Statewide Testing

This year will be the first year that I'll have to administer the new Statewide test. There wasn't any statewide test for sixth grade in Michigan until this year. Now there are 3 subject areas being tested, and a total of about 10 hours worth of tests. They'll be testing the Grade Level Content for the previous year.

I don't mind the general idea behind the tests, but what I really can't stand is two big things, and I'd like to talk about that today...

The first thing that really bugs me about this whole thing are the tests. I think a lot of the tests are pretty decent, and are geared in the right fashion, but some consist of some real idiotic questions. I've seen tests where a vast majority of the state's schools fail the test. Do you think that maybe the questions are aiming a little off the base? I think that would indicate a chance...

Over the past year our state has revamped the school curriculums with the updated Grade Level Content Expectations. The tests we'll be giving the first 3 weeks of October will be testing the items from the GLCE. It's amazing though how many really dumb questions are still left on statewide tests. I know it has to be like that elsewhere, and I'm definitely not trying to knock my state, because I think our Department of Education is really near the top in the nation.

The other thing that really bugs me about the state tests is how the results are often used to mudsling the schools. Yes, maybe improvements should possibly be made. But do you think there could be other factors involved? A lot of times the media don't have all the facts, or only use a portion of the facts and write the story. We all know this. I'm not saying that all schools are doing a fantastic job, but I do feel that schools in general receive a lot of negative press without the whole story or facts being portrayed.

I guess my main thought on the whole subject is that we don't grade or assess students on one test, but a lot of times a school is graded or assessed by the performance of one test, just like this.