Standardized Tests: Teachers’ Opinions

Ever since we have been old enough to pick up a pencil, we have also been tasked with carved out months to prepare for standardized testing and weeks to take them. Although most students, if not all, do not look forward to standardized tests, we wanted to know; what is their (standardized testing) purpose. As the standardized testing season has come to an end, the NAEye reached out to several members of the NAI community to get their opinions on standardized testing. We asked two English teachers – Mrs. Ferruchie and Mr. Rak, one math teacher – Mrs. Jones, and another member of the faculty who wishes to remain anonymous.

First, we asked some teachers how they think standardized tests have changed the education system over the years. Most teachers agreed that standardized tests have increased pressure on teachers, students, and the school as a whole. Mr Rak said, “In a lot of ways, schools now have to serve two masters when it comes to teaching and preparing kids.” In addition, Mrs. Ferruchie mentioned how the curriculum centered around standardized tests has caused “educators to reign in on their creative activities.” Overall, it seems as though teachers agree that with more standardized tests comes a push to rush through teaching to cover everything, which has shifted the goal of education.

Next, we asked teachers if they believe standardized tests are in any way beneficial or negative to school. They agreed tests can be helpful to compare schools and as Mr. Rak said, “Hold schools accountable for what goes on inside and to set standards for them to try to reach.” On the other hand, preparing for tests or receiving low tests scores can cause stress for students, “can lead a student to have a negative perception of their learning ability as they are sorted into a category according to their score”, says Mrs. Jones. According to Mr. Rak, tests can also be harmful to schools in general, because “when failure to meet the standards results in that school being punished by the state or federal government,” it “doesn’t send the right message.”

The third question we asked was: How do you think they impact how teachers teach? Most teachers agree that they become forced to teach based on what is on the tests, which isn’t usually what students are interested in or what teachers believe is the most important. One teacher said, “We are under the crunch to get in all of the content that should be taught until June, but have to finish a few weeks early so students can take the test. I don’t like that personally, I always want more time to teach the students, I don’t like feeling so rushed.” On the other hand, Mrs. Jones responded by saying even though, they must follow the curriculum based on standardized tests, “Teachers have become efficient and creative to find methods within the structured guidelines of the Common Core and standardized tests to keep students engaged and excited about learning while covering the required concepts.”

In addition to knowing how standardized testing impacts teachers, we wanted to know how they influence students to learn. Stress is definitely the biggest factor on a student’s’ learning experience due to standardized testing, so “the joy of learning gets taken away,” according to Mrs. Ferruchie. Mr. Rak agrees with this, but he mentioned that he doesn’t think many students get stressed about passing tests. Even so, the pressure placed on students by the state to pass standardized tests, can definitely change the way students learn.

North Allegheny educators believe standardized testing attempts to provide a consistent assessment of a high school student for the state to compare students, but the system has flaws, so they do not accurately evaluate students. One of the main reasons is that “not everyone has the same abilities, so one form of a test isn’t the fairest way to assess student learning,” according to Mrs. Ferruchie. One teacher made a good point that “students of varying ability levels and in different classes (regular ed and honors, for example) have to take the exact same test.” Overall, teachers believe standardized test can measure students in some ways, but they are not inclusive enough to evaluate to large spectrum of different abilities that are equally essential.
Because standardized testing is not very inclusive of different subjects and abilities, teachers have many ideas of what should be added to tests, if any at all. Mr Rak believes that because of “some of the current attitudes in this country, we might need more tests for Science, one for Civics, and probably one for Media Literacy.” He thinks “that’s a very important, and very overlooked, area that we could be training students in.” Mrs. Ferruchie disagreed because she believes no other skills should be added to tests because they would just lead to more stress and take up more valuable time in the classroom.

Mrs Jones believes test scores are only a small part of a school’s accomplishments and “A successful school in my eyes is a school where teachers and students want to attend school and are happy, growing and involved.” The emphasis on a school’s test scores often take away from many other factors in a school like Mrs Ferruchie explained “Any school is so much more than its test scores. Take a look and listen in our hallways for a prime example.  Do those tests highlight our students’ awesome artistic and musical abilities?” She also had many other suggestions of other parts of our school that are just as important as test scores, like Special Education services, athletics, community service, and Tech Ed projects.

Teachers will say that standardized testing is necessary and important. But we wanted to know if there was anything they would change about the whole testing process. One teacher wants to eliminate them entirely, but Mrs. Jones has a more achievable approach to the situation, “I would greatly reduce the the number of Standardized Tests admonished between grades K-12.” On the contrary, Mrs. Ferruchie thinks that it is “a part of life” she doesn’t think that testing should be eliminated rather that the school should provide more stress relieving activities to help students through the nerve racking time.

Now, we all know how much students get stressed out by standardized testing, but we never really stop to think about how it affects the teachers. Mrs Jones remembers the time when Keystone Exams were first initiated. She said that she used to feel lots of pressure to make sure that the students were prepared. After all this time, she feels more confident than ever: “I have grown in confidence that if the students engage in a rigorous curriculum their problem solving abilities grow and they are prepared of the Keystone exam.” Mr Rak, on the other hand, feels no stress: “I believe in them (the students) and I believe in what I’m doing as a teacher to prepare them for tests, college, careers, or whatever comes after they leave my class.”

From the span of February to May the only thing on students and teachers minds is standardized testing. But as you can see, everyone has different opinions about them. We don’t always get to hear what our teachers true thoughts are on these tests and for those that participated the NAEye is grateful. It seems until the state truly takes into account the  teachers and students thoughts and feelings regarding standardized testing, testing is here to stay.