I am not in favor of standardized testing. There, I said it. You either agree with me or you don’t-–it’s that kind of an issue.
I have been against them since I was in high school and had to bubble in my answers on the SAT, and that goes back a ways. Ive learned to hate them as a parent here in California because it seems like my kids are being tested every other week.
Of course, the California Standards Test is only administered in the Spring, but there are Open Court assessments for each unit covered, there are 6-week math assessments, reading fluency assessments, and since my sons have been in a Dual Language Spanish Immersion program, there are also assessments in English and Spanish. It’s a wonder they get anything done in class at all besides testing.
My kids attended our local public school. Our neighborhood is really mixed, so even though there are houses a couple of blocks away valued at $1,000,000 (not mine, mind you), the majority of the students at our school are low-income, English is often their second language, and most are at risk for underperforming academically. It’s no surprise that our school’s test scores were low.
The principal and teachers have made strides, worked super hard, tried new strategies, and the test scores have gone up. I think when my eldest started Kindergarten, the school’s API was 663, and this year they made it to 759. Better, but not great.
When prospective parents would bring up the API to me, I had my spiel down pat: “That test score is an aggregate of all the students in the school,” I would say, “some of whom only just started learning English this year and have very little support at home. That test score doesn’t now nor will it ever reflect how well your child will do in this school. Your child’s academic performance will depend on you as a parent paying attention, being vigilant, keeping an open line of communication with your child’s teacher, and helping your child when he or she needs it. And that will be true no matter what school your child attends. A high test score does not equal a great school.”
That was me on my soapbox. And it’s what I’ve believed to be true: test scores don’t matter.
Well, I have to tell you, my eldest son just started middle school, and they posted their API last week: 842. And the strangest thing happened: I started to brag about it to my friends.
So I guess test scores don’t matter, until they do.
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When Sarah Auerswald isn’t being just a little hypocritical about test scores, she blogs at Mar Vista Mom.
