It’s over. The end of the year testing is done. D.O.N.E. Thank goodness.

My little kiddos have spent hours and hours testing, and frankly, enough is enough. Some of the tests are very short, like the three minutes that they spend zooming through a text and circling words to complete sentences correctly. Others, like the state test, are administered over the course of days and are comprised of multiple sections and take hours. Then there are the tests that we previously administered to predict success on the state test, except that now we do those (reading and math are separate) AFTER the state test. And those are long too.

I’m not saying that was should eliminate all forms of standardized assessment. I’m just glad it’s over for another year. Well, partial year. After all, there’s a battery of tests at the beginning of the year to determine baseline levels and check for “summer slide.”

As a teacher, I do find some of the test results useful. It’s helpful to be able to pinpoint areas of strength and weakness, not just in individual students, but across the class and grade level. If they’re all weak in geometry, for example, we need to redesign the way we’re teaching geometry. Some of the tests help us identify trends over time, too, which can help to identify students who may need extra support services, no only for remediation, but also for enrichment and extension.

Still, I think that elementary age kids take too many of these standardized tests each year. They’re little kids, and when we give them test after test, the importance of each one becomes minimized in their minds. After all, “it’s just another test.” You can hardly blame them.