Here in California there is a very high stakes testing environment. Each student from the second grade to the twelfth is tested in some way, shape or form. This last week, I had the distinct (dis) pleasure of testing my 29 third grade students for about 2 hours per day EVERY day from Monday to Friday.
Now, don't get me wrong, I am not one of those teachers who is completely anti-testing. I think it's great that we want to hold our teachers and administrators accountable for helping each student to achieve to the best of his or her ability. I also think it's important to have standards to guide what should be taught at each grade level. This prevents students from being driven to boredom after learning the same information about how caterpillars turn into butterflies every year from Kindergarten through Third grade!!
But almost 10 hours of testing for 8 year old children is a little much!! All I had to do was wander around and make sure no one skipped a question or bubbled 2 answers for the same question, and I was exhausted!! I can't imagine how they must have felt!! But, I was soooooo proud to see how hard they tried.... How they persevered..... How they gave their best effort. They were total troopers!!
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