blog : January 2013
Victims of Standardized Testing: Where Have All of the Instructional Days Gone?
1/15/2013
Katie McKnight and Renee Carberry
Not dissimilar from many other districts across the country, Indianapolis Public
Schools are dealing with educational conflicts between sound, research-based
instruction, student achievement and the drive to use data to measure student
achievement. Let’s also add tremendous political pressure to shut down schools
that are deemed underperforming as indicated by test data.
The overemphasis on testing has created a serious threat to instructional time.
Losing class time for excessive testing is a source of frustration for teachers as they
share their concerns about data driven instruction and the current obsession with
testing.
An example of this reality is the Indianapolis Public Schools (IPS). IPS students at
the middle and high school level have 80 days of state and district mandated testing
out of 180 days of school. This is mind blowing. The following table summarizes
the IPS mandated testing.
| Date | Assessment | Middle School | High School |
| August | District Mandated Pre Assessment in all content areas, including electives (1 day) | X | X |
| August | District Mandated and State Requirement Scholastic Reading Inventory: Every student in the district is required to take an assessment to determine individual reading level, Lexile score. (window of 3 weeks/1 day of testing per student) | ||
| (September) 4.5 weeks of School | District Mandated Language Arts Snapshots Mathematics Snapshots (I Day for each assessment=total is 2) | X | X |
| October (9 weeks) | State mandated benchmark Used to determine student progression toward meeting ISTEP goals (2 days) | X | X |
| October (9 weeks) | State mandated benchmark Used to determine student progression toward meeting ISTEP goals (2 days) | X | X |
| October | PSAT (Pre Scholastic Aptitude) | X | |
| November | Second Round of SRI Testing | X | X |
| November | District Mandated Language Arts Snapshots Mathematics Snapshots (I Day for each assessment=total is 2) (Second Snapshot; first one was in September) | X | X |
| December | State Mandated--Retest for End of Course Assessment Students who didn’t pass the previous school year have an additional opportunity to retake the test for high school diploma eligibility (think of the regents exam in NY) | X | |
| January | District Mandated Pre Assessment in all content areas, including electives | X | X |
| January | District Mandated Language Arts Snapshots Mathematics Snapshots (I Day for each assessment=total is 2) (Third Snapshot; first one was in September, second was in November) | ||
| February |
State mandated benchmark Used to determine student progression toward meeting ISTEP goals (2 days) First one was administered in 9th week of school and second is in 18th week of school) | X | |
| March |
State mandated benchmark Used to determine student progression toward meeting ISTEP goals (2 days) First one was administered in 9th week of school and second is in 18th week of school) | X | |
| March | State Mandated ISTEP (Applied Skills) Part One | X | |
| April | Third Round of SRI Testing | X | X |
| May | State Mandated ISTEP (Multiple Choice) | X | |
| May | State Mandated-- End of Course Assessment This test determines high school diploma eligibility (think of the regents exam in NY) | X | |
| June | District Mandated Post Assessment in all content areas, including electives | X | X |
What’s troubling about these IPS assessments is that none were developed by teachers. Our teachers are conspicuously cut out of the conversations surrounding student aciehevemnt yet they are the highly skilled professionals who can make the best evaluations of student achievement. Instead, district and state educational leaders, who are heavily influenced by politicians, instituted an assessment system that does not sanctify instructional time.
Coming Soon from Katie and Renee: Creating responsible assessment systems to monitor student achievement.
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