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Standardized Testing in Northeast Tennessee

My name is Danielle Mathes, and I am currently in my third year at Tusculum University studying English Education for grades 6-12. I am from Chuckey, TN, and my educational background comes from small, public school settings. I attended a K-8 elementary school, and I graduated from Chuckey-Doak High School. While in high school, I completed dual enrollment courses at Walters State Community College and then at Tusculum University, where I later began my current course of study following graduation.

My first experience with a standardized test occurred when I was in elementary school. I can remember at an early age (probably starting in first or second grade) taking the yearly Tennessee Comprehensive Assessment Program (TCAP) tests. I remember, even at that age, wanting to get a high score, and as I grew older and continued taking the tests each year the desire to earn high TCAP test scores is something that did not change. I wanted to make the adults in my life, my parents and teachers, proud, and I felt that being able to show them what I learned over the course of the school year through my TCAP scores was a sure way to do that.

I would say that those first experiences with standardized tests impacted how I saw education by making it seem as though test scores were the ultimate end result. I could tell by the way my teachers presented the TCAP and emphasized the importance of making our best effort that we were under pressure to demonstrate our knowledge through those tests, and that is something that stuck with me.

As a result, for much of my elementary education, I viewed education as a preparation for testing rather than as something that served a purpose of its own. I came to realize, as I got older, that testing is not the primary reason for being given an education, but because of my past experiences as well as the continued pressure to do well, my results on standardized tests were still important to me, whether it was the TCAP in elementary school or the ACT in high school. Standardized testing was placed in a prominent position in the way I viewed education.

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Standardization in Southern Appalachia

Hello, I am Estefania Juarez, and I am from a small town in East Tennessee named Greeneville! I am currently a Sophomore at Tusculum University, majoring in Political Science and minoring in Gender Studies. I am a first-generation college student, and I am apart of the” Bonner Leader Program” at Tusculum, which offers diverse leadership dedicated to community service! My education experience was nothing short of dull. The teachers I had played a significant role in forming my education experience. All throughout my education, teachers formed my passion for learning and inspired me to pursue a higher education.

Where I am from, we have four county high schools and one city high school. The city high school is regarded more highly than the county schools and tends to receive more funding. Since the county schools were not as highly regarded, students at the county high schools had to work extra hard to prove that their school is just as worthy, often through scores on standardized tests. My high school focused heavily on standardized testing rather than teaching to inspire and spark innovation within students. The material being taught to us was no longer centered around learning new concepts to spark growth, but rather it became more focused on how to succeed at taking standardized tests. At my high school, students were being pressured by faculty and the county school board to perform well on these tests due to their reputation being at stake.

One of the first experiences I had with standardized testing was in Elementary School. In the third grade, I vividly remember taking the TCAP test at the end of the year and feeling the pressure to get a high score at such a young age. I have always loved school and felt really passionate about learning, but as soon as TCAPs and other standardized states became the new normal, my love for education started to diminish.  The material lost its significance, and I felt like I was learning through one lens. Teachers had to compress all the curriculum in such a short period of time in order for us to pass a test. As time goes on, education has become more about learning how to take a test rather than learning for self-enjoyment. 

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A Product of Public Schooling

Hello everyone. Thank you for taking the time to visit our blog. My name is Logan Mitchell. I am an Interdisciplinary Studies (e.g. Elementary Education K-5) major at Tusculum University in my junior year. I am from a small town in East Tennessee named Rogersville. I am a lifelong product of public education: I spent my thirteen school years in the Hawkins County School district. I enjoyed academic success, maintaining a 4.0 GPA throughout my educational career. One of my biggest honors was giving the introductory speech at my high school graduation.

The first experience with a standardized test I remember is the TCAP in 1st grade. Back then, the state still administered the TCAP in 1st and 2nd grade. I do not remember much about the test, but it has always stuck with me that I began standardized testing at such a young age. My biggest memories of the TCAP tests in elementary and middle school were looking forward to them. The tests were usually easy for me, and there was plenty of time given to complete them. After testing each day, we got to have fun and play games. The time after the test on a TCAP day were some of my most fun memories of primary school. Upon reaching high school, however, the tests became more rigorous with the state’s implementation of the TN Ready program, based on the Common Core Standards. Furthermore, we would no longer receive free time after tests. Instead, we would simply go to our regular classes as usual.

Perhaps the most important standardized test in my career was the ACT. When I took this test for the first time during the summer between my sophomore and junior year, I remember not being able to sleep the night before. For the first time, I was nervous to take a test, although part of my anxiety may have been that I had to take the test at Dobyns-Bennett High School in Kingsport, TN. Despite all this, my scores on that test were acceptable, but I was very motivated to retake the test at my high school as a junior. This go-round, I scored a 29. Knowing this score would lock me in for high-dollar academic scholarships at various local colleges, I was plenty satisfied with it. Upon further reflection, I have realized that my post-secondary education hinged greatly on how many answers in the last ten questions of each subtest were C. This is because I would always run out of time while taking each test and would quickly fill in C for the remaining problems. Although I benefited from this, I do not like the idea of one’s random answer choices on a test being a determining factor in his or her financial aid. A person’s life is too important to depend on whether they get random answers correct on a standardized test. In my opinion, the best temporary solution is to extend the time given for each subtest for the ACT or SAT. However, I strongly feel we should look at other factors besides standardized testing to determine students’ financial aid.

