Are We About High Standards or High Stakes Testing?

Are We About High Standards or High Stakes Testing?

It is always around this time of year that you begin hearing the mumbling of teachers stating things like: “I’m so tired of everything being about the test.” I can’t tell you how much I agree. I felt the same when I had 75 math scores that were connected to me. I feel the same as an administrator, so this is when I have to change my focus and think about what we are really doing. Are we teaching to a test, OR are we teaching to standards? I hope we are about the standards but questioned in a way that resembles the test. I believe “the test” should be our floor – not our ceiling. Dr. Richard Dufour, the PLC guy, gave 3 very clear factors for thinking about the standards we teach and determining their priority:




1. Does it have endurance? Do we really expect our students to retain the knowledge and skills over time, as opposed to merely learning it for a test?

2. Does it have leverage? Will proficiency in this standard help the student in other areas of the curriculum and other academic disciplines?

3. Does it develop student readiness for the next level of learning? Is it essential for success in the next unit, course, or grade level?




When I think about the CFAs we have analyzed in data teams and the assessments you have turned in each week, I feel so confident that we have NOT been about a test this year, but have been very much about the standards! We have made our curriculum stand up to the questions above. And where I think about areas we have required some change, it has not been because of “the test,” but instead because we couldn’t give a firm “yes” to the questions above with what we were doing. If we are teaching closely to our standards with RIGOR & RELEVANCE in mind; having student apply skills across the curriculum (like reading and writing) than we haven’t taught to the test, but I bet our kids will certainly be ready for it.