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Standardized testing is always a topic of conversation in the education system.
The topic of standardized testing has become more controversial than ever. After teaching full-time in the Murray Independent School system, substitute teaching in the system for almost 10 years and being a parent Vicki Rowland has a unique view of standardized testing.
“There are some students that do a great job, there are some students that it's not great at all,” Rowland said.
Rowland, a parent and teacher believes that there many more aspects that should go into standardized testing. She believes that some students preform best in a standardized test setting but she also believes some students, such as her own daughter, thrive differently and do not test well.
A Journey Different From Others
Rowland’s journey with the education system was very different than most educators.
Rowland was a sophomore in high school when standardized testing was introduced. She recalled how she had to create a writing portfolio and test differently than she ever had.
Rowland said that it was a big change for her and her classmates. Students younger than her had a lot more time to meet the standards that were being required. She feels as if it affected how she started to learn.
Unlike most educators Rowland does not hold an education degree. She holds a degree in Occupational Safety and Health. Not starting in a classroom gave her a different perspective going into the job.
She finished her job in the safety industry on June 30 and walked into a classroom to teach at the beginning of August. When she started in the education system she was told what to teach, how to teach it and received a timeline for when students must have things mastered.
Every Student Is Different
Rowland said that there are some things that just must be tested for mastery but also said other students should be given the opportunity to express their abilities.
Being both an educator and a parent Rowland has seen both sides of standardized testing. She has watched her own daughter struggle and has watched some of her own students strive during standardized tests.
“Let's come up with another way, let them give a writing piece that shows, don't give me multiple choice and those kinds of things. Let them write you an essay if that’s where their strength is," Rowland said. “You know, if they can tell it better through art or something like that, let them use their strength, I know that takes away the standardized portion of it. But I think there are some allowances that could be made to let the individuality show.”
Standardized Testing in Schools Today
Rowland says she sees both sides of standardized testing because of her experiences she has had with it. She believes there is a reason for the type of standardized testing that is used in schools today.
“If I have a classroom of 32 kids in front of me I can't give them the information so that every kid gets it the way they need it, I don't have time in a day to do that,” Rowland said. “Do I wish I could? Absolutely because those light bulb moments are why people teach.”
Standardized testing will likely stay a topic of conversation for years to come but for Rowland she is glad she is not the one who has to figure out all of the answers.
Original Format
https://drive.google.com/file/d/13UV7VMNnteEgTib8Ncf_f2_YaHfex6fW/view?usp=sharing
Transcript:
Interviewer: Sarah Burden (SB)
Interviewee: Vicki Rowland (VR)
SB: What is your name and title?
VR: My name is Vicki Rowland and I am a substitute teacher for the Murray Independent School District.
SB: Can you spell your first and last name for me?
VR: V-i-c-k-i R-o-w-l-a-n-d
SB: You said Murray Independent, is that the only area that you sub for?
VR: Yes.
SB: What subjects do you usually sub for?
Vicki: I do all subjects. They try to keep me in math and science because that is what I taught when I was in the classroom full time.
SB: How long have you been subbing?
Vicki: Oh gosh, um, I’ve probably been subbing for nine or ten years.
SB: And you said you taught full time before then?
VR: Yes, yes, I taught full-time.
SB: Okay, when did you graduate high school?
VR: 1995.
SB: And what about college?
VR: The first time in 2000 and then my masters in 2001.
SB: What did an average day looked like when you were in school?
VR: When I was in college or high school?
SB: Um, we will start with, we will go through each; we’ll do elementary, middle, high and college.
VR: Elementary, middle and high, wow we are digging back deep. Elementary school, um, well, I am a product of the Murray school system. So I grew up in that school system. Elementary school when I was there I remember kindergarten just plain. I don’t know that we had the curricula like they do today. I’m sure we did I just don’t remember it. But I read early so I remember getting out of my reading classes and going up to the next grade level up in reading. That kind of sticks out in my mind. I remember doing the same thing in math. So, math and reading I did those things, jumped out early. That’s what sticks out in my mind from elementary school. Um, middle school, I went to middle school where Murray Middle is currently located. Um, at that time we had 5th, 6th, 7th and 8th were there and now it is 4th through 8th. In 5th and 6th grade they were in a separate building away from the 7th and 8th graders. Um, I just remember it being a pretty big change from the elementary school because we had to walk between the buildings if we had gym or something like that. So, we were outside part of the day, it was weird. I had to walk between buildings for classes. Um, as far as the curricula we did standardized testing. I loved testing days because I am a fast test taker and that meant I had a lot of free time to read what I wanted to read. Which I took advantage of because you know I am one of those I would take the test, I’m not going to look back over my answers, I’m just done with it and then I’m going to spend my time reading, coloring, whatever I could come up with to do. And then once I hit 7th and 8th grade I did Duke Talent. When I was in 7th grade we had to take, uh, I gosh can’t remember if it was the ACT or the SAT. One of them, we took those as 7th graders and if you scored in a certain level you got entered into what was called Duke Talent and I did that for math and that was a program I did and I was in the gifted and talented program and I just remember it was a small school district. There were 76 in my graduating class so I had small class sizes. So, we were able to do more hands-on stuff and not just the sit down, tell it to me, let me tell it back to your kind of thing. So, we were able to do more hands-on and there was more one-on-one time with our teachers because they weren’t having to get to 30 kids. There were maybe 12 to 15 in my class or whatever. Even in middle school it was like that so it was kind of cool. Highschool same thing, small class, uh, the testing, the standardized testing changed when I was in high school. That’s when we, um, are you a Kentucky person?
