State standards have dramatically increased the number of standardized tests in public schools and some educators say it’s causing undue pressure on students and damaging their education.
Jacqueline Sanchez, daughter of National Education Association President Patrick Sanchez is a senior at Mayfield High School in Las Cruces and she says all the tests they are taking have become a source of despair among her classmates.
“I have seen kids cry before they have taken their tests before they take a test, pray, I don’t know it is ridiculous we look like we are being sent to our deaths before we take these tests” she says.
Sanchez says preparing for tests dominates the time in the classroom.
“My teachers are always stressed and they are always teaching to these standards these big standards that are written up on the wall and we can never delineate from that" she says.
"We can never just have a conversation about an interesting thing that came up in the reading” she says.
An anonymous survey produced by NEA, the National Education Association found only 7% of Las Cruces public school teachers believed state-mandated assessments improved the quality of student work.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_IobKSNWkWw&feature=youtu.be
In fact, the NEA states student achievement is actually being reduced as tests crowd out time for meaningful learning.
“I took like 13 of the tests last year which is excessive I believe. They are just making these tests so high stakes you know they are telling us we are not going to graduate if we don’t pass them” Sanchez says
NEA member and Mayfield High School academic counselor Bruce Hartley says he has seen even A and B grade students crack under the pressure and completely bomb on tests. He says testing shouldn’t be the only way student competency is being measured.
“They just are not good test takers and don’t do well. Even a lot of students get accept in college or accepted in a junior college but they need to pass these test to graduate from high school and they are not going graduate from high school but they have been accepted in college". he says.
Deming Public schools Superintendent Dr. Dan Lere acknowledges the student anxiety and absenteeism associated with standardized testing but says in a lot of cases that pressure is actually coming from the teachers, 50% of their evaluations are based on how well their students perform on standardized tests.
“Elementary kids would literally tell their parents I think my teacher is going to get fired if I don’t do well on this test and you are talking about anxiety that is huge alright. I mean you have got a third grader that feels like he is responsible for his teacher employment" he says.
Lere says there’s still room for teachers to make their lessons more than just test preparation but he acknowledges the state mandate that 50 percent of a teacher’s evaluation be based on standardized tests could have been implemented more effectively.
“I understand the need for accountability. But it has got to be individualized for the school and the district if it is really going to measure what is going.” he says.
Lere says New Mexico’s standardized testing has been heavily focused on holding teachers accountable he hopes as the system develops the focus of testing can shifted to improving problem areas and gaps in the curriculum.
But students like Sanchez say she feels like an experiment in the testing system she is concerned about the long-term effect it will have on her educational development.
“I can’t learn what I am going to need in college you know I am stuck learning stuff that is going to I don't know make me pass this test”
Students can opt out of testing, but not in the final years of school when passing standardized tests becomes a graduation requirement.