Picket Fence Post

My twin fourth graders are taking the MCAS tests today. For those of you who do not know what the MCAS tests are, they’re state-mandated assessment exams – officially called the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System – which are used to evaluate whether the students have learned what state education officials think they should have already learned, as well as a tool to measure how well any given school system has done its job based on student test results. (The vast majority of students pass these tests, FYI, though there are variations on how those who passed the test fared.)

However, for the past few weeks, my fourth graders have been swallowed up in what’s best described as “MCAS mania.” School staff, apparently, have been hugely focused on making sure the students are comfortable with the MCAS test format so the children have been doing practice tests and talking all about MCAS. The message has been drummed into their heads: THIS IS A BIG, IMPORTANT TEST, ONE TO BE TAKEN, VERY, VERY SERIOUSLY. My 10-year-old son reported that the other day his class created inspirational posters to hang in the classroom on the MCAS test days to encourage students to keep going, even if they might want to stop during the exam.

At least one of my fourth graders’ room parents (can’t remember which one) sent e-mails (likely under the direction of school staff) reminding parents to send their children to school with two healthy snacks and two bottles of water on each of the four days when the MCAS tests are being administered. (Four days dedicated to these tests? Absurd.)

The Spouse – while joking about the unlikely risk of rampant, sudden-onset dehydration among fourth graders that would necessitate two bottles of water and two snacks, in addition to their lunch – couldn’t believe how the test was being portrayed as something which required extra food and water supplies, as he sarcastically suggested that we send our kids in with orange slices to help them make it through. Orange slices, of course, are the pick-me-up snack du jour on the sidelines of children’s sporting contests, where completing a game without food is considered too much for the kids to endure.

My two kids — normally good students — were all anxious and worried over the weekend about the MCAS test today, and that feeling only intensified last night. This morning they looked downright scared as they got ready for school. And this is only the first day of four days of testing. This just is not right. Ten-year-olds shouldn’t be scared about going to school to demonstrate what they’ve learned thus far.

I understand that this is a high stakes test, not just for the kids, but for the teachers and the schools, and even for property values for a community. But something that looked good on paper — discerning whether schools are succeeding in fulfilling their purpose, educating the children of the Commonwealth — has spiraled out of control. When fear of taking this test becomes palatable, seeps into the minds of the students and makes them nervous wrecks, things have gone too far. Isn’t there a better, less stressful way to do this, figuring out if the schools are educating kids in a way that doesn’t suck all the oxygen out of the classrooms? This can’t be the only way.

Image credit: Massachusetts Department of Education.