SB: Yes.
VR: Okay, so all those distinguished, proficient, all that stuff came in while I was in high school. You know, we went from just testing in all of them to we are going to test this, this grade and this, this grade and you are going to get a novice, apprentice, proficient a distinguished. It changed to that and we had to have a writing portfolio. I think that I was a sophomore or junior when that happened. And so, here we are just a couple years of school left and we are trying to make a complete portfolio. So we spent a lot of time in the classroom to fulfill those obligations. Whereas, people younger than us had more time; more years to get it done. So that’s one thing we ran into so I remember that.
SB: So now, being an educator what does an average day in school look like now? You can go from whenever you were full-time or like now as a substitute teacher.
VR: We’ll talk both. When I was in the classroom full-time I actually… my degrees are in occupational safety and health so I did alt cert. Um, when I went in to teaching I walked in um, I finished up my safety job in industry on June 30th and I walked into the classroom to teach the first part of August full-time. So, I walked out of a training room into a classroom so I was doing the same type of thing, just a younger crowd. Um, you know so, I was kind of learning on the fly. I didn’t take the normal education degree. I don’t have one of those. I met with. I taught an integrated science class and I had an AP physics class. My integrated science class; there was another integrated science teacher and so I spent the first week of PD before we ever walked into the classroom kind of meeting with her and these are the things we are have to cover, this is when we have to cover this, we have to have this much of the content met by this date and those kinds of things and kind of laid that out. But then I taught the same thing all day so it made for great prep because I had two preps I had to do. I had five sections of integrated science and one section of physics and so for five periods of the day I did the same thing. Just reset and do it again an um there’s a blessing and a curse to that, it gets really boring by the time you’ve done it the fourth time. But you know I didn’t have to spend a whole lot of time um, doing the prep for it because I was doing the same thing over and over. Um, probably my kids about third time I went through I got the best best deal out of it because I worked out the kinks in the first two and I wasn’t bored with it quite yet. So, um, um, but that’s what a lot of it was. The, now I wasn’t in the Murray district whenever I was teaching full time, I was in a different district in the state. Um, and they were not quite the caliber of the Murray district, um, and they did a whole lot more of teaching to the test. You know we knew what was going to be on that standardized test, what was going to be tested at what grade level. I was at a high school and it was you will give this many comprehensive exams, you will give this many subjective tasks that have to be graded. Um, on, there were set dates of a nine weeks that we had to give a learning check was what they were called and um, the learning check I gave was the same as the learning check that the other integrated science teacher gave. Even if for some reason my classes were moving slower than her classes and we hadn’t covered all the content I still had to give that check on that day. Um, in some instances it was a little more restrictive. Uhm, we had to, um, you know I had a binder it was my lesson plan and I had to have leading questions for each learning target and I had to tell what standard it met, what our activities would be for that learning target, um, what kind of activity it was; like was it a hands on, is it just an oral, is it I’m going to sit and talk to them for 45 minutes and then give them a worksheet, or is there some way to make it hands on and interactive. Um, they did try to push us to do more of the hands-on stuff and I was in a science classroom so that was good, we were able to do a lot of that. Um, but they were pretty rigid with you will do this on this day, you will get writing selections out of these kids, every nine weeks you’re going to have at least one writing selection that's going to go into a portfolio, and these are the things that will be on the test you need to make sure that what you are teaching is meeting what's going to be on that test. So we ran into that a lot there. So, um, as a sub I don't have to do the lesson plans and stuff as much. Um, I did a long-term sub at the beginning of this school year and for the most part the classroom teacher, she did everything, she was on maternity leave. Um, so we had you know, I stayed in contact with her daily and she would set the plans and stuff for me but it, um, in a lot of her lectures and stuff she has videos taped and so you know I would show those videos but then when the kids needed help we would kind of get into that. You know I could answer question and be like let's look at this this way and those kinds of things. Um, but as far as normal day in a classroom as a sub its, um, sometimes it's babysitting and you’re just keeping it legal, um, sometimes, uhm, if they know, if the teacher knows who their sub is going to be and they know okay so I know I can leave this for this sub and it's going to get done then they will leave class work and its uhm, the kids kind of laugh and they know if they walk into an English or history classroom and I’m the sub they’re not going to get a whole lot to help out of me because I’m no help in those subjects but if they walk into a math or science class and I’m there usually we can get done with what has to get done. Um, so that's a little different dynamic but you know I have all the kids in the school because I bounce from place to place. I've worked every day this week and I am going to work every day this week. But I ended last week, the last two days I was P.E. Thursday and Friday, Monday I was, what did I do Monday, the French teacher, Tuesday I was, no that’s today, is today Tuesday? what day is today?
