Hello out here from Retired and Subbing Land!

Nonteacher readers may benefit from a little clarification here. Benchmark tests are evaluation tests given multiple times throughout the school year; used to determine whether or not students are managing to meet previously defined academic standards, these tests can provide information to help individualize instruction. MAP® and AIMSWEB® are benchmark tests. ACCESS® is a test of English-language proficiency given once a year. ACCESS testing determines whether or not a student will stay in bilingual programs* and provides information about that student’s rate of English-language learning.

Now on with my latest testing-related post!

I got a text message this morning from a reading teacher telling me that I am on the calendar for next week to give AIMSWEB benchmark tests for her district. They needed a Spanish speaker to give the Spanish-language version. This should be an easy day for me, as I read tests to little kids from kindergarten up through third grade.

I know the students. I have been filling in for their ELL resource teacher, who has been out of the country dealing with family issues. Perhaps I should say I have been “sort of filling in.” I taught furiously, don’t get me wrong. But much of her program is located on computers that were unavailable for about half my stay — because the whole school was taking MAP benchmark tests. MAP sucked up the available computers. I rummaged in that back storage place where unused books go to hide — I think all schools have one — and found some fun print material to work with. (The kids especially enjoyed The Great Gracie Chase.) This school should finish its MAP testing sometime next week.

Once MAP is done, the school will hurtle into AIMSWEB it seems. Every child will take AIMSWEB just as every child took the MAP test. A few kids in special education may be exempt, but that’s it. We will have barely finished AIMSWEB before we enter the ACCESS testing window. In this district, the ACCESS test is given on computers. I expect technology use will freeze to another halt for a week or two as the district jockeys to get all its ACCESS testing done. The district has already asked if I will help with high school testing. ACCESS takes a long time. For one thing, the kindergarten tests are given on an individual basis.

Eduhonesty: We have only 36 weeks in a school year. Nobody needs this much data, not when you consider the insane amount of instructional time being lost.

Please share this post. I consider this time loss unconscionable — no matter how good the intentions of the district. Those AIMSWEB and MAP Tests are frequently given three times during one school year. I have not even touched on the days used for the annual state test, and have only sideswiped the issue of lost access to technology in a financially- and technologically-disadvantaged district.

Help!

*Placement in bilingual programs is actually a bit more complicated than that — parents can always withdraw students, and not all states follow the same programs.