Before we can get to the glorious sleeping-in, not as scheduled, homework-free days of summer, we have to get through these next few weeks. That includes the end-of-grade(EOG) standardized tests that my oldest will be taking for the first time as a third grader.
Lucky him, this is the year that our state has adopted the Read to Achieve guidelines. The idea behind it, I’m in agreement with. That all of our children should be proficient at reading by the end of third grade. That we don’t let these kids slip through the cracks, we catch it early, etc.
But the thing is… this places extraordinary importance on the EOG results. If a child doesn’t pass the reading portion(an 82% or higher), they don’t pass the third grade.
It used to be that if a child didn’t pass the EOG, you could use their work from the year to show that they really have mastered what they needed to master(it also used to be that the passing score was much lower).
But not this year. You must pass the EOG. Or you go to summer school unless you want to be retained. Even then, going to 4th grade isn’t a guarantee. It’s like it’s become the be-all, end-all indicator to what our children have learned. I picture Gollum from The Lord of the Rings hovering over the stack of tests and calling them his precious.
There is another way to get around the EOG requirement- you could pass a certain number of reading passages given during the second half of the year, testing 12 different reading skills. Some schools only give these to the kids who they feel might be at risk of failing the EOG. Our district chose to give them to all third graders.
Which is a giant time suck. Though to be honest, I’m glad they put that safety net in place. Only about 50% of the kids in our school passed the reading portion last year(and it’s a good school!). It’s not just a small portion of parents who should be worried about their children passing, but almost half of them.
Even if a child does well in school, they might test poorly, they might stress out, they might get offline(meaning they bubble in the correct answer on the wrong number line), they might have a bad day, they might read too much into a question, they could get frustrated by the length of the tests… there are any number of things that could cause them to get lower than that required 82%.
It seems like way too much emphasis to place on a test. And the safety net of the other evaluations seem to take away from actual instruction.
I get it, in a way. Someone, somewhere, wants a definitive marker of “THIS! this is how we know a child is ready to leave the third grade! This is how we know they are a reader!” But I think that their classwork throughout the year has shown that, too. And shown it more accurately than a single test would.
Don’t even get me started on why math is not part of this equation, even though the kids take a math EOG as well. And for the record, my third grader has already passed the safety net evaluations, so this isn’t just a concern about my child passing, it’s with how the system works in general.
How do you feel about standardized testing?
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Oh. Don’t even get me STARTED. I am not a big fan of standardized tests, never have been, can’t imagine I ever will be. And I do just fine on them, so I’m not saying this as someone who is bitter about bad experiences. I just think anything standardized removes the intangible qualities that truly determine success. I get why institutions think we need them. I just wish there were a better way.
Standardized tests are basically a hoop. A hoop that is a fixed number feet about the ground. A same-height hoop that everybody jumps through. Standardized tests are far from perfect, there’s a lot they do not (and, frankly, cannot) capture, and I too wish there was a better way.
There isn’t. At least, not quite yet. To paraphrase Winston Churchill, standardized tests are a terrible way of evaluating kids, except for the all other ways that have been tried.
There’s a sufficient volume of kids that individualized testing of every kid isn’t feasible and it’s useful to get impartial insight on what your kid knows or doesn’t know. From everything I’ve read, standardized tests are kind of sort of accurate for about 80% people who take them, i.e. there’s a correlation between what the kid has learned and the grade they get on the test. The standardized test is totally meaningless for the remaining 20% of kids. There’s basically no way to tell which group you (or your kid falls into).
(And I say this a person who standardized tests exceptionally well, and whose kid also standardized tests exceptionally well. It’s a party trick. An occasionally useful — got my kid into a G&T public school — party trick, but a party trick nonetheless. Neither my kid nor I are nearly as bright as our test scores would suggest).
Thanks for the featuring:-)
This morning my first grader has an EOG math test. Last week it was his EOG reading test. The third graders took the FCAT back in April and we patiently await results. Our school only did the “Portfolio” which sounds similar to your safety net for the ones they thought from earlier testing in the year (FAIR and SAM) might have a problem with it. While it seems to be a colossal waste of time, I think maybe I like the plan of everyone doing it. Well, gotta go, the first grader is whining about not wanting to go to school because of the exam. (This would be my straight A child).
My son is also in the 3rd grade and will be a part of the EOG testing. It is making me so nervous. He is doing very well but – just like me – the seriousness of this is stressing him out too. I know the teachers are stressed out. I’ll just be glad when these last few weeks are over and we know what the results are across the board. In his math homework yesterday he was reading the word problem to fast and not reading it for understanding. I was working with him on the 7th problem before he finally got it and said “that was easy” but within the short span of those seven problems he had to go in his room to take a break because he was frustrated. That’s what makes me nervous for him. I can only prepare him academically but I can’t change how his mind works.