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Pennsylvania experience

Hi! My name’s Tina Haig. I am a member of the women’s soccer team at Tusculum University and a nursing major in my sophomore year. I am from the suburbs surrounding Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. If I wanted to, I could drive 25 minutes and be in the city. I love where I’m from and the city of Philadelphia all together. (Go Eagles) 

I went through 12 years of the Upper Dublin School District, a public school district in Fort Washington, PA. My experience with school was pretty typical, 6 years of elementary school, then 3 years of dreaded middle school, and finally 4 years of highschool. There were different levels of classes throughout the whole time, the average level classes, below average, and the above average, or advanced classes. 

My first experience that I remember with a standardized test was in 3rd grade. It was called the PSSA (Pennsylvania System of School Assessment). My teacher spent weeks preparing us for the test and constantly emphasized how important it was that we do our best on it. Now that I am older I realized that this was for funding purposes however, in 3rd grade, I just remember being so nervous to take this test because I didn’t want my teacher to get angry with me. 

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The pressure of standardized testing

Hi, I am Samantha England and I am from a small town outside of Nashville, Tennessee! I attend Tusculum University where I am a sophomore currently. I am a first generation college student, I am on the bowling team, and I am a part of “Pioneer Peers” that mentor incoming freshmen. My major is political science and I am still determining what I am going to minor in. My plan after Tusculum is to attend law school with the goal of becoming a corporate attorney.

I am from a very small town called Dickson that does not have many highschools; in fact, there are only two in the entire county. We were not the most funded highschool, but my educational experience was not a dreary one. Most of my teachers were amazing and genuinely enjoyed inspiring the next generation. However, I did feel the pressure of standardized testing and to perform at a higher level. This forced the teachers to teach to the test rather than teaching the material to inspire innovation. There was material that I did not truly learn, instead, I learned enough to complete the test. 

The first experience I recall with standardized testing was in middle school when common core was first being introduced. It was confusing, unorganized, and affected how I viewed my education. I have always loved school and learning new material. However, when standardized testing was first being introduced, my love for education began to dwindle. I did not feel as if I was actually learning and retaining information; I felt that teachers were teaching us just enough to pass a test that did not have any true significance on my life. Education became about testing rather than creating an environment to inspire the next generation to be innovators. As my education continued, my view on the system became even more pessimistic.  The more standardized testing was being prioritized, the less I felt that true learning was occuring.

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Public vs. private schooling

My name is Haley Davis and I am from Greenville, North Carolina. I am currently a junior studying Special Education at Tusculum University. My early education background was in a private school setting. I later switched before my last year of middle school into a public-school setting. My first experience with standardized testing was the end of the year exams which we would take as a class every year.

The teachers I had in private school were not nearly as concerned for standardized testing than my teachers in public school. So, I never quite realized the importance of them until I switched schools. Standardized tests to me were just elongated tests that would take the majority of the day at the end of the school year. I never had pressure to make a certain score, so I did not stress about them. I assumed they were a way to show what I needed to work on for the next year of what a teacher my want to work on with the next year’s class more.

Having the opportunity to experience both public and private school really shaped me to learn about education as a whole and how education could differentiate with style. Private school teachers were not as worried about standardized testing because they were not judged as educators by them. If public school teachers received bad test scores as a class, then their funding and in some cases, job could be at stake. The most surprising part about this conclusion was that in private school I had a more classical style of teaching while public school was a more progressive style. Altogether, what I can conclude from my experience with standardized testing is even if pressure is put on making good scores on these tests, the amount of learning will not increase or become more beneficial to students. 

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Welcome to our (public) seminar

This is something I’ve wanted to do for a very long time.

I’ve jumped into honors seminars off and on at different places I’ve worked over the past two decades of my career. I’ve even helped run an honors seminar or two, including a specific honors seminar at Virginia Intermont College in the Fall of 2013 – the year before Virginia Intermont College closed – on testing and the future of education.

All of those seminars, though, have been closed affairs. We’ve read books before class, and we’ve had discussions over what’s been in those books and our own experiences in class, and that’s been it.

They’ve all been very fulfilling discussions – the wonderful thing about honors seminars is that you always have fulfilling discussions over very weighty things. But you want for those discussions to be something a little bit more.

This website is an experiment in “more.”

I’m having the best semester I’ve ever had in an honors seminar so far. With so much love and respect to other students I’ve had in these circumstances in the past, I’m getting to know a group of ten this semester as well as I’ve ever known a group in an honors seminar (yes, even in the midst of COVID-19!). And the discussions we’ve had in class have been SPECTACULAR – the very ideal of the type of discussions you’d like to have in an honors class.

So this is the perfect class to take some of those discussions and turn them public.

We’re going to introduce ourselves to you, as a whole class, one at a time. I’ll follow behind because I’m the professor for this class, sure, and I’ve been through a bit of this educational history a couple of times before, but in many ways I’m in the same boat as these students. I teach physics and chemistry, not education or sociology, and I’m hardly an expert in the issues that emerge when standardized testing is considered seriously and when the full implications are drawn out.

The main book we’re reading right now as a class (after reading a Very Short Introduction to education) is Nicholas Lemann’s The Big Test, which explains how the SAT came to the prominent place in American life it achieved in the 20th century. We’re introducing ourselves to you by talking about our experiences with standardized testing, and the influences it has had on our education. We’re going to see where this conversation takes us as we go.

Welcome to our class. We’re glad you’re dropping in.

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