Test me, test me

I hate silence. There I said it. I have a serious problem with silence. Always have.

Testing weeks are like some sick form of torture. Stick me in a room where I can't A)read, B)sit, C)be on gmail chat or D) talk. Oh and make sure there are 30 of the most annoying kids in school in there with me. As soon as we're done with the torturous A through D list they get to talk. And since they haven't talked all day they are significantly louder.

TAKS testing wears on my nerves in more ways than one. I have always hated standardized testing because it requires silence and boredom and doesn't really test the part of anything that matters. As a student and a teacher I just found it all very monotonous and boring.

I know, I know, there has to be accountability somewhere. In some ways I applaud the effort. I really do. In other ways I have a thing or fifty to say to idiot legislatures. State testing is largely unregulated. Study after study has shown that states' vary so widely that you education level can be as much as three grade levels apart based on ability. That means a seventh grader passing an English test in Texas may be no better academically than a fourth grader passing an English test in Washington. Yet we hold everyone to the same standard. Until we start holding more consistent standards (and higher standards for that matter) we're not really putting pressure where pressure needs to be put.

And another thing about the great state I test (oh, and teach) in. We're not really doing a great job with all this testing stuff. What's really sad about that is that we're the model. Our state test is in the bottom 10 across the nation as far as difficulty, so that's pretty sad.

Today when I picked up Luis's test I noticed that he missed the sample question. I said the answer out loud three times. Concerning.

I'm going to go sing really loudly in my car now. Because. I. Can.