Forget about the tests, just let teachers teach!

This image is the intellectual property of Melissa Reese Etheridge

TCAP, Tennessee Comprehensive Assessment Program, is our state's standardised test that is given at the end of the academic school year. This year, three subjects will be tested: English Language Arts, Mathematics, and Science. Social Studies will test in a field test separately. This is the last year that TCAP will be administered. Tennessee has purchased a new test for next year.

Standardised testing is controversial. Tennessee uses the test results as 35% of a teacher's evaluation. For some teachers, this can make the difference between being labeled a one (lowest level) to being labeled a five (highest level).  It makes no difference how the teachers score on classroom planning, instruction, and learning environment. It all boils down to one ninety minute test that a child takes on one day out of the school year.

Currently, the student is tested using a multiple choice format. The English Language Arts portion of the test in middle school has eighty such items.

I teach writing, which is not taught nor assessed using multiple choice. Yet, my students are assessed on their writing abilities based on how well they can answer multiple choice questions about writing. I'm evaluated on how well they can answer those questions. It makes no difference that my students have written and published twenty different texts ranging in complexity from sentences with different structures to research presentations to three-point essays. And I teach sixth grade!

Standardised test results are related to federal funding. It is that simple. If my state takes those funds (which they do), then they must show improvement through those test scores.

Misguided politicians believe that teachers will be so scared of low scores that they will whip out some magic wand or potion that they have hidden in their pockets in order to improve results. Folks, if teachers had that kind of power, they would have used it already. Just like parents aren't keeping the brightest kid in the family home, teachers are not holding back any secrets. We are doing the best we can under the circumstances.

If you want to see the level of knowledge and intelligence go up, then fix other parts of society first. We as teachers do not have the ability to fix the ills of a culture that values sports over academics. We cannot teach in a classroom where over half of the kids come from single or merged or blended families. We cannot compete with Vines and Instagram. We cannot teach in a classroom where kids have had a Red Bull for breakfast.

The problem with standardised tests is that it has resulted in standardised teaching that meets the needs of standardised kids, and there is no such thing. Put teaching back in the hands of the experts at teaching: teachers.