Wow that does seem crazy to places so much emphasis on one test. We don’t have requirements like that for passing a grade but I know that when they do have the different state tests before them that is all they do is study for the test, take practice tests. I hate it. That isn’t a real education, that is learning how to pass a test.
I honestly don’t know how I feel about it. My boys are doing fairly well in school but only my oldest has taken standardized testing and has done well. Should there be an average in which kids should fall in? Perhaps. Each kid is individual and has unique learning abilities. They all learn differently. So, should each child be held to these standards? I think that they can be but with some understanding and exceptions to the rule. If a child has shown that they have consistently learned and grown in a subject area yet not passed the test, then their learning growth should be taken into consideration.
That’s a lot of pressure for kids and for their parents. I remember taking standardized tests as a kid and reading ones are so hard because I always read more into the questions than was necessary. I feel like reading comprehension is so hard to evaluate on a test. I love reading and writing but I hated those tests where you read a passage and then had to answer a bunch of questions.
The standardized test that we have here in MA is absurd. They are actually doing away with it because it’s so ridiculous.
Here in Indiana, they call it iRead, and it’s the same sort of deal. If you don’t pass it as a 3rd grader, you’re retained. We also have ISTEP & NWEA – ISTEP is the test that determines the “grade” for the school, and evaluates the teachers, and the process there is RIDICULOUS.
I understand that there is a need to evaluate how the students are progressing in their learning process, but the pressure being put on our teachers and students by POLITICIANS (not educators, not people with any idea of how to help kids learn) is completely unreasonable. I could spend days on a soapbox on this one, but just know that I’m right there with ya.
There is SO much pressure these days with all the standardized tests and the new core curriculum!! I am also glad you have some back ups. Testing can be so hard for kids!! Cass just finished hers and Cade did earlier in the year. I remember when I was terrified Cass wouldn’t pass her third grade tests!! She missed over 30 days of school that year with sickness and surgeries… and when she was in school, she was so sick all the time with her asthma she just fell behind all academics. It was such a hard year- I felt like I was homeschooling her and I had no idea what i was doing, and she couldn’t concentrate or understand most of the concepts we were trying to learn.
Awfully nerve wrecking indeed!
My husband and I talked about claiming the religious exemption to get our daughter out of the standardized tests (here in PA we call it the PSSA). I think it does nothing but teach our kids to get really stressed out over a test. When I worked at the school I saw more than one kid that was in tears on the morning it started. Thankfully, ours happens in March and so far it doesn’t seem to affect any grades and they wouldn’t hold a kid back a year based on PSSA performance. This year, a fifth grade teacher told his class that they wouldn’t get to be in strings or chorus if they didn’t “pass” the math portion. He was making that up, but you can see from that comment what an icky culture these tests create in public schools.
No way out though, they even make homeschoolers take it.
EOG GRRRRRRR! I’m so annoyed with this process and my kid isn’t even taking them yet. But 10 days of testing in a row isn’t the best way to assess a child. As an adult I would struggle with ten straight days of testing.
I don’t know much about standardized testing today, it’s been so long since I’ve had to take them myself and without having kids . . . I’m pretty much in the dark. 82% seems ridiculously high to be considered the passing grade! I’m glad the school was smart enough to do the safety net for all the kids, time suck or not. I can’t imagine how heartbreaking it would be to have to tell your child they’re being held back because of a single test!
Standardized testing should only exist if all curriculums are standardized.. it otherwise becomes a crapshoot on what did the teacher emphasize?
I haven’t had to deal with standardized testing yet since my oldest is on 4.5, but these concerns you’ve raised are the same ones that I’ve thought about. It makes me nervous and gives me anxiety, I’m not even the one doing the testing! I wonder what things will play out like in the next few years for standardized tests. Thanks for bringing this to light and, as always, for this link up 🙂 ~Jenna // A Mama Collective
It was the timed aspect that got to me. Once people started finishing, I couldn’t concentrate anymore because I felt like I was behind too much.
My aunt is a teacher, and DESPISES the standardized tests.
Wow 82% seems a little strict. I’m glad they are trying to make sure every kid knows how to read though! It’s very important!
I’m not a huge fan of standardized testing. Some children are really smart but just don’t test well. It’s hard to mark a childs’ smarts with a standardized test sometimes. I know, I was one of them.
Standardized testing ie just wrong. Always felt that way.
That is a lot of pressure…but glad they have the other option in place. I dread the days when my boys go to school!
