MAP testing

I have now survived CRCT testing in GA, and MAP testing in MO. Of the two, the CRCT testing was the worst. While I'm all behind the motive for No Child Left Behind, particularly with the needs of students with disabilities, this high stakes testing is for the birds! I have had students with 73 IQ's expected to take the same test that the 140 IQ kids take. What I hate the most is that my job mandates me to put my children through nothing short of torture. I know I'm torturing them, they know they are being tortured, but my job depends on me performing the torture exactly as the state mandates. The rest of the year, every minute is spent making sure that I am serving the best needs of my students, then testing shows up, and I can't help them or provide assistance in any way. My younger kids at Gainesville were so stressed and anxious over the test that behaviors were way up. What I noticed most about the middle school kids is that they just don't care. Most of my students were done in less than half the time required, except for a few students who truly tried their best, and one poor child who missed lunch each and every day of testing because she wasn't allowed to leave the test to go eat until she had finished it, but she was so cautious and careful and stressed about doing a good job that she spent almost the entire day each day on the test, which wasn't supposed to take more than an hour or so. My heart ached for her.

The good news is that it is over! In MO, it seems that the attitude is to play after testing until the school has ended. We have trips to the Museum, bowling, Six Flags, etc lined up to keep the kids entertained. I intend to keep teaching as long as they will at least pretend to put forth effort. I have learned a lot about middle school, and particularly education in Missouri, and next year I will do things very differently!