testing; I'm guessing this is to increase the level of stress on the off chance that stress causes children to spontaneously master material they haven't yet mastered in time for testing.

In the school last year, Title 1 teachers pulled kids out for small groups for reading interventions every day. In the last month before the testing, the teachers were told to stop pulling kids and instead go into the classrooms and help the kids with the practice tests. I found this so outrageous. Money that was meant for small group interventions was not used for small group interventions. Instead those teachers were being used to go into the classroom and help teach to the test. Instead of having me pull out the younger kids (first and second graders) who did not have to test, they appointed me to be a "test monitor" and walk kids to the bathroom. Gotta follow those rules! So the younger kids lost about a week of one-on-one tutoring because they needed adults who could walk kids to the bathroom.

DD brought home one of the reading practice tests and one for math. On the reading test this was one of the questions: "Which fact about the moon is most important in the story?" Answer. "The moon changes its shape all the time." Last time I looked at a science book, the moon is consistently a roundish sphere. No wonder kids don't pass these tests, they're written by idiots. In another question, they asked why a certain quote was written in italics, but in the passage, that line was NOT in italics. There were no italics anywhere in the passage.

I was hallway monitor as well last year for the EOGs!! I figured that if my daughters had to be excruciatingly bored during the testing, then I would suffer along with them. It was dreadful. The children were not allowed to read or play when they were finished with the test but were forced to sit quietly until the whole class was done. Three hours of utter silence and boredom!! Ugh.
I tell my two that the testing is NOT about them, but a test to show if the teacher is doing a good job of teaching the material. So far mine have not become stressed by the EOGs, just irritated with the process.