I am in my first year of teaching and I started pretty excited about the fun discussions I could have with students and the books and literature we would analyze. Mostly, I was excited to see what the students would produce with me as their guidance. Then the school year started and I learned that there is a calendar with standards. The standards are a state requirement, I must introduce each student to the standard and to check if I introduced the standard, the student will be tested. These are not the high stake tests. These tests let me know how well the student grasped the standard because the high stake test later on will test for that information as well.
The high stake tests from eighth grade determine if a student makes it into honor classes in ninth grade. The students test once every week or every two weeks. I have a limited amount of time to get them to understand a standard because once they test it is time to move on to the next standard. If the student didn’t get the standard then they have another chance to test again but with very little time for review. Remember, I said it was time to move on to the next standard so there isn’t much time to go back to that standard they didn’t get. Just to be sure the student didn’t get it the first and second time, at the end of the quarter they take a benchmark to tell me a third time that the student doesn’t know what they are doing. These tests affect the student’s grade but they can still move on to the next grade.
At the end of there year they take AZ Merits. This is a state-wide requirement but it measures student’s progress in Math and ELA (What is AzMerit?). I’m glad to know that the test doesn’t impact the student’s ability to graduate but it does reflect on the school and the district. There are benefits to getting a good grade for the school, like funding, it also effects the reputation of the schools and boosts attendance numbers. Attendance also equates to funding.
While students in Arizona spend a lot of time taking assessments, removing consequences like grade advancement removes the pressure from students to perform. However, the U.S. is very college oriented and that puts a pressure on grades and SAT/ACT scores. I don’t think the pressure is as high as places like South Korea, where students commit suicide due to performance pressure and perceived failures (Student Suicides).
As a new teacher, I felt pressure to get my students to perform. There aren’t consequences for failure. In fact, my school has really great and supportive systems in place to help each teacher teach what the students need and that equalizes the learning in the district. Each student has the opportunity to learn the standard but is still required to put forth the effort to earn the grade to graduate or get credit for the class. The standards still provide freedom to the teacher to emphasize the skills a student needs to function outside of high school and into college or the work force. Those skills just aren’t necessarily tested.
References:
Student Suicides in South Korea. (n.d.) La Voix Des Jeunes. Retrieved from http://www.voicesofyouth.org/fr/posts/student-suicides-in-south-korea
What is AzMerit? (n.d.). Expect More Arizona. Retrieved from https://www.expectmorearizona.org/arizona-aims-higher/assessments/faq/
Cristal Cassel 