Do Students Even Want to be Tested?

Do Students Even Want to be Tested? I’d say the answer is an unequivocal YES.

That is, if the assessment is an evaluation of something they want to have done.

When we do project-based learning in my class, when we make enhanced podcasts, 30 second pieces of propaganda (in the form of commercials) and the such, my students absolutely LOVE assessment day. They have worked hard, they have been thoroughly engaged, they have been self-determining to a large extent and they have blended fun, rigor and creativity in a way has provided them a form of self-expression which is honest and meaningful and beneficial to their future (because they have attained and expanded “skills” along the way).

My kids are proud of their work and they are eager to show it. As one of my great teacher friends says, “No kid ever wants to see C work up on the big screen.” So they work for A’s, they give A effort and overwhelmingly, they reach their goals.

Tests of their project-based learning acumen are a chance to be celebrated and feel a wonderful sense of heightened academic and personal self-esteem — which, btw, has come from “standards-based schoolwork”.

Now think of the state tests. Do any of the aforemementioned elements apply? I mean even our nation’s best students pretty much loathe the month of May when we shut down most meaningfulness in the classroom and hammer them with bubble test after bubble test after bubble test for 3, 4 or even 5 days in a row. (Only to tell them the feedback on their performance won’t be available for many, many months.)

The entire connotation of the word test carries so much negative baggage in this day and age it’s absolutely bonkers. Students, when they do great work, hard work, meaningful work want an audience. Even the most shy kids want to be validated, acknowledged and recognized. It’s “da bomb” for them.

And to not understand this about students is to not understand students at all. Kids are eager, willing and ready to perform.