A state of emergency

This past week, my fifth graders were supposed to take the SBAC test, which is an online version that replaces the traditional paper and pencil standardized test.

Since we were testing in the classroom, we spent weeks going over laptop procedures to get them ready. We talked about how to properly plug in the mice and headphones, how to carry the laptop, how to remove the laptop from the charging cart, how to tell if you need to plug the laptop in, how to set up the splitter and ethernet cords since we didn't want all the laptops pulling from the school's wifi.  My students were assigned cart-wrangling jobs and everyone knew their testing number, since it corresponded with the bag of mice, headphones, and laptops.  We went over the procedures for logging into laptops, logging into the test, all the web 2.0 tools (highlighting, clicking, hovering, typing, etc) that are imbedded in the test and necessary to pass.  We went over all these procedures more than once until every child knew what to expect.

I spent hours of instructional time practicing for THE TEST.

We read Testing Miss Malarkey and were adopted by another class, who provided us with cute treats the morning of the test.  

We had a pep assembly at the local high school to talk about test anxiety and get them ready.

I spent several hours after school covering all my anchor charts, since my room was the testing zone and had to be within protocol.  And as a friendly reminder, teachers aren't paid over time, so all this necessary prep was done on my time since I can't climb on desks while teaching--that's rather frowned upon.

 
We, almost painfully, problem solved every possible "what if" scenario...except for the big one.  

What if the test doesn't work?

We used splitters to problem solve for the wifi bandwidth.  The rest of the school was asked not to use the pod computers during testing time.  We did a practice run as teachers to create the testing window  and select all the various buttons we'd need to click in order to properly set up the test for the students.

We created a schedule, rearranged preps and lunches for the entire school.  We have three grades that need to test, but only three classes can be testing at a time (two on the laptops, one in the lab).  Some of our students need smaller groups or accomodations, but all that was worked into our perfect schedule.  There was time for make ups and no tests were scheduled for Mondays.

However, none of that matters.  Tuesday, the morning of the test, the SBAC server failed.

Not just for our school.  Not just for our district.  For the entire state.

Correction, for three states.

On a side note, system issues also briefly took out curriculum engine (where we have our online lesson plans) and interact (our email server).  Good times!

 

To say I'm disappointed with the SBAC corporation would be an understatement.  They had years to hype this test and get it ready.  We asked, time and again, for practice runs.  They failed to adequately deliver the standardized test.

The line from the media report is that they experienced technical difficulties due to a "spike in student participation."  

Students logged in, during the testing window, to take the test...shocker.  This in no way should have been a surprise.

We lost the entire week. Testing is "scheduled to resume on Monday" but we'll see.

So the tough decision was made to rearrange some of the other testing...which means my students had twenty four hours notice that they'd be taking the science component of the old CRTs (paper pencil version of the standardized test) on Friday.  Both sections of the test.

This component of testing was originally scheduled for the middle of May.  

They weren't ready.  We weren't ready.  We have a guest chemist coming in next week to talk about mixtures and solutions.  We have a whole force and motion unit planned, since we put our instruction on hold to prepare for the SBAC.  We stopped teaching to prepare for a test that through no fault of our own, and despite our best efforts to prepare them, still didn't happen.

My students did amazing, despite the circumstances.  With grit and determination, they spent the entire day struggling through a test of concepts we hadn't taught.  Some were more prepared then others.  They did their best and I can't ask for more than that.

I'd like there to be some accountability from SBAC.  This situation was ridiculous and unfair to both students and teachers.  There are now discussions at a federal level about repercussions because what happens if Nevada doesn't test? Will we lose federal funding?  What if the test doesn't work on Monday, then what?

I, as an educator, uphold my end of the deal.  I show up to work each day with an optimistic attitude and a desire to inspire, teach, lead, and challenge students to help them become the leaders of tomorrow.  I juggle state mandates and curriculum with the very real emotional and social needs of thirty young individuals.  I provide rigorous, challenging, engaging lessons that lead to connections and real-world applications.  I work tirelessly to make sure my students' needs are met.  Sometimes, I brave this battle with heels.

