My career in standardized state tests began in third grade when I was told that the Colorado Student Assessment Program was a very important test that I would take until my second year in high school.
Much of the months leading up to my first experience with this all-important test was spent preparing for it. Being the little ball of stress that I was in third grade, I placed huge significance on it. I was under the impression that failure to perform on this test would mean I would never get into college, would never get to fourth grade, and certainly would never be successful.
This was third grade.
I can’t say that anyone ever told me those things. It’s that everyone told me it was important and, come testing day, I remember sweating bullets and agonizing over even the slightest uncertainty that I had chosen the wrong answer.
Fast-forward eight years. In 11th grade, I was still taking tests. And now, the more I’ve learned about state testing, the more I have become aware of the moral dilemmas surrounding standardized tests.
They’re linked to teacher pay. They cost the district God-knows-how-much money to administer. They take away from instruction time. All of those points have been argued and reargued. What hasn’t been closely looked at is how these tests actually affect students. I, and every last one of my classmates, can speak to the disturbing effects we are seeing in our schools as a result of these tests.
Sure, the legislature this year has revamped school testing in Colorado, essential eliminating tests under the Partnership for Assessment of Readines sfor College and Careers (PARCC) testing in 11th and 12th grade, and replacing 10th grade PARCC tests with shorter college-prep exams. It also cut back testing in kindergarten through grade 3, but preserved ninth grade PARCC English and math testing.
But students will still be given PARCC and a battery of other statewide assessments throughout their public school careers. The major issue is the cumulative effect of the expectations placed on students today. House Bill 1323 is a step in the right direction, but its elimination for some grades will, in the grand scheme of things, have little effect on the amount of stress that students experience because of testing. How are we supposed to decide what matters? We are told that every test we take is important because each has a different purpose.
Junior year is full of AP classes, the ACT, the PSAT, the SAT, beginning your college search, community service, working, staying involved in activities that look good on a college application, etc. There isn’t a second to waste.That is why so many students were shocked when they learned they would be taking yet another year of standardized state tests during their most test-heavy and endlessly busy year in high school.
Even now, excessive testing will still be a problem, and there are real consequences for the students that are put through it.
A friend of mine in AP Calculus and AP English Language had, like me, been studying and working and up late for the weeks leading up to the ACT, AP testing, and the second session of PARCC testing. By the time we reached PARCC, which occurred during the same weeks as the extremely intensive AP tests, she had sustained a headache for three days and nearly broke down on testing day, knowing she would have to stare at a computer screen for the next couple hours.
The kids who feel it the most? The ones who are choosing to take AP courses, who are choosing to take the ACT seriously and prepare for it, who are trying to succeed at a high level.
Students frequently get angry about these conditions under which succeeding has become a daunting task and about the role that tests play in creating this environment. Naturally, they ask questions of the teachers and administration. “Why do we have to take these tests? What do you think about these tests? How can we opt out?” Sometimes we get honest answers, but when we don’t, the most disturbing effect of these tests is revealed: its culture of fear.
Perhaps that fear and pressure to test will not affect future students.
Perhaps the same fear I experienced in third grade when I took CSAP for the first time won’t affect future third-graders. But I doubt it.
While the solution to reducing the pressures of testing in consideration with the needs of students isn’t quite clear, one thing’s for sure: Kids aren’t OK. Ask any one of them.
Olivia Friedman is in the class of 2016 at North High School. She is a member of the 2015 Colorado Voices panel. Colorado Voices is a commentary writing contest.
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