Bartleby Project 2011: Do not take your state tests!

Standardized Testing-Get er Done!!!

I have been fortunate this year to get an upclose and personal view of standardized testing

TK-12.

Yes I said fortunate...

The experience has helped me to see so many levels of testing process that it boggles my mind. I used to think testing students was pretty basic.

School districts have to do it, and that was it.

Now I wish it was that simple.

It goes like this...

1. Set testing dates the spring of the year prior.

2. Order all testing materials.

4. Sign up for all test meeting updates.

5. Organize staff training and updates.

6. Familiarize yourself on test results from previous years.

7. Start testing the second week of school. (Yes and in a small school district this means you have to give many of the tests)

8. Continue testing through out the year. (This also involves working with technology to make sure the tests can be taken on the system your school has. Remember to visit classrooms for pre-testing lessons so students know what is expected.Oh I forgot you have to box everything up,inventory everything, sharpen no. 2 pencils, listen to staff complaints, hope for no snow dates, and find all the students who were sick during the testingdates or out of district.)

9. Gather test results and analyze.

10. Organize test results for the superintendent, school board, principals, staff, parents, students, community, and the most important... the state.

11. Enter all testing data into the state sites.

12. Try to rationalize what tests are valuable to students and staff instead of just required by the state.

Now all these testing activities have usually been completed by the school guidance counselor... but in the times of budget cuts and staff RIF's it falls on who ever might be around.

Now listen to this Youtube video on testing called 'The Bartelby Project" (located on my blog site)

So what do you think about standardized testing?

What do I think?

More to comments to come....

What do you think?

Tri-District Communications

Rural school districts are islands . They have miles and miles of fields between and fewer and fewer students and resources. They also have top notch teachers, talented students, and supportive communities. These school districts have accepted the idea that sharing 'scarce resources' is a must. These resources may be transportation, text books, teachers, and support staff. Now the difficult part of school district islands sharing 'scarce resources'...communication. It can be very similar to the game that is played in an elementary classroom, called telephone. Whether it is using the telephone, email, or face to face; communication often gets lost in the shuffle. If a telephone call is made it needs to be relayed verbatim to several sources or small details like location of meeting or starting time gets left out. After making calls all morning it is difficult to remember what was said to whom. E-mail sounds fantastic but be careful with that assumption. Email messages get sent to the wrong address, tech issues happen, and who got left out of the instant forward list. Face to face is great but remember the island and miles of fields part of this post. So my solution. I have a couple but would like to hear how this issue is handled by others in other school districts.