Student Self-Portraits as Test-Takers: continued
Something else that effects students that was obvious from student drawings was the difference in experience within the school setting. Not all schools have the same facilities. "Differences in learning conditions affect learning itself. As one Massachusetts student says, ‘It's easier to learn in a classroom than in a hallway.’" (Page 4) Additionally,
urban students were more likely than suburban students to describe MCAS as difficult and overlong. Urban and suburban students were equally likely to portray themselves as diligent. However, urban students were less likely to show themselves thinking or solving problems and more likely to depict themselves anticipating a score for their work, particularly a low score. Finally, urban students were more likely to draw themselves as angry, bored, withdrawn from testing, or relieved that testing was over. (Page 4)
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The authors attribute some of this is attitude to the amount of testing some urban students are forced to do in Massachusetts. They report that low-performing students might be involved in over one month of testing annually. It isn’t hard to understand negative student responses to testing programs in a situation like that. Combining one month less time for learning with an extended amount of testing is a deadly aggregate—many students choose to drop out of the system, rather than continue to be bombarded in such manner.
The underlying rationale from supporters of high stakes testing for such testing is accountability. Without documentation of results, there is no accountability. Unfortunately,
a strategy tied to a high-stakes test alone is likely to backfire, especially when implemented alongside existing practices, policies, and conditions that actually work against strengthening students' motivation to learn. (Page 4) |
What high stakes supporters generally do not consider in their planning and implementation of testing programs is the critical nature of student-teacher relationships in the learning process.
For many students, the motivation to learn develops largely within teacher-student relationships that are grounded in what Theodore Sizer calls "rigorous caring." Such relationships, which evolve from teachers' respect for students' integrity and identity and allow teachers to personalize learning, are essential to high expectations for teacher commitment and to student learning. These relationships offer students the social support necessary for achievement. In fact, schools may push students to achieve, but without a concomitant degree of social support, students will not engage and learn at high levels. (Page 5) |
As testing intrudes further and further into the school year by increasing the number of test days, but also by causing schools to spend disproportionate amounts of time in providing students with "test savvy," the amount of time for student-teacher relationships diminishes. "In the absence of strong, personal relationships between teachers and students, students may decide to ‘not-learn,’ choosing resistance to learning as a means of preserving a coherent sense of self." (Page 5)
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Science Education Reform Index
