Tiffany Moyer-Washington is an eighth-grade English language arts teacher at Hartford Magnet Trinity College Academy in Hartford and a member of Educators 4 Excellence and the Hartford Federation of Teachers. Her article on courant.com caught our attention as we found her opinion and views worth sharing. Enjoy.
That means sacrifices have to be made when it comes to what is taught in the classroom. Teachers have to make the hard decisions to stop reading a book mid-way to pause for district testing, leaving Odysseus trapped on the island or Tom Robinson waiting for trial. Teachers have to make the choice to discourage extra questions from curious students in order to “cover the material” before the assessment date because personal inquires are not standardized. Teachers have to make these decisions to give up authentic learning opportunities, like guest speakers, lively classroom conversations or individualized projects because they are not standardly assessed.
One could argue that all of this testing leads to data that could drive instruction, that could inform teaching, that could allow for innovative and creative responses to student needs. However, over-testing students waters down the tests' effectiveness, usefulness, and integrity.
But what are the actual results of the tests? Are truancy or disengagement rates down? Are Hartford students getting accepted to colleges at higher rates? Are these tests correlative to students’ success after high school? No. Absolutely not.
However, some results are clear. Students are, in large numbers, experiencing test fatigue, anxiety, disengagement, detachment, and apathy towards school. Over the past few years, the number of students diagnosed with anxiety disorders are only exasperated by the constant testing. Written into students’ IEPs (individual educational plans) are accommodations to give students prior warning of testing — however, with the excessive testing calendar, students are on constant high alert with mandated assessments taking place nearly every three weeks, giving them no alleviation from their heightened anxiety.
Anxiety manifests itself in many forms in the classroom, ranging from sleeping, to pacing, to crying to panic attacks. And as teachers, one of our moral and professional responsibilities is to support our students in whichever way their anxiety appears. Yet, with constant testing, there are only so many “breaks from class,” cool-down stations and breathing exercises we can offer that actually help our students.
Could it be that by constantly testing students we are actually preventing them from gaining crucial life skills such as problem solving, collaboration and experiential learning?
Yet, teachers are rarely included in the decision process when it comes to education and even less likely to be included in conversations about assessments. Although Hartford allowed teachers to participate in the creation of some of the district-mandated results, they were not consulted in the frequency nor timing of any of the assessments.
As a professional, I feel that it undervalues my expertise to be excluded from these decisions. I cannot imagine how disempowering it must feel for the students, the victims of a system that commits so much time to testing over learning.