SB: Uh, Wednesday.
VR: Is today Wednesday? What was I yesterday? Yesterday I was, I don't remember what classroom I was in yesterday. Oh! I was physics so that was a good one because I’ve taught that one.
SB: Pretty much wearing all hats when you are substituting.
VR: Today I was geometry and Algebra, tomorrow I am English and U.S. History, and Friday I am history. So, we just kind of do it all, yea.
SB: So how well do you think standardized testing measures a student’s abilities?
VR: There are some students that do a great job, there are some students that it's not great at all. Um, you know I have a daughter who is a pretty high functioning person; she's always done really well in school, she’s you know an honors student here and she sucks at standardized tests. She's stresses about them, doesn’t score well on them. She took the ACT four times and you know and just kind of plateaued and didn't go any further. So those standardized tests aren’t a true showing for her. Um, and there are a lot of students out there that are like that who don’t test well so their abilities aren't shown through standardized testing. But, there are those who do test well and so it's a great representation of what they can do so I guess it depends on the student.
SB: So from like a parent’s point of view, you kind of already hit on it, but from like having a daughter who isn’t the strongest at standardized tests what is your point of view on it?
VR: I think that you know that needs to be considered they need to, the people who give us these standardized tests, they need to tell us, give us a way of measuring the aptitudes of the students who don't test well. Let's come up with another way, let them give a writing piece that shows, don't give me multiple choice and those kinds of things. Let me write, let them write you and essay if that’s where their strength is. You know if they can tell it better through art or something like that let them use their strength, I know that takes away the standardized portion of it. But I think there are some allowances that could be made to to let the individuality show.
SB: Do you feel that way from a teaching point of view as well?
VR: Yes because you can absolutely see it in the classroom. Um, does it make the teachers job harder? Sure, and the people who have to grade those tests or checks or whatever it makes it harder. Um, I remember when I was in the classroom full time I went to a session where it was a guy who had a system of grading, he didn't grade homework for a you got a five out of ten you got a seven out of ten, he graded these questions deal with this learning target, you have shown you have you know you know this learning target or you need to put more work on this learning target, or you don't have a clue what this learning target is. So and that was how his grade book was set up and it was the top of his grades where the assignments would be it was a learning target like learning target one, Newton's laws of motion. Um, you know his was a three scaled base, three it was mastered, um, two they show the understanding of it maybe not the abstract practice of it, a one eh they knew what it was they recognize it if you said it, and zero they had no clue. I think that going with that kind of mindset showing a mastery of an idea not necessarily I can give you those multiplication tables 42 times, you know I think if we could get to more of that kind of system it would be beneficial.
SB: And… so, if there was anything you could change about standardized testing would that be the only thing you would change to like to base it off of, “oh, have you mastered the concept: other than like multiplication tables and stuff.
VR: There are somethings you just have to demonstrate mastery that's the nature of the beast. So I think there are things that that's the best way to test it but I also think there there are things that that's not the best way to test it. Um, it’s a tough job and I wouldn't want it I wouldn't want to have to make those tests, wouldn't want to have to make that determination. Um, I can see both side of it, you know if I have a classroom of 32 kids in front of me I can't give them the information so that every kid gets it the way they need it, I don't have time in a day to do that. Do I wish I could? Absolutely because those light bulb moments are why people teach like at least if they are in it for the right reason like when you know you have gotten through to a kid and all the sudden the light bulb goes on and the angels are singing whatever they have figured it out, um that's why people teach. That's why they should teach. So if there was anything I would do with the standardized testing I would take away the, because you have kids who walk in and are like I am going to fail this because I don't test well, I don't. So they walk in with that anxiety and they know from the get go they are going to struggle so it's just such an anxiety ridden stressful period of time. So um, I wish there was a way to address that, you know? I don't know the answer to fix it. I don't know what it is that takes somebody with more smarts than I have. But, um, yea I would love to change that to fix it, to adjust it so that yes there are parts where you test because you just have to because that's what it is but there are so many other things that I think don't get shown in those results.
SB: And is there anything else you would like to discuss or add on to?
VR: That’s entirely up to you.
SB: Ha-ha. Thank you for all of your help.