In hopes of addressing the mounting pressures of standardized testing and student accountability. My school site has aligned common core tested standards to increase student achievement. The school district distinctively frontloaded materials in preparation for standardized testing.
Prior to the beginning of the school year teachers have access to the curriculum and interactive instructional resources that enables them to collaborate and plan effectively. The curriculum framework referred to as pacing guides are routinely amended in each subject area in hopes of keeping teachers abreast to the on-going academic needs of students. All tested standards are strategically aligned to the pacing guides in reading and math to determine if students have mastered standards.
The district purposely selected weekly assessments correlated to common core standards to monitor student’s proficiency. Weekly assessments provide data to teachers in the attempt to group students based on their academic abilities. Frontloading the standards does not always measure true ability it only provides different strategies for teachers to “teach to the test.”
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Standardized testing excludes the true progression of learning it is highly implausible to measure district assessment tools to state assessments they simply do not align. According to English, 2010 p. 91 “the problems with frontloading as a practice is the lack of appropriate measures for determining success when the program is radically different than those upon which standardized tests are aligned.”
Based on my teaching experience frontloading does not competently employ the skills students need to be successful. Most importantly, it does not address the diverse abilities of all students. With the sweeping implementation of reform teachers are subjected to “teaching to the test” their willingness to be creative is limited to a well-designed script tied to accountability that does not accurately portray a student’s level of cognitive abilities.
At my school site during crunch time for the FSA, Florida Standards Assessment in grades 3rd-8th and the SAT-10 in grades K-2nd, Stanford Achievement Test, Tenth Edition the entire school is in crunch mode. Teachers primary focus is “teaching to the test. All special areas are canceled while they help facilitate test taking strategies to improve students scores as well as sustain our school grade that went from a C to a B.
Teaching to the test is extremely stressful for teachers and students. Everything within the school is geared towards testing. The amount of time teachers spend on teaching to the test interferes with teaching critical content. Basically, instruction is being depleted by tedious test preparedness that does not guarantee high test scores just wasted time. Teachers at my site are overwhelmed from “teaching to the test” because they know a large portion of their students will not reach achievement.
In the unwavering of school reform standardized tests will continue to be the reality for school districts. However, it should not dominate how students learn and how teachers teach. Teachers should not have to depend exclusively on standardized tests as a way of content delivery. The build-in restrictions of testing only brings’ forth deficient learning achievement that does not represent the true skills and abilities of a student. (English, 2010, p. 103), stated “if students score well on a test, the scores don’t necessarily represent what they really know or don’t know.
In lieu of Every Student Succeeds Act that replaced No Child Left Behind the accountability did not change just the name. Therefore, district curriculums should always be a reflection of what students need to learn. One of the many hinderances at my work location is outdated textbooks. The textbooks are not giving students the tools they need to be successful on state tests.
The disparities obstruct student achievement because of lack of current material. The school district has not initiated or adopted new textbooks. If alignment is part of the criteria by which textbooks as work plans are adopted, then the books with the highest alignment should be adopted (English, 2010 p. 111).
Standardized tests, district assessments and standards all must be intertwined and aligned with solidarity within subject area content. This cohesiveness will allow students to cultivate and sustain their learning goals.