I did my job. Test makers, do yours.

CRT Data

Confession:

I rarely check my work email over the summer.

I deleted the app from my phone and since I'm not in my new school's system yet, I don't see much of a point to log in daily only to delete spam and teacher coupons (looking at you Lakeshore). 

I saw my (former) principal post on Facebook that not only were CRT (Criterion Referenced Test) scores in, but she was excited about the results.  So naturally I asked to see the fifth grade data because well, I'm a numbers nerd!

I was at my new house painting so I figured I'd check the data in a few hours.  Well, my grade level beat me to the analysis part.  In a matter of minutes, I had six texts from my former grade level sharing their excitement about particular students.  

While I'm sure I'll get official reports with the break down of each class, I couldn't wait.  My insomnia got the best of me and sure enough, I was up at four am crunching numbers and making graphs.  I couldn't be more pleased with my class results and know that I didn't accomplish this feat alone.  It took our entire grade level working tirelessly, together, for ten months to achieve these results.  For those at my school who did not approve of our quasi-departmentalization experiment, I'd like to waive this data in their faces...but I won't...because I am a professional.  

I had the privilege of working alongside some of the most inspirational fellow teachers.  I will miss being able to pop into their rooms and the amazing collaborative mindset we all shared.  For various reasons, we are all starting at new schools and collectively represent third, fourth, fifth, sixth, and special education.

Math

(I didn't teach math besides our intervention block and number talks, so these scores are due in a large part to the amazing effort of my two neighboring teachers.  Well done ladies! I trusted that my students were in very capable hands each and every day.)

I'm a visual person, thus the graph.  Here is my class data for math:

1 student exceeded
22 students met standards
3 students were approaching
6 students were emerging


Science

We shared students for science and I taught the FOSS Landforms kit four times before getting my own class back for CRT prep.  When my homeroom wasn't with me, they were with my fellow teachers learning about environments, mixtures and solutions, force and motion, as well as variables.  We broke our year into four seven week rotations and started switching the third week of school.  We didn't switch right away because we wanted to set up science notebooks and go over the scientific method with our homeroom classes.  

Our rotations ended about two weeks before the science CRTs, so we used that time to incorporate Discovery Ed video streaming into our reviews.  We also practiced taking notes from multimedia presentations, a valuable skill they'll most definitely need in middle school.  However, we did this with the Magic School Bus videos and they did an amazing job.

Here is my class science data:

Numbers wise,
6 students exceeded standards
17 met standards
6 students were approaching standards
3 students were emerging on science standards

I'm quite pleased with my little scientists!


Reading

If you are new to my teaching blog, know this: I love reading.  I love discussing books with my students and watching them fall in love with literary worlds.  I love watching their excitement when they learn more about the world around them from informational text and seeing them become self-motivated to learn more by reading more is simply wonderful.  

I broke my reading data into two groups: my small groups and my whole class.

I had the higher half of the grade level for small groups, so naturally these numbers are expected to be more in the meeting category.  My job for small groups was to push these fluent readers to become more critical thinkers.  

Numbers wise,

23 students exceeded standards
28 students met standards
7 students were approaching
2 students were emerging

I'm quite pleased with my small groups!

For my whole class, which is inclusion, here are my results:

7 students exceeded standards
13 students met standards
4 students were approaching
8 students were emerging (of these 8, all were either students with IEPs or in the RTI process and still made growth over their previous scores)


I'm thrilled with my students' performances.  Did they all meet standards? No.  Did they all make growth? Yes.  

With my data analyzed, I can emotionally bid this past school year adieu.  I did my best.  I taught them strategies and how to think critically.  They learned and proved their knowledge on these tests.  It is time for a much needed, relaxing summer.