I really hope that a LOT changes before Big G hits 3rd grade. After proctoring last year’s math exam to 5th graders, I’ve seen enough. Those kids had come so far. I taught them in first grade. I remember how hard they worked to learn how to read and speak English well. I saw how well they overcame so many of the struggles they once had while taking the test. Did this evidence show up in their scores? Not the last time that I checked. I saw the look of defeat on their faces. They worked SO hard and just couldn’t understand why, in their 3rd year of taking state exams, the test becomes harder each time. They knew full well that had done everything they were asked to do up until this point and looked so confused about why they were having such difficulty. All this stress for such in unimportant outcome is so unnecessary. There is NO good information that comes from the data that teachers receive. The scores DO NOT inform their teaching. Their scores DO NOT help them meaningfully group students, understand fully what their struggles are (or even what they are good at). It only tells us about how well they take a test and how likely they are to receive a similar score the next year. And that’s if the test doesn’t change. You may think by what I post that I am against children taking exams. I am not. I am against the weight given to these particular exams. I am against certain administrators in certain schools who tell their teachers to “test prep and then test prep some more” all year long. I was lucky to work in a school community where this was not the case. Even when the best schools try to make the most out of this imposition of testing, the trickle down of anxiety and the development of negative self-worth happens despite a school’s best efforts to protect students from it. I just can’t see any positive benefits to any of it.