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Testing in Ohio schools: At what cost?
By Melissa Martin, Ph.D.
Butterflies in stomach. Heart pounding. Fear of failing. Do you
remember how you reacted to taking tests? Fast-forward to state
standardized testing.
“Teachers, school administrators and other critics argue that students
spend so much time taking standardized tests that it distracts from
student learning and takes the joy out of teaching,” according to a
2017 article in The Columbus Dispatch Newspaper.
Around 1000 members of the Ohio Education Association (OEA) met in
January of 2019 to discuss concerns. The Feb/March 2019 Ohio Schools
Magazine issue contained an interesting article titled “Tests! The
Power and Potential of Our Stories to Stop the Test Insanity.”
I must agree with educators, parents, and others that have a bone to
pick with the overuse of standardized testing. Why? Because of what
kids are revealing in counseling sessions. Because kids are
experiencing anxiety, panic attacks, interrupted sleep, and stomach
upset based upon comparison, fear of disappointing adults with low
scores, and worries about passing into the next grade level. That’s
why. Hearing elementary students proclaim “I’m so stupid” before,
during, and after testing is disheartening.
The State of Ohio requires students in grades 3 through 8 to take
standardized tests each year in language arts and mathematics. Students
in grades 5 and 8 also take state tests in science. At the high school
level, students are required to take standardized state assessments in
9thand 10thgrade language arts, algebra, geometry, biology, U.S.
history, and U.S. government. These tests are referred to as AIR
assessments. AIR stands for the American Institutes of Research; the
agency that develops and deliveries the tests.
Visit the Ohio Dept. of Education website to view statistical summaries
by school year of student performance on the Ohio Achievement
Assessments and the Ohio Graduation Tests and for item analysis reports
for Ohio public schools.
OEA President Scott DiMauro wants to work on reducing the amount of
standardized testing in Ohio schools. “He believes too much testing
takes away class time and prevents educators from teaching their
students,” according to an August 2019 article at Hometown Stations.
The Ohio League of Women Voters opposes Ohio’s use of high-stakes
school testing to measure school, teacher or student quality, as
opposed to simple mastery of subjects, according to a 2019 article in
The Plain Dealer.
The Ohio House passed House Bill 154 to repel House Bill 70-legislation
to take decision-making power away from Ohio school districts with low
performance on the state report card. Under current Ohio law, schools
and districts are graded on a report card that hands out a letter grade
of A to F from aggregated scores on standardized tests. I imagine that
administrators and teachers may also be experiencing anxiety and fear
of failing.
In 2019, House Bill 239, the Testing Reduction Act was introduced in
Ohio. House Bill 239 would reduce the state-mandated standardized tests
to the federal minimums by eliminating four high school end-of-course
exams (Geometry, English Language Arts I, American History, American
Government).
“Test anxiety is a bigger problem than many parents and teachers
realize. A staggering 16-20% of students have high test anxiety, making
this the most frequent academic impairment in our schools today.
Another 18% are troubled by moderately-high test anxiety. These
students actually draw a “blank" or "freeze-up” during tests. Students
with high anxiety perform around 12 percentile points below their low
anxiety peers; regardless of how much effort and time they put into
studying,” according to a 2015 article in Psychology Today.
Yes, tests are a necessary part of life—from driving tests to licensure
tests. And testing has a place in our educational systems, however the
pendulum needs to be stabilized in the middle.
So, Ohio schools are experiencing controversy over state standardized
tests. And students, teachers, administrators, and parents are
experiencing anxiety. Well, guess what? The brain does not learn well
when overanxious. Should the Ohio Department of Education mandate that
students receive counseling and accommodations for test anxiety caused
from the overuse of high-stakes standardized testing?
“To those who say that we need weights and measures in order to enforce
accountability in education, my response is, yes, of course we do, but
only under three conditions that are not being met today. We need to
make sure (1) that we measure things worth measuring in the context of
authentic education, where rote learning counts for little; (2) that we
know how to measure what we set out to measure; and (3) that we attach
no more importance to measurable things than we attach to things
equally or more important that elude our instruments.”
― Parker J. Palmer, The Courage to Teach
Melissa Martin, Ph.D., is an author, columnist, educator, and therapist. She lives in Ohio.
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