Why Do We Have State Testing?

Our time in 8th grade is limited, and our time in a single class is even more finite. It is important to make the most of the small amount of time in eighth grade, and state testing can take up to 6 weeks out of the school year, not including the time teachers take out of daily lessons to prepare us for it. For example, while many students are in Integrated Math, the CAASPP Math testing is based on eighth-grade math, which many students learned over a year ago. This means that Integrated Math teachers had to do even more review, taking up even more time from the regular lessons. So, the real question, is why do we need to do CAASPP testing? If it takes so much time out of the year and interrupts our lessons, why can’t we just rely on our grades and teachers to place us in the right classes? If state testing isn’t necessary, why are we doing it? The answer is so simple, but less easily found. The simple answer is state funding. An anonymous source stated that if most students don’t meet the certain requirements of state testing, the district will pull school funding and open up a school-wide investigation. The real question is, is this a good choice? If students are failing, is it really a good idea to pull funding? There are many aspects to a student’s life that affects their grades. A teacher is doing their best to teach the many, many students they have, but the students may not have a place to sleep at night, or real food outside of school. Along with this, big city schools with little funding might not have the resources to provide students with the proper education, cutting their funding even more can be detrimental to the success of high schoolers. But, if cutting funding isn’t the right option, then what should districts in California do to ensure that teachers are teaching properly, and students are learning? While there are many options, there is one clear cut answer that I believe is correct. If all students fail state testing, instead of pulling funding, the district should just investigate teachers. They can check into classrooms, research the school’s teaching methods, and class sizes, and increase or decrease funding based on proper judgement, not just test scores. Along with this, they can actually see the way teachers teach, and the assignments they hand out to figure out if the situation stems from bad teachers, or bad students.