Testing Season

Puns are awesome all year round, but they take on new meaning in May.

"If you don't ever do homework you're SOL"

"Huh?"

"Standards of Learning'd."

I need the humor as much as the students this time of year. The stress and time of year drive them crazy and then they drive me crazy. Several would say I return the favor and drive them crazy with my crazy. It's a cycle.

Crazy, right?

My student complain about tests incessantly. Teachers do, too. Probably more than anyone. If I walk into a workroom and yell "SOL!" I cannot run out the door before I can feel the storm cloud brewing. Our systems turns any educator into a walking, talking earful of opinions on standardized testing. We all have solutions to the problem, too.

Personally, I like the idea of accountability. I don't think the way we currently do it is ideal, but I recognize the good intentions behind it.*

I think that there are many possible solutions to the problem. One I am fond of is making courses run a semester in length instead of a year.

I started to write an essay. I'm going to be brief, though.

1. I am loathe to fail a kid for a full year. I know other teachers are, too. Sometimes students who struggle have other struggles or tragedies in their lives. If a kid has a great first half of the year, but then does poorly at the end it wipes out their achievements.
2. Also, sometimes teachers have to face a devil's decision. "Do I fail ______ and have to see them again for another full year? Or do I pass ______ when I'm not sure they deserve it and let next year's teacher deal with it?" A wrong choice is a year off the mark. I've met kids who I know which choice their previous teacher(s) made. Research isn't very positive on holding kids back. I've had kids in that grey zone myself.  
3. Some courses have material that builds on itself (math). If you don't get 1st and 2nd quarter's material, 3rd and 4th may be a waste of everyone's time.**
4. Mid-year fresh start. Particularly with electives. Sometimes people discover they either don't like the path they're on, or they discover a better path. 

I'm going to stop now. I could easily keep going.

It's not an earful, but it is an eyefull.


*NOTE: "The road to hell is paved with good intentions."

**NOTE2: I had a semester I failed almost all but one of my classes in college. The fail was a wake-up call for me. If the courses were a year long, I would have wasted a full year.

***NOTE3: In case my idea seems to make "too much" sense. Half-year classes would make scheduling/staffing a nightmare.