I don't mind these tests. They are not horribly invasive, but they can be time-consuming, particularly since we administer them 3x a year. This means every class I teach will be out 3 class periods while we give the untimed aReading test on the computer. I will miss 1.5 full days while my students have a substitute teacher while I administer the fluency piece to all 60 of my students. Thankfully, a) I get to have a sub and don't have to pull kids during class time for 2-3 weeks and b) our reading coach and Title teacher are so helpful and test some of our kids for us as well. I still have 4 kiddos left to test despite some technological distress.
Testing these days for teachers is such a huge stressor. Particularly when we test for Iowa Assessments. Those dreaded numbers. Will you make 100% for the SINA/NCLB goal? Or more importantly, will you make the 80% mark that means that the Core Curriculum I've been teaching has reached brains and made an impact? Last year, my class reached an abysmal 55% on the Iowa Assessments for reading. I was horrified. I was honestly sick to my stomach despite reassurances from administration that it wasn't my teaching, "You are an amazing educator! We don't know what happened." These comments from both admins did nothing to quell the illness I felt over that 55%. If anything, it might have made me feel even worse because I knew they knew the number and by golly, what the heck happened there!?!?! Even worse was the K-12 meeting to set the school's annual goals. Again it was, "4th grade, reading... 55%?!! What happened there?" And to my thankfulness they focused elsewhere, but it was changed the next day for the goal to be focused on that class. I guess because they can't get any worse, right?
Despite that class having achieved the 80% on the aReading test, I still couldn't shake the ugliness that accompanied that 55%. Now I'm faced with a class that has just shown a 63% overall on the aReading FAST assessment. We have a ways to get to that magic 80%. I have a good feeling about these guys though. I think they will work hard. Most of them have shown a love for reading. With some guidance and a lot of hard work, I think we can make that magic 80%. (A few prayers might help us too!) As long as I keep them reading we'll be fine.
