Standardized_Testing_(Mca)_in_Our_Public_Schools

Standardized Testing (MCA) in Our Public Schools In April, I completed my service learning in a 3rd grade classroom and enjoyed the experience. I like working with this age group because I find their learning to be creative and interactive. Since I was observing the classroom at the end of the school year; I was able to perceive students taking the MCA tests. From my understanding this has been a hot topic lately in the public school districts. My professor is currently teaching EDC 410 at Augsburg College and special needs children at the Wayzata High School, is extremely frustrated with MCA tests. The reason for his frustration was is after finding out his school results (they did not do so well in language arts portion of the test), the school has been pressuring him along with other teachers to find better ways of incorporating language arts in ALL school subjects. According to the text on page 518-531, the No child Left Behind Act mandates that all students, including students with disabilities participate in the standardized testing. In my opinion, is it really fair to compile special needs children standard scores along with regular student standard scores (pg.521)' Also is it really fair to put all this pressure on teachers with this test' So why are special needs children taking this test' They are in special education for a reason and therefore should not be in the same distribution curve (pg.522). For example, while I was observing Alex (he has an Emotional-Behavioral Disability), he was struggling to understand the questions being read to him. The teacher tried helping him by using elimination, underlying and reading all answers, and using substation and back solving (pg.5280). However, he felt angry, frustrated, and withdrawn from the test. Our public schools want to make sure that every child are learning to read and progress at their grade level. Yet, it is a given, just by the existence of special education division that students are not making any progress for the MCA test’s and not only that they are hurt the school’s average national percentage score (pg. 524). Also, teachers are expected to have good standardized test results from their students. So basically if the school falls low on the normal distribution grid (pg. 519); they will be penalized. Your Thoughts to these questions: 1. How many of you really believe that a child's intelligence, achievement, and competence can be represented adequately by MCA tests' 2. Do you believe that any distribution curve is capable of classifying all children' 3. Do you think the test provides useful information about individual children or a class' 4. How many of you who are currently teaching feel any pressure to teach to the tests'