The past couple of weeks I’ve written about Spring Break. How to prepare and helps students during that time, and ways to take care of yourself to have a fully relaxing break too.
For most of us, when we return from Spring Break, the next big, and possibly the most stressful annual event for you, your students, the school, and families, is standardized statewide testing. No matter where you might stand personally on the issue, annual mandatory testing will take place—it’s just a fact of life now. There are no signs on the horizon that even hints of them going away or being reduced.
For the school testing coordinator at your school, they most like have already started planning. When I was the coordinator, I developed a playbook with templates that could be used from year to year so I could remember best practices, and what needed to change. This was a time when test booklets had to be passed out and collected every day; thankfully, I think, most have gone digital now. But that doesn’t mean there isn’t some planning that needs to take place.
One of the best ways to prepare actually starts at the beginning of the year, the second best time is now, just like growing a tree. During those first few weeks and months of the year, I would discuss with students about assessments and testing, and how we were going to learn together what would be covered. I’d emphasize this throughout the year just so when the school ramped up, it wouldn’t be a surprise.
Using the vocabulary from the tests was also something I did as a teacher, and then highly encouraged when I was a principal. Building any background knowledge and habitual use of language helps. It makes it almost second nature when students encounter the vocabulary on the test.
Most states release questions that have been retired from use as part of a practice test or at least provides a glimpse into what will be asked. Analyzing those questions and then using similar formats on classroom assessments also helps create muscle memory for the brain. These could also be used on homework if your school requires homework. The links to the questions could also be provided to families to review at home.
For me, the most important part, when I was a principal, was to help students know as much as possible about what the test was like. Right before the testing window, as an elementary principal, I would hold an assembly for any students who had to take the test. We’d go over what the test meant, how the state and we at the school used the results, and that it really wasn’t any different overall than the normal assessments and test they were already doing in their class. I also had a slide deck that showed what filling in a bubble should look like, how they had to stay in the box with their answer, to make sure to read all the possible answers to pick the best one, and so on (remember this was a time of paper booklets). With online testing, an assembly would still be possible, just a change in the format discussion of the tests.
One other thing I made sure to do was to send home helpful tips for families to use in their own prep. The document would include things like making sure students got enough rest, that they ate breakfast at home or at school, asked them to send in classroom snacks since students can get very hungry after a testing session, to make sure their student was on time so they wouldn’t have to take a make-up test and miss learning time, and to ask them to reiterate to an potentially anxious child that the test was just another test and they would do fine. At that time, a test result did not mean a student might need to be held back, so I would let students and families know that as well since there were some misconceptions about what a test result meant. If this is the case in your state, I highly recommend letting students and families know.
Did the above alleviate concern for all students? No. But if it helped even just a few, it meant those few would most likely do better and be less stressed.
I’m curious how you prepare your school, your classroom, your students, and your families, for the weeks’ long testing windows. Leave a comment and let me know.
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Note: Image generated by Adobe Firefly AI.