Testing

So my post today is going to be a little bit of me ranting due to the fact that I am a bit upset about the testing required for my classes and the set up that we have in our school. 

As a CTE teacher the State mandates my testing through a website that administers a State approved skills test to see the level of understanding of the students.  That in and of itself is fine, but they require an 80% to pass and the students can only take it once.  There is only a pass or fail and 80% or more passes and a 79% or under fails.  I started testing this morning with my first class and they all failed, not one passed the test.  The highest student score was 76%.  It is a test that is difficult, I don't believe that anybody in the State office could get 80% on it.  I know I couldn't. 

My first class this morning was Business Web Design.  I've been making websites for the past 15 years and I still need to have my books and cheat sheets by me when I develop one, and these kids who have no background, other than the last 70 plus days of having information crammed down their throats are supposed to pass the test with an 80% or better.  If you ask me that is ludicrous.  A person wanting to get into finance as a financial adviser by securing his licensing only has to score a 70% to be deemed perfectly competent to start working with the public and managing money and investments.

I believe that this testing requirement along with many other aspects of public education which I won't get into here, are designed to set these kids up to fail. 

Then to top it all off, the test takes 90 minutes to take and class is only 60 minutes in length.  Do you see a problem here?  They don't have enough time to complete the test, and if they stay to complete it, then they are behind in their next class.  If it is before lunch, then they don't get a lunch because lunch is only 30 minutes.  If they have the last class then they have to stay after school for an additional half hour to finish.  I am sorry, but these kids aren't going to do that, and I don't blame them. I wouldn't.

I had half of my class get up and leave this morning because they are on the basketball team and they needed to leave for a game, so each one of them failed because they couldn't complete it and they can't go back and retake it, or pick up where they left off.

The other problem is that my class is one of two computer labs here at the school, so I am limited to when I can test because my class has to be used for benchmark testing for State and Federal requirements.  That means that I am pushed out of my class and put in a little room with a few computers (not sufficient for my whole class) so that they can use my computers.  Half the time I can't do anything and I lose several days of instruction because there are no desks and the computers are inadequate for our needs.  But I am supposed to sit there and be happy about it.

I think that I am done complaining.