In recent years, the education system has seen an increase in the emphasis placed on standardized tests. These high-stakes tests now potentially impact student’s schedules, teacher pay, and even whether a student can graduate or not. Many would agree that testing days are stressful for students, however, many rarely stop to consider how these days might affect teachers as well.
Testing schedules for the FSA and EOC are determined by both the state and the county. For each test the state sets windows while the county determines the order. Often times the testing schedules limit time in the classroom for both students and teachers and can lead to headaches amongst teachers.
On standardized testing days, the county still requires the teachers to continue teaching their lessons as if they were normal school days. The goal of the county may be to ensure that there is continuity of instruction for students, however, that does not always translate to the classroom. Many teachers find it difficult to make an effective lesson plan while testing is going on because their classes may move at different paces due to different amounts of time allotted for different classes.
“I think it’s harder to plan. It’s definitely difficult to teach particular things,” said Jennifer Ordetx.
Teachers also have to deal with the abundance of missing students due to testing. For example, a teacher may have one class that has only seven students, but the next class is completely full.
Because teachers must keep teaching, many students tend to fall behind trying to teach themselves what they missed on top of having to learn the material they are currently learning.
“I don’t think it’s really fair… you miss what the teacher is teaching, and then you’re behind,” said Junior Sydnie Sohlberg. “I can review on my own time but I can’t teach myself a new lesson.”
In addition, some standardized tests, like the FSA, can make the situation worse because the go on for multiple days, making it even harder for the teachers to keep their classes synced.
While county standards can be difficult to meet, Steinbrenner scheduling does its best to maximize student attendance in the classroom and minimize teacher stress. Steinbrenner schedules school days in a way that two blocks of testing are done in one day so that students are tested quicker and in class as much as possible.
While most teachers feel stressed, others find ways to work around both the county’s requirements and the tedious testing schedule.
“The days that I only have a few students in each class period for weeks on end I have independent work for them to do,” said reading teacher Yvette Powell. “They are only responsible for the work while they are in my class.”
Although standardized testing is somewhat of a necessary evil to decide graduation requirements among other things, the way some testing days are structured can be very confusing and cause strain amongst many teachers. One solution could be to have students test in different blocks for each day. For example have the students who tested in block A the first day test in block B the next. That way teachers feel less stressed when catching their students up and it allows for teachers to keep each class on the same lesson.
Marielyssa Hernandez // Opinion Editor
