Not On The Test
April 12, 2008 
As we prepare for the CATS Assessment to begin in a week, I thought this might be a good time for educators to look at this video. I think it says a lot about the direction schools have taken here in KY over the past few years, and while we “know” that we should not teach to the test, the reality of it all is that is generally happening.
“…the reality of it all is that is generally happening.” When schools depend on the funding, it sets up a situation to where the emphasis MUST be placed on test items.
I am in a school where students have not been motivated to do well on the test. Our scores are in the bottom of the state. This year, we have new leadership and another teacher and I, who have the juniors, have been working very hard to get this group ready so our scores will improve in math. We want to turn things around and show everyone we are teaching our students what they need to know.
Last week, we had our ethics training for the test. The comment was made in our faculty meeting that our math scores are going down because the students testing in math had poor teachers their freshman and sophomore years and math was a lost cause. After that, the principal said that we are to report any student who finishes in five minutes on the test to him so he can have a “heart to heart” talk with them.
Testing has become a desperate situation in my school for the administration. Our problem is not the teaching, it is the lack of student pride. When we, as a school, address the morale issue which has been ignored over the last few years, the scores will fix themselves. Anyone else with this problem?
Don’t feel bad…..my school was where your school is a few years ago. It is very disheartening to know you’ve worked your butt off and, because your scores are low, everyone thinks you are sitting around doing nothing.
I think it is so unfair to blame the school totally with no liability being on students or parents for scores. I get so tired of hearing educational beauracrats saying things like “you are not motivating your students to learn” when in fact they offer no help becuase they don’t know how to either!
School pride is a key….but that pride must come from families and the community too, and if students have no pride in themselves, then it probably won’t be there for the school either.
We struggled for years with being near the bottom. We changed administrations and few years ago, and refocused our efforts, including small group pull out reviews, core content days, using the CCT Coachbook, and starting giving smaller, CATS-like tests in our classes and things began to change. We are now several points above our expected index. Don’t give up!
I believe that we are all feeling the pressure and there doesn’t seem to be any accountability placed on the students. Unfortunately, the politicians must not realize what teachers deal with since they passed the budget that they did.
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