Of all my responsibilities, testing coordinator is not only my least favorite role but has become a major source of stress. After a major testing blunder first semester, I have had to journal, conference, email, reflect and apologize non-stop. Regardless of what I believe was the cause of this mistake, the realization in the end is that I am responsible. Although I could write several articles about what I believe is wrong with standardized testing in America, I will leave you with this quote instead.
“The more any quantitative social indicator is used for social
decision-making, the more subject it will be to corruption
pressures and the more apt it will be to distort and corrupt the
social processes it is intended to monitor. . . when test scores
become the goal of the teaching process, they both lose their value
as indicators of educational status and distort the educational
process in undesirable ways.”
Campbell’s Law, 1976
Cheating_Fact_Sheet
At this level of my career, I am unable to change the constructs of the testing process and instead must focus on improving my ability to administer and coordinate testing in my building. Here are my dilemmas.
1. I am a ponderer- Let me explain how this is different than a procrastinator. I don't wait until the last minute to do things, I start them quite early actually. However, I must look at it over and over, read and re-read, get someone else's opinion, sleep on it and then look at it with fresh eyes in the morning before completing the task.
Testing has very tight deadlines, sometimes finding out the day before something is due (like today I got an email saying I had 30 minutes to pick up supplies from a warehouse 25 min away...really?!).
2. I am very calm- Testing is very serious and my calm demeanor makes people believe its not that serious or things aren't urgent. I don't panic often and when I do its more of an internal frenzy than an outward display of emotion. Think of a duck on water. Floating on top but kicking like crazy underneath. I have to work on conveying urgency and importance.
3. I hate testing- I believe there is significance in assessing students but the quality of the assessments, frequency and the way in which test results are used just don't add up to me.
4. I'm not a cheater but I am a novice- I literally can't sleep thinking about whether or not I followed all the rules for securing tests and training everyone and signing all the forms. Cheaters should absolutely be punished but honest people shouldn't be beaten up for a technicality.
There has to be a better way to test our students. In the meantime, I need help mastering the process.
Testing (SLO's in particular) have been the bane of my existence at McClarin. As a credit recovery school, our teachers begin a new session every quarter. When I go to assign the test to a class, I have to print out all the current class lists and then search all the classes listed in Fulton Connect to seek out the right class. Then heaven forbid a student is added after the fact and I have to go an release it to them. I wonder what happened to the time when we trusted teachers to do their job. I believe we are to the point of testing for testing sake. At McClarin we only have 40+/- days to teacher 90 days of work. Then remove one day for a diagnostic test, another day for a mid-term, another day in math for the Star test or in 2nd period for the SRI, oh and then a day to write a TKES review for a teacher they have had for less than 10 days. What are we doing?
ReplyDeleteI think we need to sit down and re-evaluate the purpose of the testing, the why. Then we need to determine which tests are suitable and for whom. We spend so much time differentiating our lesson, but test the students all the same. What's wrong with that picture?!
You are absolutely right about sitting down and re-evaluating the why. It started with great intentions but over time has turned into a big mess. I don't feel so bad about giving SLOs twice a semester hearing that you give your SLOs so often.
DeletePatrice-Your post and a few another this week reminds me how important it is that we recognize our strengths, weaknesses, likes, and dislikes. Leadership teams should try as much as possible to take that into account when assigning duties. I realize that your team is small, but I do wonder if there are some duties that you could potentially pass to others. It seems like a really bad use of your time to drive 60 minutes to pick up materials. You didn't get a leadership degree for that! What duties could you pass to a secretary? Could some be passed to teacher leaders? I do realize that is hard, but that is an important part of leadership. You must be able to delegate and share responsibilities or you will eventually sink!
ReplyDeleteMy small team does make it difficult to pass on certain tasks. Your comment made me think of some other duties I can certainly hand over like sharpening pencils for tests :). Thank you for that advice!
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