October is Test Month

For the past two weeks I have been busily testing many children in our school.  In Michigan we have the MEAP  Michigan Educational Assessment Program state test which is given to all the 3rd and 4th graders in our school/state.  We began last week and will finish with the majority tomorrow, aside from a few make up tests.  In our school we are also DIEBLEing,  giving SRI (Scholastic Reading Inventory) doing running records along with PSI (Phonics Screener for Intervention) and PASI ( Phonological Awareness Screener for Intervention), not to mention Discovery Ed for reading and math.  Our children are being tested to death.

When I go into the Kindergarten or first grade classrooms and test a child I get mixed responses from them.  Some are totally trusting and come with me willingly, answer all my questions and leave me with a friendly wave goodbye.  Others look at me like I'm the devil in disguise, their eyes assessing my every movement and not one glimmer of trust.  I often wonder what they're thinking...who is this lady, why is she wanting to take me? Or what another test?  I wonder too if their distrust of me hampers their test results.  Do they already know as kindergartners that they should not give a wrong answer?  Some children watch every movement of my pen.  A couple are so bold as to ask what I'm writing or why the test is over so quickly ( I must stop testing on PSI and PASI when they make a mistake).  The 1st graders have been very aware that some kids return to the room quickly from my testing and some take much longer and they ask me why they're done so quickly.  So I ponder that question and wonder do I tell the truth?  We're done because you made a mistake.  No, I say well that's the end of your test, and thank you for helping me.

Tomorrow all my data and I will to go an RTI meeting with the teachers from K, 1st and 2nd.  We will talk data and groupings and who will take which group for interventions.  We will also discuss why or how 43% of our first graders did not pass skill level 4.2 and need to be retaught instead of having intervention groups.  We will discuss why so many kids have not passed this skill of onset and rime and how we can address it this year so that next year we do not yet again have 43% of first grade not knowing this skill.  It should be an interesting meeting.

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