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TEST-RUN TESTING
One week ago, Wednesday, the 22nd of January, the upper school had their spring MAPS testing. However, breaking away from tradition, the upper school teachers collectively decided to have all four tests in one day. There were two tests in the morning, then a one hour break before lunch. After lunch, were the final two tests. The students were also randomly split up between the five upper school teachers. Students seem to have mixed opinions on the new method of getting the standardized testing out of the way.
Before that, though, most of the teachers also gave their opinion on the experimental schedule, as they were the ones who organized it in the first place. Mr. Gallant had refused to be interviewed.
“I appreciated it, personally, because we got it all done in one [day]. I felt like students were more focused… because they were only concentrating on that [the tests] and not jumping from class to class and then into testing, and all that kind of stuff. It was also nice to have a long break to let people wander around, and stretch their legs, and things like that,” replied Mrs. Hammond, when asked what her overall opinion was on the new testing schedule.
“I think it should be split over two [days]. That’s the shortest amount. But it was fine; It was fine for this one time. It went better than I expected,” responded Mrs. Berg, when asked what her overall opinion was on the new testing schedule.
“I think it was a bit rough. But it also helps push students to understand what it’s like to go through stress and high stakes testing, or high stakes work,” said Mr. Tull, when asked what his overall opinion was on the new testing schedule.
“Yeah, I like the new system for the most part, because you get it done and over it,” responded Ms. Fattic, when asked what her overall opinion was on the new testing schedule.
Most students are able to see positives and negatives to the new system.
“It might have been one up after the other, but we didn’t use the whole week, you know. So, we could just get if off, done. Plus, we had an hour of recess plus lunch,” responded Daniel V., 12th grade, when asked about his overall opinion on the new testing schedule.
“I hated doing it [the MAPS tests] like, just back-to-back, like having too many [tests]; I just wanted to be done,” said Ally Carillo, 9th grade, when asked what her overall opinion was on the new testing schedule.
“But I was glad I didn’t have any classes, like Spanish,” Ally continued.
“I don’t think it was bad. I think I kind of liked it. The only thing that I might’ve noticed that was a little interesting was like, people got more louder and it was a little more difficult to test after lunch,” spoke Eeheon Ryu, 11th grade, when asked about his overall opinion was on new testing schedule.
As if turns out, almost all students seemed to have had a lack of focus after lunch.
“I think they were a little more distracted, they had full bellies, they just wanted to talk a bit more, they’re not really in the mood,” speculated Eeheon as to why other students had a lack of focus.
“Yes, because I got a taste of freedom, and then I had to go back to my jail, prison,.” responded Ally, when asked if and why she stared to lose focus after lunch.
Most students seem to agree that the break in the middle gave them almost a false hope that testing would be over, only for them to have to go back to their classrooms again to do it all over. Students who would normally have been focused on their testing also faltered in their performance due to being distracted by other students. Of course, this was noted by teachers in most classrooms.
It seems like, if the teachers were to attempt this new method again, they would need to be able to solve the crux of the problem: the lack of students’ focus after lunch. How do they combat this? Well, they have no clue. Some solutions were to have two days where tests were taken in the morning. However, it would be counter-productive for the teachers’ goal of having the test times not overlap with classes twice; All the tests being in one day allowed all of the class periods to be affected equally. But, since it’ll be months until the next MAPS testing, they could probably find the silver-lining in the system.
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