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Friday's Internet Edition, November 21, 2008.
Childhood left behind-STAR test pressure hits kids
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In classrooms across California, students are putting aside thoughts of summer and instead bubbling in their answers while hoping that their right answers will lead to a brighter future.
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By Kymm Griffin
Staff Writer
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The days of indoor recess and rainy day schedules have faded. Spring break has come and gone. Baseball season has opened. Signups for swimming lessons have started. The coming freedom of summer tantalizes on the spring breeze.
But for all second and third grade students, answers to 130 questions must be bubbled in completely using a number two pencil before the joys of summer can even be thought about. For fourth grade and up, it’s 170 questions that stand in their way.
It’s a pressure that was once only synonymous with SATs. It’s the pressure of knowing that one test can determine your future, one test that labels students as Advanced, Proficient, Basic, Below Basic, and Far Below Basic. This one test has the ability to label a school or district as “Program Improvement.”
For California students, balancing this weight has become spring’s Rite of Passage. Although the California Department of Education makes no comment about student performance determining if a student advances to the next grade or not, students think that their performance on this test determines if they pass or fail.
“I care (about the STAR test) because I want to pass the grade,” said Liam Jordett, a River Oaks Elementary third grade student.
While talking to third grade students at River Oaks, fifth grade students at Lake Canyon and sixth grade students at Arcohe, all groups of students had stories about students that they felt certain had either passed or failed a grade based solely on the results of the STAR test.
“If you don’t do very good, you might stay in the same grade,” said Tamara Sargent from Lake Canyon.
In recent months students have taken several practice tests in preparation and teachers have offered many test taking strategies.
“I get nervous because, what if I come to a question I don’t know,” said Kate Heath, a fifth grade student at Lake Canyon Elementary. Heath says her strategy is to skip questions that she does not know and come back to them if she has time.
Some students have gained confidence through the various practice tests.
“I feel good (about the test) because on the practice test I got all the answers right,” said Cory Potthoff, a River Oaks third grade student.
Other students seem to have nerves of steel and almost welcome the challenge.
“I feel like I can just do it. I feel excited about it and it’s not going to be that hard,” said River Oaks student Danielle Smith.
The students also seem to understand that how well they perform on the test could reflect on their teachers.
“I think the teachers feel just as nervous as we do because they want us to get the right answers,” said Cassy Register, a sixth grade Arcohe student.
The older students appeared more detached from the pressure.
“I think (the test) is a waste of time. We could be doing something else,” said Brandon Sales, an Arcohe student.
Other sixth grade students also expressed that they thought it was a “waste of time” and even offered the alternative of exercising as a preferred way to spend the day.
But still other sixth grade students felt personally invested in the outcome.
“The only reason I care is because it will determine what type of class I’ll be in,” said Adrian Martinez.
This week as the school bell rings and students file into the classrooms to pick up their freshly sharpened number two pencil and listen carefully to the instructions read by their teacher, the only thing for certain is that the long awaited tests will finally be over.
“I feel like I just want to get it over with and then the rest of the year, no more big test,” said Clairessa Paoletti, a River Oaks student.
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