Week 3: Testing, What is it Good for?

Today at Indian Land High School we are undergoing a second attempt at MAP testing for grades 9-11. The first attempt was thwarted by inadequate internet connections, allegedly on the part of the test host. This week, their internet is allegedly capable of handling hundreds of students that are eagerly awaiting their opportunity to demonstrate the depths of their learning. 

A Good Try. The first time that we attempted to administer these tests, I did not comprehend that my class was among those to be tested. After all, the testing was for English and Reading, not me, right? Since I didn't believe all the training testing emails belonged to me, I deleted them as promptly as I received them. Come the morning of the test and the realization that I was not exempt from testing also came the panic and dread of being unprepared. There is nothing worse than being unprepared in a room full of teenagers (but in this case, four very polite female students and eleven online learners at home that really didn't want to test anyway). Students sat patiently as I muddled through the instructional videos and PowerPoints, assigned tests, kicked them off, reassigned tests, called for help, and finally got them started. Gratefully, a colleague came to help talk me through the parts that I was missing. In the end, I was not the only educator experiencing difficulties, and after an hour, the decision to scrap the test was made. Internet connections and access problems got the blame.

Second Attempt. I am writing in the prelude to the next attempt, the resumption of testing. Now the onus is on students to login from home and access the test. After students access the test, I must confirm their ready-to-test status, and get them on the way. If students answer too quickly, their test gets stopped, wherein I have to unlock their abilities to move forward. This will require monitoring for me as I prep for the rest of the week. Now, what could go wrong, right?

The Positives. I love that we are not using class time to administer these tests. I am still a day behind with my first-period class. Giving the tests on Wednesday is great because it does not take from the valuable and limited class time that I have with face-to-face students. This also makes students responsible for showing up to take the test. It is a step in making them take ownership. 

The Negatives. I am not aware of a wholesale testing effort in ILHS's history, and I expect that this trial will have its pitfalls. To name a few, are we concerned about ethics at all? Will students stick to academic integrity? How does testing at home influence motivation? Will students even participate? Once the internet crashes, will students have the fortitude to try again? Really, I'm not sure I would.

Motivation-Make it Personal. Here is what I know. I know that in order for students to maintain interest, instruction must include four main qualifiers (Keller, 1987). ARCS Motivational Theory is that instructional content should provide Attention: something that hooks students and gets them interested; Relevance: relatable to our own lives; Confidence: the subject matter must not be so difficult to beat students down, but scaffolded so that it can be mastered, which encourages students to keep going; and Satisfaction: learning produces contentment, a sense of achievement having gained new knowledge. When designing instructional content, I try to keep Keller in mind, along with other learning theories aligned to constructivist learning environments, especially when integrating technology and blended learning.

Testing, What is it Good for? After spending the last 3 weeks fostering and creating a classroom community that supports sharing, collaboration, curiosity, and built on ARCS motivational theory, taking a break for testing deflates the positive energy. It is yet another administrative hoop that students and teachers must jump through. Performance on these tests, I suspect, will not be great. Then again, maybe, since students are in the driver's seat and responsible for their own performance, without the distractions that a classroom has, maybe they will be off the charts? And why are we requiring students to take these tests in the first place? Is this a measurement tool so that the state of South Carolina can demonstrate that it is moving beyond a "minimally adequate education?" Yes, they actually say that. Read more at this link, Minimally Adequate. I would argue that there are bigger issues than testing on our off days.

How to be an Online Student. My administration, once again, has gone to great efforts to make today's testing as painless as possible. They've created training videos and all those emails that I ignored. They have sent email blasts to parents and students and done all they can to make this process run smoothly. I am grateful to work in a school that thinks things all the way through. I know we have to go through these processes, but I'll go on the record and say it is dumb. Testing is dumb, dumb, dumb. Respectfully. 😀 I know my administrators are not responsible for this. And I am not trying to get fired for my opinion. I will do what I am told, but I do have an opinion. 

In my opinion, we should be teaching students how to be online learners. We can empower these students by showing them how to navigate and use the information that is so readily available to them. Applying ARCS motivational theory to instruction is a start. Educators have the ability to get student attention just by living virtuous and interesting lives, and having a little respect for our content helps too. We can connect the dots from student lives to our content in order to make each connection relevant. We can build confidence by forming relationships with students. This opens the doors to creativity and satisfaction as students build knowledge that they share with those around them. State testing, or whatever today's tests are is not where it is at, and not at this time period. I am on-board with holding students accountable and testing at home. I love these features, but I question the timing. I am still working to teach my students how to adjust to our new educational experiences. 

How to be an Online Teacher. In combination with this, we should equally be teaching our teachers how to be online instructors. Once again, my district has put together training tools that have been helpful, but the release date was the week before school started. I completed the first few modules and gave up, because, ARCS. It was meh, and I didn't have the motivation. But ultimately, something is being done. We began 2020-2021 school year with the assumption that we would be home by this time. Our leadership sent an implied message that the semester would end at home. Thus, online instruction would be the primary delivery method of content. Now that we have both online and in-person learners, we must accept the reality that online learning is not going away. The future is in online instruction. It is BEYOND time for the minimally adequate training.