No More Bubbles!

No Child Left Behind has forced our schools to place an incredible amount of importance on standardized tests. There is so much riding on the scores our students receive; it is hard not to feel the pressure when you walk into a school building during the month of March. Is the pressure reserved just for the students, who are actually completing the test? In my experience, the entire staff feels the extreme pressure of ensuring that our students succeed and score as high as possible on their exams.

As an elementary school teacher, it is painful to watch my students stress themselves out over filling in the right bubble. I have a wonderful group of 6 and 7 year olds who must bear the burden of completing a 4 day long standardized test (the Stanford 10). Every morning for a week, they are forced to sit in rows and fill in bubble after bubble for over an hour. It seems like so much time is spent preparing for the tests and we are losing valuable time for meaningful learning experiences. The time we have spent tutoring and taking practice tests could have been much better spent exploring new reading strategies, finding different ways to solve 5 + 7, or experimenting with magnets.

The stress my students feel is further expressed through my own stress as their teacher. I want my students to do well; I want them to show everyone that they are intelligent and talented students regardless of their home lives and situations. We are so quick to assume that children of low income, high-need communities are not as talented as their peers from “better” communities. I have spent the past 6 months giving my students every possible educational opportunity I can and I know they are prepared for their test. I know that my students have the skills to succeed; I just hope that the stress we have placed on them doesn’t hold them back from doing their best.

It kills me to watch my little first grades spend hours completing mindless work, filling in bubbles, when I know they should be up and exploring the word around them. So, just like the post below, I’m wondering how young is too young? And, how much time are we wasting with all this testing?