If The Test Doesn’t Matter To The Student, How Does It Matter At All?

With most Kentucky schools on Spring Break this week, I have some time to ponder and here is one this that has been on my mind since KERA started as the first high-stakes test in Kentucky:

If The Test Doesn’t Matter To The Student, How Does It Matter At All?

In other words, why would we assume a student will do their very best on a series of high-stakes tests over several days if the student has no stake in the result? Why would adults invest so much time, effort and money when students have no vested interest?

In my high school for the very first KERA Test, we immediately devised a way to tie the student’s effort to their classroom grade and we were a “Rewards” school every year until they scrapped the “Rewards” program.

But, if students know the results of their assessment efforts won’t be known until the next school year when they are in a different grade and/or school, what incentive do they have to really try their best? Now, I would assume that many, if not most, students will probably put forth a real “good-faith” effort but, I can definitely envision a significant number of students that, especially when they get into succeeding days of testing, don’t try so hard.

And, the older they get, the more they sorta figure this out – a very possible reason why scores drop in middle school and high school! I think the End-of-Course (EOC) exams coming to high schools next year will have a definite impact on this phenomenon. Maybe, folks should explore similar approaches in lower grades.

The idea of having a quick turn-around in accessing results is also very appealing to me. Maybe, one day we will have a computer-based assessment that can provide real-time results for a major part of the test so students’ current teachers can get results on their students while they are still in their class.

Ideas? Comments? Suggestions? Concerns?