Like most people in Minnesota, teachers and principals are looking forward to spring—the reprieve of warmer temperatures and melting snow. However, teachers and principals also know that spring means it is time for Minnesota Comprehensive Assessments (MCAs). In April, students in grades 3-8 will take MCAs for reading and mathematics. This will take four mornings of class time. (Some high school grades also take MCAs and students in grades 5, 8 and 10 will also take a science test.)
The MCAs are required by federal and state laws. But more significantly, the tests are extremely important because the results are used to judge us. It is very simple to go to the Minnesota Department of Education’s website and anyone can see every school district’s MCA scores, or by grade level or schoolwide. You can also easily compare school districts against each other.
And so, it is quite understandable why we go to great lengths to encourage our students to “do their best” on these tests. I give the students “pep talks” prior to testing days. We remind parents multiple times to be sure students are well rested and have a healthy breakfast especially on MCA days. We practice multiple-choice test taking strategies, and our PTA provides healthy snacks the morning of MCA testing. I am ordering new “Sawtooth Mountain Elementary Students Rock the MCAs” pencils and even buying an abundance of wintergreen mints as they have shown to help increase students’ alertness!
I support the need for schools to be accountable for the work we do and how we are spending tax dollars. I know that we need to have data that shows what every student is able to do in math and reading and at what rate they are improving. And perhaps, the MCAs could be a valid way to do these things if we knew 1) that every student is showing their best performance on these intense, multiple choice tests, and 2) that the tests are a valid measurement of what we should expect students to be able to do at each grade level and how much they have improved from the prior year. Unfortunately, we do not know either of these to be true and the emphasis on MCA results continues.
It was the No Child Left Behind legislation that brought this emphasis of standardized testing to our nation. I appreciate that President Obama’s Race to the Top legislation has enabled Minnesota to have a waiver and school performance is now determined with a Multiple Measurement Rating (MMR). MMR considers the proficiency, growth, achievement gap reduction and graduation rates of schools. This integration of data puts less emphasis on the MCA data alone.
What we cannot forget however, is that as important as reading and math performance is, schools must teach students far more than reading and math. We know that science, social studies, music, art, and health education are also very important. We know that if students are to develop into successful, independent adults they must have curiosity, persistence, problem solving skills, resilience, motivation and self-discipline. We know students need to be tolerant and respectful of others, need to know how to resolve conflict appropriately and we need many of them to develop strong leadership skills.
We emphasize and teach these skills on a daily basis and we talk to parents about them but we do not have a graph to demonstrate each student’s performance in these areas and cannot compare our students’ performance in these areas to students in other districts.
But alas, spring is coming! We will relish the warmer temperatures, strive to do the best we can on our MCAs (hopefully we will see the results by August), and we will continue to support, teach and appreciate every student for their strengths and growth in all academic, social and emotional areas of development.
Each month a representative of our local schools will offer thoughts in Issues in Education. This month’s s contributor is Gwen Carman, PK-5 Principal, Sawtooth Mountain Elementary.
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