My daughter is only 2 so we haven’t had to deal with this yet. I know it’s coming though and I hate these tests. My mother is a teacher and she doesn’t agree with this testing either. I can only hope for the best when we cross this road!
Well, you already know what I think!
We homeschool and we have 2 choices to determine if our kids can go to the next grade. I can either submit a sample to a certified teacher or they can take a standardize test. Every few years I have them take the test so I know if I am teaching them everything they need to know.
Standardized tests can be a real pain. I remember when I was in school it was super stressful. I am nervous for when my daughter enters grade school because I know her time will come and we will have to deal with this.
Wow, that’s so intense! I haven’t heard of anything so strict like that for our kids.
I think they definitely serve a purpose. It would be great if they mad them standardized everywhere though, not completely different in different districts and states.
I remember taking them when I was a student. They can be very stressful for some students!
These standardized tests are so ridiculous. They place so much emphasis on them that real classroom teaching is sacrificed for them
Standardized tests are a hot button for me. My daughter has HFA. She has little to no attention span. She is the smartest kid in her class- the teacher’s words- not mine. But if you ask her to sit down and complete a task- it is just not gonna happen!
I have mixed feelings about standardized testing. My biggest ‘on the con’ side is that I’ve seen teachers in the higher grades teach to the test (all year up until the test) because funding for the school is tied to outcome.
uggg I have watched my oldest step daughter stress out so badly with these standardized tests. our household is split in half. Three kiddos that enjoy the testing…sick sick kids 🙂 and then three that have extreme test anxiety! Learning is so much more than what they can do on a test.
Also after my dad retired he got a part time job “correcting” some of these standardized tests. Each morning the supervisor would come in and say something to the effect of
“Well it seems like most students are picking B on number 13 instead of A so now we will accept either answer B or A.”
Yeah not exactly good testing there.
my kids are itching for the last day of school. they still have a couple of weeks so it’s gonna be rough
I don’t mind standardized testing at all, but 82% seems like a pretty high bar. Some children really do not test well – I would hope that the school has a system in place to do a one-on-one evaluation of the “failing” students before requiring them to do extra school.
Those test use to drive me nuts!! Oh my gosh, I know so many people dealing with them! So stressful!
If I started I would never stop. I think they are the worse thing about our current educational system. I think there is too much pressure on the kids and teachers. I think that it’s caused us to not teach students in developmentally appropriate ways especially in the early grades. AND one test should not be the end all be all of a child’s school year.
I’m a nervous wreck thinking about testing for my kids. You just want them to do well all the time! So much stress
I absolutely hate standardized testing. I really, REALLY do. I understand the importance of test taking but schools put WAY too much importance on testing and prepping for tests that that’s all learning is these days-preparing for tests you take once and are done with. I personally believe more importance should be put on the process of education instead of the testing.
Yup. We have the CRCT here in Georgia, and it applies the same pressure. It is really not fair to the kids.
I could never take a standardize test but did very well in school. I really do not like them. My children are young and we are not dealing with them yet.
I definitely am not a fan of standardized tests. I did very well in school, but didn’t do the best when it came to standardized tests; I just don’t think they’re an accurate portrayal of how much information kids retain.
Ugh. I have mixed feelings about standardized testing. On the one hand, they are necessary, but on the other, they are over-hyped and over-used. Good luck to your kiddo on taking the test.
I’ve always had negative thoughts towards there being one “main” standard of testing. All kids learn differently, and just because they don’t do great under pressure on a test doesn’t mean they don’t know the material.
I’m torn on standardized testing. I think we definitely need to have a definitive scoring system of some sort. There’s too many students that slip through the system and get passed along that have no idea how to do basic skills.
They do SOLs (standards of learning) here – I believe they start in 3rd grade. I think it must be hard on a kid who’s 8 to spend the entire day taking a standardized test. I remember how stressful it was for me to spend an entire morning taking the SAT in high school – and I wasn’t 8 years old! Pierce still has another two years before he’ll be subjected to the SOLs. I feel bad for the kids going through it.
I’ve never been a fan of standardized testing. I didn’t like them as a child and they really stress me out now that I have my own kids. Some kids just don’t test well, as you said. There have to be other options to make sure our kids are learning and thriving.
What about kids with dyslexia or other learning disabilities? That makes it very scared for them. Some of those kids haven’t even been diagnosed by third grade. So they get punished because no one has recognized that they need that extra help. That’s crazy.
Standardized testing freaks me out, no matter what. How can we have “One Test to Rule Them All” (yes, I’m quoting your title) when children are SO DIFFERENT? Ugh.