The Glitches


Yesterday 27,000 Hoosier kids were bumped out of the online Istep test.  All over the state, they had to discontinue testing. Today testing was going pretty well until around 11:00 when we started getting a ton of glitches, and we got the official announcement that the dept. of ed discontinued testing all over the state for the second day.  So great that this test which determines our school's letter grade is so well designed and monitored by the lovelies at McGraw Hill.  Thanks, McGraw Hill!  You're doing a heckuva job!   As the fifth graders filtered back to class after 45 minutes of wasted time, one little guy wouldn't budge.  His teacher asked me to talk with him.  When the room was empty, I asked him if he was frustrated by the testing glitches.  He started crying, "For the last 2 nights my mom has made me go to bed about 4 hours early and we didn't even do the test either day.  And now she's going to keep doing it, and we're never going to take this test."  Man alive, that irked me no end.  Not sure I believe him about the 4 hours, but still, the kid's fun time is being cut short for no reason.  And that's something I'll never support. He was crying pretty hard so I told him about my tooth extraction and the chisels and the mallets, and the drilling and the taste of blood in my mouth that's making me nauseous all the time and how I was going to stay home today but I came to work because of Istep, and in this way I communicated that I understood his frustrations and that we both had legitimate beefs. He went back to class and then my boss told me to go home and go to sleep.  I took a long nap and I may be feeling better.  Let's see what tomorrow will bring. Please send some good vibes to the Hoosier kids who are dealing with this aggravation. And always remember to do whatever you can to explain to others how dumb standardized tests are.

Comments

This makes be so, so sad on so many levels :( How can we be held to impossible standards and yet have some huge flaw in this test be okay? The validity was compromised big time.
Sarah Gardner said…
Love the last line of your post. I've been trying to do that since high school. Also agree with Guinn.
mm said…
The poor kiddo! When a young teacher thought we would have a snow day for one of the testing day, I explained that would be horrible for the kids who were getting extra sleep and already stressed about the test. Testing sucks!! I totes agree with your last line. Keep spreading the word... testing is evil.
Anonymous said…
I feel so sad for that kiddo. Look how that took something stressful enough and put that kid through the roof! (Thumbs up for mom realizing the importance of a good night's sleep, tough, even if it was four hours early!) I had that same kind of a day, too. Wish I could have had that pep talk from you and then my boss would have told me to go home, too. :)

I hope we all have a better day tomorrow and that you are feeling 100% better!

MP
Anonymous said…
Well said!!
judy
KC said…
testing sux.

Popular Posts