Toughening Up for Tests

Give me a break!  This is yet one more line of attack on testing -- that the kids are suffering:

Stressed. Scared. Nauseous. Sick. These were some of the words that the 9- and 10-year-olds at Public School 3 in Brooklyn used on Friday to describe how they felt about the state fourth-grade reading test that they will take over three days beginning today. 

Where in this article does the writer present one shread of evidence that a meaningful percentage of kids are "stressed, scared, nauseous or sick"?  He simply quotes a few kids (and self-serving adults, like those who run programs to deal with this nonexistent problem).

 

I have no doubt that some kids are stressed by tests -- I remember the awful feeling I used to get sometimes.  But I also remember this: I used to LIKE going into tests when I was well prepared and knew I was going to knock the ball out of the park.  I was only stressed and scared when I knew I wasn't prepared.  THAT'S the real problem here: WAY too many of our schoolchildren are being miseducated by mediocre (or, sadly, far worse worse) teachers and schools...

----------------------

Toughening Up for Tests

By DAVID M. HERSZENHORN

Published: January 10, 2006

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/10/education/10testing.html?hp=&pagewanted=all

Stressed. Scared. Nauseous. Sick. These were some of the words that the 9- and 10-year-olds at Public School 3 in Brooklyn used on Friday to describe how they felt about the state fourth-grade reading test that they will take over three days beginning today. 

But that was before social workers introduced them to a Test Monster, an art project designed to exorcise fears of standardized tests. Markese Taylor, 9, took one look at the Test Monster he was given - an outline on paper of a beast that looks like a cross between Bart Simpson and a Muppet - and brandishing a purple marker, declared, "Ooooh, I am going to hurt you!"

This week, New York State for the first time begins administering an expanded testing regimen to comply with the federal No Child Left Behind law. Unlike in prior years, when only fourth and eighth graders were tested in two subjects, English and math, exams now run from the third grade on, with additional subjects in various years.

And while many local districts, including New York City's, previously gave their own reading tests in third grade, most of those were strictly multiple-choice. The new state test will include essay questions in every grade.

As the federal law and local policies like Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg's promotion rules sharply raise the stakes of standardized exams, children, parents and educators all face mounting pressure...