State Assessments

We are wrapping up a week of STAAR EOC Retest assessments on our campus. The testing began on the Monday following a week off for Thanksgiving Break and I heard many comments regarding the timing of the test. Why can't we test next week rather than this week? We tried to prepare our students with review items to cover over break. The teachers even indicated what area to work on for each particular day. Hopefully, the students were motivated enough to want to graduate to have utilized the resources. Is there ever really a good time to test, anyway? As I spent time in the testing room to check on the procedures and offer relief from test administration, my heart went out to the students. They looked so very tortured and many looked as if they could fall asleep with their eyes open. Is this how assessments should be? Shouldn't we find a way to make them fun? What if we offered some type of project based / real world application as a final indicator of success for the class? Many students make themselves sick over the stress of the exams. If only we could find a solution ...