Thursday, April 22, 2010

TOO MUCH ASSESSING?


We just finished 2 weeks of standardized testing. After 20 years in education the amount of time I actually spend teaching students has slowly dwindled. We have 182 days of school...

* 1 day at the beginning of the year is spent on PBS TRAINING (POSITIVE BEHAVIOR SUPPORT...not testing, but it's a day that I don't teach)
* 9 days doing writing assessments (plus three 1/2 days I am out of the classroom to grade them.)
* 10 days doing DBA testing (and we still have one more round of these to go...so that will be another 5 days)
* 5 days spent on the BIG STATE TEST (broken up into 10 1/2 days)
* 22 days of subject assessments (2 hours every 2 weeks for miscellaneous assessments in every subject, which works out to about 1 full day lost every two weeks)

= 47 days of assessment, which is 25% of the school year! I need more teaching time or they won't have anything to assess!

I wish school were longer every year. Why not have all schools go from Labor Day to the end of May? We'd still get plenty of vacation time: 1 week in the fall, 2 weeks at Christmas, one week in the spring, all of June and July and all the miscellaneous Monday holidays.

What do you think?

3 comments:

Connie said...

I'm surprised to hear you sign on for long summer break. Thought you loved the year round??? Personally, I think year round would be best for learning.

KLTTX said...

Our schools in Texas start end of August (this school year started August 24) and goes until June 10. Its a long year. I wish it ended a little earlier. We used to end before Memorial Day and start in early August but in the past year or so have moved the start date back so its not as hot when the kids start.

Shannan said...

Are you serious?? I think school is way too long hour wise during the day and length wise throughout the year. If classes were smaller. resources more acessable, more teachers for students with special needs, you could get through the curriculum in half the time. My son is at school year round and for 7 hours a day. He watches "educational" movies and learns how to make a pizza. Send him home to me so we can be a family and learn those things together. WAY too much time away from home.

Just my opinion!! When your baby starts school you may change your mind too:)