Today was the first day of the 2012 FCAT. I have a variety of feelings about it. I am not against standardized testing. In fact, overall, I think it's a good idea to test students on a yearly basis to see how they are doing academically. The first year I taught in Florida was the year of the pilot test for the FCAT. The idea of the math portion of this test was, in my opinion, a good one. It consisted of three types of questions: multiple choice, gridded response, and extended response. I was particularly pleased to see the extended response questions as these questions required students to show work and explain how they arrived at their answers - a practice I was already using with my students. The test was rough around the edges and needed quite a bit of improvement, but it was a great concept.
Over the past 15 years, the test has morphed into the monster it is now. The extended response questions have been eliminated due to the time and cost of grading them. The other questions are now so involved and convoluted that it has become more of a reading test than a math test. The security surrounding the giving of the test now makes me feel anxious and as if I'm doing something wrong when I know I am not. Students who have been in this country for less than a year and speak very little English are required to take the test IN ENGLISH. How, exactly, does this show their math skills when they can't read the questions?
I can remember taking Standardized tests as far back as Elementary School, but I don't remember it being such a huge deal or such a media circus. In fact, I'm pretty sure it was never reported on the local news that the schools were giving tests during a particular week. We were lined up and taken to the cafeteria where we sat in every other chair at the long cafeteria tables. Someone stood up in the front with a microphone reading the directions and we then proceeded to take the test. Then it was over. And, it was ONE way of evaluating us rather than the ONLY way of evaluating us.
Standardized testing (now called High Stakes Testing) has become big business for test makers and scorers. It has also become a way for the media, parents, administrators, all levels of government (local, state, and federal), and anyone who has ever set foot inside a school (which, as we all know, makes one an expert on education) to beat up on teachers and students.
Standardized testing is a good tool, but it is only a tool. When a student doesn't perform well on a test, it is as a result of a variety of factors including, but not limited to, their emotional state on that day, the number of days they've been absent from school (20+ days of absence in a semester probably makes a difference in what you know), their attitude each day in class, their effort each day in class, their behavior each day in class, how many schools they've attended in the current school year, parental support (of the child, of education in general, of teachers), and much, much more.
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