Yes, Students Are Testing Below Where They Should.

The other day I read an article where a parent complained that although her daughter was getting good grades in school, she didn’t do as well on the state testing. In fact, the state tests indicated she was below average but her grades indicated she was above average.

The mother doesn’t understand what is going on with grades and state testing. Due to covid, many students are missing certain foundational skills due to not being in school for one to three years. Thus when they finally returned to school, they might be in 8th grade but they have the skill level of 4th grade.

This means they are not where they need to be to perform on grade level. As teachers, we know this but we are expected to teach at an 8th grade level and the administration is expecting students to perform at the 8th grade level even though they don’t have those skills.

Teachers might be grading students based on criteria such as did they turn in the work or did they even try? If we graded students on the actual level of work they turn in, too many students would be receiving failing grades.

I have spent the year getting students to actually write sentences, complete work and turn it in because when I arrived, students hadn’t been required to do much, if any work for the previous year or two, so it was my job to get them readjusted to the demands of school.

In addition, there is still a higher rate of absenteeism so students are still missing quite a lot of the material being taught. This effects my ability to help some students learn. Thus when they take either MAPS testing or state testing, their results will be below the levels set by these.

What is more telling is looking at where the students begin the year and where they end so we can tell if they improved and if so, how much did the scores go up. If the scores didn’t go up or actually dropped, then this is the time to investigate what is going on.

Looking at the individual student results is important since not all students learn at the same rate. Some take a bit more time while others pick it up quickly. Look at how your child is progressing in school and based on the tests but don’t get too upset if they aren’t “performing where they should”. It is going to be a while before the young ones who didn’t lose time to COVID get far enough through school to be where they should. Then the grades students receive in class may be closer to how they perform on these tests.