“Stress is when you wake up screaming and you realize you haven’t fallen asleep yet.”     -Anonymous

Welcome to March, April, and the 1st half of May. For most people in the United States, this means the coming of warmer weather and spring. For teachers and schools it is the season of state tests.

For me, a long-time advocate for small groups and differentiated instruction in mathematics, it’s the time of year for questions like, “How do we continue to differentiate instruction while intensely preparing students for state tests? Where do we get the time to engage students when we need them to pass the test?”

I am often surprised by how schools “react” to tests instead of being “proactive.” One school I worked with, who had fully implemented Tabor Rotation for several years and was realizing great results, decided to completely change the instructional program. In the second semester, they began to use only a state test coach book as their instructional material. Every adult in the building was working with a small group of students, reading some information to them, then having the students complete the multiple choice questions. No manipulatives, no tone-setting, no games, no fun, nothing but paper-and-pencil tasks. Every group I observed had most students off task within the first two minutes of instruction. 90% of those students never paid attention again.

After pushing my jaw up off the floor that afternoon, I asked if I could work with two of the groups the next day. I wanted to compare the response of my groups to two other control groups. I created a hands-on, meaningful activity to go with the “coach” lessons. The students in my group were engaged, intrigued, and were on task. They also made a 39% improvement over the control groups. After seeing the results, the administration hired me to write interactive activities to go with the rest of the coach lessons. This made a remarkable difference in the response of the students (and the teachers) and assisted them in making AYP that year.

As an administrator or leadership team, what message do you want to send at this point in the school year? That we should stop good, sound, effective instruction and prepare for the upcoming state tests? Or, we must keep engagement, depth of understanding, and meaningful application at the forefront of instruction. If you’ve been preparing them correctly all year long the upcoming tests aren’t going to be an issue.

Here is a way to differentiate and prepare for tests:

One Hour Math Block for Two-Week Test Preparation:
*Identify tested skills that have not been taught/learned.
*Identify any possible weak concepts.
*Assess the above to determine readiness levels of all students.

Schedule:

• 10 min    Vocabulary needed for state test—constructivist approach
• 10 min    Conceptual development through meaningful application,    engagement of student a priority
• 10 min      Test Preparation—Grade Level Discretion
• 20 min        Independent and/or Partner Practice
• Teacher meets with at-promise readiness groups
• 10 min        Student reflection, skill check for mastery, “grabber”

If you’d like to read more about this topic, John Nortan wrote an intriguing article, “Is Test Prep Educational Malpractice?”
[http://www.edweek.org/tm/articles/2009/04/01/040109tln_norton.h20.html?qs=test+preparation+doesn%27t+engage+students]

NCTM (National Council of Teachers of Mathematics) posted a chat with Cathy Seeley that offers answers to many teacher questions on the topic.
[http://www.nctm.org/about/content.aspx?id=842]

And, if you’d like to put just a few more tools in your test season belt, Nell Duke and Ron Richhart offer some really practical strategies in, “No Pain, High Gain: Standardized Test Preparation.”
[http://www2.scholastic.com/browse/article.jsp?id=4006]

“If you can find a path with no obstacles, it probably doesn’t lead anywhere.”     -Frank A. Clark