We had a meeting this week at my middle school in MNPS regarding the upcoming TN Writing Assessment. We are told we must do the practice online test, which will take our entire class time for a day. Sometime before the practice, we are required to enter the name, student ID, and birth date of each of our students. We are then supposed to score each of these practice tests. The actual assessment will take another full day. These tests don't count toward the students' grades nor the teachers' evaluation. That's a lot of lost time that could have been used for planning and actual teaching.
This link provides some examples of prompts. They are rather complicated for your average 10/11-year-old.
http://tncore.org/english_language_arts/writing_test/fifth_grade_prompts.aspx
(This post was written by a Metro Nashville middle school teacher. Her name has been withheld to protect her anonymity.)
Tennessee Parents are tired of their children missing out on instruction time for seemingly useless testing. Teachers across the state estimate that 30-60 days of instruction are lost each year due to test preparation and administration.
Please click HERE to read an excellent article about how testing is taking 1/4 of a school year away from students in Hamilton County, TN.
1/4 year testing x 13 years of school per student = 3 years lost to standardized testing
This is unacceptable!
If you are a school board member or Superintendent: Please talk with your teachers and ask them what tests, if any, they believe actually help guide their instruction. And then mandate only those tests.
If you are a legislator: Please consider passing legislation that would reduce the amount of standardized testing forced on our children by the state Department of Education. Please also consider introducing that would allow parents to "opt-out" of testing for their children and force school districts and schools to fully disclose every test that is given to their students throughout the year.
This link provides some examples of prompts. They are rather complicated for your average 10/11-year-old.
http://tncore.org/english_language_arts/writing_test/fifth_grade_prompts.aspx
(This post was written by a Metro Nashville middle school teacher. Her name has been withheld to protect her anonymity.)
Tennessee Parents are tired of their children missing out on instruction time for seemingly useless testing. Teachers across the state estimate that 30-60 days of instruction are lost each year due to test preparation and administration.
Please click HERE to read an excellent article about how testing is taking 1/4 of a school year away from students in Hamilton County, TN.
1/4 year testing x 13 years of school per student = 3 years lost to standardized testing
This is unacceptable!
If you are a school board member or Superintendent: Please talk with your teachers and ask them what tests, if any, they believe actually help guide their instruction. And then mandate only those tests.
If you are a legislator: Please consider passing legislation that would reduce the amount of standardized testing forced on our children by the state Department of Education. Please also consider introducing that would allow parents to "opt-out" of testing for their children and force school districts and schools to fully disclose every test that is given to their students throughout the year.
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